New Year Trip part 6

I’m back in Hong Kong. Far too soon. When you go on a bad vacation, you want to go home right away. When you go on an exceptional vacation, you never want to go home.

Bali was exceptional. It’s a beautiful island with scenery in every direction and more than a few interesting temples. I live in Hong Kong, so islands do not automatically impress me, but Bali is nothing like Hong Kong. It’s winter here, but summer in the Southern Hemisphere. The beaches were warm, just as they are in Hong Kong in summer, but the water was far cleaner. Maybe that’s why the beaches were more crowded. Or maybe people go to Bali for the beaches while no one goes to Hong Kong to sit on a beach.

Tanah Lot is a very famous, 500-year-old temple that sits on a rock off the southern coast of Bali. It’s one of those places you can only get to during low tide, since the path from coast to island is flooded at high tide, similar to Mont-Saint-Michel. Despite being one of the most popular tourist attractions on Bali, the water just off the coast is as blue as anything I’ve ever seen. I don’t know what kind of shipping lanes they have out there, but I never saw any boats anywhere near the temple.

The people were nothing but friendly everywhere we went. Bali is not a large island. It’s about half the size of the island of Hawaii – though it’s shaped pretty much like Maui – but getting around isn’t easy. There isn’t much public transportation, and what they have is not particularly designed for foreigners who don’t speak the language. Most of the big hotels have shuttles to take their people to the main sights.

Before we went, we talked to a few people who were familiar with Bali. They all suggested hiring a taxi driver. Rather than simply hail a cab as needed, which could be impossible in some areas, visitors are encouraged to pay a taxi driver to be their own personal driver for the duration. It’s so common that the taxi driver who took us from the airport to our villa offered to be our personal driver. We turned him down because we were not sure how much we would need to drive around. The next taxi also offered to be our personal driver. We declined again, but eventually realized that we were taking taxis everywhere. In the end, we found a friendly driver who was more than happy to take us anywhere and wait around until we were ready to leave, all for Rp300,000. That might sound expensive, but it translates to about US$30. We thought it was a good deal since our single ride from the airport to villa cost Rp200,000.

I’d like to say more about the restaurants, but we mostly made our own food. We had a private villa with a kitchen, and I did a lot of cooking on this trip. The villa provided meals, so we had the option of letting one of their chefs come to our private villa to prepare everything or simply bring the food that we could prepare ourselves. We also went to the nearest grocery store once. That was enough for the week.

Some people find it strange that I did a lot of cooking while on vacation. It’s worth noting that I love to cook and I live in a tiny apartment with a joke of a kitchen. Our private villa had a real kitchen, which was outdoors but covered. Cooking in the villa was anything but a chore.

I would say the kitchen was my favorite part of the villa, but we had a swimming pool. It wasn’t big, but it was private. Someone came to clean it once, with ample warning. Other than that, we were the only people who went anywhere near that pool all week. Since it was a private villa, it was surrounded by walls, trees and foliage. It was as private as it could be, barring NSA spy satellites. The kitchen was nice, but I used that pool multiple times every day.

The best part of the trip, of course, was spending time with Ryan. Living in different countries, or different parts of the county, is difficult. This trip gave us some much needed time together. Since we had a private villa instead of a hotel room, we had plenty of privacy. That’s extra important when you live in different countries and sleep in different beds.

I took somewhere in the neighborhood of a million pictures, but they’re still in the camera. I’ll post some after I put them on the computer.