day 4 - leaving bali

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tuesday

i woke up to a really bad dream and snuggled close to darwin for the rest of the night. we woke up to our final balinese morning at 730 am, took a quick shower and sorted out the final bits in our bags. our flight leaves at 2:55 in the afternoon and we still have the whole morning to go to the beach and shop.

after our usual american breakfast, we took a cab to kuta beach. the shops along the way were still closed but the beach was already full of eager surfers. we settled on an area between two rescue flags since the waves looked a little bit bigger than yesterday and warnings of undercurrents are in place. the sun shone brightly like the past days but the early morning breeze was still cold.

we were easy marks for the two old ladies who approached us just as we sat down on the sand. they were both offering a massage but we already had one a few nights ago and didn't want to negate it with a haphazard massage on the beach. both were getting increasingly aggressive and we dismissed them with a firm no.

tourists were either surfing, sunning on the sand or jogging on the beach. a few couples were walking hand in hand. the locals, dressed in their daily clothes with rubber slippers on their hands, were walking along teasing each other, the salty water wetting the lower part of their faded jeans.



darwin and ritchie played sand balls, ritchie's favorite beach game from childhood. i sat quietly on the sand, watched them occasionally but was more interested in absorbing the whole scenery. a police helicopter hovered above and made two rounds, probably checking if the warning flags are up. this is our last day in bali and i felt sad thinking of another string of long months in front of a computer, soaking in an unwanted radiation instead of getting a natural tan.

darwin and ritchie went for a swim and i offered to look after the bags. a few more hawkers approached me and although it irks me that they're ruining an otherwise peaceful musing, there aren't too many tourists in bali these days and the locals who have long depended on tourism have to make a living. the beach itself wasn't as crowded as the beaches we've been to in thailand. tourism in bali has declined after the kuta bombing in 2002 and is slowly inching its way to recovery.

at about 10am, we left the beach and went shopping at the nearby poppies lane. we went through the main street and passed through several narrow bargain-filled lanes. the streets are full of little shops selling beads, fake designer clothes, beach wears and some balinese furniture. most of the shops sell exactly the same thing as the others and the sales person would quote an outrageous price at first but would shout "how much you want? how much you want?" when you attempt to leave the shop.

i bought a few shell necklaces and a sequined sling bag in purple. darwin bought the native percussion drum that he wanted since he saw it in ubud. we also bought a small clay grill for serving barbecue over a live charcoal, two for our use and another two for my parents. ritchie bought the same style of sling bag in orange for his sister and two of the clay grills as well. we wanted to buy a few more pairs of the same island long pants that i bought in ubud but the colors we've seen both at poppies lane and at the art market were too dull for beach wear.

it was already past 11 am when we took a cab back to the hotel. while ritchie showered, darwin and i took a quick dip at the hotel pool for the last time then hurriedly went upstairs to pack our bags. we checked out, confirmed our airport transfer and decided to have our last lunch at the hotel to keep to our time.



while waiting for the food to be served, we wandered through the shops across the street. darwin and ritchie each bought a bintang-beer sando and wore it on top of their shirts (so people won't know that ritchie has already wore the same top twice hehe). i wanted to buy a sequined slippers to go with the sling bag but i didn't have the energy left to haggle and i saw the same pairs in singapore anyway.



the lunch was unusually quiet, different from the animated moments we always have when together. in a little more than three hours, we'll be back to the usual routine of office and mall. this is also ritchie's last asian trip as he is leaving for the US in two week's time.



we had indonesian dishes for lunch and fruit smoothies for dessert. after we paid the bills, the hotel driver took us to the international airport which was only 10 minutes away from the hotel. we gave the driver the remaining ruppiahs we have but kept a few hundred thousands for the airport tax. after clearing the departures and waiting for an hour on the lounge, we were on the plane to take us back to singapore. as the plane taxied off, the jimbaran bay was briefly visible on the plane window then slowly disappeared behind the thickening clouds.



one adventure over, another to begin soon. but we'll surely miss bali.

and ritchie.

(our bali pictures can be viewed here.)

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