Arriving at Bali airport during the early evening, we joined the queues of people at immigration. As is often the case, we managed to join the slowest moving one and after watching Debs breeze through I was quite surprised to have the immigration official beckon me over and ask for money. To tell the truth, he then smiled and laughed afterwards, but in a country that carries the death penalty for drug smuggling, I failed to see the joke. Slightly annoyed and already thinking ‘welcome to Indonesia’, the rest of the security checks went without a hitch.
We had already arranged an airport pickup with the hotel, so the short journey to Kuta beach was pain free, right up to the moment when we were dropped at the wrong hotel! As it turned out, there was a problem with the room at the ‘Green Garden Hotel’, so they had upgraded us free of charge to one of there partner hotels. The ‘Febris’ hotel turned out to be beautiful, with one of the nicest rooms we have stayed in, a very nice pool, spa and massage facilities for Debs and a good restaurant.
After a very comfortable nights sleep, we headed out to have a look at the town and to find the Peramatour office so that we could pay for our Indonesian island tour. After the quiet of Malaysia the amount of touts and stall holders, trying to part us from our cash came as a bit of a shock. The situation certainly wasn’t helped by the lack of tourists staying on the island. From what we heard during our stay, the situation has barely improved since the Bali bombings and the locals feel largely abandoned by the Australian people. Finding the Peramatour office, we paid for our trip and booked the ferry that would take us to Lombok. With the next part of the journey sorted, we stopped for a look around the very modern ‘Discovery Mall’, bought some more very cheap copy DVDs and then went back to the hotel to relax.
During the remainder of our stay in Bali we booked on a one day island tour that took us first to a very entertaining Barong dance show. The show was performed in a beautiful open air theatre, with a small temple as its back drop. From the dance we visited a batik workshop (where we didn’t buy anything), an art gallery (where we did buy something), a silver workshop (yet another purchase) and a wood carving place (where, at the quoted prices we laughed, shook our heads sadly and walked out, pursued by the salesman). The next part of the tour involved a visit to a not very impressive waterfall, an interesting stop at Goa Gajah (elephant cave temple) and then to a Sribatu, a garden where we sampled some very nice tea, coffee and hot chocolate.
After an early start, we were both ready for lunch and it couldn’t have been served in a more pleasant location, overlooking the active volcano Mount Batur. From here we stopped at Sebatu (the spring water temple), before heading to GWK (the home of Bali’s highest statue). GWK (sorry, no idea what it stands for) is a tale of promising more than you can deliver. The original plan was to build an enormous statue, but unfortunately they ran out of money, so it was never finished. Nevertheless, what they did complete gives some idea of the truly staggering scale of the proposed statue.
With the light fading we rushed to Uluwatu, a temple perched high on a cliff top (with more than its fair share of thieving macaques) to watch the sunset on what had been an enjoyable but tiring day.
Apart from relaxing around the pool, we did a bit more shopping and spent a fun afternoon at the entertaining but expensive ‘WaterBom Park’. Before we knew it the week had passed and it was time to say goodbye to Bali and the Febris hotel. Bearing in mind that neither of us had previously shown any interest in coming to Bali, writing it off as the Ibiza of SE Asia, we have had a very nice time. Aside from the touts, who aren’t really worse than at any other holiday resort, the people are really friendly and the island is both interesting and beautiful. We hope that the tourist trade starts to pick up and that there are no further incidents like the ones of 2002, as that truly could spell ‘the end’ for Bali.
Next Senggigi, Lombok
We had already arranged an airport pickup with the hotel, so the short journey to Kuta beach was pain free, right up to the moment when we were dropped at the wrong hotel! As it turned out, there was a problem with the room at the ‘Green Garden Hotel’, so they had upgraded us free of charge to one of there partner hotels. The ‘Febris’ hotel turned out to be beautiful, with one of the nicest rooms we have stayed in, a very nice pool, spa and massage facilities for Debs and a good restaurant.
After a very comfortable nights sleep, we headed out to have a look at the town and to find the Peramatour office so that we could pay for our Indonesian island tour. After the quiet of Malaysia the amount of touts and stall holders, trying to part us from our cash came as a bit of a shock. The situation certainly wasn’t helped by the lack of tourists staying on the island. From what we heard during our stay, the situation has barely improved since the Bali bombings and the locals feel largely abandoned by the Australian people. Finding the Peramatour office, we paid for our trip and booked the ferry that would take us to Lombok. With the next part of the journey sorted, we stopped for a look around the very modern ‘Discovery Mall’, bought some more very cheap copy DVDs and then went back to the hotel to relax.
During the remainder of our stay in Bali we booked on a one day island tour that took us first to a very entertaining Barong dance show. The show was performed in a beautiful open air theatre, with a small temple as its back drop. From the dance we visited a batik workshop (where we didn’t buy anything), an art gallery (where we did buy something), a silver workshop (yet another purchase) and a wood carving place (where, at the quoted prices we laughed, shook our heads sadly and walked out, pursued by the salesman). The next part of the tour involved a visit to a not very impressive waterfall, an interesting stop at Goa Gajah (elephant cave temple) and then to a Sribatu, a garden where we sampled some very nice tea, coffee and hot chocolate.
After an early start, we were both ready for lunch and it couldn’t have been served in a more pleasant location, overlooking the active volcano Mount Batur. From here we stopped at Sebatu (the spring water temple), before heading to GWK (the home of Bali’s highest statue). GWK (sorry, no idea what it stands for) is a tale of promising more than you can deliver. The original plan was to build an enormous statue, but unfortunately they ran out of money, so it was never finished. Nevertheless, what they did complete gives some idea of the truly staggering scale of the proposed statue.
With the light fading we rushed to Uluwatu, a temple perched high on a cliff top (with more than its fair share of thieving macaques) to watch the sunset on what had been an enjoyable but tiring day.
Apart from relaxing around the pool, we did a bit more shopping and spent a fun afternoon at the entertaining but expensive ‘WaterBom Park’. Before we knew it the week had passed and it was time to say goodbye to Bali and the Febris hotel. Bearing in mind that neither of us had previously shown any interest in coming to Bali, writing it off as the Ibiza of SE Asia, we have had a very nice time. Aside from the touts, who aren’t really worse than at any other holiday resort, the people are really friendly and the island is both interesting and beautiful. We hope that the tourist trade starts to pick up and that there are no further incidents like the ones of 2002, as that truly could spell ‘the end’ for Bali.
Next Senggigi, Lombok
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