Mulloskeys Adventures Abroad

The next morning we enjoyed a simply superb breakfast from our hosts at the Ministry of Coffee. Next we headed to the Sultan’s palace, still in use by the current Sultan and his family. In all the place was pretty decrepit and had little to offer except some interesting architecture, paint themes and exotic birds in cages (read: tourist trap to the extreme).

One of the cool things was that there were guards all around who were dressed in traditional clothes and who carried a small curved knife as their only weapon. Even better, not one was under the age of 60 and they were all just sitting around. We got some cool photos.

There was one room of relative interest which had a wonderfully ornate ceiling. All in all I would not go back here.

The real attraction of this amazing city is the city itself and its amazing people. It’s not the most popular tourist destination so one really gets to blend in and get an authentic southeast Asian experience. As we walked around outside the palace life went on and we weren’t even noticed.

Next stop, down the road, was the water castle. The was designed in the 18th century by a famous Portuguese architect. The Sultan was so pleased and so intent on ensuring the originality of his new waterpark, he killed the architect when it was finished. Since there were no signs to tell us how to get through the maze of back alleys and homes to get there, we were soon chased by a “guide” offering his unofficial services for a reasonable price. He was impossible to shake. By now we have developed some keen travel senses and thick skin. We found our way and told him the same thing we did at the beginning “No thank you”. Regretfully most of the castle lay in ruins from various earthquakes over the past century. The pools themselves have only seen a small portion restored. Here is what is left. Notice the former castle in the distance.

Next stop – The bird market. It was hot and thankfully there were ladies selling $0.10 bottles of water everywhere. The bird market was so cool. Nothing touristy at all here – it is where the locals buy and sell all kinds of foul, supplies and insects to feed them. That was the first thing we noticed, cages with thousands of crickets in cages and bowls with maggots (to the right).

The next thing you notice is the overwhelming smell of bird poop. After that it is the sounds of all kinds of birds saying god knows what in their silly bird languages. It was like something out of the movies. The men here were quite creepy which made us not stay too long. Here is a video walk through

It was the perfect place to get some of those artsy black and white photos. The cages plus the lighting were ideal.

From there we wanted to head to the central town market. We hired two cyclo drivers (bicycle/tuk-tuk things) to take us the 30 minutes up the road. We seriously offered a 10,000 Rupiah ($1) and he squeeled as if he was scamming us. I’m more than happy to pay $1 to get someone to ride me around for almost an hour – apparently so was he. The only problem was I was way to big for these things.. my neck hurt for days afterwards.

The other great part was the low speed helped us capture some great sights. Like babies riding shotgun on motorcycles. Scooters and motorbikes are the perfect way to get around and it allows people of all income to get to and form work and around the city. Have a moto-centric culture gets very interesting around the end of school. Here, instead of cars, parents swarm the schoolground to pick up their kids on their motos.

Here are some of my favourites from around the city. One finds themselves unable to stop taking pictures; especially knowing this would be our last time in a place like this for a long time. It’s simply impossible to describe just how it is to be here – so here are some pics to fail miserably in that endeavour.

The Indonesian Bizarro….

Indonesia is fairly politically unstable. Typical of many countries in the region. Along the sides of the roads are thousands of flags for various political parties (mostly a black bull on a fiery red flag representing the people’s democratic party). In the middle of one intersection there was a non-violent protest going on. Here’s the video

The central market was interesting because there were no tourists whatsoever. This was a completely local market. It was packed with mostly women buying fabrics, clothes and hijabs. We had hoped to find some stuff for us, but to no avail. Still it was cool to be part of the buzz.

Surrounding the market were fruit stands and food stalls. Fresh noodles, chicken curries and fried rice was available to anyone wanting to risk food poisoning from the lack of refrigeration (don’t get us wrong, Indonesian food overall was awesome… however, this is just begging for food poisoning). Instead we watched as locals ate up and elected to play it safe and buy some lychees and snakeskin fruit.

I have a theory about fruit while I travel. If you haven’t seen it before or heard of it (in Canada) that’s because it doesn’t taste good. Rambutans for example are an exotic fruit in Canada and I see a few in every Loblaw’s. They are expensive but available. Available because they are delicious. So too goes dragon fruit and lychees. Now, the snake skin fruit feels and looks just like a snakes skin (photo right). The inside its the texture and flavour of a chestnut. Not delicious. I should have known better than to go against my instincts and experience here, but if Cobra was good I thought…. you know.

We spent the rest of the afternoon evening getting massages, eating more cobra and just relaxing over some cold happy hour drinks. Then it was back to the airport and back to Bali.

Of course, a brief flight is no way to finish your day. So Erin and I decided to get one more late night massage. We were surprised to see all the foot massage chairs taken.

Regretfully, this meant we had to settle for full body massages for $1 more.. alas. Erin and I both got put into a private room and were given disposable, and VERY TINY, black undies to through on. This made me a bit nervous as usually in other countries I got to keep my own drawers on or at least be totally naked. I’m not sure why this felt the most awkward of the 3 options. Regardless, I tried to put on my best face and keep an upbeat attitude. (Yes that shaded patch on my upper chest is a few hairs that are finally coming in. Puberty should be finished in a year or two)…