Woke up at 7.30 am, (a sleep in for us in Bali), had an egg sandwich for breakfast, a freshly blended fruit juice (I felt like I was having a big vitamin pill every morning in Bali) and bali kopi. It was our last day in Padang Bai before heading back to Kuta.
We met Lolo at 9am (you’ll find him at the Puri Rai Restaurant next door to the hotel of the same name). He had organised a 2-hour snorkelling trip with his dad for us (170,000 rp. for 3) and yes, a ladder was presented for my inspection and approval (I’d wised up since Lovina). This was an essential item for snorkelling from a prahu I had since decided.
Snorkelling gear was included in the price but we only had to borrow flippers as we’d taken our own snorkels and goggles with us.
We made our way out of the main harbour, around the buoy marking the reef, and to Amuk Bay in the east. Amuk Bay is a fairly large bay and there was one other boat there with divers and snorklers. Blow up my the swim ring and off we go, not before managing to drop one of my flippers in water about 4 metres deep – Sam kindly dove down and got it after a few goes – what a good kid!
The coral and colourful fish was the best we had seen so far in Bali, huge plates of coral and very lively fish, especially when you fed them biscuits – I’d wait until Sam was close by and crumble a biscuit and fish would swarm all over him, much to his alarm – he had visions of a shark or something coming along for a feed, attracted by the frenetic activity.
All too soon it was time to get back in the prahu and passing by the Blue Lagoon it looked lovely and calm, unlike the choppy conditions 2 days previously.
We would have gone back there but we had another beach to explore called Pantai Kecil/Biastugal (page 295 Rough Guide to Bali & Lombok).
Using the instructions in my book we walked west past the ferry car park, and then up a little road that goes up a hill. As a landmark, at the corner of this road is the police station. After walking up this road not too far, maybe 20-30 metres, there is a homestay called the Megibung Warung and Homestay. At the back wall of this place is the track to turn at, so you are turning left off the road, it’s not signposted as far as I could see.
Other than having to walk past a bit of a rubbish dump, it is a pleasant 10 minute walk up along a track, sometimes it splits a bit, and it is a bit craggy with rocks and stuff, so watch your step, then the path meanders down to the most beautiful white sand beach with the sea the most brilliant aqua colour I have seen in Bali. I must say that it was the most beautiful beach we had come across so far in Bali.
There are about 6 small warung that serve quite a range of food and drinks, clothes, sarongs and of course a few beach sellers peddling wooden boxes and silver rings. I bought my dolphin ring there and now whenever I look at it, it reminds me of Pantai Kecil beach.
We enjoyed some delicious banana pancakes and satays for lunch, as well as a few Bintangs and cokes; the bill for food and cokes came to 32,000 rp. (A$5.08) for the three of us. As there were some good waves Sam hired a bodyboard and enjoyed mucking around in the surf – make sure you wear an old tee shirt if you hire a board, some of the boards are a bit old and rough and can wreck a good tee shirt (as Sam discovered with his tank top later).
It was a lovely spot to sit for a few hours and watch the surf. If I’d taken my camera I would have been tempted to take some photos but luckily I didn’t as there was quite a bit of sea spray coming up from the waves.
Reluctantly and wishing we had discovered this beautiful spot earlier we made our way back to Padang Bai, buying film on the way back – note, the film here is expensive 40,000 rp for Kodak 400, 36 exposures, so buy up on film before you get here. Graeme and I meandered through the village and discovered a boat builder and noted that the prahus seem to be carved from one long piece of wood. Sam bought an ice-cream (5,000 rp), a Bazooka, a bit like a choc wedge but with darker chocolate coating, yum! Later on Sam, being the eternally hungry teenager, bought some take away rice from one of the beach warungs – it was all wrapped up in a little brown paper package (1,500 rp).
Later on the boys had tea at Made’s Café – I think they had made a deal with the owner to have dinner there and watch the Matrix Reloaded.
Not being my type of movie I headed off to check out a restaurant called the Omang Omang Café, just past the graveyard, and had a decadent dessert, a piece of their delicious chocolate cake and ice-cream along with a tequila sunrise (no wonder I felt a bit sick afterwards). They have Blues music on Monday nights and jam sessions on Wednesdays and Fridays, so that’s a cool place to check out in Padang Bai.
We’d been told about a drama performance at the site of the early morning market to be put on by villagers from Bangli; I think the performance was connected to the celebration of the temple odalan, but as it didn’t start till 11 pm and apparently it was an epic that went until 3 am we decided that after our very full day we wouldn’t be able to do it justice, even though it was a Saturday night!
Tomorrow we were heading back to Kuta via the Bali Zoo.
Our plans today were to head back to Kuta, a day earlier than originally planned, as Alex had been able to organise a golf game for Sam at the Bali Handara Kosaidos Golf Course, which would be another full day trip for us to central Bali. I also wanted time to do some shopping before we left Bali on the 31st. and I had plans to visit the Geneva Handicraft Centre that had many recommendations from forumites, and Sam had intentions of DVD shopping.
We had really enjoyed our time (4 nights) at Padang Bai, and our feelings were spoken out loud by Sam when driving through the village he said “goodbye Padang Bai, see you again one day”. Before we left we showed Alex the way to find the beautiful Pantai Kecil beach so he could point it out to other people who visit the area with him.
On our way back to Kuta we stopped at the Bali Zoo Park at Sukawati. As Alex had not been to the Zoo before we insisted that he come in with us, he is our friend and also it helps him to be more knowledgeable about tourist attractions if he has been there himself. He told us that the Zoo pays, I think it was a 10% commission to tour drivers; hence you may find that some drivers will prefer to take you to the Bali Zoo instead of the Bali Bird and Reptile Parks where no commission is apparently paid.
Whenever we go somewhere where there is a commission (and it’s usually somewhere I have chosen to go), for example, at one weaving factory in Gianyar we looked at last year and I had bought an item, I have to insist to Alex that he go and collect the commission.
The Zoo is set in a 3.5-hectare site, and the zoo is built over 30,000 sq. metre area, so it is fairly small in comparison to the Melbourne Zoo. The surrounds are lush with interesting tropical vegetation and flowering plants.
Some of the birds we saw were cassowaries, peacocks, cockatoos (white and black just like in Australia), the bali starling, other types of tropical birds and pelicans standing statuesquely in a water pond area.
The signage on the exhibits was very good, in both English and Indonesian. I like this photo of a tiger and Sam peering at each other with mutual interest (note: there is only one cyclone wire fence between you and these large animals – I wouldn’t be letting little ones put their fingers through the wire!)
There was the usual range of animals (but I didn’t see any elephants – I think the Park may be too small to accommodate these); of note were some wallabies, a komodo dragon and interesting iguanas.
Also for the brave is a huge python that the keepers will happily drape over you for photos. You can take your own photos as well as the usual ‘photos for sale’. There was a large collection of primates, and we had fun sharing a few peanuts in their shells with long armed monkeys and the lively macaques provided entertainment for onlookers.
The entrance fee of 75,000 rp included a tea or coffee at the large restaurant; meals are also available.
After we left the Zoo we made our way onto Kuta getting caught up in a large contingent of green party supporters who had attended an election rally on the outskirts of Denpasar, they were everywhere, loaded in trucks, three to a bike etc. By now we had run into the red, yellow and green party campaigning on our travels over the past 2-½ weeks; the poll was to commence about 4 days after we departed Bali.
Alex had sourced a new place for us to stay at for the last 4 nights in Bali; a hotel that had been newly re-built called the New Arena Hotel just off Poppies Lane I – phone (0361) 752974, 766481 fax (0361) 752974 (50 metres down from the corner of the Tree House Café & Poppies I). Alex had assured us that the lighting in the bathroom was good (unlike the Masa Inn where we had spent our first 2 nights before heading off on our travels) They had been advertising a 50% off deal as an opening special and we were able to get a suite room on the ground floor opposite the swimming pool for 1,050,000 rp. for 4 nights for 3 of us, with breakfast included. If we wanted a room on the 3rd floor they were advertising them for US$10 a double, and I think these were being snapped up fairly quickly. An additional 131,500 rp was charged for the day use of the room as our Air Paradise flight was not departing Bali until 11.15 pm.
So while I was filling out the paperwork at reception and organising the safe deposit box Alex and the boys took our bags down to the room.
Well … when I arrived there was Alex and Graeme happily sitting together on the large queen size bed watching footy on the television … and Alex says to me “mam, this game looks very rough!” “Alex”, I say, “you did not tell me this place had television” …. we had managed to avoid television in Bali all that time till now!! … ah well, can’t begrudge Graeme some tellie for the last 4 nights here, he’d done pretty well over the past 2 ½ weeks and I could see that he was getting a much needed fix, even if it was St. Kilda playing on the t.v!
The room was quite large and despite the awful painting of a topless girl on the wall I decided it was new, clean and roomy enough for us, also it had a fridge, and a telephone - a first for us on this trip so far, it was handy for a wake-up call we needed one morning, plus we found out it worked OK when reception rang us half an hour later looking for pre-payment for the 4 nights – something we had not experienced in Bali before. Looking outside the window I saw a few other guests at the large rectangle swimming pool … topless too! Oh well, Sam, the 15 year old son will enjoy this place.
Over the next few days we would see the sunbathing set come out at 10 am around the pool and then they would be gone by 4 pm, so our paths didn’t really cross much as we were out and about a bit. I think the hotel was trying to attract young clientele, as the pool bar would crank up around 5 pm with flashing Christmas lights and boom boom type of music. Over the next few days we saw a steady stream of young backpackers coming in and out, mostly European.
The hotel is in a good handy location, being slightly closer to the beach than the Masa Inn, but it had a bit of a closed in feeling to it which you didn’t feel at the Masa Inn, because the grass area around the pool extended only about 6 metres from your balcony and the pool was circumferenced most of the way around by the building extending three levels high. I don’t think I would stay here again if I had to pay full price for the accommodation.
Must say, the breakfast at the New Arena Hotel was the worst we’d in Bali as an included in tariff breakfast – 2 thin slices of toast served with jam and butter and a bali kopi or tea and a 15 minute wait to get it as well.
After the first morning we decided to go around the corner to the Tree House Café and enjoy an American breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, juice, bali kopi or tea (13,000 rp each A$) and it kept you going till at least lunchtime.
Sam was rearing to go - we had booked golf for him at Bali Handara Kosaoido Golf Club tomorrow, so he had arranged for Alex to take him to the golf driving range at Tuban for some practice hits in readiness for his big day tomorrow.
At home he would usually play 36 holes over a weekend so as much as I think he had been thoroughly enjoying our trip over the past 2 1/2 weeks around Bali, I think he was suffering some serious withdrawal symptoms at this stage. He told me that to hire clubs at the driving range was 14,000 rp each club and 100 balls cost 20,000 rp. He said that Alex had also had a go at the driving range with him and was quite impressed at Sam’s skill in using a club.
In the meantime I’d decided shopping was in order so headed off to Poppies Lane 2 to the Softcomp Centre to get some computer software items for our older son at home; they had such a selection I had to send off an email home to clarify what he wanted. Most of the items were between 20,000 – 60,000 rp depending on how many CD’s were in a program.
After that I walked down Poppies 2, finding the stall sellers very persistent in trying to entice you into buying their goods, more so than in Poppies I, and made a mental note not to come back down this way again. I continued along into Legian, past the Garden View and around a few windy bits of road knowing that I was probably heading in the right direction for Kerobokan as I wanted to have a look at Geneva Handicraft (Jl. Raya Kerobokan No. 100, email geneva_handicraft@hotmail.com, and I think they have a website too). Feeling a bit hot I sat down for a while for a rest and chatted with a few taxi fellows in the shade, as it was a fairly hot day. Ended up catching a taxi, glad I did, as it was still quite some way to Geneva, although the taxi fare was only about 10 – 11,000 rp.
Well, Geneva is indeed a shopper’s paradise, Jess of Oz was right, you go a bit mad in there. You catch the elevator to the 3rd. floor. Rows and rows of handicraft items, large and small, ranging from huge wooden giraffes and lampshades, baskets, bowls, statues etc. to tiny key rings. The boss would summons a friendly assistant and she would walk behind you with a supermarket trolley, answering questions or sourcing items in different colours or patterns you couldn’t find. I managed to fill up half a trolley with the following items (at the checkout you realise – heck can I fit this all in my travel bag, and come in under weight allowance?)
8 placemats, wooden slatting (wonder if you could use them for making Californian rolls?) 9,100 ea
6 placemats, woven pattern, 6,000 ea
1 47 cm long wooden hanger depicting ceremonial events, 42,000
1 fish windsock, 18,200
1 lontar oval tray, 30,800
5 surfboard keyrings, 980 ea
1 dinner set of placemats & coasters(6) 21,000
1 wall hanging, cat with mirror, 12,600
and assorted other things I can’t decifer on my receipt which came to 282,400 rp (A$38.42)
An extra 3% is added on if you use your credit card.
I must say I felt totally shopped out (for the day anyway) after that excursion. The taxi back to Poppies 1 cost 16,000 rp.
Sam had already had his lunch – McDonalds, so Graeme & I went up to the Secret Garden in Poppies I (owned by friendly Englishman Alvin – alsecret69@yahoo.co.uk) and had one of his famous Cornish pasties (25,000 rp) for lunch – very filling indeed and a nice variation from the usual food we eat in Bali.
The Secret Garden Bar and Café has a bar and restaurant and the restaurant extends into a relaxing garden area that Alvin has designed. The local atmosphere of market stalls bordering the alfresco dining area is created, but as the area is large neither encroach on the other and the stall keepers are very respectful of diners. It’s a nice enclave to visit in Poppies I. Pop in for a chat with Alvin, as he is very welcoming of visitors to Bali and is a wealth of local knowledge.
Bought about 15 music CD’s from a hawker, 10,000 rp each, the CD’s just kept on coming out of his bag! But he didn’t have had Nicki Webster CD’s (on a little girl’s carefully thought out list – at this stage we were filling the orders from back home in Australia), nobody in Bali had heard of Nicki Webster! Most of the CD’s we have found work OK, only one, a Barry White (isn’t he just sexy with that voice girls) takes a brief pause for a track or two on the CD.
For tea we thought we’d try the popular TJ’s Mexican restaurant in Poppies I. We had a nice meal; the main meals were around 36,000 rp and entrees 13,000 – 18,000 rp. Yummy watermelon juices, just the thing with spicy Mexican food were 8,000 rp. Service was quite quick as it was crowded, people arriving would have to wait at the bar for a table to be free.
Early to bed, ready for a big day to Bali Handara tomorrow.
We had arranged for an early morning call … 6 am as we had booked a game for Sam at Bali Handara Kosaoido Golf Club just north of Bedugal in Central Bali. Milton at the Indo National Restaurant had given me the details of John Clarke of Bali Discount Golf email: info@golf-bali.com www.golf-bali.com, and Alex had contacted him for us and made all the arrangements. We were to meet John up at the golf course as we had our own transport through Alex.
Alex arrived at 7.30 am as we were having breakfast, keen to make sure we weren’t late for tee off. As luck would have it we were caught in a huge traffic jam I think around Mengwi but with Alex’s skilful driving we arrived at 9.15 am.
The course is absolutely beautiful, green and lush and superb gardens with a par of 72. The tees are around 2 ½ inches high as the course is so lush.
Sam hired his golf shoes and after meeting John Clarke who had a set of clubs for him, set off with his female caddie around the course.
Graeme had decided to go around with them, so armed with maps from my Rough Guide to Bali and Lombok, Alex and I set off to explore the area.
On our last trip in 2003 we had visited Lake Bratan and the beautiful lake temple of Pura Ulun Danu, so this time we headed north to Pancasari. As the road climbs through a forest we saw a monkey colony playing on the side of the road, but not being an avid fan of monkeys we didn’t bother to stop. We turned left at Wanagiri travelling west and stopped at a picnic table way up high overlooking the two lakes, Lake Buyan and Lake Tamblingan, it was very scenic, a beautiful spot and very peaceful. Further along there is a lookout as well.
As I wanted to explore further we drove west through some small villages, Asam Munduk and Manduk Tamblingan, located on the southern tip of Lake Tamblingan. The village children all waved as we went past, I don’t think they see too many tourists up this way. The area was very lush and green and very conducive for growing fruit and vegetables.
Villagers gave us directions to the Pura Gubug, a temple at the edge of Lake Tamblingan. We paid a small visitor fee and strolled along a gently undulating paved pathway through a rainforest area to the edge of the lake.
Alex and I are good friends and as we walked we enjoyed talking about our respective families; he was worried as to whether our sons would look after Graeme and I in our old age; I had to explain to him that unlike the Balinese, in Australia quite often the elderly lived in elderly care facilities and he was surprised that this was quite an acceptable situation to ourselves and that my father had recently been in that situation.
Arriving at the temple we saw a group of about 40 people, mostly families, dressed in traditional dress, Alex indicated they had come from the north coast by bus to visit the temple. A few fishermen were in pontoon huts built out on the lake. The lake was surrounded by dense forest.
After taking a few photos we made our way back to the car where I made a real fool of myself by standing patiently next to a green Kijang that I thought was Alex’s!! much to the amusement of Alex and the park entry attendants … I had sort of wondered where he had gone to!
Well I say, what about lunch Alex? Alex tells me was given two meal vouchers for the driver’s warung at the Golf Club; so I say OK let’s go there for lunch.
So we sat in this little hut at the golf course in the pouring rain and had an excellent lunch of nasi campur and hot tea with the vouchers, worth 3,500 rp each – good value I thought. I noticed that in the bales they have in the car park for drivers to relax in while waiting for their guests to play golf they have televisions, very flash. I suppose they give the drivers two meal vouchers as a round of golf can take 4 – 6 hours depending on the number of golfers and the weather conditions being so high up in the mountains.
We picked up Sam from his game, he said it was excellent and that the caddie knew the course very well and his score was 19 over par, not bad for playing a course for the first time and without your usual set of clubs. At the Clubrooms we bought 2 Polo Golf shirts, made of thick cotton weave, excellent for cooler days, for 175,00 rp each; Sam had been looking in all the Polo shops in Kuta for them, so he was very pleased to find them. They have a small logo of a polo player on the front and the name of the golf course on the sleeve. He was on a high for the rest of the afternoon, and we got back to Kuta around 4 pm after stopping at the Candikunning fruit market near Lake Bratan.
After Sam had a swim in the pool at the New Arena Hotel, we went off shopping (again … got to make the most of our last few days in Bali). I bought a nice cotton woven top at the Diana Shop in Jalan Bunisari and then picked up our photos at the Kodak Express shop in Jalan Singosari. I find the Kodak Express Shop there does a lovely job with our film, and so I stick to the same shop for my film processing. Picked up some lovely enlargements 10 x 8 inch size, only 8,000 rp. (A$1.30 – very good value as in Australia the same size is approximately $10).
A quick check with New Sakura DVD Centre (Jl. Kartika Plaza –opposite Ramayana Hotel) to see if they had the computer software we wanted – out of luck so headed back along the beach road (Jalan Pantai Kuta) to Poppies I where we got caught out again without our umbrellas!
It was a typical tropical storm, thunder and dramatic lightening and rain so heavy you got absolutely soaked through in 2 minutes! The Balinese seem quite amused seeing sopping wet tourists without umbrellas. Like drenched rats we arrived back at the new Arena to strip off and get dry again. Later on the boys went out and got Maccas for tea that Sam thought was wonderful end to his terrific day.
Well, 2nd to last day, Sam’s counting up his DVD’s – he insisted on bringing the smallest ever suitcase to Bali - says he doesn’t want to be embarrassed like his mum and bring a big bag. Time to go out and shop for another bag to bring all the things home, that trip to Geneva Handicrafts will take up at least one bag!
An American breakfast at the Treehouse (13,000 rp each) with our fix of vegemite gives us stamina for the day ahead. Picked up the laundry 19,500 rp (A$3.09) – not bad for 2 shirts, 6 tee shirts, 1 pair of shorts, 1 pair trousers, 2 undies and 1 face washer. It’s a good idea to have your laundry done before you come home, packing nice clean clothes and weeks later, a lovely reminder of Bali – the laundry smell is unique, must be the type of soap they use.
We headed off for Softcomp in Poppies 2 for the remainder of the computer software and we’re in luck, the item our older son wanted is in stock.
We meander through the little gangs (lanes) between Poppies 1 and Poppies 2 that we haven’t been along before, seeing family preparations for a wedding and little shops and warungs we hadn’t discovered. Sam is amazing – he can eat an ice-cream straight after breakfast!
Graeme decides at this stage he hasn’t done much shopping on this trip, a pastime mainly enjoyed by Sam and myself and he starts buying up big on DVD’s too … he said the whole Mr. Bean collection was for me, very generous; must be to make up for all the Arnie and Bruce Willis Die Hard movies he has just bought! I must admit it’s good to have a dose of Mr. Bean every now and then.
We end up back at the Bali Aget restaurant (Bali Blessing) in Jalan Bakung Sari to say goodbye to Spike and his staff and have refreshing iced coffees and nice club sandwiches for lunch. See you next time in Bali Spike! Keep making those jugs of cocktails.
Further along Baking Sari we buy a Bali Bag as I don’t think everything will now fit in our suitcases, what size will we get? we end up with size 5 I think, which is pretty big but not the largest.
At 3 o’clock Alex arrives to take us back to his place to spend some time with his family; wife Wayan, the lovely Eka who is 11 and attends dance classes, and Kadek, the baby who is just 6 months, she’s gorgeous but not keen on being held by strangers.
They rent one of 5 units situated behind a house on the outskirts of Kuta, each flat has a bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom. Alex tells me that there are at least 1 or 2 children in each of the families that live there. They like it there.
We sit out at the front veranda on a few chairs and enjoy and afternoon tea of bananas, cake and coca-colas and look at their family photo albums. The lady in the next flat is busy sewing hundreds of sequins on a bag destined for the tourist market.
Alex has done some shopping for me and has 2 ornate flags 5 m in height, yellow and burgundy with golden dragons shining brightly on them, they look lovely on bamboo poles next to my bali bale in the garden at home. Also he has got 2 double-tiered red and gold temple parasols for me and I am thrilled. As usual, he arranges for them to be packed carefully in bubble wrap, as they will be put in the booked in luggage for the trip home.
Later on that afternoon outside in the gang we run into Sam carrying a large Sanyo box back to the hotel, he’s smiling away and I think oh heck what has he bought now …..it just won’t fit in the bags! He announces proudly that he has just hired a DVD player for 30,000 rp and intends on watching some of his DVD’s (although he does check them when he buys them – Kuta Disc Center Poppies Lane 1).
As Sam has now commandeered the hotel room Graeme and I decide to make other plans for the evening, and on the spur of the moment decide that we’ve never been to Jimbaran Bay so why not.
With about 25 minutes to go before sunset we find a driver to get us to Jimbaran. I haven’t had time to consult my notes about which place to go to and decide to let him take us wherever. We end up at the Seaview Café, which is appropriately named; it’s right on the beach and has tables and chairs in the sand facing the sea. We are shown to a table and share a large Bintang, which goes down well.
There’s a fisherman wading periodically into the shallows throwing out a net and gathering it in again. I wondered if he is having any success or is he a wandering prop paid a few rupiah by the restaurants to create an atmosphere for the evening.
We enjoyed a spectacular sunset, one of the best we have seen in Bali and as darkness descended the lights of a corn seller’s cart and hawkers selling glow stick necklaces replaced the magical natural display we had just enjoyed.
Our waitress Naryati asked us if we’d like to choose our seafood for dinner, we went into the restaurant to see the seafood and selected ½ kg of medium prawns (65,000 rp) to be grilled and 1 kg of calamari (70,000 rp) deep fried. The seafood was served with rice, 3 types of sauces and a bean salad and we thought it was all very good. Naryati noticed I had a camera and offered to take our photo with our meal spread out in front of us which was nice.
Another Bintang went down well and we hardly managed to get through our meal, it was quite filling.
The total bill was 186,000 rp (A$29.52), which included a 10% tax of 17,000 rp. We didn’t feel that we were ripped off with price even though it was costly compared to other meals we’d had in Bali, but hey, we had the best seats and floorshow, we didn’t mind. I’ve heard that some people make the mistake of ordering too much seafood than they need and then it may end up more expensive than they had anticipated.
Our driver appeared out of the darkness as we exited the restaurant, I’m glad he remembered us, cause I don’t think I could recognise him in the dark, and drove back to Kuta, past the night market, which was bustling with people cooking and eating.
To bed feeling a bit sad that tomorrow is our last day in Bali.
Awoke with the realisation that today was our last day in this wonderful place called Bali. The boys were looking forward to going home tonight after 20 glorious days; not me, I could have stayed much longer, although I was getting a bit weary of staying in Kuta; negotiating around the road works was a bit of a hassle and I felt sorry for the storekeepers who had 2 metre deep muddy ditches right at the entrance of their shops. In some cases shoppers would have to ‘walk the plank’ to gain entry to the shops and I’m sure this affected their businesses.
Sam had woken up with ear pain, which had developed while we were in Ubud and he had been using some eardrops we had bought there without a script from an apotik. I was hoping that it wouldn’t give him too much trouble when flying home. When home he eventually had to see a specialist to have an ear toilet and antibiotics.
After breakfast at the Treehouse Cafe which is at the corner of the gang that leads to the New Arena Hotel, we started organising our bags and I was relieved to see that everything packed in OK; all the declarable items were put in the Bali bag to make it easier with customs on arrival in Australia.
We decided to go for a last walk along the beach at Kuta, people setting up their food stalls and surfboards stacked up ready for hire, down to the Art market to say goodbye to Ni Ketut Salini, his stall (No. 33) is the first shop in the Art Market opposite the Ramayana Hotel, and opposite the small tourist police post.
On our last trip in 2003 when I was sitting down near his stall getting my bearings (Kuta had changed a lot from our previous holiday in 1980) he was the first Balinese person I had spoken to so now we always make a point of looking him up, he’s a lovely chap. We usually buy our tee shirts and shorts from him for around 20,000 rp. so we sat outside his stall having a chat and taking a last photo of him and Graeme together.
Then up to Jalan Bakungsari to Kodak Express to collect the last of my film and some great photos of Alex and his family taken the day before. He was so pleased to receive them, I’d also got some enlargements of his parents from the day we visited them at their village in Tianyar.
Next it was back to Poppies I – Sari Indah Beauty Salon for hairbraiding and manicures and pedicures before coming home. My hair being collar length was braided with tiny plaits and as a concession to Graeme who is a mad Pies supporter, I had black and white beads finishing off each plait. It cost 75,000 rp and was quite a hit back in Melbourne as the footy season had just started.
Jess of Oz even managed to recognise me at a shopping centre in Melbourne the following week. I kept them in for about 2 weeks until we ran out of change over Easter in a friendly game of poker; they finished up being used as acceptable currency in the game!
We had to vacate our room at the New Arena at 6 pm so we headed off up Poppies I for tea at the Secret Garden and enjoyed beef satays (26,000 rp A$4.12) for tea and had a chat with Alvin. Determined to fit in one more shopping spree I bought some nice silver rings for each finger on the way back to the hotel before Alex (Nyoman Oka) came and picked us up to take us to the airport.
It was so sad when we had to say goodbye to him; he had taken us all around the island over the past 3 weeks, taken us to his village to meet his parents and relatives, his home, brought his whole family to the airport to greet our arrival in Bali and genuinely looked after us so well. If anyone would like to use him for driving you can contact him on phone 0812 395 1081 or email okaalexs@hotmail.com (mention Anne, Graeme & Sam) , he would welcome the work and would really look after you.
Booking thru with the temple parasols wasn’t a problem with Air Paradise, I think we may have just been on the luggage allowance but they didn’t say anything. We were approached by a porter who wanted to exchange Australian $1 coins for any excess rupiah we had, which was handy although I’m glad it was after the luggage weigh in as my backpack was really heavy by the time we had exchanged about A$50 in coin.
The time waiting for a place to depart Bali is like being in a sterilized culture zone, the outside world of Bali is left almost completely behind and I spent my time looking at the terribly expensive souvenir shops, comparing prices with items I had purchased at Geneva Handicraft, sourcing some identical newspapers in Indonesian and English languages to take back to Australia for a school teacher at Sam’s school, and buying an enjoyable read ‘A Little Bit One O’Clock’ Living with a Balinese Family, written by William Ingram.
Sam in the meantime was quite astounded that if you put an order in for Maccas, there was a wait time of 15 minutes, as it had to be prepared in another kitchen off site; maybe we hadn’t quite left Bali after all!
Finally we got to board the buses for the 11.15 pm direct flight to Melbourne; not without drama. Graeme who had been given the job of minding the hand luggage while Sam and I roamed around had managed to get my colourful painted rice farmers hat mixed up with another lady passenger who had picked up mine and was now boarding the plane – as we were going through hand luggage security her hat and mine were apparently close together.
I was left holding an inferior beaten around hat .. it looked like it had done a few more rounds in the tropical rain and sun than mine, plus it didn’t have the unique bitten hole in the conical peak at the top, courtesy of a rather cheeky monkey at the Monkey Forest in Ubud. Determined to get my hat back (I am rather partial to my rice farmer hats as Melbourne forumites know from our BBQ’s) Graeme was sent off on a mission to search the whole plane to find the lady and tactfully exchange the hats again. Success … back he came with my hat!
The flight back was good, and early morning brought a wonderful view of the sunrise over the great expanse of outback Australia.
Customs was relatively quick for Sam and I, it makes a difference having all the declarable items in one bag, although we had forgotten the seashells from Lovina left in Graeme’s bag so they put his bag through the X-ray machine twice as he was in the nothing to declare queue and just smiled at him most likely thinking, isn’t this cute a 55 year old man collecting seashells on his holiday!
I felt we had got to know a lot more about this wonderful island and the people who live there by staying in different areas of Bali on our holiday.
The people we met; the fishermen and beach sellers selling shells at Anturan (Lovina area) the villagers of Padang Bai (East Bali) celebrating their temple odalan/anniversary, the Gamelanmaker in his small workshop in Sawan, North Bali where we bought a cengceng, the volleyball team at the village of Tianyar, a small seaside village in the north east, the early morning markets of Kuta and Padang Bai where a small part of everyday life was observed, the colourful Melasti processions and seaside ceremony in the lead up to Nypei Day; the participants at the cremation ceremony at Payangan; they all made our time in Bali something very special, and left us richer for the experience, thank you.
I hope you have enjoyed reading about our holiday in Bali. If you have any questions please email me on annewallaceNOSPAM@iprimus.com.au (Please remove the NOSPAM from email address) and I’ll try and answer your queries.
and guess what, I’m going back … I’ve just won 2 nights accommodation in the suite at Pacung Indah in the mountains of Central Bali at the last Melbourne BTF night … yeh!! So the next trip (with 2 girlfriends) is booked for February/March 2005.
And …. what do I do when I’m not in bali … I’m building a bali garden at home and scrapbooking my photos!
