|Bali (February 22 - March 5, 2002)|
We stayed two nights at the Jayakarta Hotel and Apartments in the Legian
area of Bali. The brochures promised beach and surf - but we found the
beach so covered in garbage that I would not go swimming. Plastic
wrappers, bottles, and other miscellaneous trash was scattered along the
shore break. We didn't realize how spoilt we were with the pristine beaches
in Australia and New Zealand. However, the
hotel grounds (which are actually across the street from the beach) were spotless, and the kids spent a happy
time playing in the
Sarah and I went for a walk along the beach. After being 'hawker free' since leaving Malaysia in November, we're back in the midst of throngs of penny salesmen. On our 1 hour walk, we were offered massages, a manicure, kites, hats, wooden statues, sarongs, bemo's (sort of a taxi), marijuana, surf board rental, umbrella and deck chair rental, sea shells, and fake watches. We also won a T-shirt, free lunch, and $1000 or a video camera or a luxury 7 day vacation in a foreign location - all we had to do was sit through a 90 minute presentation on some time share or other. Actually, after Australia and New Zealand, its kind of fun to be back to this... and yes, we managed to weasel politely out of buying anything or attending anything.
The currency takes a bit of getting used to as it is a high exchange rate. Sarah was a bit shocked to pay 9000Rp for a large bottle of water from our hotel ... until we realized it was only $1.40. Strangely enough, we flipped on the TV and saw a Bahasa Indonesian version of "Who wants to be a millionaire". With the exchange rate, it should be called who wants to be a gazillionaire!
One thing we've discovered on holidays is that when you meet compatible families, it is usually best to change plans and stick together for a while. The kids get some play time and the parents get to relax. So, we decided to join the families in Padangbai, and return to Ubud later.
Padangbai is an hour drive away, and we checked into the Padangbai Beach Inn. The Inn would have been much nicer if the ceiling fan didn't squeak (loudly), if the rooms had included top bed sheets and toilet paper, and if Sarah wasn't sick on the first night from something she ate. We're also getting used to flushing the toilet with a bucket, and getting by without a sink. However, the two rooms combined cost only $25Cdn/night including breakfast, so I won't complain too loudly. The restaurants in the area are also inexpensive - we're averaging about $12 for a full meal with drinks for all of us. Not surprisingly, there seem to be some foreigners who stay for months at a time in this area - it is picturesque, inexpensive, relatively clean (especially the beach), and has a substantially slower pace than Kuta or Legian.
Our kids are snorkeling fanatics. We basically spent two entire days snorkeling in the Blue Lagoon, a few minutes walk from the Inn. Mark announced he could see a Black tipped reef shark, and instead of running up the beach into the trees, Chloe, Heather and the rest of the kids ran into the water to see it too. They had the same reaction for a Blue spotted lagoon ray and a honeycomb moray eel. These were in fact the smallest versions of each fish that I could ever imagine - each were only about 25cm long. It is still amazing to think how much the kids have changed from Hong Kong, where we had a hard time getting them into the water for their fear of sharks.
We have met another Swedish family here - one of their girls turned ten and all the kids were invited to a birthday party & games on the beach followed by supper and a kid's movie at a local bar. Apparently, Swedes are masters of 'party games' to break the ice between new and old acquaintances. We learned a new game at this party that we call the Swedish Hand Game for no other reason than you play it with your hands and we learned it from the Swedish family. Click here to learn how to play.
We spent our last night in Kuta with the Nielsen's at the reasonably priced (for Kuta anyway) Sari Yasa Samudra Bungalows. We met up with Jon, Oscar and Lovisa again and had drinks at the Hard Rock Cafe before heading to a Mexican restaurant for supper. Our last day we spent with all three families at the hotel pool and on the local beach before leaving for Bangkok.
We have really enjoyed Bali, although I am not sure if it was being in the company of other traveling families, or the island itself.
Like Malaysian Borneo, Bali is a beach vacation with quite a bit extra. Bali has culture, excellent craft/ art shopping, and fascinating architecture, while Borneo had incredible wildlife and rain forest.
And yet all the Bali attractiveness is so easy to miss. I wonder how many 'package deal' tourists never venture past their 4 star hotels, with nearby restaurants, shops and air conditioned buses to discover more of Bali. I think we spent more money on our first two nights in Legian than we did on food and accommodation for the next seven. And the thing is, we enjoyed our seven nights in the rest of Bali so much more.