Yep! This will be my final entry for this trip. We have had to come home for several reasons not the least of which is to tidy up our house for sale so we can set off again. So here I go:
Once the kids had left for China after their New Year stay, Shane & I had to do our ‘visa run’ to Singapore as our Indonesian visa was only a 30 day pass. I have posted stories of Singapore in the last few posts (yeah, I know – out of order) so here is a few details from the final days of our Bali stay. Normally Bali would only be a few days stopover for us on our way to Penang. However because Adrian, Lin and Joy were hitting Bali on their way home from China, John & Rhonda (gym mates) were also about to visit Bali and a long time friend, Tanya who we haven’t seen for 14 years was also coming to Bali over the Australia Day w/end we decided to tack a few weeks on to our Xmas holiday and enjoy all their company’s while we could. This meant flying back to Townsville on Feb 9th.
In the pics below you’ll see a typical Balinese building in Sanur. Is it a shop? A temple? a residence? Who knows? I just know that we loved Sanur and recommend it well and truly over Kuta. The next 5 photos show some of the lovely beachfront at Sanur. In these pics the Puri Santrian staff are ‘harvesting and replanting’ corals to improve the reef just 75 metres from the beach. Sponsors can even have a name plate added to the planting and every so often return to see how their coral has grown. A great initiative. There are lots of beautiful things to see at Sanur.
Kuta Beach (Bali’s best known beach) on the other hand can be seen to be a rubbish tip. I certainly would not venture into the waters here. That ‘blob’ in front of the portion of blue boat hull is a dead, rotting groper. There were bodies everywhere as you can see.
Anyway, moving on. John and Rhonda, our Townsville gym mates (from the ‘A-Team) made it for a few days so we left Sanur and joined them at the Royal Singasari Hotel in Kuta. We took in some cultural dancing, the Monkey Forest at Ubud where we all fed the monkeys (except for Rhonda who has promised “next time guys”), Mt Kintamani volcano (a week after we left the volcano there was a landslide on the far side which wiped out a village and killed several villagers) and had lunch at Bubba Gump’s (a franchise built around the Tom Hanks movie “Forest Gump”). The pic of cars through a wet car window was about where we got stuck trying to reach the “Mother Temple” in a typical monsoonal downpour. We ended up pushing the car off the verge to get going then walk up the hill to where the car was waiting for us.
After John & Rhonda left it was Tanya’s turn. We hadn’t seen her in 14 years since she moved to Toowoomba. Funny that of all places to catch up we met again in Bali. We had a few drinks and lunch at “The Stadium” then after a day of reminiscing and a visit to a temple in Kuta (love their rules but wondering how they can be sure to enforce rule 1) we parted and waited for the kids to arrive.
Adrian, Lin and Joy arrived on the 8th so we moved hotels again to the Kuta Lagoon Resort which had adjoining family room for us and the best resort pool we’ve had on this trip. I had to include the picture of our gorgeous two year old Joy as she gave me the ‘supermodel’ look on Legian Beach. Only hours before departing Bali the kids had a swim in the pool while we finished packing. Having them with us for our return to Townsville was a Godsend as with their (unused) extra baggage and help we were able to get to the plane reasonably comfortable with our huge load intact.
So that’s it from us for now. Our plan at the moment is to sell up and travel some more but it could take all year to get that far. So if you’d like to visit NQ better do it quick if you’d like some free accommodation because we’ll be gone otherwise.
I may post a summary page but seeing as it’s taken me 6 weeks to post this last page that’s doubtful. We hope you’ve enjoyed our posts as its hard to tell when there’s so few comments and suggestions sent to us.
Cheers
Garry and Shane
I have enjoyed following your story and found the photo’s most pleasing, so keep in contact and you never know we may get to TVL before you leave the place. In the wilds of Victoria at the moment.
Ian
Cheers Ian.
Safe travels my friend. Hope to catch up at Forster in October.