You start with an hour to Heathrow, courtesy of that honourable chap Stephen Whaley, then having dropped your bags you hang about for a couple of hours, then you hang about at 37,000 feet for a little over 12 hours vainly trying to get much sleep. Then you spend an hour clearing Singapore Immigration, collecting bags, checking in for JetStar flight to Bali, going out through immigration again. Then you hang about eating rubbish muffins for another 2 hours (not eating muffins the whole time!) then another 2 and a half hours at 32,000 feet then about an hour and a half getting the Indonesian visa, clearing immigration and customs and being driven to the hotel by the nice man sent by the hotel, So you finally arrive about 10:45 pm (local time) the day after you left [24hrs travelling] feeling absolutely shattered, all the hotel restaurants are closed but you do manage to get a drink at the beach bar the next hotel along where it promptly rains! [peter failed to mention that this pina colada was under beautiful swaying palms by a huge sandy beach with waves crashing out on the coral reef and from where we hve barely stired since!]
But you are so shattered you sleep like a log, though that will be your last good night's sleep for a while because the time difference is 8 hours and when you are trying to sleep at 11pm your body thinks it is 3pm and no way are you going to sleep until 4 am at the earliest!
Anyway - the first morning it's raining .[Dramatic heavy tropical rain that makes the jungle grow - exciting] But it does stop, it is lovely warm rain anyway, and there is a great beach and lots of pools to enjoy. So for two days that was all we did, and it didn't rain anymore. And this morning the man arrived with our rental car - small and very pink - so we wandered off across the Southern end of Bali to a temple (Hindu) with lots of monkeys (holy monkeys it seems) with a penchant for stealing peoples glasses, hats and flip-flops; unless you engage the services of a guide (how the monkeys tell the difference - not explained!) So beaches and sunshine and culture and Balinese sihnposts in short supply. Most roads lead to luxury resorts, so the chllenge is to find ones that actually go places.
My [Liz now writing} massage - a generous Xmas present fron Barny and Gem- demonstrates the lap of luxury we are in. They have built a new building to house th spa, which you enter through a long dark tunnel [made of netting] spend 30 mins in the thermal pool and steam room before a wonderful 60 mins massage with chosen oils, followed by more ginger tea, chocolate and nuts that left me floating down the path through the tropical gardens back to our room and verander near the beach . Between us and the beach some workman have chosen to dig deep holes and pour down concrete for a new structure - don't know what. A pity they moved the two huge raised sofas that I was about to occupy. They provide us with some entertainment!
I've enjoyed wandering along the beach to the public beaches and watching the surfers - a real international mix, but mainly Ozzies.Good surf out on the coral reef when the tide is up. I've also swum lots in the sea at different times of day and stages of the tide - beautifully warm and quite shallow, especially at low tide. In the evening we haven't got further than a choice of resturants on the beach. The has certainly been a lazy beginning to our adventures and a real indulgence. Tomorrow morning is our last morning breakfast feast - an amazing choice of anything, including lots of local fruits and yoghurt, eggs, buns of all sorts, etc. Then we make good use of our car to travel north and find some real balinese places away from the luxurious resorts, not encouraged by the general manager of the hotel who suggests we take a driver. He's obviously not used to his guests demonstrating any independence.