Rafting Through the Heart of Bali

Braving the tourist masses of Kuta, after my surfing adventure, I decided to take a white-water rafting day trip, finding a package out to the Eastern hills of Bali for three hours of rafting for only $25, including a buffet lunch. A minivan picked me up directly from my hotel, and I enjoyed the view from the front of the van for the 1 hour drive through the Balinese countryside, having my own guided tour from the extremely friendly guide/driver. Like most of the Balinese, he is Hindu and had a small shrine and offering to the gods on his dashboard, a small banana leaf wrapped up into a square, filled with bits of rice, candy, coins and a few flowers. Along the roads of Bali, these tiny offerings are found outside nearly every hotel and household, a morning ritual of placing these small baskets and incense and removing the ones from the previous days, though often giving ants plenty of food to eat during the day. The other members of my group were two Japanese women (and the driver even managed a few phrases in Japanese) and a young Australian couple from Perth. After each bump or sudden stop, our driver would flash his friendly smile and say "Sorrrryyyyy," keeping those in the back seat awake for most of the trip. We were briefly stopped on a small road through the mountains by a ceremonial procession consisting of a number of vehicles decorated with flowers and streamers, along with large cargo trucks carrying the locals down to the beach for some sort of ceremony with all of the people dressed in their traditional Balinese clothing, often colorful sarongs and dresses for the women and brownish, patterned sarongs for the men with a white shirt and a black and white or brownish bandana tied around their head, sort of backwards, tying in the front and leaving the tops of their head exposed (so perhaps Tupac got his style cues from them, though I sort of doubt it). Along the way, our driver pointed out little bits about the culture and took us through the 'scenic route,' veering from the main road for some smaller roads through rice paddies and up the side of a few mountains. Eventually, we made it up a bumpy, rocky trail to the starting point, where I was paired with the two Australians, Chane (Shane) and his girlfriend whose name was not as memorable, along with our local guide. We climbed down the steep stairs into the green, forested gorge and hopped into our rafts.

The narrow, clear river is said to be one of the fastest and cleanest in Bali, compared to a few of the other more popular routes, filled with tourists and perhaps a bit of garbage. We began passing through thick foliage of alternating rice fields, banana trees and huge palm trees, bumping our way around and over the large boulders strewn throughout the river. Soon after the start, we had to walk around a series of two sheer drops, though our guide jumped in for the descent, probably affording him the most enjoyment of the whole trip for someone who does this day in and day out. From there, we continued through the spectacular scenery, passing a few groups here and there and taking in the whole array of green hues along the banks of the cold river. Along the way, we saw a few local children playing in the water, bathing or just waiting to wave at the passing tourists. Somehow, every child in Indonesia seems to have mastered the phrase, "Hello, Mister," often with the r rolled at the end, making it more like "Hello, meeesterrrrrrr." We stopped for lunch at a picturesque waterfall, and we then passed under the thin waterfall, streaming down from the green cliffs above the narrow gorge as it passed through one of the rocky chasms along the way and drenching all who dared to pass beneath it. Speaking just a bit of English, our guide instructed us along the way, though the most important command was "Boom boom," meaning to brace yourself as we were about to hit a rock, a wall or both. Also essential was the "duck" command, as we passed within inches of many bamboo bridges across the river, leaving just a tiny bit of space between the top of the raft and the beams, essentially meaning that we had to cower down into the raft to avoid hitting our heads.

Our final adventure was a waterfall that we had been warned about, and our guide made sure we were all holding on tightly, packed into the rack as much as we could to keep us in and be ready for the impact. Not knowing what we were getting into, we soon saw the river disappear. As we held on, we passed over a sheer drop, going vertically straight down about 15 feet before hitting the water below hard and bouncing around in the raft. None of us were thrown out, so we bailed a bit of water from the raft, and we were quickly at the end of the trip, greeted by children with fresh flowers hoping to get a small tip from us. Up the steep hill, we found showers with towels and a restaurant overlooking the river and massive terraced rice fields, cutting into the sides of the green hills all around us. The buffet lunch was almost as good as the spectacular view, with chicken satay, fried rice and noodles, some sort of Chinese chicken and lots of fresh pineapple and watermelon. All in all, this was definitely worth the $25, though I knew it would soon be time to get out of Kuta and try to see some of the authentic culture that drew everyone to Bali in the first place.

(The first set of waterfalls. We walked around these, and our guide took the raft through, though this is pretty similar to the waterfall that we all went down at the end. I don't have a picture because I was cowering in fear...and my camera would get wet. A combo of the two.)

(The small, yet powerful waterfall at our lunch stop.)

(Our raft was the yellow one.)

(Safety first. You can never be too sure when a rock might fall out of the sky or a flood might pass through, so I opted to keep my helmet and life jacket on at all times. I'd advise that my loyal readers do the same.)

(Some of the scenery along the narrow, rocky river.)

(Chane and his peace-loving girlfriend. Unfortunately I don't have a picture from behind, but believe me when I say that Aussies aren't afraid to sport a mullet.)

(Taking pictures while the guide does all the work. So typical.)

(In reality, most of it wasn't that demanding of a river, so it was nice to relax and enjoying the stunning forests and terraced rice fields along the way.)

(One of the groups in front of us, right after the big waterfall and before our lunch stop.)

(A view of the river below from our amazing lunch buffet. When they said lunch was included, I thought it would be a cheap sandwich or a plate of rice, but the buffet was pretty amazing, and I had way more than my share of chicken satay, fried rice and fresh fruit.)

(The rice terraces as seen from our shaded hilltop buffet. I'm still impressed that the whole package was only $25, as I saw many other tours in the city for $50-70.)

(My last night in Kuta, watching the sun set over many soccer matches along the wide, flat beach at low tide.)