Nyepi
This was our second year of witnessing Nyepi and we love the enforced silence and peace of Bali on this day. Where else in the world can a place make all locals and tourists abide by a complete shut-down? We watched the Ogah-Ogah parades the evening before and enjoyed the festivities.
We had a fully stocked fridge and plenty of books and dvd's to keep us occupied. We lazed by the pool and kept quiet. We had been to Bali Deli to stock up for our dinner and we made mashed potatoes and steak diane - hubby said it was the best steak in Bali that night. Mind you, I think that the kitchen needs an air conditioner, as I felt very hot under the collar, from slaving over a (brand new) stove cooking up a storm.
The stars are so much brighter on Nyepi, we just sat and stared up to the heavens, whilst being serenaded by our own loud chorus of frogs in the garden. Yes, they kept us awake the first night, but we soon got used to them and flashing a torch in their general direction shut them up too!
Money changers
We too AUD cash and exchanged over the holiday, with average rate around 8,300 Rp. Two very good operators, that have large notes, count once and no problems at all are:
1. On the left hand side of the entrance to Bintang supermarket is a very good money exchange. Used many times and never ay funny business; and
2. On Jalan Kunti, a little further on towards Sunset from Bali Deli is a large dark blue sign for an authorised money changer....again, very trustworthy and provide a receipt.
So that in a nutshell was our Bali holiday number 9........I thank all contributions from the forum in the months leading up to this trip and am looking forward to number 10 in September for our friends wedding in Ubud.
I had taken reference information to check out the marine safari park, but we ran out of days to do it, plus Nyepi does mean that many shops are closed for a number of days around then, so we decided to spend much time lazing by the pool and watching some of the 80 dvd's we had delivered from Mr H*.
I have two copies of the Yak magazine sitting on my coffee table to remind me of some of the places we enjoyed or are yet to try in Bali - a great glossy magazine that I need to get around to subscribing to one of these days.
Hope I have given some useful info on this long JBR!!
Caroline