Author |
Message |
Azriel
Member
08-01-2000
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 2:00 am
DAY ONE : We arrived in Bali on Friday afternoon. Our hotel entrance way is to the right of the Bali Bombing Memorial.
The hotel is 50 meters away from ground zero. It suffered a lot of damage in the blast, but it has all been repaired now. I heard a very sad story. The entrance to the hotel was blocked by flames and debris and badly burned people had to wait for 3 hours until rescuers knocked down a rear wall and were able to get in to help them. Here are a few pics of our hotel.
The hotel was about a 15 minute walk to Kuta beach.
As you can see, the beach is not exactly pristine. Kuta is one of the oldest developed parts of the island. It's the best surfing beach and the whole area is a bit overcrowded and shabby. The beach is filled with hawkers that surround you and try to sell you cokes and junk. There are a lot of expensive and beautiful resorts all over the island. I'm kind of glad that we didn't research too much and ended up on Kuta, though. I think we would have missed some of the real character and color of the island if we had stayed in some fancy area of Bali. Although, I have seen enough rowdy tattooed Australian surfers to last me for good while. The first night we went on a sunset dinner cruise on Benoa harbor. It was a lot of fun. They had a huge buffet and they had a cabaret show. The flash on the camera screwed up so I didn't get any good pics of the cruise. Here is a bad pic of the sunset.

|
Azriel
Member
08-01-2000
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 2:10 am
DAY TWO: On Saturday we got up early and had a great buffet lunch in the second floor open air balcony at the hotel. The breakfast was included in our room fee. (At first I said it was free and my bf said, 'Nothing is free') After we ate we went down to meet our tour guide for the day. It's very inexpensive to charter personal tours in Bali. For about $35 US we got our own personal guide who drove us around in an air-conditioned comfortable 4 wheel drive vehicle. Our guide was excellent! He was so friendly and knowledgable. We chose an 8 hour tour for the first day. We first went to a village about 30 minutes away from Kuta to see a rendition of a native dance, The Barong. It's like a little mini opera. It was very entertaining. Again, the pic is bad because my flash setting was screwed up.
We went up through the countryside headed for the volcano. We got a lot of beautiful pics of the terraced rice fields.
We arrived at Mt. Batur and had a buffet lunch at a restaurant that was hanging off the side of a cliff. These are pics we got of the volcano from the restaurant terrace.
Next, we went to see Goa Gajah, The Elephant Cave, near Ubud. When you first walk down the trail on the side of the cliff you can see a sunken courtyard with a pair of bathing pools. Legend has it that the pools were like a fountain of youth and bathing in them would keep you young. You can see a couple of silly tourist women about to stick their heads under one of the fountains in this pic. If you look at the gross green water in the pool, then you will understand why I didn't get any younger on this trip.
Here's a pic of my bf's mom standing in the mouth of the cave. The cave is carved into the cliff face and it is estimated to date back to at least the 11th century. The inside of the cave was not very big it had several small walkways that led to alcoves with statues of gods/goddesses. It was really amazing because the carving was so intricate.
We went to several local studios and saw wood carving and batik.
We got back to our hotel around 6pm and we were were really tired. We refreshed and went to the beach to the Bali Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. We had to have our purses searched and had a guy pass some kind of security wand all over us before we could enter the place. I got my nacho and fajita fix and then we went back to the hotel and I fell right to sleep.
|
Azriel
Member
08-01-2000
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 2:20 am
DAY THREE: Sunday we got up early again. We headed out with our same guide for a 10 hour tour up in the mountains. It was a day full of sheer terror for me. We careened around on narrow mountain roads that had no barriers on the side where you could just fall off with the wrong turn of the wheel. I am so afraid of heights. Our guide stopped frequently so we could get pics of the scenery. At this stop my bf and his mother got out and I stayed in the car with the guide. My bf took this pic.
When the farmer had made a turn and was coming back towards us my bf's mother was preparing to take a pic and the farmer stopped the cows and started waving at her. I told my guide,'How nice of him. He's stopped so she can get a good picture and and he is waving at her' The guide nearly rolled out of the car laughing. I said, 'What?!?' Between his laughter he told me that the farmer didn't stop, the cows stopped to take a piss. Errrmmm, doh! I felt even more stupid when my bf got in and told us the farmer was waving and yelling at his mom, 'No pictures, no pictures!' Here's a pic of a temple on the lake. I think it is the same temple that Tess put a pic of in her April 1st update.
From here we drove through the Monkey Forest. The monkeys were so cute! It was a bit sad because they hung out on the side of the road waiting for cars to stop and feed them something. I did feed them, but I felt bad because I knew that their habitat and natural feeding habits were being screwed up by humans.
We went to Git Git Falls next. We had to walk down a kazillion steps to the bottom of a cliff to see the falls. I was scared to death walking down. (They were an to walk back up, too. ) It was beautiful and we wished we had brought our swimsuits because there were people swimming in the pool at the base of the falls.
We also could have swam at our next stop at the Banjar Hot Springs. The water is supposed to have healing properties. Icky yellow water, no thank you.
The rest of the day we saw lots more beautiful countryside. It was all very breathtaking.
We came home and ate at a little restaurant close to the hotel. We slept in the next day and just walked around the stalls and stores on the streets close to the hotel until time to go to the airport. I had a great time and loved Bali.
|
Meme9
Member
07-30-2001
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 6:18 am
Looks and sounds like a great weekend!!!
|
Wink
Member
10-06-2000
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 8:24 am
Fantastic photos Az. Sounds like a wonderful and exotic trip.
|
Lucy
Member
10-08-2002
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 10:29 am
Thanks for sharing your beautiful pictures, Az. Glad you had such a good time!
|
Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 11:43 am
Gorgeous pics Az!! Looks like you had a fabulous trip.
|
Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 11:46 am
Wow, Az, those are beautiful pictures! Looks like you had a great time!
|
Hippyt
Member
09-10-2001
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 11:56 am
Wow,what a beautiful country! Thanks for sharing,Az.
|
Urgrace
Member
08-19-2000
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 1:10 pm
HisGrace wants to know how come there are only guys in bikinis instead of girls! Loved your pics, Az!
|
Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 2:10 pm
Thanks, Az. That was super. Really enjoyed both the narrative and the pictures. Glad you had a good time. Now I have to go to Bali. Did I mention we are coming to Thailand in November? Don't tell Tess, but I have to admit I have no idea where that is in relation to Singapore. We have a stopover in Taipei both coming and going. It is a package trip, however, with only a couple free days.
|
Azriel
Member
08-01-2000
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 6:47 pm
Juju, Thailand is above Malaysia and Malaysia is above Singapore. I wondered if you had been to Bali. I think you and Bigdog would love it. If you like Indonesian food and don't mind haggling or staying in a Comfort Inn type room then you can have an inexpensive trip there.
|
Scootersmom
Member
08-10-2002
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 6:56 pm
Hi Az! Thank you so much for sharing pics. Beautiful! So glad you had a wonderful time too
|
Tess
Member
04-13-2001
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 7:40 pm
I heard that, Juju! Spectacular, Az. Thanks so much for sharing. I love traveling with my TVCH buddies.
|
Abbynormal
Member
08-04-2001
| Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 11:42 pm
Just beautiful Az. (off to google Bali)
|
Sillycalimomma
Member
11-13-2003
| Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 11:44 pm
Oh, how beautiful! I feel like I went on vacation with you! What a great thread!
|
Mware
Member
09-14-2001
| Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 9:15 am
Azriel - I enjoyed seeing the pictures and reading your descriptions. Thank you for sharing them.
|
Lancecrossfire
Moderator
07-13-2000
| Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 11:46 am
Az, great pictures of your trip! I'd like to visit there some day--it seems like you really enjoyed your time there.
|
Reader234
Member
08-13-2000
| Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 12:04 pm
Wonderful pictures!! Gorgeous weather, great narratives, loved the farmer story!! A time you'll never forger!! Did you buy soveneirs? Is batik expensive there? Just curious, Thanks for sharing!!
|
Reiki
Member
08-12-2000
| Sunday, April 11, 2004 - 7:16 pm
Great pictures Az. Beautiful. That's a great picture of the sunset! I loved hearing about your trip. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
|
Azriel
Member
08-01-2000
| Sunday, April 11, 2004 - 7:39 pm
Reader, we bought a few souvenirs. You had to haggle for everything and it just got tiring, though. The first price they gave you was always at least twice as much as they actually expected you to pay, but you had to really be good at haggling to get them down to the good price. The batik wasn't expensive at all, but you had to be careful because they had manufactured goods mixed in with their handmade goods. The airport at Bali has more souvenir shops than any airport I've ever seen and we saw a lot of goods at the airport that looked exactly like the supposedly 'handmade' things we had seen in the shops.
|