Ubud: Pre Wedding:

The flight was quick, the grand kids were very good, Dylan loved the flight and Bella was great she even managed to get a sleep together with grand pops. I had the best view of Perth city when we left, fantastic. On arriving in Bali I was not sure what to expect, it was humid and hot walking across he tarmac, we had a smooth transition through immigration and customs, our luggage came through relatively quickly and when we went outside we were hit with the humidity, it was like a sledge hammer…thankfully we were greeted by a driver and a lovely garland of frangipani, smelled lovely….and so the one and half hour car trip to our hotel in the mountains began…. Thank God for air-conditioned cars.

Denpasar was grubby, my first impressions, the people are friendly but conditions are tough quite third worldish…. I suppose because I know a lot of people have been to Bali I expected it to be more modern, but it is not. On our journey up to Ubud, I kept thinking that we would pass a shopping centre, but alas no shopping centre as I know them to be, I know there is more to life than shopping.

The country side is very green, tropical, lots of mangie dogs, many scooters on the roads, and the roads are very narrow, lots of pot holes, there are many mad drivers and lots of tooting goes on, it’s really fun on the roads, no way would I like to be a scooter rider there is always a car up your ass or coming straight for you, how there are not more accidents I do not know, a miracle really. Its judgment by the horn, move to the left, right or centre.

Market Shopping is a new experience for me, I hate bargaining…… I am not cold or hard enough for the job……the currency is another issue, working out exactly how much something is worth in Aussie dollars is another area of frustration…. All in all I am enjoying our holiday.

Our beautiful welcome drink at the Alila



I have to say the saving grace is the beautiful Hotel Alili and the exceptionally friendly Balinese staff. The only problem I have come across is the wifi and internet is not brilliant…..having a lot of problems… which for me is catastrophic. The breakfast has been delightful, good choices and decent coffee.
All ways on my mind is the woman I am caring for through her pregnancy (38 / 40) when I left…. Well guess what…. Yes you did she has gone in to labour……………….It is very difficult for both of us because now the care is being provided by someone else. It is very frustrating being so far away, it is a lesson of learning to let go and trust all will go well…………………………so watch this space. A few pink gins always helps relieve the stress.




Today was exciting because we were trying to catch up with all the family who is spread all over Ubud and I have to report that the telephone system is not ideal.



So the in-laws and we plus Faye, Brendon and the kids all hired a driver for the 5 hours to tour the mountains of Ubud….. it was very interesting….lots of street hawkers….which can become problematic…..’We went to Kintamani which is a volcano..that has spectacular views across a magical crater lake…on the way up we stopped to see the valley of rice paddies and the village was full of arts and crafts. Unfortunately when we stopped the driver locked the keys in the car and we were then stranded for an hour and half with many street hawkers and humid hot weather.




Dylan made friends with the local children, I bought a patch work quilt and Brendon bargained for some sarongs for Faye and myself… It was all very interesting and beautiful…however after an hour our patience was running thin… we were hot and tired of saying no to street hawkers, eventually the driver had to break the window to get to the keys…finally we were on our way. We had a lovely smorgasboard for lunch…. Poor Bella was burning up with a temperature…. The lunch was over and we decided on the way back we would stop and look at some silver…… by the time we got back to the hotel we were all hot and tired….nothing a lovely swim and drink didn’t fix.



That evening we went into Ubud to me Danny and co we enjoyed some cocktails and a lovely meal. It was a lovely relaxing evening… poor Danny and family had a 2.5hr wait to get through immigration and customs at Bali, not good with three little kids in a hot and humid airport…We came back to the hotel and retired for the evening.
Ubud has many temples and this weekend is the festival of Kuningan: the Kuningan holiday, the last day of Galungan celebration, believed to be the ascendant day of the central holy spirits and Deities to Heaven after sojourning for several days on this material world. It’s about good and bad spirits, it is a Hindu festival and specifically Balinese. I think it is a good omen for a wedding.

Well folks that’s it for now…… wedding is on Saturday…..watch this space….