The long rambly illustrated holiday notes.
Saturday: Up at 4:30 to collect D and make our way to the airport to meet![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ascetic_hedony, mr_booboo and S. for. 7:15 flight. Note to future self time, get enough US money for the visa but exchange rates slightly better in Bali for local currency. Taxi to hotel then everyone into pool and cocktails.
Hotel Pool
Sunday: breakfast at hotel then bus to "private beach" where we peered in rock pools and D poked things with sticks. The starfish were fascinating and move a lot faster than I am used to. D andascetic_hedony went for a walk then we wandered up through the shopping complex and I bought a very cheap sunhat. We did lunch at a place that did lovely food, abused the wifi and walked home through a process of getting a bit lost, losing ascetic_hedony, mr_booboo and S. and James to a taxi then strolling home with D. We did dinner at a Japanese place with excellent food and hung about in the pool
Starfish in a rockpool, I love rockpools
Coping with different currency was surprisingly hard, between being different by about 10,000 (9,200 exchange) there is also the sense that I had no idea how much things were worth. It threw me.
Monday: breakfast at hotel, D tried congee with sugar and sultanas,mr_booboo tried to explain it's supposed to be savoury. Day trip to Waterbom park! We got a courtesy bus into Kuta and stuffed all our stuff in a locker then wandered happily around the park in our bathers with our magic wristbands (note to future self, put lots of $ on the band - saves topping up and it gets refunded if you don't use it) the water slides were heaps of fun as was the lazy water thingie that you just drifted around in happily. My camera survived beautifully except for one slide where it came out of my pocket but was easily retrieved. We then eventually emerged and went shopping (a couple of shirts for me) before resting at Starbucks where I caught up on email and the State Of The House Buying.
We did dinner at an Indian restaurant which did good long island tea and terrible strawberry daiquiris (food was good) thenmr_booboo and I went off to poke around local shops , taxi back to the hotel, visit the Novatel to find out if mr_booboo's online booking problem was resolved then swim in the hotel pool in the rain (lovely) and everyone else went off to consume free drinks for being Australian in a nightclub somewhere and stagger home around 1am.
Tuesday: lazing around day, we did lunch at the Novatel, hung around at a cafe with wifi (the house buying happens for me in short bursts of information) then more lying around, reading, Japanese for dinner (again and we're stuck on the mango caramel dessert - well I am)
Wednesday: excursion day! We (beingmr_booboo ) organized a driver to take us to Ubud for the day so we jumped in a van to go see the volcano. First we dropped in on a batique place and admired the process before buying cloth and clothes (beautiful batique cotton and silk wrap around pants) then visited a silver works and bought jewelry (silver and paua shell pendant). Then up to the volcano for lunch and an amazing view. We came home via a microagriculture place that had lots of local plants so we could see what they look like - turns out cloves grow on large trees - the coffee was the special draw! We took a tour of local rice paddies as well then went to see monkeys. I bought a sarong then we headed back to nusa dua for dinner and to cruise the shops in the Connections complex.
Salak, Rice paddies and Statue in Monkey sanctuary
Thursday: lazy day reading by pool, in hotel room and in cafe soaking up holiday feelings and generally not doing very much, failed to acquire a decent creme caramel. My life, so hard. Said goodbye to the pool by lying in it a lot and sculling gently across it. The others were pursuing their ambition to have a daily massage by declaring it a 'spa day' and I was continuing to avoid being touched by complete strangers.
Friday: early morning, checkout, airport, bought sunglasses to replace ones I mysteriously lost - right on time I might add, my old ones were disintegrating. By this time D had a head cold and I was feeling suspiciously like someone about to have a head cold but not quite yet. S. andascetic_hedony made us plague ridden sorts swap plane seats in the hope they could remain uninfected and the ride home was actually pretty pleasant. chaosmanor kindly picked me up from the airport and despite Australian customs being deeply committed to avoiding importing anything that might damage our fragile ecosystem they processed me quickly and easily.
Saturday: Up at 4:30 to collect D and make our way to the airport to meet
ascetic_hedony, mr_booboo and S. for. 7:15 flight. Note to future self time, get enough US money for the visa but exchange rates slightly better in Bali for local currency. Taxi to hotel then everyone into pool and cocktails. Hotel PoolSunday: breakfast at hotel then bus to "private beach" where we peered in rock pools and D poked things with sticks. The starfish were fascinating and move a lot faster than I am used to. D and
ascetic_hedony went for a walk then we wandered up through the shopping complex and I bought a very cheap sunhat. We did lunch at a place that did lovely food, abused the wifi and walked home through a process of getting a bit lost, losing ascetic_hedony, mr_booboo and S. and James to a taxi then strolling home with D. We did dinner at a Japanese place with excellent food and hung about in the pool Starfish in a rockpool, I love rockpoolsCoping with different currency was surprisingly hard, between being different by about 10,000 (9,200 exchange) there is also the sense that I had no idea how much things were worth. It threw me.
Monday: breakfast at hotel, D tried congee with sugar and sultanas,
mr_booboo tried to explain it's supposed to be savoury. Day trip to Waterbom park! We got a courtesy bus into Kuta and stuffed all our stuff in a locker then wandered happily around the park in our bathers with our magic wristbands (note to future self, put lots of $ on the band - saves topping up and it gets refunded if you don't use it) the water slides were heaps of fun as was the lazy water thingie that you just drifted around in happily. My camera survived beautifully except for one slide where it came out of my pocket but was easily retrieved. We then eventually emerged and went shopping (a couple of shirts for me) before resting at Starbucks where I caught up on email and the State Of The House Buying.We did dinner at an Indian restaurant which did good long island tea and terrible strawberry daiquiris (food was good) then
mr_booboo and I went off to poke around local shops , taxi back to the hotel, visit the Novatel to find out if mr_booboo's online booking problem was resolved then swim in the hotel pool in the rain (lovely) and everyone else went off to consume free drinks for being Australian in a nightclub somewhere and stagger home around 1am.Tuesday: lazing around day, we did lunch at the Novatel, hung around at a cafe with wifi (the house buying happens for me in short bursts of information) then more lying around, reading, Japanese for dinner (again and we're stuck on the mango caramel dessert - well I am)
Wednesday: excursion day! We (being
mr_booboo ) organized a driver to take us to Ubud for the day so we jumped in a van to go see the volcano. First we dropped in on a batique place and admired the process before buying cloth and clothes (beautiful batique cotton and silk wrap around pants) then visited a silver works and bought jewelry (silver and paua shell pendant). Then up to the volcano for lunch and an amazing view. We came home via a microagriculture place that had lots of local plants so we could see what they look like - turns out cloves grow on large trees - the coffee was the special draw! We took a tour of local rice paddies as well then went to see monkeys. I bought a sarong then we headed back to nusa dua for dinner and to cruise the shops in the Connections complex. Salak, Rice paddies and Statue in Monkey sanctuaryThursday: lazy day reading by pool, in hotel room and in cafe soaking up holiday feelings and generally not doing very much, failed to acquire a decent creme caramel. My life, so hard. Said goodbye to the pool by lying in it a lot and sculling gently across it. The others were pursuing their ambition to have a daily massage by declaring it a 'spa day' and I was continuing to avoid being touched by complete strangers.
Friday: early morning, checkout, airport, bought sunglasses to replace ones I mysteriously lost - right on time I might add, my old ones were disintegrating. By this time D had a head cold and I was feeling suspiciously like someone about to have a head cold but not quite yet. S. and
ascetic_hedony made us plague ridden sorts swap plane seats in the hope they could remain uninfected and the ride home was actually pretty pleasant. chaosmanor kindly picked me up from the airport and despite Australian customs being deeply committed to avoiding importing anything that might damage our fragile ecosystem they processed me quickly and easily.Tags:
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I want a massage and a cocktail right now. Scary how quickly we can get used to it.
Our quarantine plan seems to have worked, I've not had a cold yet!
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Aww, you can organise both though - and good to hear you didn't get the cold.