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| Bill,
Ben and Bali...... |
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Rating
:  (
4.8 ) ( 35 votes )
Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia
Mar 07, 2004 15:42
Pros:
fun and exciting, interesting place
Cons:
none
Factoid of the day: Baby Chickens are difficult to sex...
Abstract: After a flight with Garuda fraught with delays and KFC
we arrived in Bali 3 hours late to Humidity and best of all Kish,
we were escorted back to our palatial villa in Nusa Dua and so began
a week of utter relaxation and socialising, except for a day scuba
diving.
Nitty Gritty:
Managed to get up in time for the taxi to the airport, by virtue
of the local pagoda playing some kind of ‘trance anthem’
with lots of chanting from 4am! The airport differs from most we
have been in by virtue of a lack of computers at check in, so with
our handwritten boarding cards we were on the plane. Only 40 minutes
late we arrived at Bangkok and halfway on our walk to the other
terminal one of those golf carts with the flashy orange lights stopped
to offer us a lift, given we are nether a)disabled (well physically
anyway) or b) Celebrities, we felt rather privileged as we swept
past all the suckers walking… Any feeling of well being soon
evaporated upon arrival at the Garuda transfer desk where the check
in woman happily informed us that our flight from Singapore to Bali
had been cancelled and we were being routed via Jakarta (not too
much of a problem) but wouldn’t arrive in Bali until 3am (aarrgghhh!).
By way of compensation we were given a ‘meal voucher’
which turned out to be for 100baht (US$2.50) at KFC (empty because
of the chicken flu!), I was happy with my ‘Fillet burger’,
being sure any virus would have perished under the deep fried autoclave
cooking methods of KFC (if indeed there is any chicken in it), but
Rachel made the mistake of ordering a smoky wrap, ie scraps of floor
sweepings deep fried in a msg/gm/poison sauce, it was absolutely
disgusting even Graham couldn’t eat it.
We made our way to the check in desk (trying to remove the grease
from our fingers and faces with a 10cm square KFC ‘clean up
wipe’) only to discover that there where 15 others being bumped
via Jakarta and Garuda had changed their minds and would delay the
Singapore - Bali plane. The looks on the peoples faces at Singapore
having being delayed for 4 hours said it all…
It was fantastic to see Kish at Denpasar airport and we were taxied
back to his villa at Nusa Dua. Kish is a friend from north London
we actually met on our last trip to Indonesia, in Borneo. After
a somewhat faulting start in borneo(we thought he was trying to
hustle us) we got on famously, united in our dislike of our guide.
He is in the tropical fish import business, hence the reason for
his postings in all the worlds most desirable places, i.e. Bali,
Maldives, Kenya and the Caribbean, why, oh why, did we choose pharmacy
as a career?
He lives in a villa in a ‘village’ of mainly holiday
homes, which where unoccupied whilst we were there. The swimming
pool and maid are two of the things that endeared the place to us,
but the star attractions were his chickens Bill and Ben. Having
bought what he thought were two female chickens it soon became clear
that he was in possession of a ‘pair’. Bill –y
was busy incubating a clutch of eggs on our arrival whilst Ben seemed
to enjoy strutting round the garden eating Pringles and corn.. if
any of the wild birds approached his Pringles much violence would
ensue, but it turns out Ben is a wimp as any attempt to capture
him resulted in blind panic and he would skulk out of sight for
hours. Ben’s days are however numbered as being a cock he
has the unfortunate habit of cock-a-doodle-do-ing at ungodly hours,
given his perch is immediately outside Kish’s bedroom window
this leads to frequent pillows/slaps round the head… Once
the arrival of chicks is assured Ben is to be banished to the maid’s
village to the north. Given his mollycoddled existence he will probably
get duffed up by the local cocks upon arrival.
Newsflash: Kish is now the proud father of two (surviving) Chicks
Most of Kish’s friends are in the hospitality industry (not
suprisingly given Bali’s primary source of income) and we
therefore spent most evenings in the company of Roberto, manager
of ‘Macaroni’ or David manager of ‘Pappas’
needless to say we enjoyed delicious Italian food most nights! There
was also a good deal of beer drinking and dancing, things we are
definitely out of practice at. Towards the end of the week we decided
that we had better leave the house and do something so booked a
scuba course with one of Kish’s friends. After a session in
the pool (it was Graham’s first time) we did two dives to
15 meters on a reef close to shore. The first thing we saw was a
2-meter black and white banded snake! Ahhh! The hand signal for
danger was the first we used… Anyway we were both bitten by
the bug and will definitely be doing our PADI when we get to Australia…
Despite Kish’s reservations regarding the traffic we hired
a Suzuki jeep to try to see some more of the island for two days.
Kish turned out to be right and despite two pleasant days sightseeing,
the traffic, in particular the suicidal mopeds, was awful. We visited
Tanah Lot, the famous temple on a small island just off shore, which
was very pretty and Ubud a rather touristy hill town with hundreds
of ‘craft’ shops.
On our last night we had a big session of eating and drinking, and
together with Gail, Kish’s charming girlfriend went of to
some nightclubs in Dyana Pura. We felt pretty rough the next day…
Kish however managed to get up for work!!!!
Despite Kish wanting us to stay (and we were very very tempted)
after 9 days it was time to move on and after a lovely meal at David’s
we said our regretful goodbyes at the airport bound for Melbourne.
Kish had been the most patient and generous host, and as soon as
we were on the plane we wished we had stayed longer... but as Frodo
says, "the road goes ever on and on...." |
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