Days 1 - 6
Up and awake early to catch the airport bus at 5.30 am. It was running a bit late and as we sat in the car a thick fog descended on us and the surrounding streets. Finally the bus arrived and in no time we had left the fog behind us and arrived at the airport. Check in at VB was fairly quick, leaving me time to get a coffee and some breakfast before boarding the plane.
VB is certainly a no frills service - no movie or even a screen to check the progress of the flight, so reading and some music helped wile away the time. Soon enough the plane began its descent and I enjoyed the sight of a volcano peeking through the clouds on the right side of the plane.
VOA and Immigration was fairly quick as there were no queues when I hit the arrival area. Pulled my bag from the carousel and went looking for my hotel pick-up. Read every sign being held by all the drivers (twice) and couldn't find my name so went to the taxi counter and was soon on my way to Sanur.
As I stood filling out the hotel form, the phone at Reception rang - sure enough it was the driver phoning from the airport saying he couldn't find me. Not sure where the mix up occurred - I guess he was running late and as I done all I could to find him and decided not to wait, we had missed each other.
After unpacking, my first priority was to get a SIM card so I headed off to Hardy's. I had decided this year to try a card with data so I could have access to the internet etc. The girls at Hardy's spent a lot of time setting it up however I later found that not all text messages were getting through to me. I went back to Hardy's again however there were still issues with either Indosat or my phone and as I needed to be in touch with family at home, I put the SIM into my old spare phone and used it for calls & SMS only. I had brought an iTouch with me as well so used that at wi-fi spots when I wanted to access the internet. It all worked out fine in the end.
So now my time (6 nights) in Sanur became a fairly routine succession of getting up early, going for a walk, breakfast, some time on the beach, massages, nail polish refreshing, lunch, some shopping, dinner and early to bed. Boring for some perhaps, but I loved it.
One of my early morning walks was to the local's market and I was very surprised to find that it had totally changed since last year and all the stallholders are now housed in a huge, pristine building, with each stall encased in white tiles. I love looking at what is available to buy, but for me I felt the market was too sanitised and had lost a lot of its charm. It was interesting to see that each stallholder had an offering box mounted on a pole above their respective stall.
Restaurants visited included Warung Pregina, Mona Lisa, Benno's, Luhtu's Café and Batu Jimbar. Some meals were great, some not so much.
Days 7 - 10
Mid morning I set out for Ubud with a driver from my Sanur hotel. The traffic was very congested for the first half hour and then we eventually were able to move a bit more freely. Upon arrival at the hotel my room wasn't ready (as expected, because I was a bit early) so I walked into Ubud to have a drink and sat overlooking the ricefields at Tropical View restaurant. As I sat there an elderly rice farmer walked by and stopped to say hello. He asked my name and where I was from and told me his name in return. It was only a short conversation but one of those encounters that are such a delight.
My days in Ubud were spent enjoying the ricefield view from my verandah, reading, hair creambath, visiting the market, jewellery shopping, eating out and some short walks.
Restaurants visited included Siam Sally, Casa Luna, Indus, Pundi Pundi, The Pond, a new Mexican place and Warung Enak. Again some meals were delicious and some average.
Days 11 - 25
I had booked a driver to Legian from a small booth on the street and Nyoman was waiting for me when I checked out and paid my hotel bill. He was an interesting man and as we drove along told me about his various volunteer and community work.
We arrived in Legian and it felt good to be driving down Padma Street and into Garlic Lane. After unpacking I made a quick visit to Ketut's, where it was nice to be greeted with a hug.
Later that day I met up with Tina and Wally at our hotel and it was great to spend a day or so with some friendly and familiar faces until they headed off to more northern parts of Bali for several days.
Once Tina & Wal returned from their trip, we visited the Legian morning market on several occasions, buying bananas for our breakfast smoothies and other small items. On one occasion I heard someone calling out my name and was surprised to find it was the lady from the laundry across from my hotel.
While in Legian I like to spend my afternoons at the beach and keep my mornings free for shopping or whatever else I feel like doing.
Highlights of my time in Legian included: dinner at Potato Head, afternoon tea at Biku, visiting my sponsor kids at their school, visiting GWK on Father's Day for lunch, breakfast at Ku De Ta, dinner at Un's.
Other enjoyable experiences: hair colour at Casey Salon (they did a great job), catching up with my friends working on the beach, delicious strawberries from Candi Kuning market (Cracker's toilets were very impressive too), coffee and wi-fi at Swish in the evenings, sampling mojitos at various restaurants, watching the world go by on Legian Beach.
Weather: was perfect all throughout my holiday, though a bit windy on the beach some days. The only rain was one heavy downpour in Ubud overnight.
Traffic: was pretty bad over the weekend of Idul Fitri but apart from that it seemed OK.
Soon the dreaded last day arrived and it was time to leave for the airport. My flight departed at 10.10 pm and as I had a bit of time to kill decided to spend it in the Parai Lounge up near Gate 9. After paying Rp 100 k I gave my flight details to the man behind the desk, who assured me he would let me know when my flight was called.
I was the only customer in the lounge so settled in with a Sprite and used the available wi-fi. I heard a few flights being called, but never any relating to VB, so every now and then would check with the guy at the desk who assured me 'not yet'. I also checked outside and people were still standing around Gate 9 so I thought perhaps the flight was boarding late. Eventually I decided that I should check with Security staff at Gate 9 and sure enough all other passengers had gone through, so I hurried off down the stairs, boarded a waiting bus and was ferried out to the plane on the tarmac. To my relief there was a short line waiting on the stairway up to the plane, so I made it in time, but was the last passenger to board the plane. Lesson learned - trust my instincts in future!
So another Bali holiday came to an end, and now I enjoy the memories and look forward to planning next year's trip.