Day 1 in Bali

What to do in the city of Sanur?? The convenience of having a pool in your hotel...well that just makes leaving it that much harder. First, I enjoyed my free breakfast and later sat by the pool enjoying the blazing sun as my pale skin soaked in the vitamin D. How I've missed this! But after reading my book and taking a dip my anxious need to explore this city took over. Showered got dressed and on my way down the street. I saw someone rent bikes earlier and thought I'd give it a go.

What was supposed to be an hour bike ride turned into a 2 hour ride that was long and crazy. I didn't think I'd get lost if I kept an eye out for landmarks like I normally do, but after taking some turns following beach signs I ended up on some highway with all these cars & bikes whizzing by. Trying to stay calm when your lost in a foreign country isn't easy. But I decided to take this random turn and glad I did because I ended up at a kite festival on a beach :) All these colorful and unique kites all soaring in the air was something else, a site to see for sure. Families all gathered in this one spot to enjoy the festivities was great. Here's a quick video of the festival.

Although I was lost for awhile, I managed to get back safely right before dark. Whew! I'll never do that again...well unless accompanied by a GPS ;)

Selamat Datang – Welcome to Bali!

Well I guess it was a bit of a precursor, because when I finally arrived in Bali at around 10pm, welcoming me before getting through to customs and my luggage was a 2-hour line of getting a visa on arrival. Instinct told me to get one beforehand, but the laziness got the best of me. Now I really wish I had gotten one ahead of time. Doh! But with patience I got through the line and customs. Now the real fun began…carrying all these bags out of the terminal and finding a taxi. A Balinese man came up to me and helped me with my bags onto a trolley. I thought he was being really nice but turns out he wanted a tip. He kept saying “tip me, tip me” which was really irritating on its own. For that reason alone, I didn’t want to tip him. I didn’t even know how much rupiah equaled a $1 and he said give me 10,000 and I replied with a firm NO because it seemed a lot. So I ended giving him 2000 rp because everything else I had were larger bills. Turns out it was about 24 cents…oops my bad. I felt terrible that was all I tipped him, but his attitude helped me cope with the decision. I finally got out of the terminal expecting to just wave my hand and grab a taxi…but instead had to join a queue of people who had to prepay to get a taxi. Bit of an odd concept but I did it anyway because I had no clue how to get to my hotel otherwise. Better yet, it was past 12am and I was ready to crash. That is the one thing I did ahead of time as I learned from when I first arrived in Oz, book and write down the address of the hotel I was going to stay at.

The taxi driver took me to his car, which was across the street and in a sort of dimly lit parking lot…sounds like an uneasy situation to me, ay? I had my guard up as usual…but we get there, load my bag in and headed towards my hotel. I thought my hotel was going to be really close to the airport as it was supposedly located in Denpasar, but turns out the airport is closer to Kuta then Denpasar and my hotel was located in Sanur. Half hour ride or so later, down the busy grimy mysterious streets of Bali, we arrived at my hotel. I grabbed my bags and the taxi driver goes, “no tip?” Apparently he was going to carry my bags to the front of the hotel but I had other things in mind. Please give me my things and be on your way. I know that’s rude but even more rude is that you expect a tip when you barely even talked to me while in the cab, drop me off at the curb instead of the front of the hotel door, don’t offer to carry my things to the door and especially when you say, “no tip?” Forgive me if the customs in America are different but I certainly don’t think you deserve a tip. At this point, I think all my irritation was probably due to my jet lag and hunger pangs.

After waiting 5 minutes at the reception for someone to greet me, I finally get checked in. A nice man carries my heavy bag up 3 flights of stairs to my room, helps me find the lights and turns on the a/c for me, etc…now you my friend definitely deserve a tip! Now I know 250,000 rp is a lot for a room in Bali, but it was one of the cheaper ones I found online. Apparently they don’t really have many hostels in Bali, but Homestays or hotels instead. I ended up paying for the room as two people because it was a private room with many amenities, including a warm shower, fridge, tv, balcony, a/c and it included breakfast. Well worth the $30 if you ask me. Getting settled in took some time, as I had to adjust to the time difference and try to get online to let my parents know I got here safely. Though soon after, I passed out.

Welcome to Bali!

Travel without hiccups…impossible

Once again, I almost missed my flight to Bali when I discovered I had to be at the domestic terminal instead of the international airport because my flight details were to fly to Brisbane first. Doh! So for a good 30-45 minutes I’m rushing to find my flight number on the screens, asked flight attendants who directed me back and forth from one end of the airport to the other. This was one of those situations I really wished I had a rolling luggage as I was probably carrying 50lbs between 3 bags. After not finding my flight number on the screen, I realized that I had to be at the other terminal. I ran down the escalator, caught an expensive taxi ride to the domestic terminal and yet another hiccup as I went to check in. I needed to book a flight out of Bali and have a printed itinerary before they can let me board the plane. Que!? I begged and pleaded and since the flight was late in boarding everyone, they let me board my flight to Brisbane. Upon arrival, I had to immediately grab my bags, take them to the international terminal and book a flight before I boarded the plane. Luckily, I had just enough time to book my ticket and board my flight to Denpasar, Bali. Yowsa…that was a rocky ride to get out of Oz. I hope this wasn’t a precursor to what was to come.

After boarding the flight to Bali, I got to sit down next to this guy who was from Venezuela. He was a really nice man in his 30’s who was going to Bali with his mates to go surfing for 3 weeks. Boy was I jealous…I had only 10 days. But hey beggars can’t be choosers; at least I get to go period. Best part about the flight he went to go sit with his friend and I got the row all to myself.

10. The Men

Let me be honest, what else needs to be said!? Flavors from all over the world come here and a girl can basically have her pick if she wanted. I'd say the best way to describe most of the men in Australia is tall, dark and handsome. Most of them are usually dressed in emo/chic attire. Though caution to the tale...the good ones are taken and well the majority are just players. Many do not get married until their 30's. I could be overly generalizing, but I haven't had too many interactions with true Aussie men. Most of the men I have come across are from other countries and these descriptions and observations have been made from afar (so don't hold me to them). On the other hand, the Aussie's I have gotten to know really well are gentlemen and scholars. Great conversationalists. And whatever the case, I've got one word for the majority of them...Yum. What girl can resist their accent, besides a British one of course? ;p

P.S. Ladies, I'd provide pictures but that would just make me appear like a stalker. lol. And if I've offended any men out there, well I'm sorry. I'm just one small opinion.

9. Public Transportation

So I know I'm out of Australia already but I have to finish the list. One thing I've become accustomed to while in Australia is the Melbourne public transportation. No car needed, insurance or a parking spot. It's easily the best mode of transportation if you're a local. All you need is a ticket and hopefully knowledge of which trams/trains to catch. And although schedules of the transport can be crazy, it's still pretty good in comparison to places like Sydney and Perth. You can grab a tram or train to just about the footsteps of anywhere you need to go. In most cases you can be there within a half hour. This gives all the suburbs surrounding the CBD (City Business District) easy access to explore. You don't have to stress about driving in the traffic, driving in an unknown area, nor driving on the opposite side of the road (wink, wink). Best part, if you have a few drinks with some mates no need to risk getting a DUI either. They have late night buses on the weekends, trams/trains run til pretty late, and taxi's are plentiful. Public transportation also gives you freedom to sit and watch outside the window to see what's around the city, read a book or listen to your ipod. Or for the bolder individuals, a random encounter and conversation with a complete stranger.

While there are many advantages to the public transport, there are a few things I will not miss about it. The crazy characters that board the trams/trains, the smelly ones too, and last but not least the claustrophobic feeling I get when stuffed onto a tram or train during peak hours. You certainly don't want to be cramped near a smelly person.

Scary birds

I've been a little afraid of birds ever since I got attacked by some of them walking to my car in the driveway of my parents house. I felt like a character from Alfred Hitchcock's movie The Birds. Well today I became even more scared. I was eating my breakfast at Darling Harbor this morning and I knew I shouldn't have thrown anything at the sea gulls because they are savage birds come feeding time. I experienced this during one of my breaks on the docks of the Blackbird Cafe while a child was feeding them chips. But I thought why not, it's not like I wanted the extra crust of my bacon and egg roll. I threw a small piece and before it even hit the ground it was gobbled whole by one of the birds. They all began to flock my way. Then I threw another small piece. They all fought for that one. I began to walk away as I felt like this situation was about to get real ugly. Then as I was walking away about to take another bite of my brekky, one bold sea gull beat me to it and tried to snatched a piece of my roll. I'm screaming as you can imagine. Bloody thing took a whole egg with him. I covered my roll and tried to run but a witness told me I dropped my wallet. Gah!! I did not want to walk back to the swarming scavenger sea gulls. Thankfully another witness saw my freighted and hesitant expression on my face and shooed the birds away grabbing my wallet for me. Relieved to walk away in one piece...I thought NEVER again! In conclusion...I'm officially scared of all birds that fly and swoop down for food.

8. Coffee & Treats

As most of you might know, I am not an avid coffee drinker like the rest of the human world. Not only does it stain your teeth, but it also stunts your growth…or so I’ve been told. However, my resistance to the caffeine fix has probably had zero affect on my height as I’m barely 5 foot tall ;p  Again my travels to this wondrous country of Australia, particularly Melbourne, has changed my views on the daily routine of grabbing a cuppa (aka cup of coffee). Aussies have the most unbelievable culture around it. It’s astonishing to me why someone would pay approximately $4 for such a fix, much less take time out of their busy work schedules to get up early and grab one on the way to work in the numerous cafes. Yes they do have Starbucks, but why would anyone go there if so many other options exist. But it’s not just any black drip coffee (aka long black) you would find in a 7 Eleven that’s been sitting or one you’d fix up at home. The barista (coffee expert extraordinaire) will take approximately 4 minutes to grind freshly roasted coffee beans, hook it up to some $35,000+ machine, take only a shot of it and finally heat and pour your preferred milk to perfect drinking temperature with a desired amount of froth to make a splendid cup of a flat white, cappuccino or my new favorite a latte. Perhaps what drew me in the most is the art that is made with the pouring of the milk into the cup. In the beginning, I started drinking a cappuccino with 3-4 teaspoons of our delicious Columbian sugar cane called Panella. But sooner or later I found myself putting less and less sugar. Now I enjoy a latte with zero sugar and zero cocoa. It’s a good thing I work in a café that serves some of the best coffee I’ve had, otherwise I’d still be a non-coffee drinker. And dare I say that Starbucks has nothing on the cafes in Melbourne.

Now with coffee also comes treats or pudding as they call it. I try to stay away from sweets, but once in awhile I can’t resist. Some bloke told me about these cookies (aka biscuits) while I was at Whitsunday called Tim Tams. I almost wish he didn’t because they are irresistible! A few of them are a bit too sweet for my taste, but the dark chocolate ones are the best. Thick crispy wafer like pieces layered and covered in chocolate. Mmmm. Among the pudding category also lie the unbelievable tiramisus, scones, mini pecan pies (only from the Pie Face though), gelati, and the numerous treats you can choose from the plentiful bakeries surrounding every small suburb and the city. Aussies even make Tim Tam Gelati ;D  How bout them apples, eh?

In contrast if you’re not a coffee drinker they have these things called Iced Chocolates. Forget a milkshake and grab one of these bad boys. My favorite version is a scoop of vanilla gelati, a scoop of Tim Tam gelati ;p, the mixture of cocoa powder and milk, and finally topped off with a sprinkle of cocoa = heaven! Talk about a dentist’s worst nightmare. These I seldom drink because lets face it, this aging body can’t handle the calories.

But now I find myself in a bit of a problem...finding something back home that’s just as good as this coffee ;p So coffee fanatics let me know of some of your favorite spots…besides Starbucks.

Searched the city for this and finally found this heavenly piece of Tiramisu on chance.

Don Damon's beautiful work - Cappuccino

Our infamous Blackbird Social...I made up the name too ;)