Bali

June 14, 2022

You know Bali, hot, heavy with humidity, heaving with burnt Aussies in Bintang singlets, 50 year old expats with their midday beer, motorbikes, hawkers and massage ladies calling out as you pass. Well post pandemic it's strangely quiet and derelict in parts but in others it's humming with digital nomads seeking the perfect insta shot. Away from Canggu lots of shops are closed up, roller doors down and plenty of unlikely breeds of stray dogs looking more like they’ve just busted out of doggy day care own the streets.

Upon landing in Bali we find they’ve got things organised here, coming off the airbridge down the hall into a large central space with 20 or so desks in a line with chairs spaced out in front of each one. What will people of the future think seeing photos of 2022. The game of musical chairs is quick and we’ve hopped from the last to the first in no time. Our paperwork is checked, RAT, insurance, hotel etc. Checkpoint one done. Checkpoint two is paying our way in - visa on arrival times 4. Checkpoint 3 is a standard customs check, clearing our bags seems to be the only hiccup as my suitcase containing both mine and Aprils stuff is clearly not coming on holiday. We ‘nothing to declare’ then take our allocated taxi from the rank. It's a very small sedan, lucky my suitcase didn’t make it. The surfboard is somehow squeezed in and blocks the view out the window making for a cramped 40 min trip to the hotel. It's so humid and hot we have to take off our masks.

The Mulia welcomes us with cold water and what we assume are individually packaged cold towels, Note to self, do a quick sniff test, these were actually chilled antibacterial wipes and not lovely rubbed on your face.

We enjoy 4 days here, sampling food from the buffet and swimming in the pool. Nusa Dua is out of the way so we don’t venture far. My suitcase appears on day 2 - I wonder where it was.

John and Lauren arrive after a marathon trip via Australia, we’re so happy to see familiar faces again and the kids thoroughly enjoy having other people around too. The kids race off to kids club and us adults head to the pool for some lunchtime cocktails at the same swim up bar where we first met Lauren. Good times.

Later in the day Ben is regaling us with his eventful morning trying to get a massage which concludes with him hopping a motorbike taxi with no helmet. He sips his Bintang and I start to say something when he remembers a stranger part of his day where upon arriving back from his massage and hurrying to the room whilst catching up on his emails he walks into our room only to find a stranger standing in our wardrobe. What are you doing in my room he says carefully. My room she says. Ben holds up his keycard, it opened he says, she takes his card and tries the door it beeps an angry red light ‘beep, beep beep’. He’s one floor above our room.

There is no way to explain just how wet the air is here, if you step outside you instantly feel the weight of it, hot and heavy and you’re soon gleaming with it. If you’ve been in the tropics or stood in a steamroom fully clothed you can understand. So ‘we’ accidentally leave the balcony door open whilst we are out to dinner and the tile floor has a layer of fine condensation when we come back, it’s very slippery.

The first night there is a huge thunderstorm and as the sun rises over the sodden resort, all is quiet except the huge reef break crashing in the distance, I spot a stray dog sneak silently over and poo in the middle of the pristine resort lawn - delightful.

After breakfast I take the girls along the beachfront path out to the rock wall. We spot the temple on the cliff and watch the crabs scurry around the rocks, they find small pebbles to throw to scare the crabs from their hidey holes. Kids really know how to stop and enjoy where they’re at.

We walk on the beach but it's the strangest thing as my feet sink into the sand nearly to my knees, April is terrified that it is sinking sand. Up over the sand dunes we find some outdoor games like ring toss which are fun for awhile but the kids are eager to get to kids club as they’ve made some friends there.

After four days we pack our things and hop a taxi to Canggu, I think to stay in Canggu you have to be a maximum age of 30. But if we go on our families average age of 22.25 then we fit right in.

Tugu hotel is one of the original hotels in Canggu, the main reception area is an old temple. There is lots of greenery and shade creating a cool quiet haven from the streets. There are narrow stone paths that curve around fishponds and through narrow walled areas to our room with its outdoor bathroom. We have a plunge pool in the courtyard which is almost the size of the plunge pool except for a narrow space with chair.

John and Lauren pop over from Seminyak and soon Lauren and I are into the cocktails. Our first pick is a goodie with the glass sitting in a coconut shell on dry ice which smokes away when the lady pours in the jug of water. We head next door for some cocktails at a sunset bar then head to the local Mexican for some epic tacos. There’s some great food here in Canggu. We depart Canggu and head to Uluwatu and stay at Hotel Alila for one night before returning to Nusa Dua for a few nights in the Kempinski where we watch the pool staff spend 30min trying to catch a small grass snake that has decided it would like a swim in the ginormous pool

Before you know it were packed and heading for our last few nights in Seminyak, then we’re repacking and heading to the airport. Us three girls are on the first flight heading back to Darwin and Ben will catch a later flight out to Brisbane for a bit of work.