Bali

 

 

The journey from London to Bali was the longest of the lot; we had about 12 hrs flying from London to Singapore, two or three hours hanging around for our connection and then another one or two hours flying to Denpasar airport. Fortunately, our accommodation, the Hotel Sanur Beach on the island's east coast, was only about 20 mins journey from the airport.

As a result of the long journey, we were terribly jet-lagged and ended up oversleeping the first morning; not surprising since we arrived about 2am Bali time. This was a bit of a disaster because we missed the bus for our Island tour, but the company concerned, Tour East, allowed us to take the tour the next day without paying again. In the end we spent the first day in and around the Hotel, which had two pools, a very nice beach and plenty of activities. In the evening we did some shopping at Kuta, the main tourist centre.

The forgiving attitude that we experienced with Tour East turned out to be very much the norm in Bali. Everyone we met was very friendly and fair. There were dishonest people on the island and we were warned to be on our guard, but our impression was that they were very much in the minority.

On the second day we went on a tour around the island. This included a performance of a traditional Balinese dance (something like pantomime), a Gamelan workshop, spice plantation, lunch overlooking Mt Batur, a visit to a traditional village and tea overlooking the rice paddies. We finally arrived back at the hotel after a detour to see a silversmiths.

The dancer in the picture was in the show that we saw, (more pictures in the Balinese Gallery).

 

 

 

If you look closely at the tree in this picture, you can see storks nesting in the treetop, overlooking the rice paddies.

We had lazy days until we left; we stayed around the Hotel, whose facilities turned out to be very good. The pool in particular has to be just about the biggest I've ever seen; check out their web page.

More pictures, with captions and a slide show can be found in the Balinese Gallery.

 

 

 

 

The next place on our holiday was Australia.