Bali Ha'i

Hello everyone and Happy 4th of July! Obviously not celebrated on this side of the world, I am at work today but it seems to have impacted the market because it is very slow. So with that I thought I'd jump in and give my thoughts on our trip to Bali. Lisa is looking for a way to download all the pictures as we were quite snap happy while there - but maybe I'll throw a few directly into this post tonight.

I'm not exactly sure what our expectations were heading over to Bali but I think it is safe to say that the trip exceeded them. We were staying at the Ritz Carlton resort so you would think you are pretty safe but the grounds were nicer and much larger than any description or pictures we found online.

Our flight out was not bad but not great. We were in the center of row 68 of 70 on an older plane for Cathay Pacific. One interesting thing I had never seen before was that there was a camera on the bottom of the plane between the back wheels pointing at the front that you can watch the entire time. It was interesting but when we watched the wheel come down for landing, got a look at the runway and then watched it come back up and the plane start moving further from the airport I realized that it was probably not great for nervous fliers. The plane circled awhile and then came back in for a landing.

Being last off the plane put us at the end of the line for immigration which probably took close to an hour and then I got shafted by two locals for 20 bucks to wheel our bags about 13 feet. But then we were greeted by the representative from the Ritz who took our bags, led us to an air conditioned car while handing us cold bottles of water and cool moist towels and the trip just kept moving up hill from there.

About a 30 minute ride to the resort and another 5 from the front gate to the main lobby (like I said, the grounds were huge) we were greeted once out of the car by a loud gong and adorned with fragrant leis. You're then seated in the outdoor lobby, given a cup of tropical punch and the staff ran around checking us in while we relaxed.

Our room, though nice, was a little disappointing because we were given two full beds instead of a king (this was our travel agent's fault - not the resort's) and the extra we paid for an ocean view was really more of a technical ocean view, as we were on the first floor and had to look over some trees and try and spy out the water.

Kermit heard we had an extra bed

The resort had a traditional dance show and dinner buffet that was held either Thurs. or Fri. each week. We called and it was being held that night at 8:00 so we made reservations. The show was interesting if not great and the buffet was very good with local seafood and a roasted pig as the main attractions. Afterward I grabbed some guy on a golf cart and asked him if he could drive us to the resort's martini bar we saw in the room's guide. There were shuttles that would drive you around the property but I think he realized my next question was going to be if he could give me a ride to the shuttle (hey I'm on vacation) and he happily drove us over. We had a couple of cocktails at the very stylish illuminated bar, watched the newts and frogs and fed the giant koi in the pond at our feet. We were very relaxed and called it an early night and headed back to the room to get some sleep before our first full day.

The next morning we grabbed some breakfast (an enormous buffet included in our stay) and then took the shuttle to their private beach. Ironically it was practically our own private beach even though it was post card beautiful. There were a handful of people - maybe 5 when we showed up, so we grabbed two lounge chairs under a little bamboo canopy and relaxed. There was a little hut that served snacks and tropical drinks and it was about as close to a Corona commercial as real life could ever get. The only disappointing thing was that because of the rough water on that side of the island we were not allowed to go swimming. We could walk out a way in the water and I jumped in once, completing submergence in 3 out of 4 oceans so far.

We spent most of the day at the bizarro Hong Kong beach and then headed back to the main pool for a dip as the sun went down. Believe it or not we were indecisive on what to do for dinner but then finally made a decision to head out of the resort to a local beach front restaurant Lisa had read about on the net. When getting in a cab at the front desk they were not sure where we were asking to go but the cab driver seemed to understand and we were off.

I don't know if any of you had seen City of God but as we pulled off the main road and drove toward the water the scene became very reminiscent of the movie and we both kind of wondered where this guy was taking us. But at the end of the road was this little strip of restaurants and the second to last one had a sign for Lia, the one Lisa had read about.

I'll fully admit if we had not read about this I would have told the driver to turn around and take us back. Lining the single populated block in the area were about 8 attached shacks on each side of the road. Smoke billowing out of the ones on the left, locals sitting around staring at the two tourists getting out of a cab, and stray dogs aplenty. We made our way down to Lia - shack 7 out of 8 with the proprietors of each establishment trying to pull us in to check out their place.

We were greeted warmly at Lia and the basic concept is that there are fish tanks and coolers filled with all the seafood and you pick out what ever you want, they weight it in front of you and then take you to a seat. With the help of the owner we picked out a large local fish called dorado and a couple of jumbo prawns. Then we were walked through the shack to the beach which was filled with candlelit tables all facing the surf - each restaurant's tables separated by the color of the table cloths. The waitress then brought me my large Bintang (local beer) and the 10 minutes of uncertainty we just experienced were quickly forgotten.

We learned as we went and were given a small salad and some toasted peanuts to start. Our fish and shrimps were served with some vegetables and rice and there was some watermelon and pineapple after the meal. While eating we agreed that this was at minimum in the top three fish dinners we have ever eaten (falling just behind this little bar in Seville). The fish is grilled over banana leaves instead of coal and seasoned perfectly. We sat around and enjoyed the scenery for a while and then asked for the bill.

Now the population of Bali is notoriously poor and all the tour books make no secret that if the locals get a chance to take advantage of you they will each and every time (ala the two guys at the airport). So I mentioned to Lisa we probably should have asked prices and I hoped I had enough cash on me as I was not even certain that they could take a credit card and we still needed a cab home. And the total did come as a surprise: 147,000 Rupiah... which is approximately $15 USD. That is not a misprint as I thought the bill may have been. One of the best fish dinners we've ever had, a couple of beers and a gorgeous setting for 15 bucks.... We would be back.

The restaurant called us a cab and we were back at the resort in about 20 minutes. We went to the one lounge that stayed open late and grabbed a couple of drinks and nice Cuban cigar. There was a local band, guitars, stand up base and bongo with attached cowbell that serenaded us with heavily accented British and American rock (Guys! Guys!.... I need more cowbell. - Don't worry they didn't get it either). I think in the end it was pretty close to a perfect day.

The next day we did a tour of the island which I will let Lisa blog about because there's a lot we could write about and this is already running long.

On our final full day we set up massage appointments (the resort has a spa as well) and then made it our goal to find the salt water cliff-side pool. Without much difficulty we found our way down about 150 steps and a much smaller but amazingly scenic pool. Fortunately we had two great days before this or we would have been kicking ourselves for not finding this on day one. We were fortunate to snag two of the 20 lounge chairs and stayed there long enough to enjoy some frozen margaritas while watching the sun set.

It's odd but it seemed most people there were more interested in making sure they did everything the resort had to offer and they didn't really seem to enjoy what was going on. This was exemplified by every one clearing out from the pool as soon as they got their snapshots of the sun setting even though it wasn't even completely down. It was just us and one other couple at the pool now and they happened to notice my Frog's Leap tee shirt. It turned out they were from Austin, TX and both in the wine industry. We talked about what we had done so far and said we would probably see them at the lounge that evening. We of course were heading back to Lia for dinner.

Fortunately the first time we went the cab driver knew where to take us because this time the driver took us to a much more "popular" strip of restaurants down farther on the beach. With a little navigation I was able to direct us back along the coast and we found what we were looking for. Of course if this is where the first guy took us we would have just assumed Lia had closed down. This time we walked down the street with confidence saying hello to the locals, petting the strays and swatting the bats.

The staff remembered us and we were greeted even friendlier than the first time. This time I went right for the lobster and we got a small fish to go along with it. Once again it was delicious and there was even some soup served. A 2 lbs. lobster upped the bill to 40 bucks and I contemplated building a hut near by. We were much later this time and the beach was much less crowded. When we left they once again called us a cab and we walked to the corner to wait. This time however we waited a little longer and restaurant after restaurant began locking up. Then we saw the owner leaving on his moped (they all ride mopeds) and got a little worried how we might get home. But he saw us, stopped and called the cab again. He said they were busy but on their way and then took off. Waiting a little longer the owner came back on his moped to make sure we were gone. When he saw us there he called once again and waited with us until they came.

Back at the lounge (which is really a bad way to describe an outdoor bar with seating divided among small covered decks, some with chairs and tables, some with couches and others with large pillow / beanbag like chairs) for a third night with a beer and Cuban. The couple we met at the pool came and we sat around talking long after the bar closed sharing a very good bottle of wine they brought along. They took my contact information and insisted they are going to send us some wine when they get back to the states (she works for Coppola), so I guess there was an even better way to end the first night.

The morning of our last day we went back to the cliff pool and ran around to take some quick last minute pictures. On the way home we had the second row in coach on a new plane with plenty of room and control of our own TV sets. Things went smooth and we were back in the apartment and upacked before bed time. The next day was Tuesday the 1st which was Handover Day in HK (the day the Brits gave HK back to China - kind of the anti Independance Day) but I had to work. The positive thing was I accrued another vacation day and now with the long list of places we want to see while we're here we're going to need the extra days to make it back to Bali.

We'll miss the BBQ at John and Julie's house but the trip did help to ease the pain quite a bit.

And to respond to Joe (the only one to ever comment on my long winded blogs) congratulations on making the traveling team and maybe a few live games could swing my opinion. Any chance you could get the traveling team to travel to China?

Blog ya later!