Yes, you heard it here first... after six weeks of heat and perspiration I am back in a country where sweating generally requires physical activity. We arrived back in the world of cell phones (sadly), road rules and working for a living late last night, after a relatively pleasant Air NZ direct flight. I would have to say I am glad to be home, but then again the reality of working etc is yet to properly sink back in, and I am sure it won't last...
Bali in the last few days has been good, following sad farewells to Nick and Mags on Friday we moved out of our blissful clifftop villa and into a hotel across the other side of Kuta, which was nice enough (as you would hope, given it is only a few months old and "cheap" at $70US a night...). Friday night we went to Potato Head Beach Club, a bar and restaurant (straight out of the ultra-chic 1960's) on the beach near Kuta which is a true experience (and I don't say that about many bars) and I would highly recommend ( www.ptthead.com - check out the pics of the amazing interior/exterior styling). It seems to be the place to be in Bali, away from the all-night booze fueled party madness of downtown Kuta. They were in the process of setting up for their "end of summer" party the next night, where The Neptunes and Foster The People were playing... would have been a good show. As it was the place was busy, which I think it probably always is given the awesome (not cheap though, but few things in Bali are) food and drinks and a great setup - a semi circular two level club and restaurant, surrounding a lawn and swimming pool with poolside lounge beds, all opening onto the beach... I can only imagine it better if it was in a different part of the world with a slightly more "upmarket" clientele... but then it is a beach club so I guess surfers, singlets and folks wearing jandals are inevitable.
The last couple of days of our epic journey involved me getting smashed around by the legendary Bali surf, some eating and drinking in the Legian area (mostly by yours truly) and a couple of attempts at shopping by the girls which were cut short when both of them came down with stomach issues, culminating in the doctor getting called in to Eve's hotel room to give her shots and pills for bad nausea and stomach cramps... not very fun at all, especially the afternoon before an early morning flight. The doctor blamed drinking the wrong brand of bottled water (yes, even when you are careful and drink bottled water it can go wrong), but it was probably just as much due to her system starting to let its guard down and winding down after a long and tiring few weeks. On a positive note the young Balinese doctor was very good and obviously well versed in sorting out white folks' 'travel ailments' (aka 'Bali-belly').
All that aside Bali was epic and the wedding and days after were obviously fantastic, we are truly lucky to have such good friends who give us such great opportunities so once again a million thanks to Nick and Maggie... more than anything seeing you guys again has reminded us of how much we miss having you around.
Bali itself is a pretty cool place, sadly it has two very significant negative aspects - Australians (not that I don't love our brethren over the ditch) and Indonesians... both of whom think they own the place, never mind the poor Balinese people who were there first... Obviously the Australians are the 'visitors' who overrun the beach areas and tourist spots bringing with them their own unique 'culture' (ok it was AFL and NRL Grand Finals weekend which didn't help). Some Indonesians (who are actually a minority group) on the other hand think the Aussies are a disease that need to be exterminated (there may be some merits to that but...) and want to wipe out the Aussie scourge and all their drinking, nightclubs, music, scantily clad women, etc etc. The great irony of course is that the Indonesians are also recent colonisers who are coming in and imposing their views and religion on the poor Balinese, who themselves generally seem very chilled, friendly and accepting (possibly too much so).
Having said all that, there is much to see and do around the place, and apparently a lot of good (and less touristy) spots to find, and I would probably almost consider returning given the limited amount we saw, due to lack of enough time... So if anyone else wants to have a Bali wedding and force us back there, then feel free... maybe give it 12 months or so... But for all those considering SE Asia travel, I would still have to recommend Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand over the more limited attractions (and much more $) of Bali.
So what from here?? Looking out the window it looks like more showers on the way, good old NZ... so given I may be indoors a bit I am planning to write a few more posts with some added extras I have not had time to fit in yet, and if people are interested I will also look at throwing in some travel tips and guide-type entries to cover off aspects for people planning to travel... any queries about anything in particular be sure to let me know, if there is enough to make it worthwhile I will write it down.
Looking forward to catchups all round, so be sure to drop me a line sometime soon.
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