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reflections on travel so far
Entry 26 of 53 | show all | print this entry |
We are nearing the half way point of our trip and so we thought it was time to add some reflections on our travels. Nothing serious, just a few observations. We are still at Kuta Beach, however the formatting of this blog will not allow us to do two enteries from the same place. Henceforth we are using "Denpasar" as a location instead - it is only ten minutes away. (Also, for those of you who didn't notice, although the previous entry was dated Aug 1, we updated it with some additional thoughts about two days ago).
We are enjoying our stay in Bali very much. It is a chance to take a break and recuperate from the rigours of the road before moving on to the next stage of travel. However, we are also enjoying some of the small things. Here are just a few:
1) We can do laundry. The hotel even supplies a rack on the balcony for hanging clothes so it is no problem staying clean. This may not seem like a big deal but it can be. Some hotels forbid washing and some locations are so humid that clothes don't dry. Laundry was probably the most complicated at Bastianos in Bunaken. The washroom in our cabin didn't have running water or a sink / washbasin which made laundry difficult (we showered by scooping cold water from large buckets and pouring it over ourselves). Underwear would fit in the small containers used for scooping the fresh water - about a two cup measuring size. We couldn't figure out how to wash anything bigger than underwear for our first few days and so we paid Bastianos to do a load of laundry. It turned out that they sent the laundry to the mainland by boat and we didn't get it back for four full days. On our last day at Bastianos we noticed that one American man was wearing a sarong (a long skirt) to all meals and other events. It turned out that he didn't realize that laundry would take four days and sent almost all his clothes to the laundry. His wife noted that they would have to remain at Bastianos for four days until the clothes returned. By the way, we did finally figure out how to do laundry. We took the small buckets supplied to wash feet sitting outside our cabin and emptied it out and used it to wash clothes. (We later pointed this tip out to the man in a sarong, but it was a bit late for him).
2) Hotels staff here understand what "do not disturb" signs mean. In India on more than one occasion Joan had to dive under the covers due to being indecently dressed when a hotel employee unexpectedly knocked on the door and then entered without asking despite the "do not disturb sign".
3) There are no power shortages here. In India the electricity was turned off regularly to ration power. Indian hotels have the unique feature of having dozens of light switches in the room and sometimes outside the room with no rhyme or reason to the placement of the switches. On one occasion we returned to our room late afternoon to discover the power (including lights) didn't work. We assumed a power outage and sat in our room wating for the power to return as the room got darker and darker as nightfall approached. After about 2.5 hours we discovered that the staff had turned off a power switch for our room which was located in the hotel lobby.
We will be in Bali until the 11th when we go to Yogyakarta Java for four nights. Yogyakarta was the site of an earthquake earlier this year. However, the city is still intact and there are some spectacular palaces and temples there. We fly to Singapore on the 16th and then to China on the 19th. We shall have to leave Bali without resolving our curiousity on a small point. Just outside our hotel, every day since we arrived, there have been about 30 workmen who are putting stucco and plaster on a wall about 30 feet long. Last week the entire crew wore matching lime green t-shirts all week. Yesterday the crew appeared wearing matching pink t-shirts. We are wondering if they change shirts each week and if so what color will they wear next week? Alas we will never know.
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