Where in the World are Francis & Greg: Bali

April 12 - 16 Bali, Indonesia

April 12

Another day and another 6 hour flight to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. Considering we just travelled 5 hours yesterday to get from Perth back to Brisbane, this flight went by pretty fast.

Bali is to Australians as the Dominican Republic is to Canadians. Aussies love to vacation here and being Asia, it is a very inexpensive for pretty much everything. For those of you who have no idea where Bali is, well Google it :)! Actually it is a small island that belongs to Indonesia, not far from Thailand and Maylasia at the top and Australia at the bottom. It is almost like being in the Dominican when you look around.

The flight arrived in early afternoon and we had to get our travel visa (one line) and then customs (another line). That whole process took well over an hour. The Villa we are staying at comes with a driver and he was there waiting for us. I should digress here. We didn't actually know we were coming to Bali until we returned to Brisbane and talked to Jeremy. We had discussed it but we had to head off to Perth and Jeremy was flying for 4 days. So when we found out for sure we only had about 12 hours to find a place to stay at in Bali. Well it just so happened that Jeremy knew a pilot who has recommended this place several times. So we talked to the owner and she sent some pictures and we took it. You can see by the pictures it is a pretty nice spot, including a nice private pool, and a housekeeper. It is well off the "off the beaten track".

The drive back to the villa took about 30 minutes (traffic was bad but we get the feeling that it is always bad during most parts of the day). The housekeeper was here to meet us (with two big drinks in a coconut) and showed us around the place but she doesn't speak much English, so we don't get a great deal of info. The place is very big! We could have 4 others staying here and enjoying the place with us. Oh, but we are the only ones with air conditioning in our room AND DO WE NEED IT. The day time highs are still in the mid 30s and it only gets cool around 3:00 a.m. :)

The evening was spent unpacking, swimming in our pool (Did we say we have a private pool?)and getting to know our area with a 8 km walk to the beach (we got a lift back with a local as it was getting dark). There is a restaurant just around the corner and we had supper there.

April 13

Well now... folks who come to Bali and don't shop are missing out on some great buys. We hired a taxi into Kuta (the main shopping/tourist area). The only catch about living out here where we are, living with the locals, is that it is not a common place and well we had no idea where the hell we are and what our address is. Lucky the housekeeper was here and she was able to give the driver directions. Needless to say we kept this driver's name so he could get us back. So back to the shopping. It is amazing but if you want the deals, you need to barter. Yes, pretty much everything is bartered. There are malls but things in there are not as cheap as on the streets. We did lots of walking around and spent "enough" :)

One of the challenges is the money. For example, when you go to the ATM to get some money out we normally take 1,500,000.00 Rupias out. To make it easy 10,000R = $1.00 Cdn.

When we wanted to come back we just called the taxi driver and he picked us up and drove us back to our villa. We still don't think we could find it if we had too. :)

Since there is not much in our area in the line of food, we just went to the restaurant near us. They are already treating us like friends. The owner came over and talked to us and then asked if he could take a seat. We talked about Canada and Bali and we picked up some info/tips from him. We also realized that he seems to be the BIG BOSS for many locals (note: as we are walking around all the male locals keep calling us "boss"; "good morning boss", how can we help boss". He seems to know everyone and does business everywhere. He even offered to take us to the beaches of Nusa Dua tomorrow. Shopping has wiped us out and we were in bed early.

April 14

Another 30 + degree day and we think it is at least 30C before 9:00 am. We do our normal morning swim in our pool. It is small but does have a large stone fence around it and the villa.

We go over to "Froggy", the nick name of the owner of the restaurant, and he has a driver, with a new car, waiting for us. They take us on a 25 minute drive through the congested streets that seems to be the norm in Asia. We arrive at the beach about 11:00 and arrange for a pickup at 5:00.

The beach was wonderful and not very busy, which was good. When we first arrived the tide was up a bit but was on its way out. We are glad we enjoyed the water in the beginning since by 3:00 or so there was hardly any water left. It was nice walking on the beach and just watching folks and surfers and seaweed harvesters.

Our arranged ride picks us up a little early, which was okay, since the clouds had come in and well we had enough sun. We had made arrangments with the driver and Froggy to take us for our, what seems to be the norm, haircut. The guys give us a great haircut. Froggy got us a two for one deal and it only cost us $3.50 Cnd each. Soon we are back to the villa by 5:30 where we can't wait to get into the pool.

We head out to our regular restaurant and have a great meal. We just love the service here too. They are always so polite and bowing and such. Oh, if you feel like bowing to us when we get back home, please feel free. We won't object! :)

The sea, the sun and the sand have wiped us out.

April 15

Today is our "on the road" day. Froggy and his brother are our guide and driver for the day. Many of the excursions are pretty much the same with the odd variance. However, this is more of a private trip, so we can decide what we want to do. The first stop is this Balianese dance/theatre show. It was okay but a few times I thought ... "I'm bored".

The next 5 hours took us out to many towns and villages where they make things from batik, jewelery (mostly silver), and amazing wood carvings. You wouldn't believe how amazing these wood carvings are. There are streets and streets with vendors and wood shops making things. Along our way we had a change to witness many things in the day to day live of the locals. One thing we have noticed is that the older folks can't afford to retire or even slow down much. We witnessed many 70+ year old women cutting grass with a knife type blade and carrying heavy things.

As we travelled up to the high country and the mountains the air temperture began to cool down a lot. It was so green and tropical, including orange trees along the road. One of the most amazing spots on the way up was the rice terrace areas. You can see by the picture how cool this place is.

We arrived up at the top of Mt. Kintamani which overlooks the active volcano. A great view but a bit cloudy so we can't get the full view. There also happens to be a restaurant here with local food in buffet format. So we FILL UP. The food is very tasty and spicy, just the way we like it. The server keeps bringing us food to try, even though it is a buffet. I think she just liked our strange accents and wanted to hear us talk. After lunch we head down the mountain to one of the hot springs not far from the volcano. Once we get there we found out it was about 300.00R to get in (Remember how to convert this?) and well the place was really nice but it just looked like a pool. Since we only had scheduled about 30 minutes there and it was raining a bit, we decided not to spend the bucks.

On the way back we hit many heavy rain storms and sometimes it looked like the road would wash away since the rain had no where to go (they didn't have drains out there). After about an hour of driving back they dropped us off at another big market area. I think this one was the biggest we had ever seen. We did manage to buy a few things at amazing low prices (after negotiating the price several times) and even got lost briefly in the maze of shops before leaving the market. Then we were back into the car and driving back to catch the sunset dance at Ulawatu. Now a bit on the driver. Well let's just say if you were of the nervous type, this adventure would not be for you. He was I believe a good driver, since we made it back alive, but he didn't really stay in our lane a lot. Then again we have noticed that the lanes are just a "guide" they all drive over the lanes and center line just as much as they are in them. You really must be raised here to really know how to drive here.

Ulawatu is temple on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Since it is a temple area we must use sarongs to cover our bare legs (everyone male/female wear them here). Another thing that is a bit different is that there are many monkeys here. The guy at the ticket booth tells Greg to be careful of his glasses because the monkeys like the shiny stuff and often will snatch them. As we enter the area we notice a monkey with someone's glasses and the folks trying to get them back. Lucky they had some peanuts to swap. It is funny but I think the monkeys could care less about glasses and they are using them like cash to buy food.

The sunset dance is very interesting since it depicts the story of a mythical love/hate relationship. What else is new,eh? Another interesting aspect is, as the evening progresses, naturally is gets darker, and the whole feeling of the evening and the drama of the play changes drastically. It was really neat to watch.

It opens up with 30-40 bare chested men sitting on the concrete around a large candle-like sculpture with lit torches. Throughout the evening, the men chant and use hand gesture to create the musical embiance. Actors, dressed in beautifully adorned costumes, tell the story mainly in dance form but did use some spoken text. Thank goodness for the "Coles Notes" version we had. One part of the play involved straw being placed in a circle on the stage around the victim of a crime and lit. The poor guy was being sacrificed for something but he, as most heros do, survived the sacrificial act.

What a beautful ending to a long day! The sunset over the ocean as we watched the play at the temple; the quiet, dark walk back to our van; our usual evening swim at the villa, and dinnner at our local restaurant; all added to our memorable stay in Bali.

April 16

Today is 'me' day. Yes, we had planned another spa day, that is what Bali is famous for. What better way to relax after the long day of touring yesterday. We decided on what we wanted and started calling around. We ended up going to two different places: the first for a Neck/Shoulder massage and a facial; and the second place for a full body massage and a body wrap/scrub. You know you are getting old when instead of bar hopping, we prefer spa hopping.

Since I, Greg, had a slight sunburn from the beach, I decided to have the Cooling Cucumber treatment. WHAT A REFRESHING treatment! Picture this... Minced cucumbers were used as the massage oil and then iced sliced cucumbers were placed all over my body to help draw out the heat from the sunburn. Then a cloth was placed over me to "cure" for 10 minutes and the process repeated on my other side. OH MY GOD! What a feeling. Naturally, a shower was needed after this.

Now I, Francis, didn't have a burn so I went with the body scrub, after the hour long massage (which was one of the best ever) was over. The scrubbing sand was mixed with this wonderful smelling citrus/flower blend and much the same as Greg the therapist rubbed and massaged it over my skin. Then a cloth was placed over me and I just relaxed for 10 minutes or so. It took awhile to wash off but it takes awhile to wash off 10 years :) The body and skin looked shinier, healthier and YOUNGER.

We finished up and took a short walk to the beach where we stopped at this high end resort hotel for appetizers and cocktails and watched the sunset. We then hopped into a taxi and went out for dinner. Then it was another taxi (the guy who picked us up earlier in the day from our villa) and we were off back to the villa.

We already had done most of our packing so we just had a bit more to do and we were ready to head off to the airport to catch our night flight back to Brisbane. We said bye to the wonderful lady, who cleaned and looked after the villa, and her cute little daughter. Her husband and a driver took us to the airport.

What we thought would be way too early to arrive at the airport, turned out to be okay, since it took a lot longer to go through all their lines. (x-ray scan at the entrance, hand checked everyones luggage, check in for boarding passes, pay exit fee, customs, x-ray scan at the gate, everyones luggage was hand checked again, then we waited, and waited.)

The flight was a bit late leaving but we made the time up. Lucky we both slept a good 4 hours of the 5 1/2 hour flight.

April 17

Angela and Monique, the saints that they are, met us again at the airport. Then as is the norm, we headed off for something sweet and coffee at a real nice French pastry shop for breakfast.

After our return home and a shower and shave to bring us back amongst the living, we were off again to explore the city one more time. Monique had to go to work so it was just the 3 of us. It is always nice having a tour guide who is local because we get to see things and don't have to walk all over hell to do so. Our tour ended along the Brisbane river at a nice place for cocktails. One of Angela's friends, Caroline, joined us. Afterwards, we all ended up back here at Angela/Monique's place for Thanksgiving dinner. It is fall here :) Even though we only slept about 4 hours last night, we still managed to stay up near 11:00.

April 18th (our last day in Brisbane)

Wow, did we have a great sleep last night. The air temperture is almost like our summer is so at night there was no need for air conditioning. We had the window open and the fact that we were pretty tired made the night go by fast. Actually we slept right until 8:30, which is rare for us.

We had a nice Sunday breakfast cooked on the BBQ and then began packing and doing laundry. The packing is a bit more challenging now since we have to pack up everything we have purchased so far along with all our clothing. Since we have some breakable items and some heavy things we have to make sure things are protected.

The early afternoon was just spent on the back deck listening to the birds and the odd rain shower (and running to get our clothes off the line between the tropical showers). The girls had university work and school work to get done so we relaxed on the deck with a book and the paper.

Tonight, we took our great Brisbane hosts out for dinner as a HUGE THANK YOU for all they have done for us. They truly are special Aussie friends! We went to this great Turkish restaurant and ate some great food! Afterwards we revisited a wonderful ice cream shop and then just walked around Southbank (the river and man made beach area). Then on the way back home Angela again took us on a car site-seeing tour.

We can't leave Brisbane without thanking Jeremy and Becca for everything they have done from the wonderful cabin overlooking the bush, to their dinners, tour and Virgin Blue Flight pass! Thank you very much!

We will miss all of you and look forward to catching up soon!

As I finish off this final entry from Brisbane the house is quiet, since everyone has gone to bed, the tropical rain is coming down ever so gentle and there is a nice breeze coming in the window. Tomorrow morning's flight to Melbourne is all set to go for 9:00.

If you are playing the game (see the last two posts for more details and clues)
Mammals have a few critiria which makes them mammals, one being giving birth to live young. The Duck Billed Platypus is one of two mammals that lays eggs instead of giving birth to live young ones.