Chillin' Out Bali Style

Greetings Folks,

As promised, I’m writing this week from Bali, Indonesia.  This was a trip that I planned last year, long before I had an opportunity in Dubai.  I’ve been waiting to make this trip to Bali for what seems like forever.  So far it has been a very interesting trip.  My friend Tanya joined me from the U.S. 

Most people think Bali is hot and in many ways that's true, but when I stepped off the plane, I actually welcomed the 90-degree temperature.  I never thought I would see the day when that happened, but Dubai is so over the top hot that its hard to imagine a hotter place.

Bali is a beautiful place, but that's if you go to specific places.  In the inner city you see trash in what appears to be vacant lots.  However, when you go towards the ocean, you see these wonderful beaches.  Breathtaking beaches.  I’ve always wanted to live near water, but my only choices were the dirty Delaware, the slimy Schuylkill River and the polluted Jersey shore.  The water here puts those places to shame, but I still have love for my Philly-based bodies of water. 

There's another area where Bali has Philly beat, but this one isn’t so favorable.  Just a word of wisdom for the urban planning folks in Bali, if your people have to pull over on a two way street to let opposing traffic pass, the streets are too small!!  It’s really scary when you're coming around a corner and the taxi driver has to beep his horn to inform oncoming traffic that he's coming. SMH.

We are staying at the Karma Kandara Resort (http://www.karmakandara.com ).  The villa that I was   initially given was a two-bedroom, two-bath structure that had its own private infinity pool.  It was a beautiful setup, but there was construction going on right outside the courtyard.  I complained to the Room Division Manager and he moved me to this GORGEOUS three-bedroom villa.  I was stunned.  It was complete with an outside bathtub and shower.  As you can see from the pics, it had its own pool as well.  Yay!!

The 3-bedroom villa

This is our fourth day in Bali and we have four more to go.  I plan to enjoy this as much as possible.  We did some sightseeing yesterday.  We first had lunch at this seemingly uninspiring restaurant, but when we walked in, we were amazed.  The ocean view just took our breath away.  

We got to pick out the live fish that they filleted for us.  For a moment I felt bad for the poor fish that was just been swimming happily in his tank, not knowing that he would be on my plate in short order.  Then I took a bite and sympathy dissolved.  LOL. It was delicious.

After our tasty lunch, we went to see the Bali Museum.  When I travel to a lot of countries I see that the artifacts in museums aren’t preserved as well as you would see in the U.S or the U.K.  I think the western countries should help other countries preserve their treasures.  The museum was beautiful, but you couldn’t help but wonder how long the treasuries will survive. It’s pretty sad to watch.  One thing that was clear is that the Balinese took great pride in everything they created.  One example is looking at the Balinese cannons next to the Dutch cannons.  Funny, right?

The Hustler

As soon as we arrived at the museum, an old man approached us to help us get our tickets.  Now if you have travelled abroad long enough, you know this is probably a setup.  Someone is always trying to help you out as long as there's a reward at the end of that help.  Well, this old man offered to act as our guide through the museum for the small fee of $20 for the both of us. 

When we flat out refused him, the price quickly came down to $10.  Feeling sorry for him, we agreed to the price.  He was happy as a clam, but then he tried to hook up his friends.  All of a sudden there are people buzzing around trying to sell us everything under the sun.  We weren’t willing to be taken by everybody so we politely refused.  When you refuse these folks they will change up the game in hopes of you saying yes. 

For instance, there was a guy selling wooden flutes.  They were pretty ornate, but neither of us were feeling it so we said no.  He quickly started playing the flute in the hopes that we would be so moved that we would buy it.  The answer was still no.  He didn’t give up there, so we just walked away.  SMH. 

In the end, our tour guide didn’t know much more than we did about the museum.  There were plenty of captions in the museum to enable you to read through the history.  He got over on us, but I’ve done worse with $10 in my life. Our driver looked at us like we were crazy and asked why we paid the old man.  Game.

Puputan Memorial

The most interesting story that we heard while we were there was the story of Puputan. This is the term that refers to the ritual mass suicide that occurred during the Balinese war with the Dutch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puputan ).  People these folks are gangsta.  They didn’t take the punk way out like pills or poison.  They actually stabbed each other!!  WTH!!  That could not have been me.  You have to read to story to see what I’m talking about.  The story is pretty short so don’t stress too much.

After such a heavy story, we had to lighten things up.  You all know that nothing works better than a little retail therapy.  Yay!  Bali is known for their silversmiths so we hit some jewelry stores.  Within minutes we were both upbeat again. J

So far so good.  Tomorrow we are going to the Gili Islands tomorrow so that should be interesting.  I will bring you all up to speed on the rest next week.  Same time, same place.

Peace,

Della Rochelle

Copyright © 2014 by Della R. Williams