Is it really time to go?

Well not quite, I still have one full day left in this amazing vacation. Then another 4 hour hop back to Thailand for the proverbial ‘One night in Bangkok’ and finally an early rise on Sunday morning to start the long journey back to Columbus by way of Tokyo, Los Angeles and Charlotte. I’ll be arriving back in Columbus early Monday morning. As with all good things, they must come to an end sometime.

The last couple of days I spent sightseeing around Bali and trying out the remaining two Starwood hotels on the island. During my first complete day here I opted for a day tour around the island. I had hired a private guide, Wayan Sueta, who came highly recommended by my frequent traveler friends on www.flyertalk.com, for $45. As arranged, Wayan picked me at 9am from the Le Meridien he was driving an older model Toyota Kijang (its an SUV made in Indonesia for the southeast Asia market only). Actually, the Kijang makes up about 80% of all non-scooter vehicles I have seen here. As we headed out of the resort complex, Wayan and I started a conversation about Balinese culture and society that would last the entire day. He was a great guide with extensive knowledge about local Hindu traditions, agriculture and geography, all of the famous sites as well as some insightful opinions on local and international politics. His English was excellent and pretty much self taught from watching American movies and reading newspapers and magazines.

The first thing that strikes one about Bali when driving around are the amazing terraced rice fields. They create the picture-postcard perfect image of southeast Asia, complete with little old ladies wearing those conical woven hats, wading knee deep in the ponds hunched over tending to their rice plantings The terraces are feats of human engineering dating back thousands of years with most of them still in use and unchanged. The island is covered with them and somehow through insanely intricate irrigation systems they are all connected to a handful of natural springs located in the mountainous center of Bali. All of the rice planting and harvesting is still done manually only with the assistance of cows for tilling. Yes, each and every tiny rice plant is inserted into the pond’s soil/mud mixture by hand. It seems like unimaginably hard, back breaking work. Most farmers only live on a subsistence basis, with few successful ones farming commercially for the hotels and restaurants. Otherwise, the average person on Bali earns around $50 per month, with the ones employed in the nicer hotels / restaurants making upwards of $200. Makes me feel like I’m being taken advantage of by paying $100 per night for my room; well that’s foreigner extortion and a different topic for another time.

On our way to the central mountain region called Bedugal, Wayan took me to his family’s home. It was very modest, clean and quite interesting to see how the locals live. It was pretty cool to see real, live banana, coffee, clove, cocoa and coconut trees right there in his yard. His family harvests them only for their own consumption. Wayan’s family income comes from his tour guiding business and also from the sale of intricately beaded baskets that his two young sons work on after school. While at his home, I also got to meet his wife and youngest boy.

We continued on with our drive to the Bedugal region. Along the way we stopped at a market for flowers, fruits, vegetables and the ever present souvenir knick knacks for which I got to practice my bargaining skills some more. Next stop was a famous temple just offshore in one of the mountain lakes. It was quite a striking setting with the temple sitting in the pristine water and forested hills in the distance across the lake. A nice Kodak moment indeed. This particular temple is dedicated to the water goddess. On we went driving along the edge of the former caldera now containing several mountain lakes en route to the monkey forest. The monkey forest was really more of just the road that passes through the forest where the monkeys like to hangout along the road waiting for food. Thanks to Wayan’s earlier suggestion, I bought a big bunch of bananas at the fruit market which came in handy to feed the furry little critters. The macaque monkeys are adorable and it was fascinating to see how human-like they are when peeling and eating the bananas. I was also fortunate to see several of the female monkeys with their newborns and toddlers in tow. Very adorable.

Some more driving and we stopped for lunch at an incredibly well located restaurant. The restaurant was made up of a few huts, but they were perched on the ridge of the mountain with awesome views of the valley below, the sea in the distance and the neighboring mountains and volcanoes (several are no longer active). Lunch was great and the view was even better. I had a couple Indonesian entrees and 2 local Bintang beers all for the princely sum of $6. Why the hotels insist on charging prices like they are in Florida or Hawaii, I just don’t get – because they can I guess.

After lunch we pressed on to another popular site, Manduk falls. Wayan parked the truck and we hiked through the forest about ¾ of a mile to reach the very picturesque falls. Even the exhausting return uphill hike was worth the beautiful pictures I took and the cooling spray from the falls. Panting and out of breath, I bought a bottle of water from the roadside stand and chugged it. Semi recovered, I climbed back into the truck and off we went. We retraced part of our drive to ultimately go through an area of amazing rice terraces with several stops for photo ops. Once I’ve had my fill of terrace pictures we started our long way back to the Le Meridien, passing through countless villages and small towns. It was a great opportunity to see how the locals live and work. Even though they are poor in Bali, the villages still seamed cleaner and neater than that of the poor areas I’ve seen in Thailand. Not sure what its attributable too, just an insightful observation. Finally back at the hotel, I paid and tipped Wayan and we parted ways.

As the Le Meridien is a bit remote from any concentration of tourist services or restaurants, I spent another quite evening there. Had a nice dinner and spent the evening relaxing in the lounge, where I met a nice guy from San Francisco who was in Bali on vacation with his mom. Though I do not mind traveling alone, it was a nice change of pace to have someone other than waiters and hotel staff to talk with. I retired early as I was rather fatigued from the day’s adventures and wanted to spend the next morning and early afternoon laying out at the hotel’s incredible pool complex before catching a taxi to the Sheraton Laguna Nusa Dua. Unfortunately, the next morning started with clouds and then continued on until around 4pm with heavy rain. Despite the rainout, I still managed to spend a couple hours just relaxing by the pool by taking advantage of the covered chaises and swimming in the warm tropical rain. Finally tiring of the rain, I decided to get my bags and start my migration to the Sheraton.

The taxi to the Sheraton took an hour and only cost $15. As the Sheraton is undergoing extensive renovations to all guest rooms and public areas, there were no proper suites to upgrade me to, but they did put me in a recently renovated junior suite with lagoon access. The suite was rather opulently decorated complete with a 40 inch plasma TV. The lagoon access was a unique feature I have never seen at a hotel before and one I rather enjoyed. Essentially, the residential wing of the Sheraton is surrounded by swimmable lagoons (really, they are just large, freeform pools – they’re clean and chlorinated) and the rooms/suites on the first level have steps on their patios that lead into the water. It was really cool to be able to swim to/from my room instead of the more traditional use of a door and corridor. Otherwise, the Sheraton was nice, but in a typical resort kind of way like it could have been anywhere warm and tropical. There was nothing particularly Bali’esque about it, unlike the Le Meridien which was amazing. Though the Sheraton does get kudos for having a nice, clean swimmable beach. As the Le Meridien was on a cliff there really was no beach to speak of, however at low tide one could climb down to the beach/water though it wasn’t recommended as the currents were very dangerous and it was rather rocky.

Based on the concierge’s recommendation I went out for dinner to a beachside restaurant called JB Café located on Jimbaren Bay (this is near Kuta, where the bombings were). Despite a slight concern for my safety, I was very glad that I went. The restaurant had 20 or so candlelit tables set out on the beach. In fact it was one restaurant out of probably 100 that were similarly set up on the beach. The lineup of candlelit tables must stretch for about a mile along the bay it was pretty and romantic sight to behold. After you’re seated and ordered your drink, you go inside to pick out the fresh seafood of the day, some of which is still alive in the tanks. I picked out a 1.3kg Red Snapper and a few ocean prawns. All of this was deliciously seasoned and grilled on an open flame pit. When ready, it was presented cut open and filleted to the table. Needless to say, dining under a star filled sky, with feet playing in the cool sand and the waves rolling in 30 feet in front of you was simply fantastic. This was the most atmospheric al fresco dining experience I’ve had (though eating on the roof of a skyscraper in Bangkok ranks up there too). After dinner, it was back to the hotel to enjoy some complimentary cocktails given to Starwood Platinum members in the lounge. The cool drinks and evening breeze were quite nice as was the singing of the young chanteuse and her accompanying band.

Today was blissfully sunny with a few puffy clouds to offer temporary reprieve. After taking a great buffet breakfast (also complimentary to Platinum members) I spent the rest of the day until about 2pm laying out poolside. I have to be nice and tan when I get back, right? I gathered my bags and was driven over to the Westin Resort next door. Yes, I know I’m crazy, but the bonus points and stay credits are worth it to me. Besides I wanted to have a complete accounting of Starwood’s offerings on Bali. The Westin upgraded me to a nice suite in their Royal Beach Club wing. My suite is on the 3rd floor and as such I have a great view of the ocean from my windows and balcony. Compared to the Le Meridien and even the Sheraton, this Westin is a downright derivative resort. Other than being on Bali, there is absolutely nothing about this Westin that is unique to its location. It has a very basic free-form pool and not much else of interest (though it gets kudos for having an air-conditioned lobby and lounge). In the future, if not being close to restaurants and nightlife is important, than the Le Meridien is by far the superior Starwood choice on Bali. If being close to the action is a requirement and price being equal or slightly higher, then the Sheraton over the Westin anytime.

Having had such a memorable dinner experience the previous night and as this is my last night on Bali, I asked the Westin’s concierge to recommend another fresh grilled seafood restaurant on the beach. He sent me to the Aroma Restaurant, which turned out to be about 10 doors down from the place I ate at last night. The setting was very much the same, only tonight I had White Snapper and ocean prawns. Throughout the meal, there was roving band that went from table to table (seeking tips of course) performing popular songs. When the band finally got to my table, I was pleasantly surprised when several guys and gals from Australia brought their chairs and drinks over and joined me for the performance. It was kinda cool and nice of them to ensure I had some company and wasn’t being sang to all alone. Anyway, another unforgettable dining experience for the memory books.

Speaking of memory, this trip has certainly produced some wonderful and picturesque memories that I will cherish forever. Bali is a beautiful island with friendly and warm people. I definately plan to visti Bali again and explore other corners of it. Traveling is an amazing experience and opportunity to discover all of the magnificent things the world has to offer and I feel very blessed and fortunate to have had the physical ability and wherewithal to go on these amazing adventures.

Its 1am here on Saturday and I have to sign off now. Thank you for coming along with me through this blog. It does take a good amount of time to write and create the blog and I’m happy to do it and pleased to know that so many of you appreciate and enjoy it.

Until my next globe hopping adventure…

Gene