16 Feb
What's that noise?! Oh, it's the telephone. Who's ringing?! Oh, it's the wake-up call. What time is it?! It's 6am. Jeez, I thought we were on holiday! These were some of the thoughts going through my head when my sleep was interrupted. I love Bali because I get away from my alarm clock but I guess I could make an exception for this jolt from sleep as it was the day of our pre-wedding meet with the wedding planner and that's something to get excited about!
Turned out I was very happy to be awake and see the sunrise. I snuck out of the cabana, walked a little along the beach and took some beautiful early morning photos. It was nice to see the sunbeds vacated, the staff setting things up, dogs walking on the beach and oh, to smell that early morning air - I felt like I was just a little special, not everyone was experiencing this, people were still sound asleep, and I was able to witness a little slice of heaven. Lucky me!
We were due to be picked up at 9am so had plenty of time for a, once again, lovely breakfast and were sufficiently awake when our driver arrived. I have forgotten his name (damn, should have wrote that down!) he was organised by Bali Weddings International, but I can tell you he was very pleasant and easy to have a conversation with, dressed very smartly and was super handy to have to assist throughout the day.
First stop was the consulate where we had to organise a Certificate of No Impediment. I have not had cause to attend the consulate before so I didn't know what to expect. You have to go through some, what I would consider, pretty good security before you can enter which is reassuring. Our driver helped fill out the necessary paperwork, we handed over one million and fifty thousand rupiah and received our certificate. It didn't seem like we were there for a very long amount of time, there were a couple of other people who also were being seen. Unfortunately these people were there for more unsavoury reasons - namely crimes committed against them or crimes they knew were being committed. I didn't even think people might need to go there to request assistance with their stolen passport, I was swept up in my soon-to-be-marriedness, and so this was a little sobering.
Next stop - a photo of us to go on our wedding certificate. Bali Weddings International organised for our photo to be taken near their offices. We seemed to be in and out very quickly. Not that pleased with the photo but that wasn't the photographer's fault - that would be the ‘we still look like we haven't seen sun for months' fault and the ‘it's really hot and humid and sticky in Bali and almost impossible to wear formal shirts' fault. Oh well, the photo is not that big on the certificate so no worries, we just won't bring it out at parties!
We then got to meet our wonderful wedding planner Liz. I had exchanged many emails with Liz over the preceding months and it was so nice to be able to put a face to the name. I imagine our wedding was pretty basic in comparison to a lot of others and so we only had a few things we had to run through. I admit to being a pretty organised person (I forgive you for not thinking so given it's taken me 9 months to get to this point in my Bali Reports!!), sometimes too organised, and so I was pretty proud of having it all nearly sorted by the time we jumped on the plane. Seriously, I think we just rehashed what would happen on the day - nothing major was changed, added, deleted. Mm hm, we did good!
Wow - seemed like we had been running around for most of the day but we were back at the hotel in time for lunch. Bali rubber time - sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't. Best to just go with the flow and not complain when you have more time than you thought you would! We lunched at Coco's, shared a yummy vegetarian pizza and opted for non-alcoholic mojitos. I know - why?! I'm not really sure why we chose non-alcoholic but I do know they were very tasty and refreshing!
In the afternoon we headed out for a facial which was at Oky Spa - this is left out of the main part of NB and on the left-hand side of the road, only a short walk. It was okay, especially given what you pay for it, but nothing to write home about. Some of the prices here were 50,000 for facial, 60,000 for 1 hr massage, 40,000 for manicure and 50,000 for body scrub. Funny side bit here - because I knew we were having our photos taken I ‘did' my hair, in order to keep my hair looking ‘scrunched' I had to use product, this included moose and hairspray (something I've never used in Bali before!!) and led to my hair feeling like straw, as is known to happen when these two products collide. When the end of my facial was near and the lady put her fingers through my hair to do the last little massage bit I swear I heard her saying to soon to be hubby's lady that my hair felt funny and I think they even laughed. I get that it feels strange and I certainly don't mind that they said it; I think it's quite funny in fact. I do wonder if these ladies have ever used moose or hairspray, perhaps they didn't know it was the hair products and really thought something was wrong with my hair. Ah, even thinking about it now brings a smile to my face. Okay, back to it. When our faces were revived and glistening with Bali cream we made our way ‘home', along the way grabbing some more supplies and then bee-lined it for our personal sunbeds, soon to be hubby made cocktails and we chilled out until it was dinnertime.
We have stayed in Tanjung Benoa a few times and I have always wanted to go to La Scala and so we made our way there and requested to sit upstairs. We chose seats close to the rail and so we had a good view of the street below and of the power lines - I am still in awe when I see them, how on earth does power get through there and how on earth do they manage to stay up even through the weather?! They look like a mangled mess! Anyways, back to dinner. I remember I had a capsicum dish with mashed potato and that mashed potato was delish! I think soon to be hubby had a kebab/quesadilla kind of thing (note to self - I'm ‘thinking' a lot for this Bali Report, next time I must write down what we eat, my memory is not as good as it used to be!) Not bad food and service for the price you pay - good selection of food and drinks, good view, reasonable prices - all in all, a good choice for a casual dinner with a bit of street watching thrown in.
Another side note - during the afternoon, I'm guessing about 5pm, there was a wedding at NB which we went over and watched a little from the pool area. When we were later relaxing on the sunbeds I had a little tear and got to thinking that that would be us in a few more days. I couldn't wait! It was also time to let the sun do its thing. We had wanted a decent amount of time in Bali before the wedding so we could add some colour to ourselves and at this point in the holiday I was very conscious more time being sun-kissed was needed, at this rate you wouldn't be able to pick me apart from my dress! Okay, maybe not that bad but a tad more sun wouldn't hurt :o)