As I haven't done my report day by day, I probably should have as my wife thinks I rambled on a bit, but I will just continue writing it as it comes to me, a few answers to questions first, Stormy we visited the safari mid week, I would imagine the weekend is a bit busier which is good for the Park. I find that every day in Bali feels like the weekend, it is just so relaxing and pleasant most of the time. Dougie I do remember your blue hair, perhaps this is why the pools went green? only kidding I think a new filtration system may be in order for the MBR.
Most afternoons and I would imagine it is repeated all along the beach in front of every hotel is Bintang and sunset watching time, with the cloudy weather some of the sunsets were not as spectactular as they could be but it is a great time of day. Im' sure Luv the NT would agree Darwin is blessed with the best sunsets in the land and we get a bit blaise~ about them but the Bintang is always good. Much bargaining and selling goes on down there in front of the MBR, I bought 4-5 belts from Wayan he was new to the area and is a great bloke, I had brought a bag of old watches of various types and had Ricky the watch man fix them all up for me except the Bali one he had sold me the year before,he couldn't get it working, but I now have 5 working watches. The girls and some of the boys got manicures and pedicures and bought the obligatory salad servers etc to keep everyone happy, tatoos were popular towards the end of the trip.
The daughter's boyfriend got himself a real one which was supposed to be a small dragon on his shoulder and ended up a dragon that started on his chest and finshed a few inches above his elbow, my daughter was less than impressed but Gav thinks its great and at A$250 it was good value. Us older fatherly types certainly enjoyed the Bintang on the beach but Norman the cold drink? man couldn't quite grasp the "we want really cold beer Norman" idea, some days they were cold other days a bit not so cold. despite threatening to buy them from the hotel where they were colder and cheaper, he met our threats with a smile and a handshake and see you tomorrow my friends, he always did!!!
Like a lot of visitors I'm a sucker for the cotton shorts and the Bintang singlets and restocked heavily along with a few tshirts etc, the wife got herself a number of casual dresses and on a trip to Sanur to see a particular shop she had been recommended(NoGo)she got some really beautiful work and going out dresses all made from Bali hand made cotton weave fabric and also bought some material to have pants etc made, she was very happy with her purchases. She thinks I'm getting old because I said I wouldn't mind spending a bit of time over on the Sanur side as it seems so peaceful and the water so much cleaner etc, than over at Kuta/Legian, maybe next trip!!
I was pleasantly surprised about how mauch AFL gear is available in Bali now and being a fervent Geelong supporter, it was great to see how much Cats stuff was around in the stall shops etc, must have something to do with the Cats 119 point Grandfinal win or maybe that almost the whole Geelong team list visited Bali in early October for their end of season trip(I would love to have beeen in Bali then). I bought myself about 5-6 Geelong singlets of various colours, blue & white, White & blue. I did visit the AFL shop in Poppies lane 1 and got some more stuff, shorts, keyrings, little posters declaring us premiers 2007 and a couple more singlets etc for the rest of the family. It is good to see more than just West Coke Eagles stuff everywhere as it is obvious every 3rd Aussie in Perth comes from WA and Eagles stuff is very popular.
As a family we bought the usual 2 or 300 hundred DVD's for ourselves and filled orders for friends back home, we had gone into the shop determined to not get as many as last year (200) and ended up with way more than that. Hopefully we will get around to watching a few more of this lot than we did the ones we got last year.
I must admit I was a bit wary on this trip as last year I had spent 5 days in bed crook with a virus(not bali belly) but this year was great, not a moment feeling unwell apart from occasional self inflicted injury from bintang overdose(very common in Bali). our son got crook and had a few chuck chunders one morning but he got over it pretty quickly thankfully. In fact out of our group of 16 or so there was very minimal problems, last year DR (Harry) was quite busy fixing us all up with his large first aid kit.
My wife had subscription sunglasses made up at Optik Seis in Kuta Square and is very happy with the glasses and the price, one of our friends tried to get Tri focals but she had problems and it didn't work out for her despite the staffs best efforts. The wife went to supernova for her, yes.. Martha Tillar products even though she is beautiful and doesn't really need them. We made the usual forays into Discovery plaza a few times and also went to the Ten Pin bowling alley which is a hidden gem (opposite the Bali garden hotel down a laneway), the alley is very big(20 lanes) there is a dozen or so pool and billiard tables in there as well, the games and shoe hire were a very reasonable price and most of us enjoyed the fun especially me as I whooped them all, which didn't go down well with some of the young members of the family.
Fiona and I wanted to get a few massages in this time around as last year with me being crook etc we didn't have as many as we wanted to, as usual the Melasti spa was really really nice , great rooms very relaxing and good massages,they are slightly more expensive than some of the other places but you can charge them to the room and ultimately to the wifes credit card(a good deal for me) we had another good massage at a place called Green Eden or Eden Green not sure but it is near the Yjakarta hotel in the street on the way to jalan 66. I actually am reluctant to own up to this but mine was done by a young gentleman not the usual ladies you get in most places and it provided great mirth and sniggering from the wife. To be honest I wasn't sure who was doing it so I just closed my eyes and pretended it was a girl but the laughter from the bed next to me told me otherwise, but it was great massage and he had strong fingers.. now never mention this again.
We(the Adults ) chaperoned the teenagers to Paddys bar and the Bounty a couple of times so they could sample the nightlife, the kids had a ball slopping around in the foam bath etc and boogied until 4am both times while we sipped bintangs and cocktails and took it all in and played mother hens from a respectable distance. I must admit the Doof Doof music does the head in after 3-4 hours of listening to it in Paddys and it was great to get into the Bounty next door and hear live miusic or anything that wasn't doof doof. I can only imagine most of the current generation are gunna be deaf at a early age??
All in all it was a great 2 weeks and we came back very relaxed and glad we had gone to Bali again, we probably will head elsewhere next time maybe Phuket or Vietnam so the kids can see something different to Bali, but the wife and I are considering a hit & run 4-5 day trip by ourselves maybe later in the year. The flight home on Airnorth apart from leaving 2 hours late(maintenance issue in Darwin) was good and customs etc at home was reasonably quick and hassle free.
bye for now.
K