We booked our flights and accommodation months beforehand with the intention of planning every minute detail of our journey. But you already know how this story ends. A combination of work, exams and, mostly importantly, procrastination landed us in Bali without much more than our passports, a handful of cash, dysfunctional phones and a single change of clothes in two little backpacks. Yup, we’d dived into the deep end, and cultural asphyxiation had our heads spinning as soon as we stepped onto Balinese soil.
The trip did not start well. My eyes stung from inserting contact lenses after a long flight and the porters demanded money for grabbing our feather-light bags. Outside, the humid night air was heavy with strange smells and sounds that we did not understand. Only the thought of a clean, air-conditioned hotel room comforted us on our bumpy trip along the pothole-ridden roads from the airport. However, the strange room we walked into with no wifi, phone reception or drinkable tap water only added to our sense of isolation and despair.
As the boy muttered: “I could’ve taken you anywhere in the world!” I lay down on the hard bed and thought it was going to be a long ten days...
And in the end, it was. But in the best way possible.
Early next morning, our luck began to change. After a good breakfast by the pool and palm trees, we met our Balinese tour guide, Roy. Though having only heard about him the night before, he could’ve been sent to us by the Balinese gods. Roy was young, charismatic, spoke great English, and within half an hour, had planned three full day trips, organised a driver, and given us some easy-to-read maps.
And so, our journey began...
And so, our journey began...
EAT
Bali is simply a food lover’s heaven. A dinner for two at a nice restaurant including drinks will set you back no more than $20AUD. And the food is nothing short of drool-worthy (oops! Sorry, Keyboard).
The most popular Balinese dish is Nasi Campur (pictured above), or as I like to call it: rice with the LOT. While the boy played it safe, I also tried a few delicacies like sweet and sour frog legs and oxtail soup. Come on, I was in Bali!
We did have a lot of fun experimenting with different drinks though...avocado smoothie with chocolate syrup, mint tea with jelly cubes, and young coconut straight from the fruit, just to name a few. And with the exception of a very bitter iced coffee, we loved them all.
A few delicious highlights?
Lunching in the clouds, surrounded by volcanos. Eating grilled lobster on the beach while wriggling my toes in the sand. Mistaking a chilli for a green bean and losing control of my voice box and tear ducts for ten minutes (ok, not so delicious). And enjoying a buffet breakfast with lions playing outside the restaurant window.
It’s a miracle I didn’t put on any weight...
PLAY
For many, Bali is synonymous with beautiful beaches and hot night clubs. We, however, saw neither. Of the beaches we visited, none were remotely comparable to Australia’s. As for the nightclubs, we simply weren’t very interested.
Instead, we visited a monkey forest, where the boy made many new furry friends. They were all over him. Literally. They loved perching on his shoulders and practically swallowing our bag of bananas whole. It wasn’t until after we had left Bali that we learned selling bananas to feed the monkeys is a local joke the Balinese like to play on tourists.
We enjoyed a day spa treatment (though I nearly passed out in the sauna) and numerous wonderful massages. And luckily, recognised as a couple, we were not offered any “happy endings”!
We spent a day at Waterbom Park, floating around the Lazy River and satisfying our adrenaline-junkie alter egos with waterslides like the Boomerang and the Climax. Some snorkelling ensued the next morning in rather murky water, but the schools of fish nibbling from our fingers made the experience worthwhile. I also got to lift up a 50kg turtle!
Shopping, of course, was terrific. Once we’d learned the art of haggling – well, the boy anyway, my Chinese genes took over quite naturally – we managed to score quite a few decent bargains in the market stalls. For more hassle-free shopping, we wandered around the huge Discovery Shopping Mall. Not only was it an all-too-convenient five minute walk from our hotel, the lack of “massage?”, “transport?” and “come in, very cheap!” calls in our ears made Discovery an attractive place indeed.
The last two days brought us many new adventures at the Bali Safari and Marine Park. Nothing spectacular, you know; just handfeeding zebras and lions, riding elephants and being followed by a herd of deer. Well, there was also the piranha feeding time and petting tiger cubs... Oh, and we slept in canopy beds in air-conditioned huts with rhinos and zebras walking outside the balcony.
Yep, eat your heart out, Melbourne Zoo.
LEARN
The Balinese are a very religious people. One of the first things you’ll notice when walking around Bali is the offerings made to the gods every morning, placed on the front doorstep of every house, hotel, electronics store, massage salon...you name it, it’s there. They are little trays made from banana leaf, filled with little things like a piece of meat, some rice, a biscuit and a few flowers. Temples are as common as...well, churches here...and every family has their own temple area within the family compound. Roy explained their “variation of one god into different gods” belief to us, but somewhere along the way, I got really confused. So, that’s that.
One morning, we went to watch the traditional Barong & Kris dance. Basically, it depicts the eternal battle between good (Barong, a lion) and evil (Rangda, a monster witch thing. Actually, now that I think about it, it looked like one of the Wild Things). Then, at the end – oh wait, SPOILER ALERT! – the men all stab themselves with Kris (a wavy-bladed sword thing). It was scarily realistic. We were more than a little confused until Roy explained that it was to drive the evil out from within.
The Balinese weave and dye beautiful cloths in a process known as Batik. It takes roughly twelve steps – apply wax, dye, reapply wax, redye, re-reapply...you get the idea – to layer the colours and patterns. But the end result is so worth it. Simply stunning.
So, that very briefly wraps up our ten days in Bali. Ok, so you tell me 1200 words isn’t exactly VERY BRIEF, but trust me, it took a lot of control not to keep typing! Anyway, now for the sentimental wrap-up so that you, dear reader, can go enjoy your new year away from your computer screen:
Bali was...quite an experience, not only for all the reasons stated above, but also because it was a sharp learning curve for me as a traveller. It was a reminder to my inner control freak that caution and planning are good, but sometimes, enjoying things as they come makes the best kind of holiday.
Oh, and one last thing, the smell of RID mosquito repellent will now forever remind me of Bali...
