Bali Rocks!

Café Wayan in Ubud is legendary among Bali visitors and mentioned by most of the leading guidebooks. It has also been recommended by many food writers. The restaurant was founded by Balinese cook Wayan Kelepon who had been to the United States to learn baking and to Thailand to learn Thai cooking. The café is like a collection of garden pavilions with Japanese-style seating that stretches from its Monkey Forest Road front all the way inside. It was here in 1996 that I had the best chocolate cake I had ever eaten — its Death by Chocolate. Café Wayan’s version is filled with dark chocolate but not too sweet and gooey and comes accompanied by a saucer of dark chocolate sauce. In addition, the restaurant is also famous for its other desserts, Indonesian cuisine and Sunday Balinese buffets and many consider it to be the best restaurant in Bali.

I brought my family to Café Wayan again during our recent trip to Bali in June 2004 and yes, the cake was just as good. In fact, I would not have minded going back a day later for another meal but my wife wanted to take the family white water rafting.

White water rafting has been described as an outdoor adventure sport with an element of inherent risk and the possibility of being injured because the uncontrolled and sometimes unpredictable elements of a naturally flowing river are part of the thrill of white water rafting. On the other hand, it has also been said that statistically you are more likely to be injured playing basketball or skiing. Small comfort since I am not into either activity.

‘But I’m not really keen on white water rafting’ I said, ‘and we will get wet and not have enough time to dry our clothes before we go to Nusa Dua.’ And there are rocks in the river.

‘If we send the clothes to the laundry right after we get back, it will be ready before we leave for Nusa Dua. Anyway, I would like you to come along since you’re a trained lifeguard,’ replied my wife while giving me a look that has been best described as a Nike look ie ‘Just do it.’

‘Okay’, I said even though I did not really like to get wet. In fact, one of the advantages of being a lifeguard is that if you did your job well, you are less likely to get into the water. Furthermore, I did not fancy hitting any rocks.

Lonely Planet’s Bali guide said it was worth paying more for a reliable white water rafting operator and named two operators, Bali Adventure Tours and Sobek, as being professional and reliable. We found Sobek’s brochure from among the various tourist brochures that we picked up in Ubud and it impressed us with the operator’s professionalism. It was also the thickest and most colourful brochure. We learnt that:

a)   Sobek is Asia’s largest adventure tour operator and the pioneer of white water rafting in the region;

b)   their guides are considered leaders in their field and are trained in all aspects of safety including CPR, search and rescue, first aid, emergency procedures and preventive risk management.

c)   in particular, their guides have been trained in all classes of river and in swift water rescue to American and Australian standards and many of them have been on exchange trips to Australia and the United States;

d)   they only use safety approved equipment and provide safety helmets and life jackets for all their rafting trips;

e)   there is a US$100,000 insurance coverage provided for their customers; and

f)    fresh towels and ‘a bountiful buffet await at Sobek’s terraced riverside restaurant’ at the end of the rafting trip.

We were also impressed by a number of testimonials on Sobek’s brochure. One said ‘I’ve rafted in Japan, and Bali is the best. Well done Sobek!’ and another said ‘One of the loveliest river trips I have been on. Very helpful and fun guide (magic).’ Thus we went with Sobek for white water rafting and chose their Ayung River Rafting Adventure. Ayung River was where Sobek started in 1989 and it was also near where we were staying (note: Sobek also runs another rafting trip down the Telaga Waja River in East Bali).

Actually, Mark, my eldest son, was not too keen until he heard of the bountiful buffet lunch at the end of the rafting trip. David, my number two and a recent fan of Café Wayan’s Death by Chocolate, was surprisingly interested whilst Michael, my youngest, did not mind going although he was not too excited about it.

Ayung River or Sungai Ayung is a fast flowing river near Ubud and the most popular river for white water rafting in Bali. It has been described as a spectacular river that winds through a deeply carved valley of volcanic rock with towering waterfalls and enormous cliffs dating back to prehistoric times. Sobek’s Ayung River Adventure route covers an 11km section of the river and comprises more than 20 rapids (ie sections of the river that lose elevation over a short distance with rocks exposed over the running water). Ayung River’s rapids are classified either as Class 2 or Class 3 rapids according to the American Whitewater Association system of classification. This means that the rapids are suitable for persons who have novice or intermediate skills. Fortunately, there were no Class 6 rapids as those represent great difficulty, high unpredictability and extreme danger. In fact, it has been mentioned that for Class 6 rapids, you should say silent prayers from the safety of the riverbank.

We were picked up at our hotel in Ubud and sent to the Sobek rafting start point at Begawan, a mountain village about 8km from Ubud. There, we were introduced to our guide Jackie but Jackie was actually not his real name. The reason he was called Jackie needs some explanation. Generally, Balinese people used only four gender neutral names for calling their children. The eldest is called Wayan, the second is called Made, the third is called Nyoman (or Komang) and the fourth is called Ketut. If they had more than four children, then the naming sequence was repeated. So each of the Sobek guides had adopted a distinctive name to avoid confusion and ours was Jackie (as in Jackie Chan). According to the Sobek brochure, one guide was called Chickenman.

Jackie helped us to select our helmets, life jackets and oars and gave us a watertight bag to keep our valuables. While putting on my life jacket, I saw Mark struggling to put his on and heard him saying to himself, ‘Has it come to this? An extra large size no longer fits me.’ Fortunately, Jackie came to the rescue and adjusted some straps to enable Mark to wear the life jacket.

After we got all our safety and paddling equipment, Jackie led us across the road and down a series of steps towards the Ayung River. The steps were cut from the hillside and there were actually more than 500 of them in all before we reached the rafts. On our way down, we could hear the river water flowing and the early morning sounds of the jungle. Jackie asked if I had gone white water rafting before and I confessed that it was my first time. ‘Me too!’ he said, with a cheeky look. Cute.

We were given a safety briefing before we boarded our raft and started to paddle down river. Since the river water was flowing rather quickly, we did not actually have to paddle to move the raft but we paddled anyway. Like the person whose name he adopted, Jackie was full of stunts. At the very first waterfall, he steered our raft towards it so that everyone got a bath. Sometimes, he steered the raft so that we went down river backwards. Jackie also taught us how to bomb the other rafts with water using our oars and then steered us towards them at every opportunity. I got the sneaky feeling that Jackie deliberately steered us towards the more difficult pass each time we came to a rapid and this resulted in a lot of screaming and yelling from our raft. But it was great fun. Along the way, we passed numerous gorges, waterfalls, paddy fields, local shrines and natural whirlpools. The boys and I also got out of the raft and floated down river when we neared the end point.

Before we realised it, almost two hours had passed and we had cleared all the rapids and reached the end of our 11km rafting adventure. We were greeted by a group of young Balinese boys in their birthday suits laughing and jumping into the river from a slightly elevated bank. Next to them was a group of Balinese women ready to deflate and carry the rafts on their heads up the more than 250 steps to a truck that will send the rafts and other equipment back to the start point. We were told that each deflated raft weighs approximately 70kgs and only one Balinese woman is needed to carry it. We were really impressed.

The end point was a garden restaurant next to the Ayung River and we were presented with fresh towels and the delicious smells of a Balinese feast. As I sat down to eat, I saw a wooden signboard above the long buffet table that announced where the food had come from — Café Wayan. I must have done some good deeds in a previous life.

Richard Tan Ming Kirk

Shook Lin & Bok