Day Tripper – Days out round the Island.

The many faces of Curtis Vol. 107. Were both quite aware of who is really in charge...

Well, in the first couple of weeks of the New Year we’ve been pretty quiet again. We’ve done a couple of very nice day trips in people carrier taxis, but generally we’ve been relaxing and enjoying watching Curtis’s progress. He’s gone from sitting stationary to charging around the villa at breakneck crawling speed and climbing onto and grabbing hold of everything he shouldn’t in just a couple of weeks. It’s really lovely to see, as he’s loving every minute of it, the whole world has opened up to the little devil, and a whole new world of worry for us!

More of the cheeky little chappy with one of him riding his latest mode of transport. One slap to go forward. Two to stop.

We’ve booked our Japan tickets (£430 for all 3of us), we also booked our flight from Tokyo to London and got a refund on our Sri Lanka ticket. So were all booked and ready, and we still have 4 weeks here.  We’ve sorted our visa extension for Bali too.

Monsoon season has really kicked in here now, it rains for 2 days solid sometimes then it will be on and off fr a day or so and then you’ll get a full day of lovely sunshine. It’s a great time to just do nothing, watch DVDs, cook food and contemplate your navel. There is a fairly decent Warung about 1 min from the villa so we’ve been going there. It’s dirt cheap, less than a £1 for a main course with rice, you’d be hard pushed to spend a fiver and still come out stuffed. It’s funny, in most of these local warungs a bottle of beer will cost you more than double the price of your food. There is another one called the Garden warung which is really good and about 10 mins walk.

The beachfront temple at Pura Rambut Siri. A carving and Susan & Curtis overlooking the surrounding countryside.

OK, some of the more interesting stuff. Well, on one of our day trips we went round the whole of the West of Bali which took a good 13 hours of driving. On the way we visited Balian Beach on the South West Coast, which is a nice, laid back surfers beach with a few cafes and bungalows with a chilled out vibe. We vowed to go back when we had more time. After that we headed on to visit a couple a lovely temple at Pura Rambut Siri which is on a hill overlooking the beach. Then we went on to see two churches, one in a Catholic community (in Palasari) and one in a Protestant one(in Belimbingsari) both fairtly unusual for Bali. The Catholic Church was really nice, and as it was hammering with rain both places were deserted and gave them a real eerie feel.

The Catholic church in Palasari and the Protestant one in Belimbingsari.

From here we had the driver drive round the rest of West Bali thru Melaya & Cekik and round the tip to Pemuteran and finally Lovina before cutting thru the mountains and back to Sanur after a very long day. We liked the look of Lovina and again vowed to go back and check it out properly. Hiring a minibus taxi for the day is a great way to do things for us, you get to see lots of sights, stop off where you like and make your own itinerary. We can go visit places when think we might like, and if we do, go back at a later point, and if we don’t, we haven’t wasted a night in a hotel and a taxi fare. Plus it’s not expensive either, around £25-30 for the day. A one way fare would only be slightly cheaper, also you never know when it’s going to rain at this time of year, so it’s nice to have the comfort of the mini bus if it does. The whole island is only around 120k wide coast to coast and probably 70k high so you can cover a lot of ground this way. 

Statues at the Gunarsa Museum including the great Dennis Healy god on the left.

A few days later we did another day trip round the South East area of Bali, stopping first at the great Gunarsa Museum, dedicated to classic and contemporary Balinese art, with very old stone carvings, masks , shadow puppets and some great modern paintings from Gunarsa the man that built the museum. Liking his style.

More statues at the Gunarsa Museum, oh, and we bumped into David Lee Roth (right)

From there we went onto to visit the Taman Kertha Gosa palace in Semarapura along with the sprawling local market where nearly everyone was surprised to see 2 foreigners with a baby. The palace wasn’t bad as a place to visit, the main attraction here are the two pavilions with beautifully painted ceilings depicting tales from Balinese history. 

The local market in Semarapura and theTaman Kertha Gosa,

Myself & Susan in Taman Kertha Gosa, Semarapura and some of the scary ceiling art. Don't annoy the gods in Bali.

After this we drove along the lovely Sideman Road, which goes from Semarapura to Duda winding thru river valleys, rice fields, hills & streams. It was a very enjoyable drive in the car and would be even better on a motorbike. We stopped for lunch at a very nice Organic restaurant overlooking the rice fields run by a nice man called Nyoman who told us about the villa resort that he runs that was close by, saying they had the best views in Bali Big claim!. So after lunch we decided to check them ouit for ourselves. After coming off the road and driving thru a VERY local village we finally arrived at the Great Mountain Views Resort. Well, I gotta say, he wasn’t lying, the view over the rice fields and the Gannung Agung volcano were stunning. There were only 8 rooms, and nobody staying as it really is in the middle of nowhere, but those views! Wow. Once again we vowed to come back to stay.

A river on the drive along the Sideman Road, Susan & Curtis in the Organic Restaurant overlooking the rice fields.

From Duda we doubled back towards the villages of Redan & Bangli. Bangli has an impressive temple (Pura Kehen) where we were surrounded by hawkers the moment we opened the car door. If there’s one thing the gets my goat (and there are actually many things believe it or not) it’s arriving somewhere and having someone in your face trying to sell you some crap as your putting your leg out of the door. And actually, after the 15th person in 20 yards has said ‘you want buy sarong for temple’ you kinda want to stop and say "you know what, I didn’t want to buy a sarong for those last twenty feet, but now you’re one looks kinda special". "Really?". "No."Hawkers the world over, their all the same, they never realise that if they didn’t shove stuff in your face, or try to steer you into their shop, that left alone there’s actually a chance you might wander over for a browse and buy something! As it is all the tourist find them annoying and practically run the gauntlet thru them to get to the temple.Reminds me of the scene in Airplane in the terminal with the Hari Krishnas. Anyway, after this we were pretty wiped out so we just enjoyed the drive back home. Sari-less obviously.

"If I can just adjust the subsonic transmitter...". Me & the boss. Talk about playing the cute card!

Big bugs and Bali Hoo – Christmas & New Year in Sanur

I do love the art out here in Bali, especially the gods, so many cool and evil looking fellas. Nice huge painting in a hotel.

It was Curtis’s first Xmas here and he couldn’t have been any the wiser. We like to think he had a great time and enjoyed the presents we bought him (matching Spiderman vest & shorts, a little Fred Perry top, and a plastic handyman kit among others) although I think he mat have been just as happy chewing the wrapping paper! We went down to the beach and had a traditional Xmas dinner of Chicken Fajitas and Tuna in Banana leaf. Not a turkey in sight! After that we came back to the Villa and watched the last one of the Harry Potter films with a couple of real ales. Boxing Day was lovely too, nice quiet morning and a buffet meal round Susan’s friend Nessie’s later.

Our tiny Xmas tree. Curtis unwrapping his presents, which mainly involved eating the paper or throwing them on the floor

We did a couple more day trips between Xmas & New Year. We went up the coast to spend a couple of days at Candidasa, but when we got there we were a little under whelmed and decided to spend the day there and come back that night. On the way we visited a couple of nice temples, one of which was beautifully positioned just on the beach. They do like a temple on a beach here in Bali I think I'd be more inclined to turn for a quick prey if there was the prospect of a dip and a sunbath after. Also by accident, I stumbled on what looked like a derelict funfair. I managed to find a way to sneak in thru a gate to take photos. Strange place, eerie, crumbling and deserted, not sure what it would have been used for when it was open., a swimming pool maybe? 

Various temples on the way to Chandidasa.  Pura Mascati Beach is  on the right looking out from the inside wall.

The abandoned adventure park/swimming pool near Pura Mascati Beach,

Candidasa itself is ok, no real beach to speak of, wall to wall resorts and restaurants along the front and main road. We did have a really nice meal at the famous and well regarded Vincent’s early evening. We looked at quite a few rooms while we were there, but either they’d put their prices up for the Xmas period or the Lonely Planet was well out of date, as the prices were nearly double what they were quoting in the book, and most of the nicer places were full. Oh well, you gotta try these things.

We’ve also been back to Kuta for a day and to Seminyak, which is close by, and home to looks of cool, trendy shops and is where all the beautiful people go shopping in Bali. Couldn’t find a Peacocks tho, so it ain’t THAT trendy.

Bought a few bits in the sales over here, as it’s so cheap, mainly to replace the stuff that’s fallen apart since we’ve left home. Got new shorts, a few T’s a couple of shirts and some Converse. Sorted…

Curtis in his well named 'I'm a firecracker' t-shirt. With his doting dad. And sunset in Sanur.

New Years Eve was good fun. We took Curtis down to the beach front in Sanur where we had some nice food, a couple of Margarita’s (with the prices especially inflated for the night). Every bar and restaurant had some form of entertainment on, from Dodgy Balinese covers bands (U2s ‘Wib or Wibout You’ was a particular highlight), Traditional Balinese music and some strangely violent Balinese theatre in the restaurant we met Nessie and her family in. This basically involved men in make-up and traditional dress thrusting rusty blades into each others chests & stomachs many times without breaking the skin. Nothing says ‘Happy New Year’ like a good stabbing. It was pretty impressive tho, and we all had our photo taken with them after.

Curtis with the scary Balinese theatre nutters. Posing in his mini Fred Perry and shorts. On holiday with the relatives!

After this the disco started, and I don’t use the word ‘Disco’  lightly either. Earth, Wind & Fire, Heatwave, Abba and Kool and the Gang all got an airing., we managed to last till around 11pm and headed home. Curtis somehow fell asleep in my arms around 10.30pm, even tho there were fireworks going off at every bar for most of the night and loud music everywhere.

Oh, almost forgot, I proposed to Susan on Xmas day and the foolish girl said yes! Woohoo!  Well, there wasn’t much on the telly, and I’d forgotten to buy a present so….. I guess we'll be getting married when we get back to Blighty.

Now we’ll see how many of you actually read this blog!

The many faces of Curtis Vol 20. Cheeky chappy. Asleep on dad, way past his bedtime on NYE. Enigmatic. Ponderous.