Trip Reflection by Robbie Greenberg

I’m writing to you all after our final days in Bali have come to an end. After an adrenaline-seeking high octane first 10 days, our group finally hit our exhaustion capacity. Our last couple of days never really left the confines of our volunteer site and facility, and perhaps that was for the best. The mix of adventure and cultural exploration is a significant part of these volunteer trips, but it was nice to have our final days feature the heart of what we were in Bali to do: help Green Lion and our local community. This blog post is a reflection of the trip and the impact we had.

Throughout the trip, we had multiple discussions about the purpose of a volunteer trip. Was it to work full days only at the volunteer site? Was it to experience the culture and share our experiences? How could we best balance both? Bali obviously has so many tourist opportunities, but should we be spending some afternoons in paradise when we could always do more at the temple? The volunteer site didn’t like to let us work more because they were so proud of what Bali had to offer and wanted us to experience it, but throughout most of the trip, our group couldn’t shake this guilty feeling.

On my final days of my final VA trip, I began to get clarity. On our third to last day, I went to lunch with some volunteers at a cafe owned by a villager named Harry. Harry’s entire business revolved around volunteers choosing to come spend just a bit of extra pocket money to get his fresh acai bowls and smoothies. He explained to us how much his business has changed since the volunteer program begins in 2017 and how thankful he was for us choosing to come to his village. He couldn’t have been a more friendly host and even though we walked to his cafe, he offered to drive us back to the homestay after our meal.

On the final morning before we left, I went for a morning walk around the village. The local shop owner waved, and a bunch of smiling kids ran by on their way to school yelling “Hello!” After going about fifteen minutes away from the village, a motorcyclist stopped me and asked if I was one of the volunteers in English. After I nodded, he emphasized his thanks to me explaining how much the village had changed. All of the streetlights, paved roads, taxi drivers, and local business owners were thriving as a result of the residual benefits of extra spending to their village economy, something most volunteers probably thought was marginal. All of this was in addition to our actual work which he commended on as well.

After leading this trip, and being a participant on 3 VA, these final moments have helped me understand the totality of the experience. Sure, I’ll always remember waterfall jumping and the sunrise on Mt Batur. I’ll remember my past experiences in Portugal and Philippines cliff climbing and islanding jumping. But what really sticks with me emotionally even amongst the criticism that programs such as these take, is not just the work we actually did but the residual impact we have had. Sure in Bali we helped renovate a temple floor, but we also empowered an entire community and made cultural connections that will transcend our physical accomplishments. Just by creating blogs like these we help spread their culture, attract more volunteers, and completing the flywheel of continued development.

I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity our alumni have provided with VA and implore future EGLers to keep the program alive. Our impact is harder to visualize than you’d initially expect, but after 3 years of these trips, I can definitely say is there in force and we are making a difference.

Sunrise Hike and Ubud by Adrien Beaufils

Our day Wednesday began early – and not a 7am kind of early. By 2am, everyone was up and (almost) out the front gate of Green Lion. Despite the chilly night air and the lack of sleep, we all piled into the waiting van eager to get started with today’s first adventure: the famed Mt. Batur sunrise hike. After about an hour of driving through deserted villages and empty rice fields, we reached our first stop. Perched on a hill side, a small shop served as our base camp as we sat together and had tea, coffee, and fried bananas for breakfast. We then got back into the van and drove to the start of the hike. There, we met our three guides, passed out flashlights for everyone, and started the climb.

Despite the early hour and cold weather, we were far from alone on the mountain. As we climbed, a trail of flashlights bobbed up and down after us in a single file, almost like we were being followed by a giant scintillating snake. To our collective surprise, we reached the top a lot faster than expected. While we’d like to attribute this to our superior athletic abilities, the total elevation change was only about 1,200 feet and the trail fairly straightforward. Still, we were happy to settle down at the top with our breakfast boxes while we waited for the sunrise. The lack of cover gave way to frequent gusts of cold wind mixed with dust and we were all anxious to feel the warmth of the sun’s first rays. Bit by bit, one of the most amazing sunrises any of us had seen unfolded before us. Clouds rolled through the valley and over us as the sky brightened with red and orange hues, until finally the sun shot up over the horizon right in front of our eyes. I think it’s fair to say that this unforgettable sight made the early awakening completely worth it for everyone.

After plenty of pictures, including some selfies with local monkeys suddenly interested in the bananas we had been given for breakfast, we started heading down. Along the way, we walked along the edge of the crater and got to feel the warm steam rising up through natural volcanic vents. We made good time on the way down and were back at Green Lion before 10am.

While the bravest members of the group set out for breakfast, the rest of us caught up on sleep before regrouping for lunch. Refueled and somewhat re-energized, we set out for the Ubud market. After checking out a multitude of little shops and stocking up on souvenirs, we headed away from the market and towards The Yoga Barn. Somehow, we’d all decided that the best way to work off the hike was to participate in a 1.5-hour collective yoga lesson. But in all fairness, the unique setting and theme of the lesson (which involved chanting) only made the experience more interesting and fun!

By this point, all of us were looking forward to the next activity we had in mind: massages! Since massage parlors and spas are everywhere in Ubud, it wasn’t too difficult to find a place. We split into two groups and all enjoyed a well-deserved Balinese massage as night fell over the island. Finally, we closed out our day with dinner at Clear Café, a vegetarian cafe with a menu and decor centered around healthy food options and ingredients. Beyond satisfied, we settled into our beds at Green Lion in preparation for Thursday’s volunteering. Talk about a day in paradise!

Weekend Excursion Car 2 by Jason Comstock

For our weekend “Excursion” in Bali (granted, every day feels like an excursion on this beautiful island), we headed over to Canggu — a quaint, beachside town about two hours from our homestay. My first impression was it strongly reminded me of the laid-back, surfer lifestyle of Southern California. As someone who’s originally from the Golden State, I especially appreciated this environment from a place that was so far from home.

We woke up early on Saturday morning to soak up as much of the Canggu sun as possible; we first explored the local town and checked out the various surf shops (it’s hard to beat these SE Asian prices!). Later, we attempted to enjoy a surprisingly strenuous vinyasa yoga class — but the craziest part was we soon discovered that our nice yoga teacher was a recent graduate from the University of Michigan! The Largest College Alumni Network in the world really does span every corner of the globe…Go Blue!

Saturday night, we enjoyed a light dinner of healthy salads and smoothies at an organic cafe (again, very similar to SoCal), followed by a gorgeous sunset walk on the beach to wrap up the peaceful day.

On Sunday, our activities were quite more adventurous and extreme, as we first embarked to go “Waterfall Jumping”. The first jump started at 5 meters high, and they progressively ramped up to 15 meters (roughly 50 feet). For those of us who are deathly afraid of heights (myself), this was a great opportunity to overcome our fears. And I was proud that everyone in our group was courageous enough to try every jump. Needless to say, it was quite the exhilarating experience for all of us! Also, it’s worth mentioning that as potentially dangerous as this activity may sound, we were closely supervised by experienced guides who exercised every precaution necessary to ensure our complete safety and security. No reason to worry, parents!

In continuing with the Waterfall Theme of our day, we later traveled to Sekumpal to swim under the island’s tallest waterfall. On our walk to the falls, we explored a mountainside village where we graciously sampled a handful of tasty Balinese staples (jackfruit, snake fruit, coffee, and more). When we finally made it to our destination, neither words nor pictures could do it justice, but these falls were absolutely stunning. Complemented by the lush green jungle, towering mountains, and colorful skies, the picturesque image of these waterfalls was truly something I’ll never forget.

We concluded our memorable weekend by feasting on a large dinner at a local restaurant overlooking the breathtaking mountains that we had previously climbed. Our Weekend Excursion to Canggu was a total success and we were tremendously grateful for the opportunity to experience such an awesome town. We returned to Ubud on Sunday night refreshed and excited to get back to work on Monday!

Weekend Excursion Car 1 by Emmett Springer

We utilized our first day off from construction to relax and explore Canggu and the surrounding area. We visited the beautiful Batu Bolong Beach and several of us rented surfboards. With waves as high as 7 feet, the beach is great for surfing, but is pretty tough for beginners so we had varying degrees of success. Still, everyone was glad they had given it a try! We also got to simply enjoy the water and soak up the sun, which was a great way to relax and rejuvenate after a busy week of construction and excursions.

There was a lot to do within the city of Canggu as well. The options for eating and shopping seemed to be endless and we really enjoyed strolling through the city.

As daylight began to wane, we took a drive up to the Tanah Lot temple, which sits right on the waterfront. While we couldn’t enter the temple, the view of the temple, especially as the sun set over the water behind it, was absolutely breathtaking. We had a great time exploring the area around the temple where the low tide revealed many interesting rock formations and sea life.

On Sunday we left our villa early to start a full day of travel and excursions. First, we visited Uluwatu Temple on Bali’s southwestern tip. The ancient temple sits atop a high cliff, along which we enjoyed a leisurely stroll and took pictures overlooking the beautiful water below. The temple is notorious not only for its scenic location but also for its Macaque monkeys which are known to steal from tourists and barter for fruit. Surely enough, we witnessed an array of monkey shenanigans including two stolen pairs of sunglasses. Luckily, we kept all of our belongings safe!

Next, we went to the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park, named after a 121 meter statue completed in 2018. The statue depicts a scene from Hindu mythology and is y’all enough that we could see it prominently in the horizon from the beach all the way in Canggu! The park also had other art and statues related to Hindu mythology and traditions that were very interesting to see and read about.

Before heading back to Green Lion, we stopped by an old abandoned theme park just outside of Denpasar. We learned that the park opened in 1997 but closed shortly after, leaving it abandoned now for over 20 years. It was cool to see how the surrounding jungle has taken over the park, which mixes with the deteriorating buildings to create and eerie ambience around the park.

Bali Day 5 by Haley Clafton

Today the EGL crew was excited to get to the construction site since the temple floor we’ve been working on was nearing completion. We enjoyed our breakfast of some eggs and toast and a few us competed to see who could eat the most snake fruits, which really have grown on us this week. After several more hours of brick laying and concrete filling, we ended the day very satisfied with our visible progress over the course of the week. Next week, on to the compound wall!

After our morning work, we enjoyed a great lunch of mie goreng (fried noodles) and then packed up our things for our weekend excursion. We had planned a weekend getaway to Canggu, a city on the western coast of Bali, to enjoy some time on the beach and see some new sights.

On the drive to Canggu, we stopped by Tegenungan Waterfall. The waterfall was amazing and we were able to swim in the pool below while enjoying the incredible view (and take some awesome group pictures!).

Once we arrived in Canggu that evening, we settled into our beautiful Airbnb and spent some time relaxing in the villa’s courtyard pool. We explored the area around us to get dinner at XiaHouse Noodles and dessert at a cute cafe called “I Make the Pies” and then met up with some other Green Lion volunteers that were also traveling to Canggu for the weekend. Our group spent the rest of the evening walking around getting a taste of the Canggu nightlife and planning out our adventures for tomorrow.

Bali Day 4 by Mabel Chan

With our first week of volunteering almost over, we started the day with the goal of finishing the temple floor. We had a substantial system of laying the soil, placing the tiles, and finishing it off with cement. It was satisfying to see our progress with the floor and we are almost done with it. After our work, we had a fulfilling lunch and made a splash in the pool.

We decided to depart on an excursion to the Tegallalang Rice Terrace in the afternoon. As soon as we got there, the view was absolutely stunning. It was also possible to hike down and be close to the rice paddies. We were able to see the water running down the narrow channels and we did not expect how muddy the hike was going to be.

There were also a variety of activities we could partake during our visit. They ranged from zip line, single Bali swing, couple swing tree, sky bike single, and more. A few of us tried the Bali swing and a single Bali swing gets 15 swings each in both directions. The swing was exhilarating as it was towered over the rice terrace.

We quickly made our way back to Green Lion for a special dinner. Each Thursday, the Green Lion staff hosts a special dinner for all the volunteers. After our dinner, we played a series of fun games. There was a competition where a Balinese cracker was hung from the ceiling and whoever eats it the fastest without his or her hands won. There was another competition where there was a plate of five coins covered with flour and whoever finds the coins first without using his or her hands won.

After our dinner, we wore sarongs, a long elegant piece of cloth worn wrapped around our lower body and headed to a temple, Pura Pengukur Ukur-Goa Garba. Today was the full moon ceremony and Balinese men, women, and children dressed up in their traditional attire for music, prayers, and celebrations. The temple was beautifully decorative and the environment was very energetic for music and celebrations. On the other side, there was a silent area for prayers. It can be overwhelming but it was an experience to observe their culture. 

Bali Day 3 by Charlie Moore

Today marks another spectacular Bali experience. Continuing our work on the temple, the group fell into a rhythm and made some great progress on the floor! Working alongside some familiar faces has been great, and our fabulous coordinator Dewa has kept us focused and ready to roll.

We were also lucky enough to have some white water rafting available to us in the afternoon. Only a short drive away, the river provided us with an afternoon we will never forget. Oscillating (cool engineering word!) between not-quite-dangerous-but-still-fun rapids and beyond movie quality scenery, the group’s adventure was an experience unlike any other.

Finally, returning to home base, we settled down and found ourselves chatting with some volunteers from around the world. Canadian, Lebanese, Spanish, and British folks made our evening an interesting one. The brisk cultural exchange was engaging and informative, reminding us what it is that really makes volunteering abroad such a great experience.

Bali Day 1 & 2 by Dean Golan

On Saturday, August 10th, our motley crew of EGL’s departed from seven different states in the US to meet up in Ubud after roughly a day or more of traveling. Despite the jetlag and late arrival for most of the group, we woke up the next morning bright-eyed and eager to explore the Island of the Gods. That morning, we had a very insightful orientation from our volunteer coordinator where we learned about Balinese culture and the various traditions and ceremonies that Balinese people partake in, followed by a short orientation regarding our temple reconstruction volunteering project.

Later that day, we decided to explore the village that we were staying in to gain a glimpse into the culture of the Balinese people surronding us. After speaking with a local taxi driver, we discovered a serene river located at the bank of a beautiful Hindu temple, where we enjoyed some time in the water. Afterwards, we witnessed a prayer ceremony on our way out. As we began heading home, we ran into some local 10-year olds playing volleyball, and they eagerly encouraged us to join them in a friendly competition. To our surprise, the kids were quite talented and ended up beating us with perfect jump serves and pretty impressive spikes. The day was followed with some time relaxing by the homestay’s pool and a nice Balinese meal prepared by the kitchen.

The next day, we began our first day working at the temple sharply at 9am. Our project has roughly 30 volunteers in total from all over the world, including people from England, Lebanon, France, Portugal, Italy, China, India, and Spain, to name a few. Our work mostly entails laying new bricks for prayer use, painting walls, and mixing concrete to build a wall around the compound. All of the volunteers are incredibly friendly and we had an awesome time socializing and getting to work hard under the sun for 4 hours.

At the end of the work day, we decided to explore the Sacred Monkey Forest.At the sanctuary, we got to see hundreds of monkeys interacting with their environment and some of the people visiting as well. The highlight of that trip was witnessing a monkey snatch a water bottle from Robbie Greenberg’s hand and proceed to shower himself with the stolen merchandise. After the sanctuary, we explored downtown a bit and enjoyed an authentic meal at a cool restaurant. All around, we’ve had a great start to our trip and we’re looking forward to sharing the rest of our adventures with you guys! Stay tuned for more updates!