Just loved all the first time stories from trips so many years ago. Would love to hear more please!
Ours goes like this. Only 18 years ago, but my first trip OS. With friends and kids stayed at Melia Sol, Nusa Dua.Collected at airport by minivan, with 'Gelgel'(tour guide) talking incessantly and a non English speaking driver. I was absolutely gob smacked at the beauty of the foyer (!), and the musicians sitting playing. It was so exotic, I think I was hooked in 5 minutes. I remember us walking all the way up to Benoa, just a few scattered shops, and many locals bathing naturally in the ocean. It was common to see many of the older local ladies comfortably topless, and the dogs scavenging around with half their heads missing (terrible). Smoke was billowing from roadside rubbish, and drains were to be avoided. My 14yo daughter dragged me up to the markets that lined the entrance road of Nusa Dua, where we bought about 20 little dresses for around $3 each. One day I got the currency mixed up at the market and stormed back up there again to get my money back, and she simply looked in her money bag and smiled and gave the extra money back to me. We met some fabulous girls from New York, who had come to Bali because they were intrigued by the Sting song 'fields of Bali", only to realize that they had misinterpreted the word "barley". Enjoyed many a dinner at the "Oyster BBQ" cafe, with the owners presenting us with a bottle of Arak on our last night. Loos were 3 doors down and lovely pits! The roads weren't nearly as congested as now, but the drivers would speed along at a terrifying pace.
Needless to say, we have returned just about every year, sometimes twice. Have managed lots of other countries since, but then its just,"oh, we haven't been to that part of the island for awhile' and off we go again.
Got back from a 6 weeker about a month ago, and I could seriously leave again tomorrow.
Please share your story, love to hear it, Michelle