Back From Bali

Yes it's true, the days since I lasted posted have been filled with a holiday on the amazing Indonesian island of Bali. It seems a little obvious to say we had a fantastic time, although we were looking forward to a holiday for so long it would have been easy to have been disappointed once we finally got there.




First impressions: pretty much from the first minute you hit the traffic in Bali until you get back on the plane it's hard to believe that there could be so many scooters and motorbikes in one country and that the roads could consistently be in such poor condition. Wherever Bali's tourist dollars are going, it's not into infrastructure. Too few roads, appalling road surfaces, no road signs and an apparent lack of a road code mean this is NOT a place you should try driving yourself.

Fortunately we had the wonderful Daywa at our disposal for the duration of our stay, our driver who cheerfully and safely drove us around every day. Not only was it a godsend to have a local to navigate the roads but he was a wealth of information and the kids loved him. Holger surprised and delighted Daywa and the rest of the staff at the villa we stayed in by being able to speak a bit of Bahasa Indonesia, and they were thrilled to teach him more words and let him practice by not speaking English to him.




Roads aside, it is a wonderful place to visit. With over 1,000 temples on the island spirituality is of the utmost importance to the Balinese, and several times each day each person brings a small offering - a pandan leaf folded into a square dish and filled with colourful flower petals, a small cookie or squre of bread, and some burning incense - to the nearest temple. At our villa the cook and housekeeper would put these in the kitchen, next to the swimming pool, on the roadside and at a nearby temple each day. No matter where you go in Bali, the air is always sweetly scented with incense.



Bali is poorer than I had expected, with literally everybody is working hard to survive. We only saw a couple of people actually begging but there is a vibrant street economy going. Everything from freshly cooked satay to sarongs, newspapers, fruit and woven baskets is literally sold on the side of every street and country road. Farmers work in the rice paddies from dawn until dusk, men and women alike bent double planting new rice plants or harvesting the mature crop, conical topi hats shading them from the sun. Once the harvested rice is shaken free of the stalks it is spread on large pieces of plastic on the road to dry - motorists must swerve around the drying crop to avoid driving straight over the top.




A morning spent on Kuta beach was an exercise in maintaining our manners as we were constantly offered massages, tattoos (temporary one assumes!), food, drinks and sarongs by a steady stream of vendors walking past.


Yet despite the obvious day to day struggle the Balinese go through to live their lives they are an honest and friendly people who, in our experience, lack any resentment towards foreigners. Two perfect examples, both of which occurred during our morning on the beach: when I stuffed my clothes into a bag to go for a swim, all of my money fell out of the pocket of my shorts onto the sand. I didn't even notice and one of the woman who had been going up and down the beach hawking sarongs (and which I'd turned down more than once), walked up to me and told me that my money was lying on the ground. Anybody could have picked it up without me seeing, she could have picked it up and I would never have known. It was several hundred thousand ruipah, probably more than she would earn in a month. Needless to say I bought one of her sarongs and gave her a big tip as well!

As we left Holger went to pay the guy we had rented our beach loungers from. The price was 30,000 ruipah but, unused to the currency, Holger gave him 300,000 instead. The guy came back to us and gave Holger the money back, laughing at his mistake. That's honesty for you.




I'll be back with more photos from our trip over the next few days.