Yearly Archives: 2010

Bali / Uncategorized

East Bali Poverty Project

I've been doing a bit of work for a charitable foundation that has been setup here in Bali to help people living on the remote slopes of the Abang and Agung volcanoes - a particularly challenged part of the island where health care, education and decent roads have only recently been introduced. a lot more information about the villages of Ban and the work of the foundation is available on the EBPP website. (my sharp-eyed metro brethren may spot the wordpress/atahualpa/hostgator combination running the site. a pleasant surprise, in that i would have picked all three of these things myself if starting from scratch. also a good thing, since it looks like i will be in the frame for tidying up quite a few loose ends). i was lucky enough to be invited to the Independence Day celebration this week, which is the highlight of the calendar for the kids. People came from miles around, packed into trucks and dressed in their best. After games of sack racing, and an enormous Rice Cracker Eating contest, the kids put on a variety show, where kung-fu, rap numbers and gun battles featured almost as prominently as traditional balinese dance performances. It was also a chance to showcase some of the artwork from the up and coming talent and award various prizes for performance over the course of the year. there were about ten of us Bule (i.e. foreigners) there, and we were made to feel very welcome throughout. at the end, everyone sat down to a meal of nasi bungkus and families were given a package of household basics (from towels, to vitamins and toothbrushes) to take home. a good reminder that, despite the cheerful occasion, most of these people are living in incredibly challenging circumstances, without many of the basic amenities. below a few pictures from the day. i took many more, but some are of variable quality. the heat and…

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August 21, 2010
Lombok

Lombok – Part II – the Lazy Leg

This leg (i feel i'm stretching the term a little here) of the Lombok trip had a slightly more leisurely feel to it. To say the least. Not that our friends Mick and Claire could be called lazy in any way. No more than we could, of course! It's just that the atmosphere of the Gili Islands slowly crept over us and, by the end of a week there, we had been fully subdued by the sunsets, the views, the strolls, and of course, the fresh air. When my belt buckle began to repeat its old London trick of disappearing whenever i sat down, it became clear that we needed to heave ourselves off those infernally beautiful islands and get back to the grind of life in Bali. Here are a few shots i managed to bestir myself enough to take. at one point, Egg was the single most active person on Gili Air Uncle Mick graciously passes off brownies for Birthday Cake. Dumpy was maybe a little less inclined.... Uncle Mick: "Here's one i prepared earlier..." Egg: "Rubbish. that's not a cake, it's a beer" Our local volcano dresses up for dinner.... ....but spares no blushes later the choices were: get seasick or go to sleep Tash was relieved to discover that our ferry catered to the directionally challenged Cirque des Clunes, everyone. Cirque des Clunes Monkey Tennis (couldn't resist the double Partridge) the end of another crap day.

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August 18, 2010
Bali

Hey Messrs. DJ

the other night (actually, quite a long time ago now, given upload speeds and perambulations in lombok), weakened by drink, and with a little encouragement on my part, my friend John (DJ professional and all round nice guy) conceded to playing a few tunes on my portable mixer after the girls had disappeared upstairs to watch the latest vampire romance on dvd. what started out as an attempt to mix a few tunes turned into a 3 hour, track-apiece session with neither of us quite able to resist the challenge of turning out a one-better mix on a blinking piece of plastic. you can be the judge of whether it was a good thing that someone pressed record along the way, but since the marvels of t'interwheeze allow us to share these things, then here you go. [audio:http://shambolic.com/tunez/john_vs_jay_july_23_2010.mp3] (right click here to download) needless to say, John fashioned most of the silkier mixes with the worldmusic-and-dancefloor friendly vibes, whereas i showed a predilection for dirty, old skool sounds, which, thanks to the whisky, the time of night and my trademark kak-handed amateurism, tend to be introduced by way of the ropier mixes. enjoy, or avoid: you have been warned.

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August 13, 2010
Lombok

Lombok! (part I)

Our circumnavigation of Lombok is nearly complete. Here come some lessons from the journey so far. Don't: go any further than it takes to three-point turn yourself right on out of there if you encounter the beginnings of a bad road. no matter how much quicker it looks on the map, or what your sense of adventure is telling you; chances are it won't improve. we discovered this the hard way, after forty jarring kilometres on a road that was more like peanut brittle than any kind of thoroughfare. our car, an otherwise sturdy Avanza, let us know how it felt with a double flat tyre combination as soon as we got back to smooth tarmac. Cue lengthy wait while the first person to stop -- a saintly man by the name of Carti -- helped to remove both wheels, then rode off into the sunset with them while we spent two pointless hours on the road making smalltalk with a crowd of passerby who clearly had nothing more pressing to do than sit around, drink our juice, eat our chocolate and look at Tash's legs. bother with Kuta on the south coast. unless you want to join the ranks of smirking australian developers who sit in the cafes doing property deals with the locals in gleeful anticipation of the new, mega-airport opening in six months time. the other qualification required to enjoy your time in Kuta is at least a decent command of SurfSpeak. beach breaks, reef breaks, left handers. you know the bobby. sitting in a bar after the family had gone to bed, and faced with few alternatives, i was forced to bank the only real hangover of the Indonesia trip thus far just to get conversant in Surfanese. succumb to the urge to have even a single Bintang (beer) after a few nips of the local spirits (see preceding point). this relatively innocuous combo can bring…

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August 6, 2010
Bali / monthly photos

June Journals

another month passes, another tranche of photos finds its way on to shambolic. June has felt like a busy month, what with travels to the far reaches of the Island, cycling adventures, school ending, summer school beginning, Eggie's Birthday, Glastonbury by Proxy, and a brilliant visit from our friend Lee, with her two smalls, Mia and Finn, who have come all the way from Sydney for a couple of weeks (aww yiss!). July is shaping up in a similar vein, with a month of summer school, a move now necessitated by recent landlord fallout, and a planned driving tour of Lombok, the Gilli islands, and maybe Java as well. hope everyone (north side) is having a good summer. Sydney-siders....well, it will all happen for you soon enough, innit? here is my best trawl for this month's caption-worthy photo (along with a fairly lame attempt at caption). you're welcome to 'ave-a-go. till next time...      Man attacked in tassel jungle, freezes

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July 6, 2010
Bali

Volcano Hopping

On Tuesday, my friend John and I decided to test a theory that it might actually be possible to motivate two aging, beer-logged bodies up the side of a volcano by use of self-locomotive power alone. we set out early on heavy, cheap Indonesian bikes, with coffee, then energy drinks, and finally just sheer stubbornness to propel us to the top. when we finally made it (some four hours later thanks to a disintegrating crank), we were rewarded with a view of Mount Batur across the big old hole that it had made for itself some time earlier. it was a stunning sight, from which we were almost immediately distracted by a very persistent mass of hawkers plying us with postcards and exhortations to eat the meal of our lives at their peerless restaurant. before hopping back on our bikes to escape the throng, we did catch a glimpse of a little wisp of smoke rising from the cone, reminding us that craters exist for a reason. at this point, the smart thing to do would have been to turn around immediately and take the downhill ticket at a leisurely pace. However, being foolhardy idiots, we decided in favour of cycling down to the floor of the crater, where, admittedly, we had a fine lunch of grilled fish, rice and beer while staring at the volcano in a sweaty stupor. We even had time for a quick swim in the lake, thinking it would prepare us for the ride back up the rim. This was a fairly flawed assumption, since you can't digest a whole fish and two beers in the space of twenty minutes. The 300m climb that followed was intense enough to require several stops and much contemplation of a lunch revisited. When we finally got back to the top, the locals chose to ignore our bulging eyes and wheezes of death in the hopes that we would…

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June 24, 2010