Just Back From BalibyJeanette and Mervyn September 2001 |
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Well, we arrived back from Bali in the early hours of this morning after travelling through the night. Now I can understand why people go back time after time, in one case 19 times year after year according to a couple we met on the plane going over. It’s a country that ‘grows on you’, the longer you are there the more you love it, become accustomed to the wonderful friendly people, to the heat and humidity which wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be, the huge amount of restaurants everywhere, some very cheap, others very affordable, and of course some very expensive which we didn’t frequent. The shopping is endless, the shops must be the most market stalls and shops for such a small country in the world. Some goods exceptionally cheap using bargain power, and others a bit more but definitely much cheaper than Australia.
Large variety of goods arts and crafts wooden carvings, clothing, shoes, paintings, and so forth. Beaches not so wonderful but the sea very warm and great for swimming. Some cafes right on the beach, some with free entertainment bands, Balinese dancing seafood wonderful. Some restaurants provide free transport to and from, the service outstanding, the people so friendly and warm, and always a smile. Availability of taxi drivers everywhere, lots of bargaining for the lowest price, they are very eager to please, very friendly, love to talk about their families and their lives.
Interesting and beautiful sightseeing temples, rice fields, so vast and green, the vegetation tropical green everywhere, palm trees, banana trees, ferns, all sorts of tropical foliage, flowers bright orange, fusia pink, deep red, jungle like. It is a poor third world country so of course lots of dirt roads and huts and the poor very evident. Quite dirty in places but not everywhere, remembering that the government is not socialist and hasn’t the finances to provide for its citizens like pension, unemployment money, aged care etc. Families are very close and extended families live together. Some of the people we met, especially some of the drivers, want to educate their children to a very high standard and send them to university and brag about how clever their children are and they are the top of their class etc.
Salaries are very low but then the cost of living is too, most people just rent a room or two per family in a rooming house. Most everyone works whatever it is and sometimes seven days a week, no-one complains, they are so happy to get work. They work very long hours.
We first stayed at an inland town called Ubud. Ubud is the centre of arts and crafts and has hundreds maybe thousands of little shops along its streets, with interesting and classy goods fabrics, basketware, wooden carvings, clothing, silverware, ceramics, and paintings to name a few. There are many art galleries and museums though we only went to one art gallery which was very impressive housing Balinese paintings from antiquity to modern times. The guide took us personally around the gallery and explained the paintings and history to us and was very friendly and amusing. There re many restaurants in Ubud, a few in particular with which we were very impressed, one of them being the Jazz Café which has live jazz, and an excellent band at that, a few evenings a week. Some of the restaurants and hotels provide free transport to and from. There are many monkey forests in Bali and the one in Ubud is very good to visit, with very tame and cheeky monkeys (macaques), one of which climbed onto my lap and made off with my water bottle, and climbed up a tree.
We had wonderful healthy buffet breakfasts in our hotels our whole stay, - heaps of tropical fruits pawpaws, pineapples, bananas, passionfruits, also omelets, croissants, rice, noodles, potatoes, toast, rolls, fried tomatoes, and so forth. We ate out lunch and dinner every day somewhere different, most of the restaurants serve exactly the same food, but some are better than others of course. On the whole we weren’t very impressed with Balinese food or the variety but later in our stay we seemed to frequent better (though not necessarily more expensive) restaurants and had some very enjoyable meals. Delicious fresh fruit juices for a couple of dollars decorated with a slice of that fruit on the rim of the glass. Bintang beer is cheap and very popular, and some restaurants give a complimentary glass of arak which is a local spirit, and a little bowl of nuts or similar before the meal. Often give fruit after the meal which is inclusive.
The hotel we stayed at in Ubud was magnificent in that the setting seemed to be in the middle of a rich luscious jungle complete with birds, cricket and frog sounds, and squirrels flying from branch to branch. There were beautiful fish ponds and stone paths and steps up and down, sort of terraced landscape culminating in a river in the valley below. There were two pools, one of which was a spring water pool, and a beautiful spa area. Stone carvings abound and especially phallic carvings to represent fertility which was quite amusing at first until one got used to it. The beautiful red hibiscus flowers and white and yellow frangipani were everywhere and they put them in the ears of the statues which looks very cute and amusing, also when they make the beds they always put flowers on the bed and on the side tables and dressing tables.
One of the days in Ubud we hired a driver outside our hotel for the day and drove to the far north of the country which took about 2 to three hours, on the way we stopped and admired beautiful rice paddies and views, drive through little villages, explored round a lovely lake Lake Bratan which has a temple (oh what a surprise a temple!!!), and on to Lovina which is a seaside town which we didn’t much like, the beach has black volcanic sand and very annoying persistent sellers who wont take no for an answer. Then after an unappetising lunch of one of the worst fish meals I have ever had, we went to swim in the Holy Hot Springs very warm pools of hot springs, I must say I would have preferred nice cool refreshing water on such a warm day but it was an enjoyable experience and different. Then on to Gitgit waterfall, a 350 metre pathway walk/climb down to see a slightly impressive waterfall with endless market stalls one after each other all the way down with very persistent salespeople offering goods at next to nothing just to sell. In retrospect we were sorry we hadn’t bought as they were so much cheaper than anywhere else and the same goods. The drive over the lush green mountain pass was quite an experience, very winding and steep and misty and cool, monkeys along the way quite amusing.
After four enjoyable days in the mid/north of Bali we were taken to Sanur which is a seaside area on the south east side of the island. Its quiet and has many hotels dotted along a 5km strip alongside the sea which is great for walking early in the morning with other joggers/ walkers and an amazing sunrise. There are numerous restaurants lining the beach in front of the hotels and of course the inevitable market stalls. Some of the hotels were magnificent 5 star which can take your breath away, our hotel was adequate but modest, all have nice pools just set back from the beach. We ate our breakfasts at the hotel’s restaurant on the beach in the sun, so relaxing. There is a 5km shopping and restaurant strip which we walked often, mostly market stalls but some very upmarket clothing shops as well.
We travelled around the island when not swimming and relaxing by the pool or beach or shopping went to Kuta which is the shopping mecca, thousands of the usual market stalls and a big modern shopping complex at Kuta Square complete with Matahari department store which has many discounts of up to 70% in many departments, and designer label shops and trendy restaurants and very irritating persistent drivers who want you to take their transport, also annoying were the young people who try to make you fill in questionnaires which lead to a phonecall inviting one to sit through a boring spiel about timeshare. That happened to us not knowing that it would be timeshare, we just thought we had one first prize of a weeks luxury accommodation and agreed to go to a certain resort and spend two hours going through the works about buying a timeshare unit, the best thing was we actually have a voucher for a week’s free accommodation anywhere in the world to be used within three years which I hope is genuine, and enjoyed a first class lunch on them. One takes one’s life in one’s hands walking the pavements, there are gaping holes everywhere in the concrete with the sewers beneath, so its dangerous to walk on the pavements, in case one falls down into the sewers or trips on a broken piece of concrete, its also so dangerous to walk in the road with all the crazy drivers and motor cyclists, crossing the road is a major effort, you have to be really committed to get to the other side otherwise the effort isnt really worth it!
What I found most upsetting were the neglected diseased dogs and cats roaming the island, I wanted to buy them food and take them to a vet but of course you cant, there are thousands or millions, also some animal abuse like little monkeys being tied up by chains to a tree for the amusement of tourists who have their picture taken with them for a cost. Most upsetting.
We went to the luxury beachside resort of Nusa Dua, looked at the designer label shops, magnificent hotels, especially the Melia, couldn’t afford to eat there though so took a taxi back to Sanur. We also went to Tanah Lot which is an hour’s drive west of Sanur though many little towns and villages and also though the ‘city’ of Denpasar, which looked too big and dirty and busy to visit. Tanah Lot has an 8th century temple on a huge rock by the sea, and the sunsets from there are supposed to be spectacular, though it was cloudy that evening and the two evenings before that we tried to see the sunset at Jimaran Bay and Kuta Beach, so we missed out. We visited the Bali Bird Park, hundreds of amazing beautiful coloured parrots and other birds, very entertaining especially a talking mynah bird.
We met many friendly tourists, a lot of Australians and there were many many Germans though we didn’t actually meet any of them. Off to the airport when it was time to go, very sad to leave Bali as we loved being there and experiencing what it had to offer. Still many places we didn’t get to see which hopefully oneday we will have another opportunity. At the airport still more shops, seemingly like hundreds, eventually totally broke we boarded the plan back to Australia and reality.
BALI - PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS
RESTAURANTS
SANUR
Bucu Warung
Jazz Warung Owned by Yandi
JIMBARAN BAY Café no 6. Phone
705239 Free transport to and from café to Sanur Kuta and Nusa Dua
KUTA Poppies Poppies Lane, beautiful garden setting. Excellent food, not so cheap. Phone 751059
UBUD Jazz Café Live jazz some nights, very good band. Food excellent, great ambiance, accepts credit cards
Café Gaia
Café Lotus Excellent food, accepts credit cards
Bali Buddha Healthfood, great surroundings, cheap, in side street opposite post office
SHOPPING
UBUD Hari Ini
KUTA
TAXI DRIVERS
SANUR Nyoman Manda (Norman) Outside Segara Village Hotel - Phone 081 239 27161
Gus Jelantik Outside Segara Village Hotel - Phone 081 2399 6413
Both drivers
speak English well, must bargain well with them for good price. Mention
Jeanette and Mervyn from Perth. |