Joyful Traveling: Plans are not static

In the last post I wrote that we were going to Aas on the Amed coast on Saturday 5th, but right after writing that we started talking with the silver smith, Made, who's working at Topi Inn (where Nico bought his turtle necklace). He told us about his hometown Sidemen, and told us that if we ever decided to go there he would be happy to help us find a place to stay and arrange a guided tour with his nephew in the rice fields and the surrounding villages. After having a piece of cake in the cafe we decided that we would go directly to Sidemen instead of going to Aas. He then arranged transport to get to Sidemen, one and a half hour drive from Padang Bai, he got us a great room at Pondok Tepi Sungai, where we had a great view over the main river from the breakfast terrace. Here we also got the witness how the locals did their number two business - directly in the river - and then took a bath and got ready for the day. Everywhere we went we saw men and children (never women, and I don't know why) swimming in the main river or in the far end of the irrigation system for the rice fields where the water is running to join the main river. They were also cleaning their clothes here, and everyone was smiling and greeting us as we passed them. Finally we got to see the REAL Bali! In the more touristy areas we don't get to see how the locals live. All we see is their desperation to make a living. Everywhere you go someone wants to sell you something, a ride somewhere, a sarong or some sunglasses. To them it's essential as this is their income and the only way to feed their family. In Bali they have to pay to send their kids to school and if they get sick they have to pay for health care. Our friend, Made, told us about the struggle to get by here and we really got the feeling that many of the big hotels and other big businesses exploit the locals for cheap labour while they make alot of money on the tourists coming here. The owners of these big businesses are also often foreigners who don't even live in Bali. But as Made said; if you have the choice to make a little money or don't make money at all, you choose making a little, because you have a family to feed and kids to send to school.

While we were in Sidemen Made's nephew Ardi (don't know if I'm spelling it right) took us hiking in the rice fields. This was an amazing experience! They grow alot more than just rice, and they also have fields for a sacred flower that they use for the offerings (they make offerings in the small temples they have in their homes, in their local community, and sometimes in the middle of the street). Ardi told us about the different plants and fruit we met along the way and he also showed us his home, and he took us to Made's house where his wife, whose name is also Made (the name giving tells us if they are first-, second-, third- or firth-born - First: Wayan, Second: Made, Third: Nyoman, Fourth: Ketut with some local variations), has a shop where she sells silver jewelry that Made makes and sarongs that she's making in the shop. She showed me how they where made, and of course I bought one :) Nico also bought a silver shark tooth!

Since Padang Bai is one and a half hour away from Sidemen Made left to go to work around ten in the morning and came back home around midnight. His youngest daughter is eight years old and when he gets home at night she's asleep and when he wakes up she's gone to school (a normal school day is from 7am until 1pm), so he doesn't get to see her much. He works seven days a week even though it's normal here to have one day off (school is also six days a week). They don't have vacation, like we have our five weeks off every year in Norway. These wonderful people work all the time and seem to have a sense of purpose in life. I think that when life gets too easy we don't feel the purpose in what we do and we loose the joy of doing. We expect everything to be easy and when we meet a small challenge, like when we don't have money at the end of the month - because we went shopping for new clothes again, or bought a new TV or some other unnecessary things - we see this as hardship. We complain about not having enough while we use alot of money every month just to have Netflix, HBO and all the other TV stuff that I know very little about. Traveling really opens your eyes to how life really is for some people. It gives perspective, and I think that's really important to sometimes get some perspective to really appreciate the good things we have in our lives.

Before Made went to work one of the days we stayed in Sidemen, he invited us to his home. He and a friend picked us up one their scooters and drove us to their house where his wife made us coffee and gave us lots of different things to eat (potatoes, rice crackers that she had made, and some other things I don't know the name of). When she put all these good things in front of us I realized that in Norway we often say "no" or never takes anything when people put food or snacks on the table (unless it's a dinner party) . I think we're afraid to come across as greedy, so we don't take anything. I know that in other countries it's very rude not to eat what they serve, so I explained this to Nico so that he would be conscious about this difference and maybe take this knowledge with him on his journey on this Earth. I actually feel that we (in Norway) have the wrong view on this. If someone makes food or take the time to prepare something because you're coming to their house, I think it's inconsiderable to say no. Whenever someone serves me something, in Norway or any other place, I will do my best to eat it (unless I really think it will make me sick or something) :)

After three days in Sidemen Made helped us again to arrange transport to Amed and a place to stay. The same driver, Adi, that brought us to Sidemen picked us up Tuesday 8th and took us to Amed.

Amed is actually just one street and because there are other smaller villages further south there's alot of traffic and no sidewalk. On the beach there's many cafes, bars and restaurants, but to get there you have to walk on the black sand beach or walk on the main road and walk between houses or through the restaurant to get there. I got so stressed out from all the scooters passing by that I found it very hard to enjoy Amed. The day after we got there we walked to the next village, Jemeluk, and relaxed at Blue Earth Village (a restaurant and free diver school and yoga studio) before Nico and I got a 30 minute massage. After that we took a bath before walking along the beach back to our guesthouse at the far end of Amed. The next day we decided to get transport to check out Lipah, another village further south, hoping this place would be less noisy and filled with scooters and cars. It was and we decided to find a place to stay. We booked five nights at Double One Villas II, where there's private kitchen so we can start making our own food - even though it's cheap to eat out here, it's not that cheap when all your meals are at restaurants, and we also find it kind of stressful to always have to leave our home every time we need to eat. We came to Lipah Friday 11th, and so far we like it here. JT had a fever yesterday so we haven't really done that much here yet, but today he's feeling better so we have been to the beach all day snorkelling and relaxing in the shade. If we like it here we might just stay here for a while :)

Here's some pictures from Sidemen, Amed, Jemeluk and Lipah:

SIDEMEN: