Bali Ha'i (our first week in Bali)

Well, we’ve been here in Sanur, Bali for a week now, and it’s been a great week. Not for any sights we’ve seen, not for any glorious beaches, not for any ancient temples, just for the fact that we’ve been doing absolutely b*gger all for most of the time. It’s been so good for all 3 of us to just chill out in the villa, cook our own food, swim, and play with Curtis, rather than working out where we go next. And, it’s nearly Xmas, time to rest up.

"It's 'Child Prodigy' you idiot". Curtis dictates his autobiography. Susan at the kitchen table in the villa. Child thing!

We’re staying in the Susan’s friend Vanessa’s partner Mal’s villa while he’s back home in New Zealand….and what a lovely place it is. Open plan living area next to the pool, great kitchen, outdoor bathrooms and huge comfortable beds, and NO mosquito nets required! Can’t thank Mal enough for lending us the villa, we're very lucky indeed.

Well, when I say, we’ve done nothing for a week that’s not strictly true… we have been to the local beach and walked along the boardwalk, had some amazing food, knocked back a couple of Bintangs, and managed to leave our Travel Mastercard in the ATM of a shopping centre then spent 4 days trying to track it down, had dinner a couple of times with Vanessa and her family at their villa, and spent an hour in a cash and carry getting the Xmas food in!

Ubud - Susan in the rice fields and how to scare the wildlife. Can you guess which one is which? Just kidding darlin'!

We’ve also just spent a day in Ubud with Nessie (Vanessa), her sister and her mum. Ubud is like a hotter version of Upper St, lot’s of small posh shops selling arts and crafts for huge mark-ups to willing tourists. It’s a very popular destination to go chill, do some yoga, have organic food and buy overpriced fake antiques. We went to a lovely organic restaurant overlooking lots of working paddy fields for lunch, a beautiful 20 min walk thru the fields from the road. Although, already we passed a resort being built in the middle of all this. Same old storey I guess. Find somewhere with amazing views, then build a hotel in the middle of said views, blotting out what made it so nice in the first place. But you can’t blame some poor rice farmer who gets offered a huge amount of money to sell his land to some hotel chain for grabbing a chance for a better life… Shame tho. Money talks yet again.

View of the surrounding rice fields from the Organic Restaurant in Ubud. Me & CJ post healthy lunch, overlooking the rice fields. He got to eat Tofu and rice cakes for lunch, and he's still smiling! Brave boy.

On the walk back to meet the others at the car, a large, heavy branch fell from one of the coconut trees and crashed right beside the buggy as I was pushing Curtis. Bit of a shock to all of us, but this sort of thing does happen in these climates. After the coconut falling right next to us in Sri Lanka, and now a whole branch landing next to us in Bali I’m beginning to think the Gods are angry with me for some reason….

Meanwhile work goes on as usual in the fields. Chill out area in the Restaurant.

Bali is very different to Sri Lanka, it’s had booming tourism for many years, and is  a much more modern destination. It’s also slightly cheaper by our estimation, although you can live the backpacker lifestyle or the life of Riley, any budget seems to be catered for. You can still get a lovely Nasi Campur for just over £1 in the local Warung, or live it up in a posh restaurant. And the food! The first meals I ate here were better than ANYTHING I had in Sri Lanka.

Kuta seafront, miles of hotels & restaurants, nicely designed tho. Clearing locals from the beach, musn't scare the tourists

Went to Kuta for the day to check out the beach and visit one of the big shopping malls there to get Curtis some Xmas presents. The mall was just like anywhere else in the world, albeit somewhat cheaper. Got a new pair of Converse for £10 in the sale, plus a few bits for the boy. At least it was air conditioned! The whole beachfront in Kuta is very touristy, resorts, hotels and shop and restaurants one after the other, Starbucks, Hard Rock Café, all  kinds of stylish concrete and glass shopping and dining opportunities. Bars in pools, pools in bars, masseurs, touts, hawkers, chancers and beggars. If you’re looking for that sort of thing then you’ve got everything you could possibly need within a few minutes walk of your hotel. Once again tho you could be anywhere in the world, nothing particularly Balinese here.

Just like being in Skegness! The old and the new in Kuta. Hard Rock Cafe, just about summons up Kuta for me.

"Yeah, one step closer bald man, just one....". Various co-habiters in Sanur, Bali. Check out Narcissus the Grasshopper.

It’s Xmas Eve here as I finish the first part of the Balinese section of our blog, we all had a Festive splash about in the pool this morning after we took our Xmas card photo. We’ve been lounging around listening to the Clash (as you do at Xmas) and lying in the sun. Curtis, of course, hasn’t got a clue that today is different to any other, he’ll be 8 months old tomorrow (Xmas Day) so I reckon we might have one more year before Xmas becomes the best day in the year of any child’s life. Guess I’ll have to re-assess my opinions about Xmas before then! At the moment he’s oblivious and is being his usual inquisitive, energetic, happy self and we love him for it. Best Xmas present I could ever ask for…. 

One of these monkeys is our lovely Curtis. Can you guess which one. I think the one one the left is Homer Simpson.