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.
