Padang Bai, Bali, Indonesia. At about 6:30 in the morning we started to see land. This is a land of very high volcanoes. The first thing we saw was one about 10,000 feet high with its top above the clouds. Everything here is very green and rugged looking. What a beautiful sight, until the exotic perfume of the island started entering our suite. It was the exotic aroma of burning garbage. We were told earlier, by a crew member, that is the way this part of the world smells.
The place where we were anchored is about two hours from the main town or anything else to see of any interest. We were told there are ports far closer to the things to see.
We had reserved a van with a guide and a driver for the day. The Kapels came with and split it with us. It was about 10 to 15 minutes to tender in to the dock where the vans were waiting. This place is very close to the equator and is very hot. Did I mention it’s hot here? Wow, is it hot and humid here. I hate to be redundant, but the main thing you notice is it is really hot here. The vans were waiting right at the small dock where we got off the tender. The good news was, they were all very new looking and had three rows of seating behind the drivers row. Even though the leg room is pretty limited, there was plenty of room for the four of us and the driver and guide in the front. Of course the van had air conditioning. The bad news was, they were all made by KIA. They rode and well enough and had enough power but they are made in Korea. It must not get hot enough there for those Koreans to worry much about the air conditioning. It took forever for it to do anything and then not very much.
From the water this island looks like a jungle. Once ashore it looks as if every inch was being used for something. The island is very heavily populated. The nicer houses are ornately adorned with Bali figures carved into them and all have a temple, of various sizes, built into or next to the them. The roads are in very good shape, unlike those in Polynesia and the Caribbean, but they are also very crowded. Small motor cycles are everywhere. We saw one with a driver and four children riding it. Those motorcycles running everywhere, like ants, mixing with big trucks, driving like there was a fire to get to, makes for fun viewing. The roads are all two lane but big trucks will pass while traffic is going by from the opposite direction. Bet no one sells auto insurance here.
Our driver spoke no known language from this solar system but the guide thought he was speaking some English. We mostly disagreed but he tried so hard and was so genuinely friendly we put up with it. It took a very long time to get anywhere.
Our first stop was for a Bali Play or opera. There was a large covered stadium like arena filled with chairs made of bamboo. No cushions, just bamboo rods of different sizes were made into chair shaped things. I tried sitting in one and a too large bamboo tube, placed about ¾ the way up the back, tried separating my spine into several pieces. This was not the major problem however. The big problem was, these chairs were made for little Bali people. If anyone has not yet noticed, I am not a little Bali people. I must be just a hair or two wider then those folks, as I now needed a pry bar to extract my posterior from said chair like torture device.
That done, we now watched their opera complete with a dragon, many strange costumes, and wild screaming women. We were later told this was the best of these plays? If they say so.
After the play thingy we got in lines to use the, ha ha, bathrooms. It was bring your own toilet paper and bring your own flush water. The good part was, as you waited in line to be disgusted, the locals attacked you with junk to sell. The word no is not able to be heard by them. They just don’t stop. They just keep lowering the price. If you finally say okay, they ask for more money then they last offered the items for. Muriel is now the proud owner of a pair of hand carved, maybe, who knows what, and who knows where they were made. But I’ll bet no else at home has any. It’s okay though because she says she got a good deal.
Next we drove to a Batik factory. This is where they hand make batik cloth. The designs are hand painted from bees wax and paints. They go through many processes before completion. This Bali Batik is supposed to be the most intricate and some of it is beautiful. This cloth is then hand sewn into different kinds of clothing and table and bed linen. Bobbi is impressed that there were dozens of bats sleeping upside down on the outdoor ceiling covering the factory area. This Batik must obviously be made of bat doo doo too.
There was a large semi air conditioned inside store area too. You name it, they had it made in batik. And that is hand made batik, not stamped batik, unless you wanted stamped batik. I was so excited I went to visit their library.
It was very clean. It had a toilet paper holder with just the card board inside of a used up roll of paper. There was, however, a hand held shower head with a hose. Now I was really confused. Okay, I won’t go into it. I sent Art to get paper. They reluctantly gave him a small roll but required a deposit. No they didn’t. To make a long, unnecessary story a little shorter, suffice it to say, everything came out all right in the end and no one dared go near that part of the store for quite some time. Art had to use the Ladies. He still won’t leave me alone about that.
Bobbi, of course, bought a big bag full of stuff while I hollered she didn’t need that junk. I don’t know why I even try. It never worked before and it didn’t do any good now. When I’m asked what she bought I reply, everything. That is no exaggeration. She did get a freebee though. They carried her bag out to the van because I wouldn’t. Oh yeah, they offered us semi cool water and little 5 ounce bottles of Coke. Imagine that after she spent only $32.000 in Bali money. ( Bobbi thinks it’s free like Monopoly money). As we were about to get in the van the salesman asked Bobbi if she wanted a butterfly for the white blouse she was wearing. She said sure and a girl hand painted a flower and butterfly on her sleeve. It really is pretty.
Our next stop was supposed to be lunch. Avery nice lunch had been planned in an open air hotel restaurant. Open air was the key word here. It was now about 180 degrees out. And that was in Celsius. No one could do any more open air. We insisted on a well air conditioned restaurant. The only two they knew of were Kentucky Fried Chicken and Mc Donald’s. That did not do it for us. I asked how far the big volcano was. It was another 45 minutes each way. Later we found there was no large volcano we could drive up to. I have no idea where he would have taken us or what he thought I said.
We had paid for an eight hour tour but opted to give up and go back to the ship where there was real air conditioning and safe, good food. The driver and the guide did not want to turn around and started mumbling stuff to one another. We finally figured out they thought they had done something wrong. We finally got it across that everything was okay and we were just tired and hot. Only then did they turn around. I guess we were going to be hostages otherwise. When we got back to the dock the guide couldn’t thank us enough. He kept bowing while putting his hands together as if praying. He kept asking if he was in trouble. He was real cute in his white skirt with the blue stripe at the bottom. He probably thought I dressed funny too.
When we got back to the ship all the restaurants were already closed except the BBQ on the pool deck. They always have great huge hamburgers and chicken sandwiches and salads. We tried going up there but it was far too hot outside and the inside was now closed. We went back to the room. It was now 3:00 PM and because we were starving we ordered room service for the first time ever. I really don’t like eating in the room and then having the used stuff lying around, but when starving, one must make sacrifices. We ordered a couple of cheese burgers and they were there in 10 to 15 minutes. God, they were good. You would think we hadn’t eaten in a week.
For dinner this evening there was a Bali BBQ up on the pool deck with Bali entertainers doing dances. Again, up on deck was the key word and we opted to eat in the nicely air conditioned main dinning room. All except Muriel. She just wilted and would not resume the daily activity of dinner. You would have thought we would not be able to eat dinner. We just finished lunch less then three hours ago. But, again, one must keep up one’s strength. And we did. Later we went up on deck and watched the Bali dances. They were not nearly as good as the one we saw, I think?
Bali Ball Sherm Out.
(Posted on behalf of Sherman Rootberg)
