I'm at home today with the dreaded lurgie, so I've finally had the chance to do my sort of JBR.
We went to Bali on June 6th for 3 weeks, 6 months after our last visit in December.
December, being just after the bomb was absolutely dead. We came home with real concerns about Bali's future.
The first thing that we saw this year was our plane from Adelaide was totally full!
We managed to catch up with Filo and his lovely wife in the airport. I was able to get told off by the airport queing nazi, for apparently not having sufficient pyscic powers to know exactly where she wanted the line to be. GRRR!
The airport was full, full full! ,but for once in our lives we actually choose the short line, that moved the fastest. Don't know how I managed to score that one.
It was funny, because everyone kept saying that, 'oh Bali's really quiet', and we couldn't believe just how busy it was. In the end, when taksi drivers kept saying how quiet things were, we would say, but it was much quieter in December. Oh, yes, this is much better. I asked, in the end, every driver how many fares that they'd had. Most of them had actually been busy, I think maybe they'd just lost their confidence in the future. I think that's a totaly understandable feeling.
Every time we go to Bali, the thing that strikes me the most, is that I wish I had 1 10th of the strength, resilence, determinaiton and intelligence of the people I see on a daily basis there.
We always stay at the Green Garden on Jl Kartika Plaza, which is like a 2nd home to us, in fact all the staff, greeted me as 'Ubu Fiona', welcome home. Call me a sucker, but that means SO much to me. We in the past have taken traditional food made by other friends, and shared with all the staff there. Can you imagine doing that in a large hotel? I don't think so.
Cos we go so often we don't tend to do a lot by other people's standards, but we're constantly busy while we're there!
I bought a heap of jewellery to sell back here, and have sold a fair bit already, which is going to be a nice little interest to keep me out of trouble!
We spent a fair bit of time with the lovely Dromomaniac, and her great family. It was really nice, because although you meet lots of lovely people sometimes you find people you just really click with,and I suspect that we're equally loopy!LOL! I have never ever met so many forumites in Bali as I did this year. We met the lovely Sunshine Coasts, ( who I was convinced was a girl, sorry NOrm!) I also met a very nice girl who approached me in the Green Garden, by saying, 'You must be Fiona'. I'm sorry, but I can't recall your handle. (maybe early onset Alzheimers!) To everyone else whose name I forget, it was a pleasure to meet you all.
I got a wonderful frangipani doona quilt made up. I designed the pattern, and the result was different from what I expected, but far better than my idea would have been. Mohammed at Rasa Sayang, in JL LEgian did a wonderful job. His shop is just after 'MBargo', and the memorial site, on the same road. He has some wonderful things, and I would really recommend anyone after different, good quality things to go there. I found him to be totally honest and reliable, and will use him again anytime.
Met up with Smudge, and were able to unload our copious amounts of donated clothes, thank god, as our hotel room was starting to look like an op shop!
We also met Sir Fin, and the 'hey Osama' handle certainly does aply to him. He's a nice guy and seems to be really laid back.
We had been planning to go to Yogya this year, but somehow we managed to arrange ( or not) an earthquake. It was really awful to watch on a daily basis the heartbreak in Java. We had initially tried to send all our donations to there, but a friends' friend told us that they'd had So many donations they couldn't manage them all. That's at least some good news.
We think that next year we'll be going somewhere else, as much as we love Bali, there's a lot of other places we want to see, so far the list is Egpyt, China, Mexico, italy, Vietnam... Egypt looks likely unless the MIddle East suddently breaks out in to war for no reason, ( NO that could never happen could it?)