Bali Family Extravaganza!
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2008
1
24
27
Trip End
??? ??, 2009
Kuta,
Bali,
Indonesia
Friday, December 5, 2008
We arrived in Bali after two flights, Krabi to Kuala Lumpur, KL to Bali. Sadly we bid farewell to Nadz (and a very dirty Mambo) at the KL airport. Flight was delayed a few times due to a major thunderstorm, but we finally made it to Kuta, Bali before midnight. Wendy and Dunc man were there to greet us and we headed to our beautiful hotel. I was not use to such luxury, after spending months in guesthouses and hostels. Felt a little out of place at first, but quickly got use to the pampering! As I was in recovery mode, I spent the next few nights in bed early. Our first few days we laid around the pool, eavesdropping on the various Australian conversations. The place was filled with them. I guess when its only a 3 hour flight, one would expect that (i.e. like Mexico for us Canadians). Chris adventured out solo one night and spent it with some locals as per usual.
Two days after our arrival we moved to a Sanur (or Snore to the locals). Sanur is about a half hour away. Nicer beaches, but very quiet as it's where the retirees flock too. Hence I spent another 4 nights detoxing. Our second day in Sanur we took a tour of the island. First stop was a traditional Balinese performance, somewhat entertaining, especially when the monkeys tail turned into another part of the male anatomy... Next we stopped to watch some Batik fabric being made oooooo ahhhhhhh. That was followed by a stop at the silver smith, where we watched them make traditional Bali Balls. From there we made our way to Ubud and checked out the crazy monkey forest. Now so far my experience with monkeys in Asia has not been that positive (i.e. the Gibbon chasing incident on Phi Phi). I will be honest and admit that this whole monkey forest thing is a tad freaky. There are hundreds of monkeys running loose, and they are not intimidated by humans. The grab whatever they can get their little monkey paws on (water bottles, sunglasses, Bintang cans). We did witness a poor Aussie guy who thought it would be cool to get a Facebook worthy profile picture with one on his shoulder. He sure looked cool until the thing peed all over him and he became the laughing stock of the entire Monkey Forest visitors. I came close to an attack...I don't know what it is with me and these things. One eyed me up and starting stocking me until I screamed bloody murder to scare it off. All in all a strange experience and I am not sure how comfortable I was with the little guys...although the babies were pretty adorable. After our primate experience, we drove up to the volcano viewpoint and had lunch overlooking it. Very nice. On our way home we stopped in at a coffee plantation and tested the product which was very delish. The next day we cruised up island and did some snorkelling around a sunk Japanese battleship. Lots of critters down there to check out, and we headed home happy, yet sunburnt. The weather for the rest of our stay in Sanur was pretty nasty so we spent the next fed days shopping and eating. We then decided to follow the sun and jumped on board the Gili Cat speedboat headed for Gili T....
