My hand feels around on the nightstand quietly, I’m trying to find my cell phone in the dark and not wake up my roommate Sal at the same time. The phone flashes 3:49am.
I’ve had a hard time falling asleep the last few days but I don’t mind. There is no better place to stay up all night than in Tokyo, Japan. I sneak out of bed and grab my camera, I tiptoe around the suitcases on the floor and snap a few pictures through the window.
Japan is addictive for photographers - its ancient culture with ceremonies and traditional dress, its lush green landscape and the romantic spring cherry blossoms, its quick embrace of technology and fast economic development.
For me, the appeal of this country lies in its contrast. Japan is a world of dichotomies and of contradiction - it is futuristic as much as it is traditional, it is calm and collected yet effusively emotional, it is the past and the present, preserved in one place. It is wabi sabi.
I sit by the window for a few more minutes and start to yawn. Tiptoeing back to my bed, I decide to give sleep one more try and snuggle back under the covers.
Tonight, I hope I dream about Tokyo.
After a week in Jakarta that often ended in late-night karaoke, I was craving to get a taste of Indonesian history. Only a quick plane ride away from the capital, Yogyakarta is a historic and cultural hub of Indonesia. The land surrounding Yogya is home to many Hindu and Buddhist temples.
My attempt to catching sunrise at Borobudur failed that particular cloudy morning. But the 9th century Buddhist temple, made up of 2,672 panels and over 500 Buddha statues, was still a photogenic site. After morning tea at Borobudur, I went to the Hindu temple Prambanan. As someone raised by agnostic parents, I have always found religion intriguing.
In the middle of the rice field, I click away at the shutter with dedication, blown away by the pristine beauty of Ubud. A quiet thud a few steps ahead beckons me to look up from the viewfinder. A coconut had fallen from the tree and landed on the narrow dirt path that separates one owner’s field from another.
My first inclination is to sigh in relief that the coconut didn’t land on my head, but before I could, a farmer jumps out from the field and runs up to the freshly ripened fruit.
“Want a coconut?” He chops the fruit open with his knife and smiles at me.
Traveling is a big part of my job, but traveling for work is not nearly the same as taking a vacation. While this summer has been full of some amazing trips abroad for work, I was starting to feel burned out from living out of a suitcase for the better part of 3 months. When I found myself in Indonesia in September, I knew exactly what I needed to unwind - a quiet week in Bali with a few friends.
When the folks at Kensington Tours heard about my trip, they kindly offered for me to join them on a day trip to Ubud. I was still buzzing from participating in their luxury 3-day tour in Portugal this summer and immediately accepted the offer.
Ubud is the arts center of the Indonesian island. Removed from the beachheads and nightclubs of Kuta and Seminyak, this is where visitors come to soak up the culture and arts of Bali. If I had just one day in Bali, I would spend it here: learning about the traditions of the Balinese, browsing the art galleries and markets in center Ubud, taking in the scenery of the rice fields, and visiting the Royal Palace.
When the folks at Kensington Tours heard about my trip, they kindly offered for me to join them on a day trip to Ubud. I was still buzzing from participating in their luxury 3-day tour in Portugal this summer and immediately accepted the offer.
Ubud is the arts center of the Indonesian island. Removed from the beachheads and nightclubs of Kuta and Seminyak, this is where visitors come to soak up the culture and arts of Bali. If I had just one day in Bali, I would spend it here: learning about the traditions of the Balinese, browsing the art galleries and markets in center Ubud, taking in the scenery of the rice fields, and visiting the Royal Palace.
Entrance to a family temple
Our tour guide explaining the layout of a traditional Balinese home
The silversmith at work
Bali is famous for its handicrafts so we started off the day to see the works of the woodcarver, the silversmith, and the batik fabric-maker. Along the way, we became fascinated with the home of the silversmith. Occupying a traditional Balinese home, the compound of the silversmith consisted of 4 pavilions and a family temple.
Hinduism is the predominant religion on the island and you cannot go far in Bali without seeing a temple. There are family temples, village temples, rice field temples, mountain temples; in fact, it is often said that there are more temples per square mile than anywhere else in the world.
One of these famous temples is situated in the Sacred Monkey Forest, home to over 600 long-tailed macaques. On our visit, these monkeys played, swam, and fought over the food from visitors. While I was a bit afraid of the tribes of monkeys, the boys seemed unfazed, taking turns feeding peanuts to the animals. The Monkey Forest is more than a show of playful animals, but also a cultural sanctuary that shows harmony between human and nature.
Temple entrance and statue with an offering for the gods
The boys inquiring about worship of the dead
Observing our genetic cousins at the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary
Left: entrance to the Ubud Royal Palace | Right: farmer splitting a ripe coconut
The highlight of the day was a meal at Sari Organik. This all organic restaurant overlooking the rice paddies of outer Ubud was a photographer’s dream. Throughout the meal, I was glued to the restaurant patio that looked out to where the fields where the lush green met the blue sky.
Photographers spends years training their eye - their ability to read light, compose a picture, and translate their vision into an image. On any given trip, I come home with a few thousand images easily. But I believe some moments are not meant to be captured, they are meant to be lived.
Under the clear sky of Ubud, overlooking the exotic scenery of island known as paradise, spending the week with 3 close friends, and enjoying the cultural immersion from our generous tour guide - it was an experience that no photograph could do justice.
This blog post was made possible through my partnership with Kensington Tours, but they did not request that I write a favorable review or have a near miss with a coconut falling on my head.
Although we were content to let a few days go by without accomplishing much in Bali, on our last Thursday on the island, we left the villa early. This morning, we’ve got a 3 hour whitewater rafting trip followed by a 6-hour tour of northern Bali.
There are two rivers for whitewater rafting in Bali - Ayung River and Telaga Waja River. For my first rafting experience, we set off to test the faster currents of Telaga Waja. The river flows from Mount Agung - an active volcano and Bali’s highest peak.
From Telaga Waja, we could spot rice paddies and small villages up the mountain. Waterfalls run down the side of the rocks, some gushing down with a force so strong that I thought we’d tip over. But, occasionally, the guide would let us know that parts of the river was suitable for swimming and we’d all jump, letting ourselves get carried along by the gentle current downstream. The mountain is lush with tropical trees; traveling downstream, we let ourselves take in beautiful scenery around us before heading to to more adventures further north of the island.
Like most of our days in Bali, the day ended on the beach. We pulled up to Pura Tanah Lot as the sun was about to set over the temple. We let the breeze cool down our sunburnt skins and wash the sand from our hair. The photographer in me knows that sunset only lasts for a few minutes but we stood there for what seemed like half an hour, dragging out our goodbye to the scene in front of us.
There are two rivers for whitewater rafting in Bali - Ayung River and Telaga Waja River. For my first rafting experience, we set off to test the faster currents of Telaga Waja. The river flows from Mount Agung - an active volcano and Bali’s highest peak.
From Telaga Waja, we could spot rice paddies and small villages up the mountain. Waterfalls run down the side of the rocks, some gushing down with a force so strong that I thought we’d tip over. But, occasionally, the guide would let us know that parts of the river was suitable for swimming and we’d all jump, letting ourselves get carried along by the gentle current downstream. The mountain is lush with tropical trees; traveling downstream, we let ourselves take in beautiful scenery around us before heading to to more adventures further north of the island.
The boys think they are funny.
Kintamani Volcano
Making panoramas
Coffee plantation
Offerings in the coffee plantation
Kopi luwak, or civet coffee, is a method of processing rather than variety of coffee beans.
Made from the coffee berries that are eaten and excreted by the Asian palm civet, luwak coffee is said to have many health benefits.
Turns out, I preferred the sweeter vanilla coffee to the dark, unfiltered kopi luwak.
Beautiful Rice Terraces
Like most of our days in Bali, the day ended on the beach. We pulled up to Pura Tanah Lot as the sun was about to set over the temple. We let the breeze cool down our sunburnt skins and wash the sand from our hair. The photographer in me knows that sunset only lasts for a few minutes but we stood there for what seemed like half an hour, dragging out our goodbye to the scene in front of us.
Sunset over Tanah Lot
Bats leaving the cave at Tanah Lot, embarking on the night
