You've been to Paris and you've been to Boston
You've been to Fiji and you've been to London
But you can't impress me coz I've been to Bali too.
Redgum
The pack up was excruciating, maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the change to the sequence that we usually follow but this pack up took us ages. Sleeping bags needed to stay out of the trailer and be packed in the car as they would be needed on our return, other things needed to be packed differently. With the camper packed, finally, we were able to give that a wash too. The dust had set like concrete inside the wheels and there was a distinct red tinge to the entire camper.
After lunch we headed toward the airport, but first we had to stop off at the Cash for Containers depot and sell the girls' containers which we had been collecting. The three ladies were very happy to trouser $1.20 each from their stash. They were rightly happy with their efforts. Nicholas dropped all the ladies off at the airport then took the car and locked it up for the next week.
Just after 17:00 we took off for Indonesia. We landed in Bali about 21:00 and were safely in our hotel by 21:30. Tomorrow our adventure extension begins.
Tuesday 17/09/2013
View of the hotel pool from our floor.
Creature from the Balinese dance
Wood carving or toe carving?
Volcano, sleeping today.
Rice fields.
Nice monkey hat Chelsea.
How do you get a monkey off your back?
Just been down the Super Bowl. See how white Chelsea's knuckles are! We had to prize her hands off the raft.
The Climax in the foreground. Bianca and Chantelle are at the top of the tower to go down the racer slide.
The girls spent ages playing playing around this equipment.
The water slide tower. Chantelle tried EVERY slide on this tower.
The girls were awake ridiculously early for being on holidays. We had a yummy breakfast at the hotel before we headed out to explore the local streets. We all walked down the streets and even a couple of alleys to explore the new surroundings. The footpaths were very narrow and had cars and bikes parked on them so you had to walk on the road. There were manhole covers missing on the footpath and the water sitting under the street assaults your senses. The traffic is all over the place, every taxi that passes toots in hope of a fare (safe to assume that if the taxi in front didn't get the fare you probably won't but let's toot anyway), the motorbikes drive all over the road (the line in the middle is a suggestion only), the bikes will pass on the left or right of a car and travel down the wrong side of the road tooting all the way. The girls found it quite confronting especially when we were forced to walk single file on the road. Every street hawker tried to get you into their stall because the stall next door is selling the exact same stuff.
We were back at the hotel at 09:30 to meet with one of the tour operators to arrange some tours. Even being back at the hotel at that time we had been out for 90 minutes! We booked a culture tour for Wednesday and an Elephant Safari for Friday. To book a guide, a driver and a car for the day cost $110, costs that much to get to the airport in a taxi in Melbourne.
After conducting our business transactions in the hotel lobby we headed back out to collect some supplies. Anything produced local is very cheep, 600ml bottle water cost $0.30, bag of chips $0.45, 100ml hand cream $0.50, can of soft drink $0.65. We had a great explore for the day. We ate lunch at a local bakery coffee shop and went along the Kuta boardwalk to find somewhere for dinner.
Wednesday 18/09/2013
The country side tour was today. Our driver picked us up very promptly at our hotel just before 0830, this was in stark contrast to our experience in Darwin. (Nicholas is still awaiting a phone call about our battery charger from an auto electrician 2.5 weeks after dropping it off. The upside he ordered one online and it has already waiting for us with David). Because this was a personal tour were in complete control of what we see, how long we stay at each place and any impromptu stops along the way. Our first stop was to look at Batik. Batik is the colouring of cloth using wax to restrict dye from reaching areas of cloth to complete a design. It is a very clever craft that is passed down a family.
The next stop was to see silver jewellery being made by hand. There are no gold or silver mines in Bali so all precious metal has been traded with other areas for centuries. The whole process of making jewellery is very manual and each element is tiny. Some of the balls that they decorate with are smaller than a pin head. We looked through the shop, Chantelle was keen to find a necklace and pendant and after almost 20 minutes Chantelle couldn't find quite the one she wanted. We are not sure if the lady was happy to see us leave or upset that she had spent so long with us with no sale!
We went to a traditional dance performance. Thankfully we were also given a sheet explaining what was going on, without it we would have no idea. Even with the sheet it was hard to follow at times. The costumes were spectacular and the makeup on the dancers would require paint stripper to remove it at the end of each performance. The story was basically good versus evil, and evil was never destroyed only beaten to fight again another time. The performance went for about an hour and held the interest of all girls.
We stopped to see wood caving as the last stop before lunch. They carve beautiful figures out of sandalwood, ebony, teak by holding the timber with their feet and taking to it with chisels. Chantelle was very interested in staying at the workshop to finish the carvings with sandpaper. All timber, we were assured, was sourced sustainably from elsewhere not on Bali.
Lunch was at a restaurant overlooking the two active volcanos on Bali island. Lunch was a flat $15 per person. Our guide helped us with ordering lunch so that we didn't need to pay full price for the children. Lunch was a mighty spread! There was all manner of Balinese food on offer, some hot, spicy and some mild. Lunch included soups and desserts. We all had a good fill. The view of the volcanos made it easy to see where the last eruption in 1994 left new rock on the landscape. Being so high up in the hills the temperature was much cooler than down at Kuta, we almost needed a jumper.
After lunch our guide took us through terraced rice fields. The fields were terraced at least 800 years ago when hini came to Bali. Most of the fields have been owned by the same family all those years. The rice crops, three each year, are food for the family that owns the field, very little rice is sold outside the family. Like the rice paddies the house compounds are handed down from generation to generation. The family all live in a walled compound that contains several houses and a temple. There they live with three or four generations. The older generation look after the youngest generation while parents work.
Our final stop for the day was the Monkey Forrest. The monkeys were every where! The monkeys stole all manner of paraphernalia from tourists. We saw one monkey taking a swig from hand sanitizer that it had stolen and taken the lid off. At least if that one bit you there would be little to worry about.
Thursday 19/09/2013
Down the road from our hotel, just a short walk, is the Waterbom park. We went and spent the whole day there together. Entry is priced out of the reach of locals so it really is only for tourists. What a park to spend the day at! There was only one ride that the girls were too little for, and thankfully it was a ride that they really had no interest in. Chantelle went on every ride that she could go on at least twice and some more times than could be easily counted. Some of these rides went so quick that you actually could get airborne on the way down.
Bianca was somewhat more restrained and left off some of the faster more thrilling rides. Chelsea went on the rides that she was comfortable with and stuck with the ones that she liked. Angela was dragged by the children from ride to ride. At one point we lost Angela and Bianca. When we found them they were enjoying a ride on this thing that looked like a giant plug hole.
Mum took dad for a ride on the Super Bowl.
We had a great day at the park but neither Nicholas or Angela would go on the Climax. The Climax is like riding down a straw! You step into a tube the door is closed then the floor falls away and you drop vertical for several metres. Thanks but no thanks. Nicholas did convince the children that he did it until he confessed.
Friday 20/09/2013
Another early start this morning because we were heading to the elephant safari park to ride elephants. Everyone was super excited. It took about 90 minutes to negotiate the traffic and roads to get to the safari park. There are 30 rescued elephants that live at the park and several babies that have been born there. The elephants have been rescued from the Sumatran loggers and brought to Bali to live.
Our elephant ride took us out into the jungle for an hour as the beast miandered along the path. Angela and Nicholas were on Rama, the parks biggest bull elephant and Chelsea, Chantelle, and Bianca were on Amika. Rama needed to lighten the load and took a wee and a poo on the way. It was like a fire hose had been turned on and the other sounded like cantaloupe being dropped. When you eat that much it has to come out some way!
After the ride we watched the elephant show. Very clever animals. They were able to do math, play soccer, walk a log, sit on the log and wet the audience!
There was a new elephant born there in June and we were able to right up close to it while we were there. The mother didn't seem to mind too much about the tourists interacting with her new baby. A very cute little guy.
Saturday 21/09/2013
Today was our pampering day. Almost three months on the road and we have had little more than a haircut for our bodies. In Kuta every 10m there is some one wanting to give you a massage, cut your nails, rub your feet or braid your hair, sometimes quite forcefully. Nicholas was grabbed by the arm once and the girl was told in no uncertain terms to go away and let him go.
Nicholas and Angela had looked at several places quite thoroughly and had pretty much settled on one but Angela had decided on a pedicure for herself at the hotel. We all went out for a walk after breakfast and while Angela and the girls went to check one last place Nicholas visited Jodie's for his treatment. Nicholas went information the works! A sports manicure, sports pedicure and full massage for $17. A relaxing seat in the chair with two young girls working on his hands and feet. They really should have inspected and quoted first. After three months of setting up tents, moving rocks and sticks and having generally filthy hands there was a lot of work to be done. His feet were even worse with big ugly cracks, yuck. And yes Nina we have some of that cream.
While Nicholas was out the back having his massage he thought he could hear Angela's voice in the front but wasn't sure. As it turned out it was Angela who had brought the girls into Jodie's for Bianca and Chantelle to have their hair braided. Bianca had a full head and Chantelle had the top only done. We all met up for a lunch of leftovers from the previous nights dinner.
After lunch Nicholas took the three youngest girls down for a swim while Angela had a pedicure at our hotel. Angela enjoyed a little bit of time for herself with a magazine while someone worked on her feet, that weren't quite as ugly as Nicholas'. When Angela was done her feet looked beautiful, fresh and deep red.
We took the girls back to Jodie's for a kids manicure and pedicure before dinner but all the manicurists were busy on other hands and feet, so we went for dinner at a traditional Balinese restaurant. The meal was delicious and the staff really looked after us particularly helping us order just enough food. Had we been left to order ourselves we would have had way too much food!
Back to Jodie to have the kids manicure and pedicure which included nail polish on both fingers and toes then flowers. They were all lined up in their chairs being worked on. What a sight, what a treat!
Sunday 22/09/2013
Today we explored the local beach, streets and markets. A short walk through some narrow streets and past a makeshift (or maybe perminant) rubbish tip we walked out onto the beach. One thing the the children have found difficult to deal with was the street vendors all trying to get your attention or coming up loaded with goods trying to flog what ever they have to off load. Some of the items are so obviously knockoffs like the Geelong football club jumper with the logo that looked like the slazenger cat, or the shorts that are labeled one brand but have a button from another brand or shoes that are constructed with all leather upper but are canvas (some new sort of canvas style leather perhaps).
The walk along the beach was beautiful with traditional fishing boats on the beach and kites flying. The surf looked fabulous also. Occasionally we would come across small piles of rubbish being burnt on the beach. After a bit the shacks stopped and the resorts started right on the beach front really nice looking resorts. Eventually we headed up into the shopping area, where proper shops are located. We found one that had young girl beachware and we found new bathers for each of the girls and a few other bits and pieces.
Down a few more streets we came to the main market area. Most of the market stalls sell all the same clothes, in the same style and the sizes are all big. The size thing might say something about the Aussie tourist that come to Bali? Most of the shorts that Nicholas saw were size 38 and up. He did manage to find some in his size but the attendants were struggling. Same story with shoes all small sizes and nothing that would fit Nicholas' big feet. Angela found a pair of casual shoes but aha in they had to do the run around to find a pair that would fit.
Our last night in Bali we headed out to a different area of town fr a feed. The girls were pretty much done with spicy food so we found a place that had all types of food styles. We had dinner at a quiet local restaurant and we all had something yummy to eat.
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