I am soooo far behind on posting here. We just got back from spending the Lebaran holidays on Sumatra Utara (fantastic, super-duper, amazing trip) with Kalani but I have promised myself to try to catch up ancient posts before moving on to Sumatra posts (and besides which, I have yet to download the photos from my SLR so there's extra work to be done before I can show you the best of Sumatra). So, back to the past, here is our trip to Nusa Penida in April
Nusa Penida (Penida Island if you use Google :-) is the first island (well, really the third, but Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Cennigan are so small that I'm not counting them. However, they are supposed to be beautiful and from the air they are surrounded by breathtaking ocean. But the guide book says they are big party scenes and I'm just as happy to skip that). The guide book also says that Penida is what Bali would be like if it hadn't been discovered. Sadly, that might have been true while the book was being researched, but no longer true by the time of publication :-(
Professor Tirta's brother-in-law (Dr. Bayu) helped to establish a foundation (Friends of the National Parks Foundation) that has a field site on Nusa Penida, just mauka of a strip of restaurants, bars, and clubs that crowd the coastline on the Bali side of the island. I have been talking with him about going out there to set up a Trigona bee study site and finally got around to arranging it for 6-10 April (I tried to arrange it for 2-6 April but it turned out the 5th was a big Hindu holiday so it had to be pushed back). I stayed at the FNPF dormitories and talked to their workers about bees (they had six hives they were trying to establish by coaxing Trigona out of the concrete foundations and into wooden boxes). I made connections with other beekeepers on the west side of the island but it turned out that all of them were keeping Apis cerana, not Trigona, so it was interesting, but not really what I'm studying.
Professor Tirta's brother-in-law (Dr. Bayu) helped to establish a foundation (Friends of the National Parks Foundation) that has a field site on Nusa Penida, just mauka of a strip of restaurants, bars, and clubs that crowd the coastline on the Bali side of the island. I have been talking with him about going out there to set up a Trigona bee study site and finally got around to arranging it for 6-10 April (I tried to arrange it for 2-6 April but it turned out the 5th was a big Hindu holiday so it had to be pushed back). I stayed at the FNPF dormitories and talked to their workers about bees (they had six hives they were trying to establish by coaxing Trigona out of the concrete foundations and into wooden boxes). I made connections with other beekeepers on the west side of the island but it turned out that all of them were keeping Apis cerana, not Trigona, so it was interesting, but not really what I'm studying.
We got there by taking the ferry across with Tim's scooter. That, in and of itself, was an adventure. We read (in at least four places online) that the ferry left at 11am. It's about a 2-hour ride from Payangan to the port at Padang Bai and we decided to leave at 7am, just to make sure there weren't any problems. We got to the port at 9am and as I bought tickets I asked what time the ferry left. "10am" was the answer. We pulled into the shade and were discussing whether we had time to go back to the nearest town for some breakfast when a guy came running up to tell us that we had better hurry, the ferry was going to pull out any minute! (by this time it was about 9:15). We drove through the port, had to buy a second ticket (the first ticket was, apparently, not a ticket but a top-up on a ticket card), and got to the ferry in time to be the second-to-last vehicle loaded. The ferry pulled out a little after 9:30am.
I'm really thankful that we brought the scooter because transportation would not have been easy without it. FNPF has a system where they host volunteers for a small fee (about $10/person/night). You get to stay in the little cabins and you do work for them in the mornings. They are mostly focused on a Bali Starling release project, sustainable gardening, and elementary education. But the three volunteers who were there were kinda stuck at the field site since it's probably about an hours walk from the town on the coast and not easy to go anywhere once you've gotten there. With the scooter, Tim and I were able to explore across the island, looking for good places to return to for bee-baiting and trying (unsuccessfully) to find people who were keeping Trigona. Now that we've got a feel for the island, we'll return for a 4-day stretch of baiting later in May or June.
Almost as exciting as exploring field sites, we finally got into the ocean in Bali... Nearly three months after arrival. I think it must be some sort of record for foreigners in Bali and should probably be considered somewhat criminal. But it's just really not appealing to go to beaches that are that overcrowded with tourists and bars and food and signs all designed for European/American visitors. Even on Nusa Penida we had to work hard to get away from that scene. On our first day of exploration, the beach we finally went to must have had over 100 steps to get down to it. But we were rewarded by the serenity of it -- most visitors have no interest in working that hard for their beach.
First Day of Exploration
Day Two of Exploration
By this time Tirta had told us about the upcoming keynote addresses that we were expected to give at Universitas Taumanagara. (in a couple days) We were in a panic and almost went home a day early, but decided to stay the full number of days but leave extra early in the morning, rather than taking the afternoon ferry. This gave us the opportunity to see more of the island (and swim once more and eat more fried fish)
Day Three:
We had the FNPF staff check with the ferry and were told that the first boat left at 8am. Since we still didn't quite trust it, we left for our 20 minute ride to the ferry at 6am from the field station. And lucky thing too! The ferry left at 6:45am!