BALI
Arrived in Bali to find Yasa our
driver now friend from 10 years ago waiting for us, after 10 years we all still
recognised each other, a bit older and a bit greyer, but no difference
otherwise. He dropped us at our first timeshare hotel for this trip it was in
Seminyak, a very nice hotel but very impersonal, usually with timeshare it is
more like a happy resort where everyone checks in on the same day so everyone
there is on the same footing. There is usually a communal area where you get to
know all the staff and also fellow travellers while sitting around the pool,
drinking cocktails or having a meal in the restaurant. This didn't have any of
those facilities, no pool & much more like a normal hotel than any
timeshare we have ever been too, but the
hotel was in a very busy shopping area & surrounded by restaurants and bars
which were great and varied. Seminyak is the place to be for shopping or if you
want European food, we did try some of the local eateries, they were mostly
excellent, as for breakfast I still need a good coffee and that we got that
there too. Also found one of the best French patisseries I have ever come
across anywhere, we made it our mission to try some different pastry every day,
not too good for the waist line, but we persevered and lord it was tasty. Spent
most days wandering around, relaxing, shopping, sitting in cafés or bars
watching people. Spent one day with Yasa
sightseeing up to the volcano via Ubud where we stopped at the local market,
also stopped at a photo opportunity over the rice terraces, where I got conned
into spending an outrageous amount on a top, when I told Colman and Yasa I had
paid $10 for the top they almost fell over, I do realise he could have gotten
it for half price, but I am incapable of bartering. We have since agreed on a
system whereby I say certain words to show I really want something, or good if
you can get it but I don't need it really, Colman is the best barterer. He laughs, smiles and makes jokes, I either
get pissy and walk off or just give them the first price they ask for, no good
apparently! Also went to the Kopi Luwak coffee makers. It is local
coffee made from beans which have been eaten, digested and pooped out by the
Luwak cat, a native catlike creature aka mongoose, which eats the coffee beans when they are
exactly the right ripeness. What it digests is the outer shell of the coffee
bean leaving the bean with a bit of a coating intact, as it cannot digest this
it gets pooped out some days later to be collected by the locals (that must
rate in the World Greatest Jobs!), de-husked, and then roasted. We tried it and
I'm sure some people will think it’s nice, for me it was too bitter, probably a
double or triple roast, too strong and.... Well, I left it after one sip,
Colman persevered and didn't dislike it too much!( Just maybe the Mongoose was
having an off day) The markets in Ubud were very touristic and everyone with a
stall wanted a piece (gets very tiring say “No Thank You” every minute for two
hours), as we weren't really in the mood for shopping it didn't take us long to
get around and head out, the architecture and temples are lovely but the market
is like every other market. The volcano, Mt Batur, we had been to before and it
was still a spectacular view although fairly overcast and rainy, the restaurant
you must go to enjoy the view was ordinary to say the least. The view was
great, the smorgasbord food was greasy, overcooked, cold and tasteless, the
staff uninterested and up themselves. the toilets......well they didn't rate
high on my list anyway. The main reason we wanted to do this trip was I wanted
to see the elephant temple Jalan Goolama, and that was worth it, old,
spectacular and with lovely surroundings. A couple of funny things we saw was firstly
a couple of German tourist with a guide who was trying to persuade them to
drink the water that was coming out of one of the statues mouths, it is
"fresh spring water, very holy, good for luck, good for you, no bad, no
make sick!!!" We watched shaking our heads saying don't do it, one of them
did, I'm thinking Bali belly strikes again. A cute little scam in the temple we
picked up on early in the piece, you pay to get in, then once inside there is
jungle and after an earthquake years ago some of the outlying temples had slid
into the valley, some had been built further away and were still intact, but
you could wander anywhere you wanted. So at one spot there was a local who said
we should go around the other side, through the water to see "more of temple",
you could kind of see enough to get the idea, I walked in a little way and he
kept encouraging me to go there, go there, look there. At this stage I got a
bit suspicious so I turned around, said I'd seen what I wanted and headed out,
he looked a bit pissy when I left, and after we watched for a few minutes he pulled the same
stunt on the next visitors, who followed him around and then we're asked for a
"donation", not these little black ducks, were smarter than that!
So off we went, came to a couple more sites where similar scams we're
going on and avoided them all. Then we came to a small beautiful temple in the
middle of the jungle, walked in, little old monk (with 2 teeth, arthritic hands
& feet) calls us over, blesses us, point us in the direction in which we
need to say our prayer, sprinkles us with holy water and blesses us again and
wafts smoke over us to seal the deal. How lovely was that, blessed by a local
monk, you can see it coming can't you. As we thanked him and turned to leave,
he stood in front of me, with his two teeth smiling,& the only thing he
could utter was thhhath, thhhath, thhath, thhath, thatthh, while lifting a
little carpet thing laying on top of the alter where 100,000IR ($10) notes had
been beautifully ironed and aligned. He thhathed, pointed at the notes, and
pointed at my handbag, bugger, so much for smart. Anyway I gave him
about $2, he wasn't excited but let me get away, he then tore past me at the
speed of light to get to Colman who had waited for me, after much thhathing and
pointing he got cash out of Colman too. Truthfully, we didn't actually mind because
the guy was absolutely hysterical and this was going to be one of those things
that will be remembered. After all that excitement we headed homewards for
r&r. After a week in Seminyak, we packed up and headed to Senor for the
next timeshare week. A much more typical timeshare resort, lovely pool,
restaurant, bar and staff you got to know, great room with a little balcony
where we sat in the morning for coffee watching the squirrels play in the
frangipani trees in front of us. We managed to find a jar of Nescafé and some
real cow’s milk in Seminyak so all was well. Went for long walks down to the beach where
you get the usual hassle to buy stuff, strangly &we have remarked on this
before, after a week or so you seem to get this look about yourself and the
locals seem to sense that they are wasting their time approaching you, so
unless you actually show interest in something they don't bother. Here we met up with Yasa’s wife Susu and had
a long chat with her, lovely to see her again too. Also found out Ayu, a girl
we met last time who had worked for her now manages a spa a little further down
the beach, so went to catch up with her also. The beauty salon came into existence
thanks to a very generous Danish guy and his wife who met Ayu several times on
her way to work , then offered to have her trained as a beautician, buy a salon
and make her manager. He did the same thing to another girl and bought her a
cafe, incorporated the two and now has a huge set up right on Sanur beach. Ayu
invited us to her house (built and furnished by the same Danish guy Daneto)
meet her husband and young son and check out her place, very impressive, she
has come a long way since we met her 12 years ago. Monday of that week we were
off to Menjangan Island for some diving, a friend of Yasas picked us up as Yasa
had cremations and ceremonies to go to. Wayan (meaning first born) was quite
nice and he took us on a bit of a sightseeing trip on the way up. We stopped at the spice markets first where
the guy that tried to sell us watches with accommodation (plastic bags) was
still trying to sell them, 10 years later!!
Danau Tambligan and Buyan, called the twin lakes (there are actually 3
lakes, but you only see the two from the viewing platform), and then to Munduk
waterfall, a gorgeous waterfall 1000m above sea level, we are lucky the car
made it up the hill. They don’t believe
in gentle gradients, straight up will do!
Also saw some of the more non touristy areas of Bali, rice fields where
you didn't need to pay to take a photo. Took us very much the back roads which
were in very bad state of repair but you did get to see the more real Bali. We
eventually arrive at Menjangan resort, it was about 2km set back from the main
road and Wayan could only take us about 500 meters to the reception area, which
in high season was also part of the resort but now was supposedly closed for
renovations .After a welcome drink with some spring rolls we were then a driven to the beach part of the resort
on top of a ute that had seats welded to a roof platform so you could sit on top
and watch the jungle go by, which of course we did. Our bungalow when we got
there was lovely, huge bed overlooking the ocean through French doors, as well
as an open roof bathroom which I have always wanted to try. As always, there
are drawbacks, heading out to the toilet in the middle of the night, not
knowing what is going to be sitting or crawling on the toilet seat doesn’t make
for a relaxing moment in the great outdoors. Shortly after we arrived and had a
walk around, deer started to come out of the jungle to swim and then lay in the
shade of the mangrove trees in front of our bungalow, so lovely. Then the
heavens opened so not much to do except stick around inside till it passes,
perfect time for an outdoor bath on our huge marble bathtub. Later we checked
on the diving the next day, booked a traditional dinner and a massage over
cocktails on a jetty over the water. Pretty
much how the remaining two days went, diving followed by cocktails, then massage
and dining on the local food. We did a dive in the house reef which was ok; we
did a dusk/night dive to watch the Mandarin fish mate. Now this was interesting,
our DM Hermi was good at finding these critters "doing it" despite it
being a very quick process. They basically hang around in the finger coral
checking each other out, when they both decide the other is ok the come up over
the coral, she releases a spurt of eggs which get fertilised and then they head
back into the coral, all over done and dusted in 4-5 seconds, and I saw it
twice!! And got a reasonable photo to boot so I was excited, the fish are
lovely, shades of orange, blue and black. Came back from dive after dark and
went for dinner then bed. Next day we had a double dive at Menjangan Island
this time with DM Komer who was great. We were joined by two Americans one of
whom had dive a couple of times 8 years ago and didn't really want to go deep,
but his mate had been there and done that everywhere and egged his mate on to
do just that. Turned into a bit of a circus because the uncomfortable one was
always meters above us meaning the DM has to keep checking up on him, the cool
dude didn't listen to anything the DM said which in diving is not a good thing,
stuff like 'how are you' and 'how much air' are pretty important, so the DM had
to go chasing him the other time. This was good in a way because it meant
Colman and I could puddle along, the DM made sure he showed us anything of
interest and that we were ok and after that we were left to mosey along the
huge coral wall and into the massive coral gardens, with plenty of wildlife
thrown in. After the diving we headed back to the boat and Wayan was waiting
for us to take us back to Senur. The remainder of the time was spent wandering
around, a bit of shopping, lots of relaxing and some very tasty meals thrown
in. One night we went to a restaurant recommend by an Aussie friend as the
'best', it was fine, lovely surroundings and good food and quite pricey. The
next night we went to a restaurant recommended by our friend Yasa, nice
surroundings and great food and substantially cheaper, the night after we went
to the local food night market with Yasa and Susu, very interesting
surroundings and excellent food, and for a couple of dollars you could eat
yourself silly, so there you go. Mind you we try and eat at a local food at a
western type restaurant about every third or fourth night just to give our
bellies a break. It was sad to leave, we had a very relaxing and enjoyable
stay, but up we got at 1.30am, to catch the 4.30am flight to KL and into Phnom
Phen
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