This Christmas vacation was planned back in October, 1996 when we decided that if we weren’t going to have company over the holidays, we would go somewhere else. Everywhere in Australia is crowded at Christmas as that is the school summer vacation time and we decided we wanted to go somewhere with different culture and food and yet close by. We decided on the island of Bali which is part of Indonesia. Ansett Airlines has direct flights so we planned everything ahead through Ansett and American Express.
We did okay with our hotels - well three of the four. It’s hard to tell much about a hotel from their slick brochures showing a lovely swimming pool. We did well by paying extra for air conditioned rooms as it was hot and muggy. Bali only has two seasons, wet and dry. We knew it was the wet season but Christmas doesn’t fall in July here. As it turned out, we only had rain three nights and that was late in the evening. We did talk with our doctor and, on his advice, took oral typhoid and anti-malaria pills. Good thing, too, because we did get bit by mosquitoes some evenings.
Our vacation started on Saturday, December 21 when we flew from Canberra to Sydney to get our direct flight to Denpasar, Bali on a nice Boeing 767. We arrived in Bali late at night, stepped off the plane into a sauna climate and a bus whisked us off to the terminal. We had a 30 to 45 minute wait in line for immigration. Then we collected our baggage (yep, all there), walked through customs, and into a humid sea of little, brown faces. Visions of third world countries came to our minds and we immediately checked our wallet and purse to secure them. Everywhere we looked was a little brown face pushing a sign in front of us with someone’s name. Eventually our hearts skipped a beat when we saw our Ansett brown face with a sign that read “Franks”. Close enough.
Our transportation, which was all pre-arranged too, took us to our hotel, the Nusa Dua Beach Hotel. Nusa Dua was formerly a coconut plantation that has been turned into a premier resort location with hotels represented by Hilton, Hyatt, Sheraton, Intercontinental, Club Med and others. Although it may seem a bit sterile, the police have sealed it off from the hawkers and touts so you can go on the beach without being accosted, unlike most places in Bali. Our hotel was very nice with good room, food and staff.
The next day our hotel was having a blessing ceremony on the front lawn that included a priest (Bali’s religion is primarily Hindu with a bit of Buddhism thrown in for good measure), prayer chants by the staff, band, feast tables, incense, and cock fighting. There is something in the ceremony that called for blood (animal sacrifice?) mixed with the Balinese love of a cock fight. Rita did not like or watch that part but it was quick and the loser went into the pot for dinner. We took a car and driver into Kuta Beach, the Coney Island of Bali, with crowds of people, gazillion shops with the same souvenirs, touts selling you watches out of briefcases and the best of America’s exported culture such as Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Chi-Chis, Hard Rock Cafe and Kentucky Fried Chicken. We also had a laugh when we saw Texas Chicken and found out that it was really Church’s of San Antonio. An hour would have been enough but we told our driver to pick us up in two so we walked in the heat some more. How did we ever grow up in Texas in this kind of climate with no air conditioning?
That evening we had a good dinner at our hotel, wary of the water and ice cubes. It is not recommended that one drink the water out of the taps in Bali. As a result we drank a lot of beer (wine was too expensive) which goes well with the spicy Indonesian cuisine. Indonesia has some good beers and we sampled all of them - Bintang, Bali Hai and Anker. After dinner we watched a formal Balinese dance called the Kecak dance or sometimes the trance dance. But this one was done without the hot coals to walk on. It was great sitting outdoors watching the dance with a full moon and sweet incense in the air.
On Monday we checked out of our hotel and our transportation took us north into the mountains to the town of Ubud, a sort of artist colony for local wood carvers, stone carvers, painters and other craftsmen. Our hotel, the Chedi, was actually about 20 minutes out of town in an isolated country setting. The Chedi was outstanding, perhaps the best hotel we stayed at, with a great chef, pool and rooms. The view from our room was of a ravine with palm forests and terraced rice paddies across the way. Sunsets were beautiful. Oh, and they brought fresh cookies to our room every day!
Christmas Eve was a busy, busy day for Sneefy and his wife. We were awakened by a rooster crowing so we decided to have eggs for breakfast. We had signed up for a 3½ hour trek through the Bali countryside. Our guide, Putu, met us at 8:00 and the group consisted of the three of us and another guest, a German named Klaus who lives in Australia. Of course he had to be Santa Klaus today! A van took us past the village of Payangan where we started our hike down a country road which soon turned into a muddy path. We soaked up more than local culture. We hiked through farms, villages, jungles and rice paddies. Putu was raised nearby so he pointed out all the different plants. Rita and I made a list of what we could remember when we returned and it goes something like this: different types of rice in various stages of growth, bananas, coconuts, betel nuts, peanuts, avocados, limes, mandarins, jackfruit, choko, guava, tamarind, cloves, lichees, tapioca, lemon grass, wild onion, basil, bubble plant, orchids, ginger, breadfruit, coffee, snakeskin fruit, bamboo, peppers, corn, pineapples, and pumpkins. We sampled raw peanuts right out of the dirt and, at one point, Putu asked a farmer to climb a coconut tree and get us some fresh coconuts. He cut off the tops and we had fresh water which went down well.
At another stage, Putu lead us down a long trail to a small river where he wanted us to take off our shoes and wade upstream against a fairly strong current to see a waterfall. Rita and Klaus declined but I went in the river and went to see the waterfall. A few minutes later Rita and Klaus had to take off their shoes anyway to wade across another small creek to get to our next trail up the other side. As we get out and are putting on our shoes, Putu says, “Be sure to check your feet for leeches”. Now he tells us! It was a very hot trip up but we were met by the car with cold bottled water and scented washcloths.
Back at the hotel we had beer and pizza for lunch followed by a shower and short nap. At 4:00 we had our scheduled “Ultimate Indulgence” at the hotel spa. Bali has discovered that spas are “in” so every reputable hotel has one and overnight thousands of Balinese became masseuses or therapists. Our ritual started out with tea and cookies, always a good sign, and our choice of spices and scents we wanted them to use on us. We were taken to an outside table where two therapists worked on each of us simultaneously for our body scrubs. Rita had chosen the Javanese Lalur scrub which had turmeric, cloves and other spices. Mine was the Royal Balinese Boreh with pepper, cinnamon and cloves. First I lay on a table with what looked like aluminum foil draped over it. I was scrubbed down with lavender water then generous amounts of the scrub applied to my legs, arms and torso. Next I was wrapped up like chicken shake and bake. The pepper soon came through and I heated up fast remembering the mustard plasters Mom gave me as a child. Soon I was on fire and baking nicely. When it appeared I was well done, the ladies washed me down with lavender water again and pulled the flesh from the bones. We showered in an outdoor shower then were led to an outdoor hot tub covered with floating flowers. While our bones boiled in the tub (making stock?) they brought us more tea and cookies. When we were ready we went inside to the massage room where two masseuses worked on each of us on side-by-side tables. The massage was a mixture of different styles and all were nice except the accupressure and reflexology (my feet are sensitive). At one point it seemed as if one lady was pressing in on my feet, the other on my shoulders and they did a high five somewhere near my kidneys. After the massage came a facial with cucumber cream on the face and cucumber slices on the eyes. Two and a half hours later we stumbled out into the sunlight looking for our room.
For the evening we had signed up for the Christmas Eve program which involved another formal Balinese dance called the Legong. We sipped on our eggnogs, hypnotized by the graceful movements and haunting music. After the dances we went to the dining room for the special meal. We chose salmon steak for our main in the five course dinner. The meal was delicious and afterwards we were ready to hit the sack. In our room the hotel had placed a stocking filled with candy, tropical fruits and gingerbread cookies. It was a different Christmas Eve and a very nice one.
Christmas day, in comparison, was anticlimactic. We slept in late - no treks today - and rested our feet. Before leaving Canberra I had made e-mail contact with a woman named Carla who managed a restaurant in Ubud. She told me they would be open Christmas day and, since she had lived in the USA for 25 years, she would have an American menu. So we took the hotel van into Ubud and walked around looking at the many souvenir shops. We went by the Bridge Cafe and made reservations for Christmas dinner. The cafe was full of expatriates that night and we were seated at a table for four. Soon we were joined by an Australian couple who teach school in Papua New Guinea. We had good turkey and dressing with mashed potatoes, green beans, corn and cranberry sauce but the conversation with Peter and Christine was better than the food. We stayed late and missed the shadow puppet show we had intended to see.
On Boxing Day we decided to see more of Bali and hired a car with driver to take us around. He was a quiet, shy type and didn’t offer much conversation or information. He drove us past pretty scenery of terraced rice paddies through the villages of Payangan, Tegalalang, Sebatu, Penelokan and to Batur. Here we had to don sarongs and sashes in order to visit the Pura Batur temple, Bali’s second most important temple. We weren’t impressed. But we did have great views of Mt. Batur, an active volcano, and Lake Batur. We drove down to the lake through lava flows created when the volcano last erupted in 1967. Next we drove to Besakih and the Mother Temple, Bali’s most important temple. Again, we were not impressed. Their temples don’t seem to have the class or grandeur of temples we’ve visited in Sri Lanka and India. The day heated up quite fierce. We drove on to Bukit Jambul for lunch at the Puri Boga restaurant. A few beers with spicy satay was very nice and we didn’t get Bali belly in all our eating on this trip, although we worried about it sometimes. Next we went to Klungkung where we saw the Bale Kerta Gasa or Hall of Justice with old painted scenes of the Hindu versions of heaven and hell. We had enough touring and went back to the hotel where I opted for a massage before dinner.
On Friday we regretfully checked out of the Chedi hotel and were taken to the airport in Denpasar. We flew the questionable Merpati Airlines to the island of Lombok, a short 40 minute flight in a twin prop aircraft. We were met by our talkative agent, Eddie, who spoke good English and informed us he hoped we liked Lombok and would spend some of our money to build a hotel on Lombok and hire him as our manager. He also said he had lots of relatives he could hire to help him run it. He was direct if nothing else.
We were taken to our hotel, the Intan Laguna, and realized how the slick brochures can deceive a person. Actually it wasn’t that bad a hotel - we’ve stayed at worse. It was air conditioned and after a little discussion they switched our room with two single beds for one with a king size bed. And it was the first room we ever had with an arrow on the ceiling pointing the direction to Mecca. Did I mention that the people on Lombok are mostly Muslim? It also was the first hotel we’ve stayed in where we had to go outside to public five gallon water bottles for our drinking water. My main complaint was that the bathroom was sort of outdoors even though it was connected to the room. Because it had an open ceiling shower so you could look at the stars or sun while showering, it wasn’t air conditioned. It also had lots of creepy crawlies like spiders and the such. Our house boy came through each evening to spray for insects. Lombok is also a malaria area.
But the restaurant was adequate and the pool was very nice. We spent a lot of time relaxing around the pool, reading books and getting a little tanner. We walked along Senggigi Beach where our hotel was located. It is the only tourist area of Lombok now but that will change. Soon Lombok will build a new international airport and several big name hotels are planned for the Kuta beaches on the south side of the island. It’s also rumored that the president’s family owns much of the property in that area.
One day we hired Eddie and his driver, Hamdoon, to take us on a tour of Lombok. We drove through the main town, Mataram, to Banyumulek where their pottery center is located. We saw pottery being made by hand and bought a few items to make everyone happy. Next we went to Sukarara where we saw an interesting outdoor market and went to their weaving center. We watched the young girls weaving on their looms and bought some material to make them all happy. Next we stopped in Rembitan where we toured a “traditional” Sasak village. It was indeed and we got to go into their thatched-roofed houses to see the design with inner bedroom for women and outer bedroom for men. We saw lots of little kids, scrawny cats, and mangy dogs. And to keep everyone happy we only had to donate a little to our guide and sign their guest book. But it really was interesting. The people of Lombok are called Sasak and have their own language outside of Indonesian. Then we drove past Sade to their Kuta Beach and Tanjung Aan where the Japanese are getting ready for the tourist trade by building a new golf course. Of course it’s best to see it now in its natural beauty before the hotels are built but I suppose it will make for a nice resort area too. We had a good meal at a little “warung” or Indonesian inn and we didn’t get sick either.
We had lots of good Indonesian foods and I fondly remember my meal of rendang daging, a very spicy beef dish. That was a two beer meal! I also had a good dish of spicy prawns, potatoes and beans over rice called udang sambal and another called mie goreng, a dish of fried noodles with meat and vegetables. The best known dish, and one of my favorites, is satay which is grilled beef, chicken or prawns with a spicy peanut sauce over rice. But Malaysians will tell you it is their dish.
On New Year’s Eve we checked out of our hotel and caught Merpati airlines back to Bali. We checked into the Sheraton Laguna hotel, a very nice resort. We had a very nice room with fresh tropical fruit and I sampled each one. But don’t ask me what they were, I don’t know. We debated if we should pay big money to go to a New Year’s Eve party with huge meal. We quickly decided we wouldn’t know anyone and chose room service instead. We had nice steaks in our room and at 9:00 p.m. celebrated New Year’s since it was midnight in Canberra. At 10:00 p.m. a great thunder storm developed and we went to bed sleeping into the new year. I guess we’re getting old. But we felt good next morning.
We started the new year off right with a big breakfast and at 11:00 a.m. we each had another nice massage in the Sheraton spa. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and had a nice dinner at the Cafe Lagoon. We had a late checkout since our flight left shortly after midnight. Our transportation took us to the airport in another great thunderstorm which lifted by the time our flight left. There were no problems with our flight back except that we missed a lot of sleep. We flew a short 2½ hours to Darwin where we cleared customs and immigration before boarding another flight to Sydney and a third flight to Canberra. We arrived home the afternoon of Thursday, January 2 and all was fine at home. It wasn’t a typical Christmas but one we enjoyed anyway. It’ll be interesting to see where we are next Christmas.
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