Thursday 19th October

Breakfast is at 05:30 this morning. Again I opted for the Balinese version and today it is slightly different. There is rice flour dumplings with pandan leaves and shredded coconut in a palm sugar sauce. Pandan is a tropical plant that they use in Bali for a sweet flavouring. It imbues the food with a bright green colour. Interesting!

Already there are locals outside cleaning, sweeping up all of the previous day’s Canang Sari from around their businesses and homes. Hoses are used to wet down the sidewalk, dampening the dust. The owner of Tri Jaya pulled up his car as we ate breakfast, turns out he would be dropping us to the starting point of the walk outside West Bali National Park.

During the ride we commented on how Balinese people loved their car horns, yet it never sounded aggressive. He explained to us that their driving attitudes are very relaxed. They don’t get angry. They don’t get offended. You always stay respectful, there’s no need to rush. Horn etiquette was then explained (and demonstrated) to us.

Peep! Means please notice me. Peep peep! Means I’m planning on overtaking you. Peep peep peep! Means I already told you please notice me I’m going to overtake you. There is no aggressiveness though, it’s all very timid and yes, respectful. That being said the cars are right up the bumpers of the car ahead. Initially it looks hostile from a foreigner’s point of view, but oddly enough it doesn’t feel it. Hard to describe, but its utterly hypnotic watching it all play out ahead of you on the road.

Truly mesmerizing! Like watching a dance unfold. A car weaves out right to overtake but sees an oncoming car and so pulls back left and nestles up the arse of the car ahead, they nudge right again, making a second attempt only to be joined by a motorbike or two who have decided to take on overtaking both cars and are so far over on the right side of the road pedestrians on the opposite side must move aside!  Traffic flow seems to be rarely faster than 40km/h, and only increases to about 70km/h on the bigger roads. Speed is not really a factor here.

Drivers really need to be alert at all times from movement on any side of the vehicle. You’re sharing the road with chickens, monkeys, dogs, but mainly cars and bikes laden down with goods or people. Witnessing six people on a scooter had me agog. The father was driving and had a small child standing in front of him. As he steered, there was an infant wedged in the crook of his arm, at the elbow. Two smaller children were sandwiched in the tiny space between their father and mother, who was at the back of the bike. The father was the only one wearing a helmet. Bonkers!

Back home road rage is rampant, we all seem to take it as a personal affront when people overtake us. I’ve often witnessed, and hand on heart, partook in deliberately speeding up on cars that seem to cheekily try and jump queues on dark evenings; refusing to let them in ahead, seething that they had the audacity to think they are more important and need to get home quicker. I’m totally guilty of this.

Yet after 3 weeks observing Balinese driving, I did not witness one single instance of road rage; I’m not sure it is even a thing over there. Despite the oppressive heat, and the fact that none of the scooters have air con, no one gets harried or feels put upon. It’s a part of life, amazing! Inspiring!! I wish it was possible to bring that behaviour home. That being said, we really only encountered free flowing traffic, perhaps it is a bit more stressful in the cities, where there is gridlock and traffic congestion. And yet I recall our 2 hour exit from Denpasar. Slow. Dogged. Bumper to bumper. But no stress for the driver or for us at the time as we were soaking in all the foreign and wonderful sights that we could clearly see since we were only inching our way forward. They have it sussed over there. Chill. Relax. You’ll get there when you get there. I digress however, as always. Back to the National Park.

At 7am we met our guide who will take us for a four hour walk through the national park. He introduces himself as Ketut (well that’s the same as our hotel manager so I shouldn’t have any problem remembering that). He’s 39 years old (looks about 25!) and is a Hindu. Ketut also introduces us to his number two in command, a guy called, I want to say (incorrectly I’m sure!), Sadi, who’s 40 and a Muslim.  Together they are going to take us through the National Park. Sadi is wearing green wellingtons so I can tell the trek isn’t going to be too arduous.

West Bali National Park is officially 190sq kms, with a further 580sq kms of protected reserve in the highlands to the east, accounting for 10% of Bali's total land area. It is mountainous and consists of a diverse range of lowland rainforest, monsoon forest, mangrove forest, savannah, sandy beaches and coral reefs.

Before entering the undergrowth Sadi tells us it’s full of mosquitoes, we all whip out the sprays and a cloud of repellent is applied. There’s a chance we might see snakes, Pit Vipers are bright green, poisonous, only found in trees and shouldn’t be approached – he’s the only green snake in Bali that can kill. So watch your heads with low lying branches. Check!

Another noteworthy mention was the Malayan Krait (known as the black and white striped bandit), also not to be trifled with. A bite from him causes almost no pain or swelling but is fatal if left untreated. Yikes!! Geoff draws my attention to a piece of red and white plastic flapping from a tree branch, informing me that it’s the shedded skin of the lesser known red and white bandit. Yea, yea, funny! Sharp as, is our Geoff. Himself and Tony got a good giggle outta that observation. Ambling through the grounds we didn’t come across any animals, twas just birds and distant ones at that.

To be fair I didn’t really expect to see any animals as we’re making a lot of noise and if I were an animal, I’d be giving us a wide berth! Jenny did spot some grey monkeys off in the distance. Too far to photograph on my phone, but visible to the naked eye. You’d just see fleeting movements out of the corner of your eye and then some peering around tree trunks would uncover the cause.

Ketut informed us that there were two types of monkeys in the park: grey and black. The grey ones were carnivores and so had sharp teeth, good for tearing flesh. Black monkeys were herbivores and had flat teeth, good for grinding leaves and berries.  Ketut said the park had around 175 species of plant, pointing out Sandalwood and a few others that I’ve since forgotten. The mascot of the park is the Bali Starling, which is endangered and proved too elusive for us to see. Eagle-eye Lu spotted a Kingfisher. Pretty, but I’ve seen those before. A few crested tree swifts, swallows and a serpent-eagle were also spotted.

The possibility of seeing Wild Boar, Mousedeer or even Water Monitors was probable according to our guide, I think he just wanted to give us hope that this was not just a humid walk to the beach.

We headed up a steep embankment. The ground was so dry the soil had turned into a fine powder. It was like an incredibly light dust. Difficult to get any grip in it while walking. At the top of the embankment we came across some black monkeys. We were three hours into the walk at this stage and I had downed a litre and a half of water and was still looking for more. It was nearing noon, and I knew I needed to be finding shade soon enough.

Sadi opened the bag he had been carrying which contained around four litres of water in 500ml bottles for us and some snacks that were like a sugared brioche with sweet paste fillings, in my case the flavour was green bean. While I gladly and greedily took two offered bottles, a lot of the others were like “no thanks, we’re grand, we have our own bottles”. At least that was the reaction until it was quietly pointed out that the poor man was carrying (seemingly unnecessary) water for us and we could help lighten his load if everyone took one.

We came across lots and lots of snake excrement, which looks like large piles of white chalk, calcified bone dust. King Cobras were in the area, but again, no sign of any activity. They would be curled up somewhere cool avoiding this strong heat surely.

Lunch was had at Nusa Bay restaurant, overlooking the ocean and was so picturesque. All the nearby trees were filled with black monkeys, while mischievous grey monkeys were preening on the ground. Tried ordering bottled water but our waiter informed us there was none available, I mean, we’re in mid thirty degree weather and there’s no water? Unreal!

While waiting for our food to arrive we watched as a cheeky grey money sidled towards a guy sitting on his own at a table on the edge of the sheltered area. The man had a plate of sandwiches in front of him but he was totally engrossed in his mobile, typing and scrolling. Up stands the monkey on his hind legs and stealthily approaches the table, a quick jump, grab and he had his prize, half a sandwich. The man, broken from his electronic hypnosis gave an angry start and shooed the monkey, while a waiter came to his aid but the perpetrator had already skedaddled with his loot, no doubt delighted with his spoils. We couldn’t help overhearing the guy grumbling to the waiter that it had happened to him during his breakfast as well. Seems some people don’t learn...

The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling in hammocks, snorkelling in the sea, chatting and resting. A small group of deer had come to the water edge to cool down from the heat of the day; a usual sight to be sure. We got a small boat off the island and were met back on the mainland by our guesthouse owner.

Drinks and chats on my veranda this evening, after our early start we were all quite lazy and no in the mood to wander far to eat, so the guesthouse staff came around with dinner menus and took our orders.