The plan was to fly out to Denpasar on a Thursday and return home on a Monday. Just the right amount of time for a relaxing little vacation. Of course for a long weekend with a toddler, my friend's overpacked a tad, but still managed to forget a few minor things like bottles and a stroller.
We flew Air Asia. They are the ultra low cost airline of the far east, but they are inexpensive, and it gives us a taste of how the other half lives. We sprang for the "hot seats" which are assigned seats up front, so we got priority boarding (although they let everyone stampede at the same time, so not sure what the benefit of that is).
The Indonesian currency, the Rupiah, is like tens of thousands to the dollar, so for the first time in my life I was a millionaire!
We arrived at the Denpasar airport at sunset and were met by our driver. His name was Gedey, but he goes by G'Day, as a way to connect with the millions of Australian tourist (Bali is to Australia what Cancun is to the United States). He drove us thru the bustling town of Denpasar to our little hideaway of Sanur in the east.
Carla booked us a private villa at the Kejora Suites. It was like a little house, with an open floor plan. All the bedrooms opened to our private pool and patio.
The compound was right up against the promenade, so after we got settled, we headed out for a late night dinner. I had Nasi Goreng, which is like an SE Asian speciality, with little fish heads and rice.
The weekend was a great combination of drinking beer and eating and relaxing. The famous local beer is Bintang. After a few of them, I got artsy and decided to do a picture with some flowers.
Isla managed to make a little friend while we were having lunch at the beach one day. Kids who don't even speak the same language, can still find a common ground for communicating. In this case, it was playing with sand.
This little slug was always hanging out by the door to my bedroom. I named him Mike. I thought his shell was pretty.
The area around Sanur was very quiet. There are other parts of Bali that are known for wild events and hedonistic tourists, but we stayed in a more quiet and tranquil part of the island.
While Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, the island of Bali is largely Hindu. As a result, every business, house, and even car, has these flower offerings placed on or around entrances, windows, dashboards, you name it.
You are never within more than 5 feet of a gift shop or someone trying to sell you something. The stores all sell pretty much the same thing, but you have to haggle. I ended up buying a Bintang shirt and got an "F" in negotiations from Carla because I felt sorry for the saleslady and ended up offering her more than she was asking.
Of course a day in the hot sun shopping means an afternoon at a local bar drinking tropical cocktails.
During one of our days, we hired G'day to take us in country and we explored some Hindu Temples and the Rice Terraces of Ubud. Per Hindu custom, we had to wear sarongs while visiting the holy sites.
The view of the Rice Terraces was simply breathtaking. What you can't see in how incredibly hot and humid it was, but it was totally worth it for a view like this.
This is a civet. It's a little cat like animal that eats the coffee beans as they fall from the plants. It digests and poops them out whole and then the locals fetch the civet droppings and roast the coffee beans. It's apparently quite the cup of joe because it sells for like $50 a pound. It only served to make me confident in my decision not to be a coffee drinker. Carla did try some and said it was tasty.
Like all good things, Monday came and it was time to go back to Singapore and finish the rest of my other vacation. We managed to survive our flight with the unwashed masses back to Singapore and thank goodness we had "hot seats".
I am so fortunate to have friends living in exotic parts of the world as it affords me to the opportunity to visit places I might not otherwise go. This was a fantastic vacation.
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