Pulling Open Our Balinese Doors and Stepping Out.
Heat and humidity greet us this morning as we pull open our wooden Balinese doors and step out. We head up to the main pavilion for breakfast and see staff preparing for the start of a majour holiday in Bali. Small handwoven reed...
Up the Balinese Mountainside to Ubud
The street today is full of people – dramatically different to anything we’ve seen since we arrived. Nyepi is definitely over. We walk along and find an internet café to do web and email. We know what happens if we don’t...
The Barong and Kris Dance: Good vs Evil in Bali
Gadeh, who drove us to Ubud last week, and then back via Tanah Lot, arrives at 8:30 to pick us up. We are off for a day of touring Bali. Because of the somewhat ancient and torturous back roads of Bali, we teamed up with the good...
A Day of Dance in Bali
We awake to a simple but beautifully presented breakfast of fresh fruit, freshly squeezed orange and papaya juice and eggs, toast, and banana pancakes. We eat alfresco, with views of the morning rice field stretching out in front...
Wreck Dive: USS Liberty: Tulamben, Bali
We are picked up at 7:00 this morning at our hotel by Sophie, a charming young Frenchwoman, who owns a dive shop, just up the street called Safari Bali We are off to Tulamben, on the northeast coast, to dive. But more...
The Day of Silence – Happy Nyepi!
We were warned via email from Steve (a friend of Eric’s, who recommended the hotel that we are staying at) who lives in Jakarta, that we would be here for Nyepi. So we sort of knew what we were in for. But we don’t really know...
The Day After Nyepi: A Time for Family
The hotel is deserted this morning – everyone is out early after the enforced stay-at-home of the day before. We are also of a mind to get out and do more exploring and head out as soon as we finish breakfast. Although it is...
Over Morning Breakfast:
Over morning breakfast: The hotel is building two new bungalows next door to us and the buildings are erected but the finishing and terracing are all to be done. This is not a typical construction site with jack-hammers or...
Managing a Difficult Balinese Macaques Relationship
Ubud has a monkey (specifically Balinese Macaques) forest. We had gotten different opinions on whether it was worth a visit. Eric, in Sydney, was of the view that there were no point: “dirty, nasty, vile creatures”; Bev from...
Today Begins with Dinner Last Night
Today starts early – it starts at dinner last night, to be precise. The mise-en-scene: We returned yesterday to Seminyak, to the hotel we stayed in last weekend when we arrived in Bali. Our hotel is just off Jalan Dhyana Pura,...