Blogs from Indonesia, Asia - page 28

Bali We arrived in Bali a day before Jack, Ella and Anna & after a busy few weeks we were looking forward to a bit of a holiday with the kids. We greeted them after their long flight wearing local(ish) gear as a bit of a joke. Our first few nights were in Sanur, right on the beach with pools, tennis & bikes. It was very quiet as their peak is July. Day 4 and we had a car booked for Ubud for the morning. While waiting in the lobby Sue talked with a driver who then brought the car round. It was immediately obvious however that there was no way we were going to get 5 people plus luggage in - about 10 minutes later we worked out it wasn’t the wrong car he had ... read more

We waste most of the morning of our last full day here sleeping, and then set off for reception to see if we can get a late check out tomorrow. We are approached by a young European staff member who speaks to us in a tongue that neither of us can understand. Issy asks him if he can repeat whatever he said in English. The look he gives us suggests that he was speaking English the first time, and perhaps unsurprisingly our request for a late check out is denied. We head back to Bali Collection and hoe into large quantities of pizza and bread at an Italian restaurant. We are sitting right next to a large fan, and when we finish our cans of tonic water the now empty cans start sliding around randomly on ... read more

There seems to be a huge focus on celebrating Christmas here in predominantly Hindu Bali. There are Santa Clauses, Christmas trees and every other imaginable type of Christmas decoration everywhere we look, and it feels like Christmas carols are playing constantly from every available speaker on the island. Today we saw a Christmas tree made entirely from full wine bottles. Admittedly a lot of this is probably for the benefit of the tourists, and we haven’t spent enough time away from the tourist centres here yet to know whether it’s more widespread. Even so, religious tolerance seems to be well ingrained here in Bali and celebrating each other’s festivals is something that most seem more than happy to do. This is a far cry from the ridiculous lengths to which political correctness has been taken back ... read more

There's a certain tragedy in travelling with lots of time but very little money. It's the tragedy of choice and chance. The choice lies in how you spend that little money you have got, the chance lies in the dividend of your choice. You mostly have but one chance, and whether your choice pays of is a matter of the wisdom on which your decision is based and... luck. Furthermore earlier choices effect future ones, as every decision subtracts more or less of that sparse commodity, money! Spend more on one thing and it means somewhere in the future you can spend less on something else, limiting your choice and therefore your chances. There is a final factor that effects both, age! Choice changes with age, what is important when you are young, might seem less ... read more

Issy decides to sleep in and give breakfast a miss, so I bravely head off on my own. Our hotel, the Sofitel, is massive and a bit over the top luxurious for either of our likings. One of the main reasons we came here was that we managed to find a special deal on a holiday website. This made it a whole lot cheaper than going to our originally planned destination which was a very downmarket and much less interesting resort on the central coast of New South Wales back in our homeland. Go figure. One of the downsides of coming to the Sofitel is that it‘s so big that I get lost coming back from breakfast. This is not helped by the room numbering system. I’m fairly sure that the Sofitel is a French chain, ... read more