Bali - Part 3

Alright, lets finish this Bali series. I've been slacking in the blogging department. We've only got three days left for the Bali trip. We left off on Sunday where we visited the south part of the island and got to see one of the temples on the island.

The rest of the week was fairly quiet. I decided not to organize anymore trips, and to be honest, the rest of the folks I was with are not organizers. On Monday, HA and Boris decided to rent mopeds to tour the island. I was a bit worried for them but they wore their helmets (I wish I had a pictures of HAs - it was hiliarious). HA did have a run in with the law however. Apparently, it's illegal to be over the white lines in Bali so at a stop light, he got pulled up by the police. It is apparently illegal to drive a moped in Bali without an International Drivers license. The police officer told HA that he could pay 750k rupiah or go to court. HA wisely (in my opinion) decided to pay the bribe...I mean fine. While the boys were touring the island, the rest of us hung out at the pool and then decided to do a bit of shopping. Later that night, HA took me to nice dinner just the two of us. You can get fantastic food for very little money in Bali - one of the perks.

HA and Boris at Potato Head

On Tuesday, we hung out at the pool at the house all day. Then HA booked me, Boris, and himself into a spa for a two hour treatment. When we got there, we were told that two of us would have to do our treatments together in the couples room and the other would be seperate. I promptly told Boris he was either on his own or with HA. Wisely, I think, the boys decided the didn't need to do the treatment together. HA and I decided on a massage and then a scrub. I had a coffee scrub which was fantastic. The experience was a bit different than I'd experienced before but good - I won't go into the details here. Later that night, we had drinks at a beach club called "Potato Head" which was very cool. Unfortunately, we weren't able to have dinner there as they were fully booked, so we decided to have dinner at "The Living Room" - which again, was fantastic.

Dessert from The Living Room

Wednesday was our last day. We woke up to breakfast from Made, hung out in the pool and then went to the markets in Kuta. The markets were disappointing and none of us bought anything. When we got back from the markets, we headed out to an early dinner at Sardine. Sardine was highly recommended by multiple websites and the Lonely Planet book and I can completely understand why. The setting was more than beautiful and the food was fantastic. If you ever get to Bali, I highly suggest making a booking.

Sardine Restaurant

After dinner, we headed to the airport to catch our midnight flight. In order to leave the country, we had to pay a fee of 50k rupiah a piece - yes, we had to pay to leave the country. We also had to go through security with our luggage before even checked in. As we were leaving and we passed inspection, they put a security sticker across our zipper. We were also told that we either had to lock our bags or wrap them in plastic. It was a very strange airport experience. This is because of the Schapelle Corby story - google it to get the details. Either way though, I now have a Bali security sticker on my suitcase that won't come off.

We then got back to Brisbane and barely made our flight to Canberra - but we did. We all went home, took a shower and then headed into work. I'm glad we went to Bali but I don't think I'd do it again. There are many more interesting places to visit and Bali just wasn't that special.

Rice Patties near our house

The street we had to take to get into town

Bali - Part 2

I know it's weeks later, but I thought I would finally post Part 2 of my Bali series.  I hope you enjoy!

We left off on Saturday night when we got left in the not so great part of town and I wanted to buy a hooker.  The next morning as Made (pronounced Ma-Day) made us breakfast, we talked about what we wanted to do.  I really wanted to see the Ulu Watu temple.  The Lonely Planet book raved about it as did multiple websites I had read.  LP specifically suggested visiting the temple at sunset to get some great pictures.  The rest of the group agreed to go to the temple with me but they wanted to do something else beforehand as well.  We decided on doing some water sports in the afternoon then heading out to the temple.  Made sorted out a car for us and we all headed off.

We directed our driver to the general area where we wanted to go and just told him that we wanted to snorkel.  He dropped us off in an area that is surrounded by very fancy resorts.  All of the pools and bars were only open to hotel patrons so we were having a hard time figuring out what to do.  We finally came upon a water sports "hut" (for lack of better word - it was two guys running this operation out of a shack) and signed up for snorkeling, a glass bottom boat, and a trip to Turtle Island.  The guys sorted us for masks and flippers (I saw them sanitizing everything so I felt much better about it).  They pull up the boat and it looks like it's about to fall apart.  It was a glass bottom boat but you really couldn't see much - the water was very murky.  Our boat driver spoke no English and just kinda pointed and grunted to tell us what to do.  Everyone except for MayDay tried the snorkeling.  I didn't stay in very long.  The water was murky and dirty.  After snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, not much compares. 

All of us snorkeling



More snorkeling

 Then we hopped back in the boat and it proceeded to take us Turtle Island.  Turtle Island is apparently a small branch of the Bali zoo.  As we got off the boat, we were met by a guide who showed us all the animals and then sat with us as we ordered a beer.  I very much got the impression that he batted for the other team as he thought HA and Boris were a couple (see picture below and you'll understand why) but then when he found out that Boris was single, he made a few comments about "liking boys too".  I wouldn't suggest Turtle Island - the animals seemed cramped and it was very clearly a tourist trap.


Boris with a snake

 

Aren't they a cute couple?



All of us at Turtle Island

After Turtle Island, we high-tailed it back to the car b/c it was getting close to sunset and even though it was only 20 km to the temple, it was going to take 40 minutes.  Our driver finally gets us to the temple and it was about a $3 fee to enter the temple - with this fee, we also were given rental sarongs as you can't enter the temple in short pants.  We were also advised that women who are pregnant or menstruating cannot enter the temple - I haven't googled why yet though.  As we enter the temple we greeted by an older guy that advises us that he'll be our guide.  We just go with it as we have no idea what's going on.  The "guide" walks us around and saves a shoe from a monkey (the monkey's steal things).  Then he gets us into the Fire Dance and finds us all seats.  It's at this point that the "guide" tells us that it was $50k rupiah per person for the guide.  WHAT??  We couldn't really argue with him since he was like 70 and there were a ton of people around so we shelled out the $300k rupiah (just over $30USD).  I figure, he probably needs it more than we do.  This is where we get to see a traditional fire dance.  It was actually really nice and I'd suggest seeing one if you can.

In our sarongs - notice no one has glasses on - the monkeys would steal them.

One of the temples

Another Temple

Part of the Fire Dance

More fire dance

After the fire dance, we told our driver that we wanted seafood for dinner so he suggested Jimbaran Bay.  He picked a restaurant and dropped us off.  As we walk outside, we see that the tables are set up right on the sand by the water and it looks absolutely stunning.  You feel like it's so secluded and intimate.  Then you look to your left and right and realize that there are twenty restaurants in either direction doing the exact same thing and you don't feel so special anymore.  But we ordered some really good fresh seafood (the lobster was delicious) and enjoyed the scenery.



Couldn't get a great picture but this kinda shows what the beach was like

I just realized how long this blog is.  I think we'll have to continue with a Part 3 for the rest of our week - stay tuned!  

Quick Note - some of the pictures are from Finola - Thanks!

Bali - Part 1

Australia still celebrates Easter as a public holiday.  This means that each year, we get a long weekend with a Friday and a Monday off.  This year, the ANZAC holiday fell on the same day as Easter Monday.  Australia was good enough to give a five day weekend.  When we realized this, a number of us decided it would be an ideal time to take a trip.  We came up with a list of places we'd like to visit - all of them international.  From there, we looked at how much each trip would cost and how long each flight would take.  After all this deliberation, we decided on Bali.

We left for Bali on Thursday bright and early on a 6:30 am flight which worked out nicely cause then we arrived in Denpasar in the early afternoon.  We were met by our driver at the airport and shuttled to our villa.  Once at the villa we were met by our housekeeper, Made, who showed us around the house and then how to get to the beach and town.  She handed us our welcome drinks and then discreetly left us.

Our villa was very nice.  When I booked it, there were no reviews anywhere on the web so we were going into it completely blind.  It ended up being a good choice.

Our pool area - each of the rooms led directly to the pool except for the master which was upstairs.

Our entrance - if we didn't lock the door, the local dog would stick its head in and drink from the pond.

Our living room

We spent the first afternoon in the pool and then headed into town for dinner.  None of us had done much research on the area so we picked the first restaurant we came to which happened to be an Italian place.  Yes, Italian in Bali.  It wasn't fantastic but it was ok.  From there, half of the group went home as we were tired and the other half went out for drinks.  We had a massive storm that night.  The thunder was so loud that it shook the house.

Day two we woke up and the housekeeper, Made, cooked us up a real nice breakfast and ordered the car for us.  It was a rainy day so we decided to head to Ubud for the afternoon.  Our car driver, Johnny, took us on the 20km drive which took over an hour.  While we were there, we went to the Monkey Sanctuary which is also an active temple.  A couple of pictures are below:

This is who greeted us

The littlest monkey that we saw

The temple inside the sanctuary

From the Monkey Sanctuary, we then wanted to get lunch so Johnny took us to really nice restaurant that was in a rice patty.  The food was Indonesian, though I suspect a very westernized Indonesian.  Once we were done with lunch, Johnny took us back into town to the markets.  The Indonesians are very in your face at the markets.  Constantly trying to get you to look at things and if you showed any sort of interest, they didn't want to let you leave.  It was a bit much for me and I think most of the group was not in the mood to haggle so we quickly got out of there and headed back home.

We spent the rest of the evening in the pool and then had a very late dinner at Cafe Bali in Seminyak.  The best Mi Goreng I had the whole time I was there was at Cafe Bali.  The quote of the night was "Bintangs for everyone!"  For those of you unfamiliar with Bintang, its the local beer for Bali and it wasn't too bad.

For Day three, we choose to go down to the beach.  We spent most of our time on the beach in front of Ku De Ta, which is one of the prime beach clubs in Bali.  The beach was much like the markets though, in that there were people walking up and down the beach trying to sell you stuff and if you showed any sort of interest, you were locked in.

Lunch at the Ku De Ta was actually really, really good.  I had the burger and chips and it was fantastic.

After the day at the beach, we made reservations at a restaurant called Delicious Onion which is supposed to be really yummy.  Notice I said "supposed to be".  This is because Saturday night was a bit of a debacle.  We had 8 people and, in Bali, you can't get a big taxi - you have to get two taxi's.  So, myself, HA, GOM (aka Grumpy Old Man), and Mrs. GOM, hopped in a taxi and the rest of the group hopped into another.

We all thought the drive would take about five minutes.  About ten minutes into the drive, we realize we're not in Seminyak any longer and we're seeing signs to Kuta (which is known for it's night clubs).  We finally get to a populated road and the driver tells us that the restaurant is just up the street but he can't take us because the traffic.  We fight with him for a bit but finally get tired of it and start walking up the street.  We're not seeing the restaurant so HA asks a police officer who says it's just up the street to the left.  So we keep walking...and walking.....and walking.  Finally we stop again and realize we're no where near the restaurant.  HA again asks another police officer who looks at him like he's crazy and proceeds to tell us we're about an hour away due to the traffic.  We're flabbergasted.  I pull out my iphone, turn on the data roaming and look at the map and sure enough, we're nowhere near where we need to be.  The traffic is at a complete standstill and there's no way we're getting there.

We text our other group and tell them that we're not going to make it anytime soon and they should start dinner without us.  We, in the meantime, find a bar which is showing the Liverpool soccer match for GOM.  We proceed to have pub food for dinner which was absolutely disgusting, but on the bright side, very, very cheap.  We had four dinners and about 12 Bintangs for $440k rupiah (about $44). 

We finish up watching the game and decide to head back out on the street.  We came across a bar which was playing some hip hop so we decided to go in. We have a few Bintangs and start people watching.  This is my first exposure to the hookers of Asia.  Maybe I'm assuming but there were a number of attractive, young, unhappy Asian women with frumpy, older white men.  I made an assumption that they were hookers.  There was one young woman in particular that broke my heart.  The man she was hanging out with was drunk and loud and she looked like she hated life.  I decided I wanted to buy her.  This made the group crack up laughing - and here's why:  before the start of the trip, I had told all the boys that they were not allowed to have working hookers in the house - yet here I was wanting to buy the woman for the night to save her from having to deal with the annoying Australian.  Needless to say, I'd had a few drinks by this point but HA was able to talk me into leaving the woman alone.  Please be aware that everything I've said here is an assumption - I don't know for sure that she was a hooker.

Me with a Bintang

Outside trying to catch a taxi

That sums up the first three days in Bali.  Check out my next post to find out how we spent our last four days!