We were looking for a memorable Christmas in our first year in Singapore and it didn't take us long to choose Bali. 12 years earlier, when we were living in Japan, we had spent the New Year's holiday in Singapore and Bali. It was that experience that ultimately brought us back to Singapore for work and to Bali for a second time.
In planning the trip, we had to decide where to stay. Bali is a pretty big island with all types of different experiences, depending on where you stay. In our first trip here, we had stayed in a resort area called Nusa Dua which was beautiful but didn't give us much of a feel of what Bali was 'really' like. So we were looking for another locale.
Our choices:
Kuta - party central, home to all the nightlife and also where the Bali nightclub bombings took place.
Legian/Seminyak- up the coast from Kuta and the 'in' place to stay. Tends to be costly.
Ubud- the artistic heart of Bali in a mountainous region in the interior of Bali. Also where the part of the book is based
Ahmed and Candi Dasa - a quite area on the eastern side of the island known more for its diving
Tanah Lot - pounding surf, on the western side of the island, away from the hustle and bustle and home to the most visited of all Balinese temples.
We arrived at night and were immediately impressed. The place has a Greg Norman designed golf course and so after you exit off of the main road you meander for app. 1 km through the golf course to the resort. About one-third of the way in, there is a guard house where the undercarriage of all vehicles is inspected using a mirror to ensure there are no bombs. This was a bit of an eye-opener for us, but understandable based on past events in Bali.
We were looking for some unique opportunities during our stay and selected a few things that we felt would be both memorable and enjoyable. Our first adventure was to go horseback riding. Getting anywhere in Bali is a slow process, so we chose a place that was close to our hotel. We weren't disappointed with our choice as we had a great afternoon riding on the black sand beaches and exploring a beautiful Balinese village. A couple of times during our trip we were given a bit of a scare. The first one came when someone set off fireworks in the village we were riding through. As you might imagine, this spooked the horses and scared us too. The final incident happened when we were almost finished. A group of local kids was playing a game of soccer and as we approached the game, the horses became increasingly uneasy. It turns out, one time a kid had kicked a soccer ball and hit a horse and now the horses were fearful of it happening again. Just as we got close, the loud 'thud' of a foot kicking the ball could be heard and this terrified Lisa's horse, which we were to find out later, was the one that had been hit in the incident I described earlier. Lisa held on for dear life and thankfully settled the horse down. So, as advertised, our horseback riding certainly proved to be adventurous (and a little harrowing too).
A second, highly recommended excursion we went on was a day long cycling trip in Central Bali with a group known as Happy Bike Tours. Our first stop of the day was to a coffee plantation in the foothills of Mt. Agung, a volcanic mountain. We saw vanilla plants and cinnamon trees and how a specialty coffee called Kopi Lumak is made. One of the most expensive coffees in the world, Kopi Lumak or Civet Coffee is made by feeding coffee beans to a civet, who digests them and then defecates the coffee bean. The beans are then collected from the feces of the civet, cleaned, and dried in the sun. I kid you not! Needless to say, we took a pass on the offer to try a drink.
After breakfast we began our bike tour. Peddling the back roads of Bali through rice paddies and villages and alongside mountain streams and river valleys, the downhill ride was full of the beauty and imagery that many people envision when they hear of Bali being the "Last Paradise on Earth".
Riding through beautiful mountain villages, we were happily greeted by everyone we passed and what we saw was a way of life that has been untouched by consumerism and the modern ways of life. Recently harvested rice was laid out on tarps by the side of the road to dry in the hot sun, people carried home fresh fruits in baskets on the tops of their heads and children played merrily in the streets.
See what it was like for yourself....
After hours of riding through the countryside and enjoying every minute of it, we visited the family compound of the tour operator where we were treated to a traditional Balinese lunch and learned about family life in Bali.
It was the most incredible experience and something we would certainly do again were we to return to Bali.
Celebrating Christmas away from family and friends and without snow was a little different, but our Christmas and New Year's proved to be quite memorable. The hotel was decorated for the season and featured a massive gingerbread cathedral in the lobby. The restaurant had a large Christmas tree and had a Santa and his reindeer suspended overhead. On Christmas Eve, we went to a special dinner which featured a children's choir from the local orphanage.
New Year's was a good time too. We had met two other families during our stay and went out for dinner with them at the hotel pub and restaurant. After a late meal, we went next door to the conference centre for a countdown to midnight that couldn't be beat. There was live music, free champagne and decorations and party favors galore. Haylee and her new found friends spent the rest of the night on stage singing and dancing to the music with their own microphone!
A couple of evenings during our trip we travelled to Seminyak, a popular restaurant area where we found an Italian restaurant called Ultimo that we fell in love with. The food was spectacular and the prices couldn't be beat and the atmosphere was pretty cool too.
As I said earlier, Kuta Beach is a bit of a tourist trap that is popular with western tourists and is infamously known as the site of the Bali bombings that took place in 2002 and 2005. As a result, it's an area that we were somewhat hesitant to visit. Nonetheless, we ventured there one day and had a good time here enjoying a Starbucks coffee, doing some shopping and visiting Waterbom water park. All three of us had a great time at the water park and spent the whole day going up and down the waterslides. Even a torrential tropical downpour didn't slow us down. Running and playing in the rain was great fun and made us feel like kids again ( Haylee didn't have to work too hard at this ). We finished off a great day in Kuta by enjoying dinner on the beach before returning to our hotel.
The Bali Nirwana Golf Club surrounds the resort and has some of the most picturesque golf holes I have ever seen. There are three holes that play right along the ocean, one of which is a 200 yard par three with a 180 yard carry over the water. In the background, you can see the Tanah Lot temple which is one of the most visited temples in Bali. I played the course two times during our stay and just loved it. I would definitely like to play this course again sometime.
The opportunity to spend 2+ weeks in Bali was an incredible experience and what some would call the trip of a lifetime. Fun, food, new found friends...who could ask for anything more?
