Bali, Indonesia

Bali—Friday (Quite possibly the longest day ever)

I got up at 5AM this morning, so that I could get my bag ready and Skype with my sister all before heading to school at 7:30. I felt super organized as I headed out the door, which, for me, is well worth the extra time I had to be awake. School was just fine. I didn’t do a lot of the teaching today. Rob had most of the lessons, which was fine with me. I was able to get all of my grading done by 2PM, so I didn’t have to take home any work. My supervisor, John, came and picked me up at 2. We picked up my bag and collected Katy from her school and her bag from her house, and then we were off to the airport. It was the smallest international airport, with only 5 gates. Katy and I bought a bottle of Malibu rum at one of the duty-free shops.
The service on the plane was fantastic. They gave us dinner and all the drinks we wanted, including alcoholic drinks, for free. When we got off the plane, we had to go through all of the checks, but once we got outside, there was a Balinese man waiting with our names on a card ready to take us to our hotel. We got to the hotel, put our stuff down and did a quick change and headed out. We went to Paddy’s Club, which was a rather nice bar. We had our first Bintang—Balinese beer. It was a very good, pilsner beer. We then headed next door to the Bounty, which was not as nice as the first place. We stayed there for a while though, because we just kept meeting people over and over (lots from Holland). We eventually called it a night and headed back to the hotel.

Saturday

Well, since we stayed out extremely late, we had a slow start. We went to brekky at the hotel. It was included in our stay. We had a huge meal (it was a buffet), because we only had cheese and crackers for lunch. After brekky, we went back to sleep for a couple of hours. Around 11:30, we headed out. We went down to the hotel’s massage room, because we had a coupon for a free 30-minute foot reflexology massage. It was nice, but surprisingly painful. It hurt right in the middle of my foot, which apparently means that I have stomach problems. It was surprisingly accurate, because I have been having some stomach problems.
After that, we headed out towards the beach. We looked at a few shops along the way, but basically went straight there. We got there and had the shock of our lives. First, the beach was very trashy. There were wrappers and bottles thrown everywhere. The instant that we walked onto the beach we were “attacked.” The local women swarmed us. We ONLY wanted a massage and our nails painted, so we made a deal with two ladies for 100,000 rupiah each-one for the massage and one for the nails. (11,000 Rupiah = 1 US dollar) It was rather hard to get used to the money thing. Thank goodness that Katy had a calculator, which we used about every two hours. Anyway, I had my nails started and Katy had the massage started, and then we were swarmed. About ten more ladies came and started braiding our hair, massaging our hands and feet, and trying to sell us things. It was an awful experience. I felt trapped and uncomfortable. Katy and I made our move to get up to leave, when the two ladies that we’d made the deal with shooed away everyone else. Once the extra women left, it was nice—but I don’t want to go through that again.
After the beach, we walked down the beach to the large shopping mall, where we looked around for about an hour. We stopped in and got an ice cream at A&W and then made our way back to the hotel by the way of some markets. I bought a silver ring with a turquoise stone for $7 and two sarongs for $5 each. We picked up some water and had cheese and crackers for lunch. (We couldn’t drink the water, or we’d have gotten “Bali Belly.”) We then laid by the pool for an hour or two.
We showered and got ready to go back out. We went down the street in the opposite direction, shopping along the way. After awhile, we had dinner at a café, pizza and pasta, and a large Bintang beer. The Bintang is Bali’s main beer and quite good. We shopped some more after dinner and had an early night back at the hotel. I bought twenty-eight DVDs for a total of $20 and a couple items of clothing. I spent almost 1,000,000 Rupiah today, which is only about $90.

Sunday

We woke up at 9 this morning, showered, and headed off to our buffet breakfast. We headed straight to the entrance of the hotel where we met our tour guide for the day. We spend the day traveling around the countryside. For $30 AUD each, we had a driver and tour guide to take us anywhere we wanted to go for the entire day. Our first stop was about thirty minutes away and was a batik fabric factory. The women showed us the process of making batik cloth, and it’s an incredibly detailed and long process. It includes dying, waxing, painting, waving etc. After we spent our money there, we got back on the road.
The second stop was at a typical Balinese home compound. It was shocking. It really “hit home” that I was in a third-world country. The place looked like something the pilgrims would have had in the late 1700s, with dirt floors, no doors, a fire pit as the kitchen, and outhouse, and three or four houses. All of the houses shared one temple in their compound. (They are Hindu.) After the house compound, we went to two silver makers. The silver is imported and handmade into jewelry. I, again, ended up buying a silver ring, but it was only $20 where it would be well over $120 at home.
We then went to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. We walked through the rainforest and saw loads of monkeys. We sat down on a stone railing and the monkeys came over and sat on our laps! It was really cool. There was a temple in the forest, which was one of the three temples for that community. All villages have three temples and each home compound has one. Once we finished our photo shoot with the monkeys, we headed to a woodcarver’s store. The wooden carvings are all done by hand and were absolutely fabulous. Then we headed to the Safari and Marine Park. It was $25 to get in and was nothing more than a glorified zoo. We rode around on a bus through an area that had different safari animals, all separated by what looked like natural barriers. We rode a few rides—mainly a jungle cruise and the most awful, painful, spinning ride imaginable. We took pictures with a lion and then headed back towards home.
Once we got back to the hotel we took showers and got ready for dinner. We went about thirty minutes away to a restaurant right on the beach. We had our toes in the sand and a front row view of the beach. We had a couple of drinks and a nice dinner. We even had a quartet come around to the table and sing a song. We eventually headed back to our hotel, and then out again to a bar along Kuta Beach for a drink.

Monday

Today we started again at 9AM with a buffet breakfast at the hotel. We did a little bit of shopping and made our way to a massage place. We had an hour massage for $5. It was, by far, the best way that I’ve ever spent $5. We did some more shopping and had lunch back at the hotel. We braved some Indonesian food, which was actually quite good.
After lunch we spent a couple hours relaxing by the pool. Eventually, we got dressed and went back towards the beach to watch the sunset. We ended up having a beer at a picnic table and then having the all-American McDonalds for dinner. It was back to the hotel once again after dinner, where we packed up for the flight home. We went out one more time for another massage, but the place was busy, so we went to a bar with a live band instead. We then went to the pool one last time to have a drink at the swim-up bar and then got ready for the trip back. We flew home through the night and got into Perth around 7AM. John picked us up and took us to our houses.
It was extremely nice to be back to normal life. It was a completely different world in Indonesia. It was also nice to be out of the humidity. When we were in Bali, if we were not in air con, we were sweating—and that’s not an exaggeration. I will say that this trip was a major wake up call. People say that we take things for granted, but until someone sees first-hand how people in a third-world country live, I don’t think we understand the true meaning of that saying. I can say this, because I know what I saw, and I’ll be forever changed.

Tuesday

I did a few things when I got home from the airport, and then headed straightaway to bed. I slept until 1:30PM and then met up with Katy and the newest COST student, Laura, to go to the beach. We stayed out on the beach until about 5PM, and then we each went to our homes. I went for a long walk and then had dinner with Len and heather. I was able to talk to some friends and family online and just relax tonight.

Wednesday

Well, it was back to reality for me today. Len took me to school, and life began again. The kids were fairly good today. A year 2 student did, however, go stomping past our class yelling obscenities. Turns out, he has MAJOR anger problems. I’m taking the bus home right now, but this evening should be fairly relaxing. Len and Heather are out with friends, so I should have the house to myself! I plan on lying around and watching TV.

Pictures coming soon!