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Published: March 4th 2010
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BALI: Feb. 6-9
After a 6 and a half hour flight to Bali, I was eager to get off the plane and start our holiday! Immediately, I could feel the humidity---it was hot and I was sticky in a matter of a few minutes. The airport was small and everything was wooden; it gave me a feel of the 70's or something. The only annoying thing about visiting Bali (or maybe it applies to all of Indonesia) is that you have to pay an arrival and departure tax or visa as they call it. The arrival tax was 25 USD. We waited quite a while to get through the line; as we waited, we picked up some brochures and ads from different tour companies, restaurants, hotels...etc. They were smart to set up a pamphlet display along the line-up areas.
Anyway, then we had to find somewhere to exchange our RMB to Indonesian rupiahs. Though we didn't really have to
find an exchange counter...because as we got through the security, there was an entire hall of exchange counters. As the
money exchangers saw us, they started yelling "Same price! Good price...Come here Madam...!" Later we found out they actually didn't give
6 and a half hour flight...
Time for a nap! Someone was tired :) us such a good price (good thing I didn't exchange too much money).
We hired a taxi (we paid up-front---that's how they do it at the Bali airport); it cost 55,000 rupiahs!! That sounds like an insane amount for a 25-minute taxi ride, but converted...that would be about 40 RMB or converted to Canadian dollars, it would be about 6 CDN. So many conversions to understand how much the rupiahs are worth! It took us a few days to get our head around the large money bills. After going to the bank (which gave us a better rate than the airport), I was a
multi-millionaire!!!! ehehe...it felt cool to be holding all that money!
When we pulled up to the
All Seasons Hotel, I got so excited.....it looked beautiful! The front was open to the outside---no doors restricting your view. It was so nice to have all that fresh air, natural sunlight and cool breeze coming through! We were greeted with a cool towel and a hand-made fruity lollipop. Such a nice touch! The staff at the hotel were all SO friendly and helpful. G and I had big & heavy suitcases...and there were NO elevators. I was
All Seasons
our room before we unpacked our bags...hehe so grateful that the staff were so nice and very happy to take my suitcase up the stairs for me. Of course I tipped them though! We also had an amazing breakfast spread every morning....it was probably one of the best hotel breakfasts I've ever had.
(Sorry, Queenie...I was too busy eating, so I never had a chance to take a picture of the breakfast food for you!) The first night we were there, we walked around the hotel and explored some of the main streets around the hotel. The streets were actually rather quiet and there weren't too many tourists around--not what I expected. There were lots of little shops and everyone was shouting to us...trying to convince us to buy something. The shop keepers would whistle and call us "Beautiful ladies, etc. etc." to be friendly I suppose...and of course to also try to get some business. Some shop owners even used lasers to catch our attention, so that we would want to see where the laser beam came from (from their store). Surprisingly, these stores quoted pretty high prices for their goods---little did they know we came from China, so we know the prices! Later on,
All Seasons
our balcony. the hotel had a sign on the balcony asking that people do not hang towels or clothing over the balcony railing because it is against Bali tradition/custom. it was funny because it is a custom for people in China to hang their laundry and underwear over their balconies! after we talked to some Australians that we met at our hotel, we found out that many of the things being sold in Bali are made cheaper than the things being sold in China. Everything is made in China...but who knew there were things cheaper than the already cheap things that China makes. One of our Aussie acquaintances said she had purchased these hairclips & on the day she bought them, it started raining...the paint was bleeding & got all over her hair and neck!
The next day, we ventured off to
Kuta. We walked along the beach...we did a little (window) shopping...we watched the sunset at the beach.
Before going to Bali, I did a little research about
white-water rafting. I found this company called
Bali Adventure Tours online. They had some cool packages to go rafting,
elephant-riding, etc. It was meant to be because when we went to the hotel concierge to ask about rafting, she recommended Bali Adventure Tours right away. So we signed up for an adventure tour to go white-water rafting and to go on an elephant/safari ride. Our white-water rafting guide was really funny and he did a pretty good job of
All Seasons
to the pool guiding us...except for when he "forgot" to say BOOM-BOOM one time (to let us know we should hold onto the rope because some big rapids were coming up) & all of us fell backwards. We also engaged in some water wars---though it was rather difficult to whip water back at people because you need to be really strong. We got soaked quite a few times by a raft full of guys. heheeh I really enjoyed the white-water rafting---I want to try it again!
We had booked a 3-nights stay on
Lombok island, so we went to the concierge for suggestions on how to get to Lombok. She recommended that we take a ferry from Padang Bai (since flying there would be expensive). Let's just say that for our return trip, we took a plane!
😊 Hope you enjoyed this entry! There'll be another one coming up devoted to Lombok!
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