In Reply to: 25 years ago today, my very first trip . posted by sunluva on Tuesday, 28. September 2010 at 13:39 Bali Time:
Thanks for the great memories! I landed in Bali in Nov. 1983. We'd taken a bus from Yogjakarta to Bali and loved it from the moment we'd arrived. My brother and I (from Calgary) were travelling on a Circle Pacific ticket so had already been through SE Asia and were heading to Australia. We met tons of Aussies in Bali (some from Perth that I still keep in touch with) and were introduced to vegemite then. About a week into the trip (and after we had done tons of sightseeing with a Swiss couple that guided us all over the island) we met a football team from Perth (The Mounties) and then the trip took a turn...more drinking and less sightseeing!
I think there was a bar called Casablanca and they had vegemite sandwich eating contests and of course the beer drinking contest too. We couldn't do the vegemite but we participated in the beer drinking!!! There was also the Bagus Pub that had lots of beer drinking contest. They stacked the empty beer cans up on one side of the bar for bragging rights! The good old days for sure.
Stayed at Jesen's (in Kuta) and had an amazing month. Other than breaking a bone in my hand (at the waterfall up North) it was perfect. I went to the local hospital where they confirmed a broken bone but 2 Aussie nurses on our day trip to the waterfall advised waiting till we got to Sydney to get it fixed. So I spent the next week wearing a toothbrush on my baby finger as a splint.
I remember a bar (I think it was in Legian) that had a swimming pool in it. Looked very murky and you were scared of being pushed in...until you had a few cocktails and then everyone went swimming!
I remember eating lobster thermidor (weird as I don't think I've eaten that since the first trip) and drinking many wonderful fresh fruit drinks (hang over cure!)
I'm heading to Bali again in November for my 20th trip. What a shame it's so far from Canada! Still love it and can't wait for November!