1 - One of the two main bedrooms
2 - Our private pool
3 - View of pool/yard from opposite side
4 - Our porch with stairs leading to the second floor
5 - Dad and daughter on the beach
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Pictures - just a taste
Even borrowing my neighbor's wireless internet hasn't increased the speed for uploading images. I can't seem to obtain better than a 1 MB/sec upload speed. I'll spend sometime over the next few days determining which images to upload, and then resize them for faster posting. Below is a taste:
1 - One of the two main bedrooms
2 - Our private pool
3 - View of pool/yard from opposite side
4 - Our porch with stairs leading to the second floor
5 - Dad and daughter on the beach
1 - One of the two main bedrooms
2 - Our private pool
3 - View of pool/yard from opposite side
4 - Our porch with stairs leading to the second floor
5 - Dad and daughter on the beach
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Arrived in Jakarta
Just a quick note to let everyone know that we have arrived in Jakarta and are spending our first night in our new home. Internet and cable are not yet connected. Luckily, one of my neighbors has an unsecured wireless network I hopped on to post this message.
Interesting what we forgot to have available on our first night. We made sure to air-ship our clothes, my daughter's toys, etc. However, we have no pillows to sleep with tonight. DOH!
Tomorrow will be a very heavy shopping day - in addition to completing the immigration paperwork for my wife and daughter.
I'll post more tomorrow when I'm not so tired and have more time (and, hopefully, bandwidth).
Interesting what we forgot to have available on our first night. We made sure to air-ship our clothes, my daughter's toys, etc. However, we have no pillows to sleep with tonight. DOH!
Tomorrow will be a very heavy shopping day - in addition to completing the immigration paperwork for my wife and daughter.
I'll post more tomorrow when I'm not so tired and have more time (and, hopefully, bandwidth).
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday March 28
Okay, I finally found an internet connection. I was unaware that our hotel did not have one. Sorry if any of you were worrying. I've posted everything I would have posted over the last several days below - broken up by each day for easier reading. Start on Monday.
It is now Sunday afternoon. We will leave Bali Tuesday afternoon. I did hear about the dam breaking south of Jakarta. My new house is south of Jakarta, but not 70 miles, so I think it is safe. At this point, I have not been able to contact anyone I work with to determine if anyone on my staff has been affected or if I need to find new housing. I know the executive housing is even further south, but I doubt they were impacted, either.
Also, I have a lot of photos to upload, but the connection I'm on is a free wi-fi in a coffee shop and the one picture I did load took 2 minutes, so I'll share the pictures when I have a faster connection - sorry to keep you waiting. The pictures are beautiful!
It is now Sunday afternoon. We will leave Bali Tuesday afternoon. I did hear about the dam breaking south of Jakarta. My new house is south of Jakarta, but not 70 miles, so I think it is safe. At this point, I have not been able to contact anyone I work with to determine if anyone on my staff has been affected or if I need to find new housing. I know the executive housing is even further south, but I doubt they were impacted, either.
Also, I have a lot of photos to upload, but the connection I'm on is a free wi-fi in a coffee shop and the one picture I did load took 2 minutes, so I'll share the pictures when I have a faster connection - sorry to keep you waiting. The pictures are beautiful!
Saturday March 28 - Ubud, Kintamanti and Uluwatu
Today was the busiest day we've had and will have for the whole trip. We saw much of Bali, and had several unique experiences along the way. Many of the places we visited sound like they are straight from a Dr. Seuss book - Ubud, Tampaksiring, Kintamani and Uluwatu.
After a quick breakfast, we loaded into the car with Eddie and took the 90 minute ride to Ubud (ew-bewd). Ubud is famous for its Monkey Forest. I was picturing something along the lines of the monkey walk we have at the Phoenix zoo where little monkeys the size of your fist jump from tree to tree in an open environment. Not so at Ubud. These monkeys are the size of small dogs and aggressive! We paid the nominal entry fee for tourists (our driver did not have to pay) and also bought a few bunches of bananas. Those monkeys saw us coming and rushed towards us. Initially, they would stop, stand up, and put out their hands. If I didn't put something in it fast enough, they would pull at my shorts. One even continued to do so as I walked away from it. Others got even bolder. One rushed up and tried to take a whole bunch from me instead of just a single banana. Another jumped on my wife's shoulder and tried to pull her bag away. If our driver had not rushed to her aid and swatted at the monkey with a thin stick (like a switch), the monkey would have run off with her purse - and our cameras, money, passports, etc.
The monkeys are all sacred at the particular temple in this forest. Monkeys are one of the manifestations of one of the Hindu gods, and they are worshipped at this temple. The temple itself is shrouded by the forest canopy. Very little sunlight reaches the temple grounds, which is mostly moss covered. Several of the worshippers brought offerings for the monkeys while we were there, and the large offerings (feedings) resulted both in feeding frenzies and fights. My daughter was very nervous when they began fighting. When they weren't fighting each other, trying to steal purses, or rip the dress off of other women (my driver was the hero during that attack, too), they could be quite docile. Another family had a monkey climb up on their daughter's shoulder and begin grooming her hair. Great experience.
On the walk back to the car we stopped in to some of the shops which line the streets. There is no such thing as a fixed price in these shops, so haggling is a requirement of shopping. I don't think we got a good deal on the clothes - 4 shirts for $20, and I know we got a great deal on the paintings. My daughter found three paintings she really liked. When I asked the shop keeper how much, she said 200,000 IDR ($20) each. I told her I was willing to pay 25,000 IDR ($2.50) each. The boldest price cut I've ever made. She said no way, one is 200,000, but she was willing to offer all three for 400,000. I told her 75,000 for the set was all I was willing to do. When she came down to 300,000 for the set, I knew I had her - she was coming down faster than I was going up (I wasn't moving). I said 100,000 for the set and that was my final offer. She came down to 200,000 - a full 2/3 cheaper than her initial price. At that point, I thanked her for her time and had everyone leave the shop. I was, intentionally, the last to leave, and before my second foot could leave her floor, she said "okay, 100,000". She then started cursing me in Bahasa under her breath. My Bahasa has much improved over the last few days, so I know the gist of her comments were "Americans! They have all that money and are stingy with it!" She didn't smile at me when she thanked me for my purchase. That's how I know I got a great deal.
I originally asked my driver to help haggle so that I would get the local price, not the "bule" price. That didn't work so great. He indicated the quality wasn't very good. I agreed, but did not want to get high quality as a gift for my daughter. After we left that shop, he took us to "Semal Kuning", an artist's compound and school just outside of Ubud. The paintings here were spectacular and of extremely high quality. These are the types of paintings you would expect to see in the finest galleries in Sedona. One of the artists was our tour guide and was there to offer assistance on a purchase. When my wife asked what paintings cost, he said "first you must find one that you actually like, then we can worry about what things cost - anything is possible". In other words, prepare to haggle. I've always wanted to begin a high-quality art collection and invest in some fine artwork. I took this opportunity to do so and spent more an art than I ever have. We bought 5 paintings - 2 small ones with frames, 2 medium size with frames, and, the piece that will become a talking point in our house, a 5 foot by 3 foot canvas of a Balinese farming scene. Because of what we actually paid, I'm not going to provide the actual pricing details. What I will say is that I bought all 5 for less than half the quoted price of the large one (others there were "advising" us that they were able to buy their pieces at half the quoted price), or 64% off the list price. I probably could have done better, but I am happy with what we paid. We also ended up buying one of the paintings by the person showing us around. He was pleased with that.
It was only 10:30 in the morning after we had made our art purchase. I didn't have anything else in mind to do other than see a fire-dance ceremony - Kecak (kuh-chahk) - at sunset. It was also too early for lunch. Our driver recommended he take us to Kintamanti. He said it was the "best view in Bali". We - the happy tourists - had our camera's ready and a full day with no plans, so we willing obliged his recommenation. The trip from Ubud to Kintamanti was about 40 minutes. We drove through several villages along the way. The most memorable was the village of Tempaksiring (tum-pahk-see-ring). The Nyepi holiday that all of Bali celebrated on Thursday continues with several more days of festivities, terminating on Sunday. As we drove through Tempaksiring, the processions I had thought we would see at Kuta beach were walking through the streets of this much smaller village. The entire town dressed in bright white shirts and black, red, and white checkered skirts. A few were dressed in a dragon costume - much like you see during a Chinese New Year celebration - and others played musical instruments. We drove past it and took as many pictures as we could.
When we arrived at Kintamanti, it was not, as I had expected, a cliff overlooking the ocean, or even a magnificent view of the several plateaus of rice patties we passed on our way up. Kintamanti was the top of Bali's active volcano! The air at the top was 15-20 degrees cooler than at sea-level, so I'm sure we had climbed at least 5,000 feet. Inside the volcano was a lake, the volcano's newly forming cone, and blackened earth obviously created from its most recent eruption. Amazingly, there was also hundreds of buildings along the lake shore, and the restaurant we ate lunch at hung on the outer wall of the original caldera, giving us a spectacular view of the volcano floor. Thankfully, we did not see any lava flows or feel any pre-eruption tremblors. It was still an amazing experience and the closest I've ever been to an active volcano.
We were done with lunch around 2 PM - still 4 hours to kill. We drove back to another art gallery in Ubud - this one specializing in wood carvings. I'm glad we went to the paintings first, or I would have spent far too much money on wood carvings that I would have had to figure out how to ship to our new home when I don't know my local address. When we return to Bali, I'm sure we will return to this gallery and buy more than we did - a small Buddha statue and a Mattisse-esque man-woman embracing carving. The most impressive carvings they had were wood sconces with elaborate scenes - one of them being the Last Supper. No haggling at this shop, everything was fixed price...though I did try.
We finished there at 3 PM, and had a 2 hour drive to Uluwatu to see the Kecak ceremony at sunset. Uluwatu was far more than I had expected - both in terms of the experience and the cost. I had to pay three times - once to park, once to enter the temple grounds, and once to see the ceremony. Based on what I paid, and the 540 people I estimated attended the ceremony, this site makes $20,000 a day from tourists. Not bad, and well worth the expense.
I thought Uluwatu was going to be a casual beach environment, probably a number of tourist trap shops, where we would watch the fire-dance display. It turned out to be an amazing large temple, built on cliffs at the western end of Bali. When I bought tickets to the temple grounds, they provided everyone with a yellow belt, and my wife and I with a skirt to wear because our shorts were not modest enough (mine were just above my knee cap), and we had to wear covering to our mid-calf to show respect to the gods. Once again, monkeys had a large presence at this temple, and these guys were far more aggressive. Unlike at Ubud, signs here warned us to protect our belongings - glasses, caps, cameras. As we climbed the steps to the top of the temple, we encountered monkeys with water bottles they had obviously snatched from a tourist. At the top of the temple, we watched as a monkey reached out and grabbed a hair scrunchy right off a woman's head, removing her pony-tail. It then proceeded to try and eat it, though it did not look as if it was enjoying the taste. As we descended the steps to head to the seating area for the ceremony, we heard another guy screaming and chasing a monkey who had jumped out of the trees and snatched his sunglasses from the top of his head and ran to another tree where it proceeded to try on the glasses first, and then, once again, try to eat them. The walk from the temple to where they held the ceremony was a narrow walkway at the edge of the cliff. Monkeys sat on the wall on the right side and hung from the trees on the left. The walk was both comical and unnerving. As you passed each monkey, you were glad you were not the first to pass by. The first monkey was wearing a chewed up baseball cap. The second monkey had another hair-scrunchy. The third monkey was trying on an elastic head-band and having a tough time with it.
The Kecak ceremony is the retelling of one of the stories of the Ramayana. The beautiful "Sinta" is captured, through trickery, by the evil Monkey King. Her husband sends the White Monkey to rescue her. The story begins by a group of 42 men (usually 72, but I only counted 42) singing and chanting in a circle around a statue with several flames. They sing and chant rhythmically for a long time. Then, the story is told through interpretive dance while the men continue singing and chanting. At the end of the story, they set big piles of long grasses on fire and the white monkey kicks them, barefoot, into the air. It's really quite spectacular, though the chanting and dancing leading up to it gets quite monotonous and, dare I say, boring. The Kecak ceremony ended at 7 PM, and we were back at the hotel by 8 PM. My daughter and I went for a late swim while my wife and her mother went and bought pizza for dinner at the Pizza Hut at the entrance to our hotel.
We only have 2 more full days in Bali, and a full morning. We will likely spend the rest of our time lounging at either the beach of the pool. These last two days have been very busy and very exhausting. Time to relax again.
After a quick breakfast, we loaded into the car with Eddie and took the 90 minute ride to Ubud (ew-bewd). Ubud is famous for its Monkey Forest. I was picturing something along the lines of the monkey walk we have at the Phoenix zoo where little monkeys the size of your fist jump from tree to tree in an open environment. Not so at Ubud. These monkeys are the size of small dogs and aggressive! We paid the nominal entry fee for tourists (our driver did not have to pay) and also bought a few bunches of bananas. Those monkeys saw us coming and rushed towards us. Initially, they would stop, stand up, and put out their hands. If I didn't put something in it fast enough, they would pull at my shorts. One even continued to do so as I walked away from it. Others got even bolder. One rushed up and tried to take a whole bunch from me instead of just a single banana. Another jumped on my wife's shoulder and tried to pull her bag away. If our driver had not rushed to her aid and swatted at the monkey with a thin stick (like a switch), the monkey would have run off with her purse - and our cameras, money, passports, etc.
The monkeys are all sacred at the particular temple in this forest. Monkeys are one of the manifestations of one of the Hindu gods, and they are worshipped at this temple. The temple itself is shrouded by the forest canopy. Very little sunlight reaches the temple grounds, which is mostly moss covered. Several of the worshippers brought offerings for the monkeys while we were there, and the large offerings (feedings) resulted both in feeding frenzies and fights. My daughter was very nervous when they began fighting. When they weren't fighting each other, trying to steal purses, or rip the dress off of other women (my driver was the hero during that attack, too), they could be quite docile. Another family had a monkey climb up on their daughter's shoulder and begin grooming her hair. Great experience.
On the walk back to the car we stopped in to some of the shops which line the streets. There is no such thing as a fixed price in these shops, so haggling is a requirement of shopping. I don't think we got a good deal on the clothes - 4 shirts for $20, and I know we got a great deal on the paintings. My daughter found three paintings she really liked. When I asked the shop keeper how much, she said 200,000 IDR ($20) each. I told her I was willing to pay 25,000 IDR ($2.50) each. The boldest price cut I've ever made. She said no way, one is 200,000, but she was willing to offer all three for 400,000. I told her 75,000 for the set was all I was willing to do. When she came down to 300,000 for the set, I knew I had her - she was coming down faster than I was going up (I wasn't moving). I said 100,000 for the set and that was my final offer. She came down to 200,000 - a full 2/3 cheaper than her initial price. At that point, I thanked her for her time and had everyone leave the shop. I was, intentionally, the last to leave, and before my second foot could leave her floor, she said "okay, 100,000". She then started cursing me in Bahasa under her breath. My Bahasa has much improved over the last few days, so I know the gist of her comments were "Americans! They have all that money and are stingy with it!" She didn't smile at me when she thanked me for my purchase. That's how I know I got a great deal.
I originally asked my driver to help haggle so that I would get the local price, not the "bule" price. That didn't work so great. He indicated the quality wasn't very good. I agreed, but did not want to get high quality as a gift for my daughter. After we left that shop, he took us to "Semal Kuning", an artist's compound and school just outside of Ubud. The paintings here were spectacular and of extremely high quality. These are the types of paintings you would expect to see in the finest galleries in Sedona. One of the artists was our tour guide and was there to offer assistance on a purchase. When my wife asked what paintings cost, he said "first you must find one that you actually like, then we can worry about what things cost - anything is possible". In other words, prepare to haggle. I've always wanted to begin a high-quality art collection and invest in some fine artwork. I took this opportunity to do so and spent more an art than I ever have. We bought 5 paintings - 2 small ones with frames, 2 medium size with frames, and, the piece that will become a talking point in our house, a 5 foot by 3 foot canvas of a Balinese farming scene. Because of what we actually paid, I'm not going to provide the actual pricing details. What I will say is that I bought all 5 for less than half the quoted price of the large one (others there were "advising" us that they were able to buy their pieces at half the quoted price), or 64% off the list price. I probably could have done better, but I am happy with what we paid. We also ended up buying one of the paintings by the person showing us around. He was pleased with that.
It was only 10:30 in the morning after we had made our art purchase. I didn't have anything else in mind to do other than see a fire-dance ceremony - Kecak (kuh-chahk) - at sunset. It was also too early for lunch. Our driver recommended he take us to Kintamanti. He said it was the "best view in Bali". We - the happy tourists - had our camera's ready and a full day with no plans, so we willing obliged his recommenation. The trip from Ubud to Kintamanti was about 40 minutes. We drove through several villages along the way. The most memorable was the village of Tempaksiring (tum-pahk-see-ring). The Nyepi holiday that all of Bali celebrated on Thursday continues with several more days of festivities, terminating on Sunday. As we drove through Tempaksiring, the processions I had thought we would see at Kuta beach were walking through the streets of this much smaller village. The entire town dressed in bright white shirts and black, red, and white checkered skirts. A few were dressed in a dragon costume - much like you see during a Chinese New Year celebration - and others played musical instruments. We drove past it and took as many pictures as we could.
When we arrived at Kintamanti, it was not, as I had expected, a cliff overlooking the ocean, or even a magnificent view of the several plateaus of rice patties we passed on our way up. Kintamanti was the top of Bali's active volcano! The air at the top was 15-20 degrees cooler than at sea-level, so I'm sure we had climbed at least 5,000 feet. Inside the volcano was a lake, the volcano's newly forming cone, and blackened earth obviously created from its most recent eruption. Amazingly, there was also hundreds of buildings along the lake shore, and the restaurant we ate lunch at hung on the outer wall of the original caldera, giving us a spectacular view of the volcano floor. Thankfully, we did not see any lava flows or feel any pre-eruption tremblors. It was still an amazing experience and the closest I've ever been to an active volcano.
We were done with lunch around 2 PM - still 4 hours to kill. We drove back to another art gallery in Ubud - this one specializing in wood carvings. I'm glad we went to the paintings first, or I would have spent far too much money on wood carvings that I would have had to figure out how to ship to our new home when I don't know my local address. When we return to Bali, I'm sure we will return to this gallery and buy more than we did - a small Buddha statue and a Mattisse-esque man-woman embracing carving. The most impressive carvings they had were wood sconces with elaborate scenes - one of them being the Last Supper. No haggling at this shop, everything was fixed price...though I did try.
We finished there at 3 PM, and had a 2 hour drive to Uluwatu to see the Kecak ceremony at sunset. Uluwatu was far more than I had expected - both in terms of the experience and the cost. I had to pay three times - once to park, once to enter the temple grounds, and once to see the ceremony. Based on what I paid, and the 540 people I estimated attended the ceremony, this site makes $20,000 a day from tourists. Not bad, and well worth the expense.
I thought Uluwatu was going to be a casual beach environment, probably a number of tourist trap shops, where we would watch the fire-dance display. It turned out to be an amazing large temple, built on cliffs at the western end of Bali. When I bought tickets to the temple grounds, they provided everyone with a yellow belt, and my wife and I with a skirt to wear because our shorts were not modest enough (mine were just above my knee cap), and we had to wear covering to our mid-calf to show respect to the gods. Once again, monkeys had a large presence at this temple, and these guys were far more aggressive. Unlike at Ubud, signs here warned us to protect our belongings - glasses, caps, cameras. As we climbed the steps to the top of the temple, we encountered monkeys with water bottles they had obviously snatched from a tourist. At the top of the temple, we watched as a monkey reached out and grabbed a hair scrunchy right off a woman's head, removing her pony-tail. It then proceeded to try and eat it, though it did not look as if it was enjoying the taste. As we descended the steps to head to the seating area for the ceremony, we heard another guy screaming and chasing a monkey who had jumped out of the trees and snatched his sunglasses from the top of his head and ran to another tree where it proceeded to try on the glasses first, and then, once again, try to eat them. The walk from the temple to where they held the ceremony was a narrow walkway at the edge of the cliff. Monkeys sat on the wall on the right side and hung from the trees on the left. The walk was both comical and unnerving. As you passed each monkey, you were glad you were not the first to pass by. The first monkey was wearing a chewed up baseball cap. The second monkey had another hair-scrunchy. The third monkey was trying on an elastic head-band and having a tough time with it.
The Kecak ceremony is the retelling of one of the stories of the Ramayana. The beautiful "Sinta" is captured, through trickery, by the evil Monkey King. Her husband sends the White Monkey to rescue her. The story begins by a group of 42 men (usually 72, but I only counted 42) singing and chanting in a circle around a statue with several flames. They sing and chant rhythmically for a long time. Then, the story is told through interpretive dance while the men continue singing and chanting. At the end of the story, they set big piles of long grasses on fire and the white monkey kicks them, barefoot, into the air. It's really quite spectacular, though the chanting and dancing leading up to it gets quite monotonous and, dare I say, boring. The Kecak ceremony ended at 7 PM, and we were back at the hotel by 8 PM. My daughter and I went for a late swim while my wife and her mother went and bought pizza for dinner at the Pizza Hut at the entrance to our hotel.
We only have 2 more full days in Bali, and a full morning. We will likely spend the rest of our time lounging at either the beach of the pool. These last two days have been very busy and very exhausting. Time to relax again.
Friday March 27 - Safari Park
Today we rented a car and a driver from the brother-in-law of my contact at our vendor. Don't know if I got a "deal" or not, and don't really care as the car including driver was $40 for the full day. We'll also be using the same company and driver tomorrow.
The driver arrives and introduces himself as "Eddie" and explains that his English is "not so good". I'm sure it will be far more sufficient than our needs will require - I mean, we're not planning a diplomatic dinner, just a tour of the area. As long as he knows "Safari Park", "Hotel", "Toilet", "Dinner", etc, we'll be fine.
When I head Bali had a Safari Park, I was anticipating something similar to the one I experienced in Jakarta - drive through with your own car, close interactions with the animals, etc. One of my colleagues - the same one who recommended the hotel - also had indicated that the Safari Park in Bali was superior to the one in Jakarta. On this, I will have to respectfully disagree - at least from an adult experience. I did not visit the "theme park" area of the Safari Park in Jakarta, so the water park portion in Bali could quite easily have tipped the scales for him to favor the Bali version.
Safari Park was, by far, the smallest zoo I've ever been to. Probably half the size of the Phoenix zoo and smaller still than John Ball Park in Grand Rapids. Unlike both of those zoos, and like Jakarta, it had animal interactions with unlikely animals - a full grown lion, a full grown tiger, full grown leopard and a baby orangutan. I took my picture with the lion, my mother-in-law with the tiger, and my daughter and wife with the orangutan - though my daughter wasn't so sure she enjoyed it at the time.
Whereas the Jakarta park allows you to drive your own car the Bali park has a bus that you board and they drive you among the animals. You'll still get closer to the animals than you will in most zoos in the US, but it wasn't the same as the Jakarta Safari Park. We'll have to do that when we return.
One of the highlights of the visit was the interactions with the elephants. My daughter and I bought some carrots that we fed to an elephant and my daughter pet the sleeping elephant baby. We also attended an elephant show in which I volunteered to go up on stage and be a participant. My role, along with four other volunteers, was to lie on the ground as the elephant walked over us, pretending to trip at each person. While I was laying on the ground, and the elephant started walking towards us, I heard my daughter yell from the audience: "Be careful daddy, the elephant is going to get you!".
After the elephant finished tripping over us, she took a flowered lei and placed it around our necks with her trunk. When it was all over, as I walked back to my seat, my daughter yelled "Great job daddy!" - she was quite proud that I would face the elephant.
When we finished with the zoo, we went to the water park. The water park had around 7 0r 8 water slides varying in size from one you would see by a back yard swimming pool to one half the size you would see at Sun Splash, Wet 'n' Wild, Splash, or Big Sur (depending on what state you are in and reading this). Initially, my daughter was hesitant to ride any but the small ones. Mommy and daddy did not have their swimsuits, so one would walk with her to the top, and the other would stand in the knee-deep water at the bottom to catch her. Eventually, the small ones got boring for me, so I decided it was time for her to be brave. We started with a tunnel slide that had two twists. She screamed bloody murder when I put her in the top of slide, and pushed her. By the time she reached the bottom 5 seconds later she was screaming with laughter and demanding to go again. We did this a while, eventually using all of the slides from the small section.
After a few moments letting her run and swim in the shallow pool, I asked if she wanted to try the big one. She said yes. So, we walked the four flights of stairs to the top and mommy stood at the bottom. This was a big one. It had four turns and probably dropped 40 feet - at least 30 feet. When we got to the top, she wasn't sure she wanted to go down anymore. I looked at her and said "you brought me all the way up here, you are going to give it a try". Before she could object, I pushed her. She loved every minute of it and, after a few more times of us helping her, she decided we were an unnecessary part of the equation and climbed to the top by herself, climbed into the slide and slid down on her own!
On the way home from the park, we stopped at a grocery store to buy some more suntan lotion, water, and a few bits of food to snack on. This was, and always is, much cheaper than buying things at the restaurant or the hotel. It is also why I prefer to have a driver than to be on a tour bus. I first learned this when I took a cruise by myself for spring break one year in college. When I disembarked in Barbados, I rented a taxi for the day and saw the whole island for 1/3 the price it would have cost me for a tour to see half the island - and I got to go at my own pace.
In the evening, we left my daughter with Grandma and my wife and I went and had a nice, quiet dinner by the beach. We still hit the sack by 9 PM and were fast asleep shortly thereafter.
The driver arrives and introduces himself as "Eddie" and explains that his English is "not so good". I'm sure it will be far more sufficient than our needs will require - I mean, we're not planning a diplomatic dinner, just a tour of the area. As long as he knows "Safari Park", "Hotel", "Toilet", "Dinner", etc, we'll be fine.
When I head Bali had a Safari Park, I was anticipating something similar to the one I experienced in Jakarta - drive through with your own car, close interactions with the animals, etc. One of my colleagues - the same one who recommended the hotel - also had indicated that the Safari Park in Bali was superior to the one in Jakarta. On this, I will have to respectfully disagree - at least from an adult experience. I did not visit the "theme park" area of the Safari Park in Jakarta, so the water park portion in Bali could quite easily have tipped the scales for him to favor the Bali version.
Safari Park was, by far, the smallest zoo I've ever been to. Probably half the size of the Phoenix zoo and smaller still than John Ball Park in Grand Rapids. Unlike both of those zoos, and like Jakarta, it had animal interactions with unlikely animals - a full grown lion, a full grown tiger, full grown leopard and a baby orangutan. I took my picture with the lion, my mother-in-law with the tiger, and my daughter and wife with the orangutan - though my daughter wasn't so sure she enjoyed it at the time.
Whereas the Jakarta park allows you to drive your own car the Bali park has a bus that you board and they drive you among the animals. You'll still get closer to the animals than you will in most zoos in the US, but it wasn't the same as the Jakarta Safari Park. We'll have to do that when we return.
One of the highlights of the visit was the interactions with the elephants. My daughter and I bought some carrots that we fed to an elephant and my daughter pet the sleeping elephant baby. We also attended an elephant show in which I volunteered to go up on stage and be a participant. My role, along with four other volunteers, was to lie on the ground as the elephant walked over us, pretending to trip at each person. While I was laying on the ground, and the elephant started walking towards us, I heard my daughter yell from the audience: "Be careful daddy, the elephant is going to get you!".
After the elephant finished tripping over us, she took a flowered lei and placed it around our necks with her trunk. When it was all over, as I walked back to my seat, my daughter yelled "Great job daddy!" - she was quite proud that I would face the elephant.
When we finished with the zoo, we went to the water park. The water park had around 7 0r 8 water slides varying in size from one you would see by a back yard swimming pool to one half the size you would see at Sun Splash, Wet 'n' Wild, Splash, or Big Sur (depending on what state you are in and reading this). Initially, my daughter was hesitant to ride any but the small ones. Mommy and daddy did not have their swimsuits, so one would walk with her to the top, and the other would stand in the knee-deep water at the bottom to catch her. Eventually, the small ones got boring for me, so I decided it was time for her to be brave. We started with a tunnel slide that had two twists. She screamed bloody murder when I put her in the top of slide, and pushed her. By the time she reached the bottom 5 seconds later she was screaming with laughter and demanding to go again. We did this a while, eventually using all of the slides from the small section.
After a few moments letting her run and swim in the shallow pool, I asked if she wanted to try the big one. She said yes. So, we walked the four flights of stairs to the top and mommy stood at the bottom. This was a big one. It had four turns and probably dropped 40 feet - at least 30 feet. When we got to the top, she wasn't sure she wanted to go down anymore. I looked at her and said "you brought me all the way up here, you are going to give it a try". Before she could object, I pushed her. She loved every minute of it and, after a few more times of us helping her, she decided we were an unnecessary part of the equation and climbed to the top by herself, climbed into the slide and slid down on her own!
On the way home from the park, we stopped at a grocery store to buy some more suntan lotion, water, and a few bits of food to snack on. This was, and always is, much cheaper than buying things at the restaurant or the hotel. It is also why I prefer to have a driver than to be on a tour bus. I first learned this when I took a cruise by myself for spring break one year in college. When I disembarked in Barbados, I rented a taxi for the day and saw the whole island for 1/3 the price it would have cost me for a tour to see half the island - and I got to go at my own pace.
In the evening, we left my daughter with Grandma and my wife and I went and had a nice, quiet dinner by the beach. We still hit the sack by 9 PM and were fast asleep shortly thereafter.
Thursday, March 26 - Nyepi
Today, starting at 5 AM is the Nyepi celebration. We awake shortly after 5 AM and wait around the villa until breakfast opens at 6 AM. We join a few others at the hotel restaurant for a buffet breakfast. There is an obvious stillness in the air and all is quiet save for a few murmured conversations around the restaurant. The strict rules for Nyepi are obviously having the desired effect.
We spend the day doing the only things we can - eating, reading and swimming. My daughter is learning to be quite daring and stretch the skills learned in her swimming lessons to new levels. At the age of 2, though she'll be 3 in June, she has begun swimming underwater, coming up for air, and then continuing. She can also swim on her back with her head above water the whole time, taking breaths as she swims. Once we achieved these milestones, I had her jump from the wall into the water, turn around and swim back to the wall and climb out. We were all quite amazed at her swimming accomplishments.
Not much happened today, so I'll take some time and elaborate on the hotel. I long ago realized that opinions - of people, events, places, etc - depend heavily on expectations. Prior to coming to Bali, I did some research online of both the Aneka Kuta - the hotel we're staying at - and the Putra Bali - the hotel the travel agency initially scheduled us in. As expected, both hotels had 5 star ratings and 1 star ratings from prior guests. The rating is never as important to me as the comments the guests leave. Based on what I read, I came to Aneka Kuta expecting it to be a little rustic, with island charm. To a great extent, it has met that expectation. In some areas, it has exceeded expectations. In others, drastically failed to meet expectations.
1) The bathrooms are very old fashioned and plain. A far cry from what we experienced at the JW Marriott though not much different from an experience at a Days Inn except that the toilet handle does not return to its original position so you have to remember to do that so the toilet doesn't run, we had a poisonous millipede in our shower that I had to kill and dispose of, and it does not have any air conditioning, so it is quite hot during the day.
2) The restaurant is mediocre. We eat breakfast there every day because it is included with our room... and we don't know where else we could go. Same three options - Continental, American and Indonesian - available every day. Not much variation between the three options, either.
3) The pools are beautiful. This was to expectation. Everyone raved about how nice the pools were, and they are, indeed, very nice. This includes the main hotel pool and the private pool in our villa.
4) Our villa has stray cats. The entire grounds do. We first noticed them the day we arrived. Two tiny kittens under fed and malnourished. One of them we think died while we were here as it just disappeared. The other one my mother-in-law decided to feed and it seemed to get healthy enough to go somewhere else to look for food as we haven't seen it back in our villa but have seen it elsewhere.
5) Our villa has two levels. The second level covers only a portion of the ground floor, but the roof covers the whole building, including the porch. This leaves a fairly large area under the roof over the first level. At night, we would hear animals running across our bedroom ceiling. We later discovered this to be a family of bats. Pretty creepy.
6) The linens are a dingy gray and very thin. My wife ended up buying pillow cases for her and my daughter to use. I was fine with what the hotel provides.
7) We're pretty sure we heard a dog killed in a less than humane way for the restaurant behind the hotel.
The grounds of the villa are definitely 5-star. I would say the rooms themselves are, too. The service and the linens, however, are not. This can be a great hotel, or a horrible hotel, depending on your expectations. I would return, my wife would not.
We spend the day doing the only things we can - eating, reading and swimming. My daughter is learning to be quite daring and stretch the skills learned in her swimming lessons to new levels. At the age of 2, though she'll be 3 in June, she has begun swimming underwater, coming up for air, and then continuing. She can also swim on her back with her head above water the whole time, taking breaths as she swims. Once we achieved these milestones, I had her jump from the wall into the water, turn around and swim back to the wall and climb out. We were all quite amazed at her swimming accomplishments.
Not much happened today, so I'll take some time and elaborate on the hotel. I long ago realized that opinions - of people, events, places, etc - depend heavily on expectations. Prior to coming to Bali, I did some research online of both the Aneka Kuta - the hotel we're staying at - and the Putra Bali - the hotel the travel agency initially scheduled us in. As expected, both hotels had 5 star ratings and 1 star ratings from prior guests. The rating is never as important to me as the comments the guests leave. Based on what I read, I came to Aneka Kuta expecting it to be a little rustic, with island charm. To a great extent, it has met that expectation. In some areas, it has exceeded expectations. In others, drastically failed to meet expectations.
1) The bathrooms are very old fashioned and plain. A far cry from what we experienced at the JW Marriott though not much different from an experience at a Days Inn except that the toilet handle does not return to its original position so you have to remember to do that so the toilet doesn't run, we had a poisonous millipede in our shower that I had to kill and dispose of, and it does not have any air conditioning, so it is quite hot during the day.
2) The restaurant is mediocre. We eat breakfast there every day because it is included with our room... and we don't know where else we could go. Same three options - Continental, American and Indonesian - available every day. Not much variation between the three options, either.
3) The pools are beautiful. This was to expectation. Everyone raved about how nice the pools were, and they are, indeed, very nice. This includes the main hotel pool and the private pool in our villa.
4) Our villa has stray cats. The entire grounds do. We first noticed them the day we arrived. Two tiny kittens under fed and malnourished. One of them we think died while we were here as it just disappeared. The other one my mother-in-law decided to feed and it seemed to get healthy enough to go somewhere else to look for food as we haven't seen it back in our villa but have seen it elsewhere.
5) Our villa has two levels. The second level covers only a portion of the ground floor, but the roof covers the whole building, including the porch. This leaves a fairly large area under the roof over the first level. At night, we would hear animals running across our bedroom ceiling. We later discovered this to be a family of bats. Pretty creepy.
6) The linens are a dingy gray and very thin. My wife ended up buying pillow cases for her and my daughter to use. I was fine with what the hotel provides.
7) We're pretty sure we heard a dog killed in a less than humane way for the restaurant behind the hotel.
The grounds of the villa are definitely 5-star. I would say the rooms themselves are, too. The service and the linens, however, are not. This can be a great hotel, or a horrible hotel, depending on your expectations. I would return, my wife would not.
Wednesday March 25
Wednesday is our first full day in Bali. After an early morning breakfast, we head to the beach by 9 AM. Being this close the equator (like, on it), and having it be our first day in the sun, I don't want to spend the most intense sunlight hours (10 - 2) outside. Once again, we find the beach virtually deserted, and are quickly surrounded by the local solicitors plying their wares on an all too eager audience. My daughter tries to build a sand castle, without much luck. I build her one which she summarily destroys immediately upon completion. So, I content my self with digging her a hole to the water-line that she can play and splash in while I take a quick, 15 minute run along the beach. This turns out to be a big mistake, however, as I run barefoot and the sharp, stony sand of Kuta beach exfoliates my toes to the point of reddish soreness.
We leave the beach and head into the main part of town for lunch. We are looking for something resembling authentic Balinese cuisine and, oddly enough, end up at another westernized hotel. The main road in Kuta has several restaurants and shops, though they all have a western flair - KFC, The Good Bean, Starbucks - and none met our desired intent. The hotel looked upscale and authentic, and we did not know it was a hotel until we were walking to our seats at the outdoor restaurant. Still trying to set the example of sampling the cultural cuisine, I ordered a dish with fried vegetables, sesame beef and white rice. My wife, daughter and mother-in-law all ordered pizza. So much for diversity.
After lunch, we returned to our hotel and my daughter and I spent sometime swimming at the hotel pool while my wife and her mother returned to the villa to rest and relax by our private pool. My daughter and I joined them after an hour or so and started making plans for the evening. In the middle of the conversation, our phone rang. Today I had planned to have lunch with one of our primary vendors who have their headquarters in Bali. I provided them with my cell phone number so they could contact me and we could confirm the time and location. Unfortunately, on the flight over, my cell phone becamed locked and my daughter was playing with and subsequently lost the piece of paper with my pin number on it. Without internet access at the hotel, I had no way of emailing anyone to ask for the pin. So, when our vendor couldn't reach me, they called my office, who then became worried about our safety and called the hotel. Made us feel pretty special that they would go out of their way with concern over us. They provided me my pin, and I was able to converse with my vendor and reset plans for Monday. Turns out my pin was 1234 (DOH!).
Tonight was supposed to be the Ogoh-Ogoh festival. During Ogoh-ogoh, all of the local villages create totems of their demons and, in elaborate parades, march through the streets and eventually burn them in a dancing ritual. We were really looking forward to it. We had asked around at the hotel and some of the restaurants on the best location to see the rituals and everyone indicated Kuta beach would be a good place. When I spoke with my vendor, however, he indicated that after the recent elections, the new government banned it. We held out hope, however, and made our way down to Kuta beach to watch the sunset, and lingered as long as we felt prudent (as the rest of the crowd cleared out) before determining that, indeed, there would be no ceremony.
We also learned - thanks to a note from the hotel, my conversation with my vendor, and some comments made by my staff before leaving - that the rules of Nyepi are quite strictly adhered to. It is considered a day of silence, and no one is expected to be out on the street, the beach, etc during this time. In fact, the hotel informed us we are not allowed to leave the grounds and from 5 AM Thursday morning until 5 AM Friday morning, we should use any lights sparingly and none that can be viewed from outside the grounds. In fact, they had to obtain an exception from the government to allow them to even have lights and serve food in the restaurant - the latter of which closed promptly at 6 PM. We'll see how it goes, though everything seemed to shut down quite early this evening in preparation.
We leave the beach and head into the main part of town for lunch. We are looking for something resembling authentic Balinese cuisine and, oddly enough, end up at another westernized hotel. The main road in Kuta has several restaurants and shops, though they all have a western flair - KFC, The Good Bean, Starbucks - and none met our desired intent. The hotel looked upscale and authentic, and we did not know it was a hotel until we were walking to our seats at the outdoor restaurant. Still trying to set the example of sampling the cultural cuisine, I ordered a dish with fried vegetables, sesame beef and white rice. My wife, daughter and mother-in-law all ordered pizza. So much for diversity.
After lunch, we returned to our hotel and my daughter and I spent sometime swimming at the hotel pool while my wife and her mother returned to the villa to rest and relax by our private pool. My daughter and I joined them after an hour or so and started making plans for the evening. In the middle of the conversation, our phone rang. Today I had planned to have lunch with one of our primary vendors who have their headquarters in Bali. I provided them with my cell phone number so they could contact me and we could confirm the time and location. Unfortunately, on the flight over, my cell phone becamed locked and my daughter was playing with and subsequently lost the piece of paper with my pin number on it. Without internet access at the hotel, I had no way of emailing anyone to ask for the pin. So, when our vendor couldn't reach me, they called my office, who then became worried about our safety and called the hotel. Made us feel pretty special that they would go out of their way with concern over us. They provided me my pin, and I was able to converse with my vendor and reset plans for Monday. Turns out my pin was 1234 (DOH!).
Tonight was supposed to be the Ogoh-Ogoh festival. During Ogoh-ogoh, all of the local villages create totems of their demons and, in elaborate parades, march through the streets and eventually burn them in a dancing ritual. We were really looking forward to it. We had asked around at the hotel and some of the restaurants on the best location to see the rituals and everyone indicated Kuta beach would be a good place. When I spoke with my vendor, however, he indicated that after the recent elections, the new government banned it. We held out hope, however, and made our way down to Kuta beach to watch the sunset, and lingered as long as we felt prudent (as the rest of the crowd cleared out) before determining that, indeed, there would be no ceremony.
We also learned - thanks to a note from the hotel, my conversation with my vendor, and some comments made by my staff before leaving - that the rules of Nyepi are quite strictly adhered to. It is considered a day of silence, and no one is expected to be out on the street, the beach, etc during this time. In fact, the hotel informed us we are not allowed to leave the grounds and from 5 AM Thursday morning until 5 AM Friday morning, we should use any lights sparingly and none that can be viewed from outside the grounds. In fact, they had to obtain an exception from the government to allow them to even have lights and serve food in the restaurant - the latter of which closed promptly at 6 PM. We'll see how it goes, though everything seemed to shut down quite early this evening in preparation.
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