Sunday, August 22, 2010

I've got the Bali Blues



The photo on the left shows the beautiful swimming pool and the surrounding countryside. I swam every day, sometimes two or three times. This was one of the best parts of our holiday as I haven't swum in Tassie waters for about seven years, it's just too cold! The last time I was in the sea was an accident too, I fell off the rubber duckie. So I was fully clothed and had to drip across the road to home, freezing.
But back to Bali. The first few days we took it easy and revelled in the warmth and hospitality shown to us. M organised to have a massage at the villa and I took myself off to read inside. He told me later that he had "been massaged in places he'd never been massaged before!" All very professional of course but also very thorough. He thoroughly enjoyed it and after scrubbing the oil off his body he went for a swim to be followed by a little lie down. Perfect, I could see his blood pressure dropping day by day.
We did take a trip into Ubud to check out the market and book shops in the first couple of days. It was very hot and incredibly busy. So many French tourists taking up the pavements. We later learned that it's best to go before 11am or after 4pm as the tourist buses have gone by then.
We bought some beautiful books about Ubud and Bali and I was also lucky to spy the three books in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series second-hand. I had read two and one half of them before we returned home! (We have since been to see the film this week).
We went out for dinner to the "Dirty Duck" restaurant; it's Bali name is Bebek Bali. This restaurant specialises in Crispy skinned Duck so I had to try it. I wasn't disappointed, but of course we didn't have the camera with us! However, a large table of Javanese people did have cameras and one young Muslim woman took great delight in taking my photo a number of times. I think it was because I had my longish hair loose as she kept touching it and saying "beautiful". Now that is NOT a word I would use about my greying blonde hair which was frizzing up in the humidity!
In Ubud, at 6pm every night, you can see flocks of white herons and egrets all flying to one particular area, Petulu. There are various trees along this particular street and by 6.30pm they all look totally white with hundreds/thousands of birds roosting in them. It's always best not to walk under the trees at that stage! The following morning at daybreak, they all fly off again and I used to see them flying over the villa to sit in the coconut trees during the day.
So why have I got the Bali blues? Well, I think the realisation of holiday over has finally sunk in. I can't keep boring my friends and somebody has to cook, clean, garden, shop and go out to work, sigh (big sigh).
I've spent all my savings and it's a bit scary but I'll have to start again. Because I'm going back, again and again.......
J
* tomorrow our lesson at the cooking school at Bumi Bali restaurant

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