Bali Schmali

7th November
Bali, Indonesia

OK, I admit it, we didn't give Bali a fair go on this first visit, but – after all the hype the island gets – I expected paradise and it wasn't.

We arrived in Denpasar, crawled in a cab through serious gridlock to a Kuta hotel with a wall for a view, stayed a night, and then headed off to the cultural heart of the island, Ubud.

We lucked out and ended up staying in a lovely bungalow with swimming pool for 200,000 rupiah a day (about £13) with rice terraces at the back. The only slight catch was it was quite a walk for the kids into Ubud central with its palace and temples and bakeries and cafes and art shops. It was here at Arjana Bungalows (on Jalan Kajeng) that Ariel learned to swim (with armbands). He was so cute, inching his way across the pool towards us. The over-chlorinated water, though, burned Aron's scrotum. Ouch.













There is an astonishing amount of art being created in Ubud and indeed Bali as a whole. Virtually every other shop is an art 'gallery' and while most of the work (paintings for the most part) is not very original, some is actually quite good. There are also sculptors and jewellers and wood carvers and potters and, er, batikers at work here and across the island.













In a restaurant backing onto the palace one evening, we saw a performance of Balinese dance and Gamelan music over a pond full of pink lotuses. Another night, we saw a shadow puppet play, which the boys totally got. All rather lovely.






BUT... everything in Ubud is so built around tourism that the amount of hassle you get walking round is a real drag: "You want taxi?" "You want massage?" "Visit my shop?" "Hello, transport?" and most irksome, the mysterious "Yes?". The touts' cries are almost constant as you walk around, and pretty soon we wanted to go, despite the charms of the town.

Thinking paradise might lie elsewhere in Bali, we booked a bus north, over the shoulder of the huge Gunung Agung volcano (ahh, cool fresh air for an hour), and arrived at the beach town of Lovina (it's actually more of a string of villages along the shore than a town).













Hmm. The volcanic sand was grey making the beach look dirty (and with dogs and pigs living along it, it probably was), the hotels were relatively pricey and the 'real Bali' of yore was nowhere to be seen. The best cheap hotel we could afford had a pool, and lots of 'creative concrete' sculpture and landscaping (and odd erotic wall sculptures), but the manager was such a pain - always hassling to book onto a trip to see dolphins or to go diving - that he made life there a misery.



















Needless to say, we didn't stay long. Maja dived for a day with our new camera and waterproof casing (which proved a really great purchase), then we chartered a bemo (a local minibus) along the coast towards the West Bali national park at the north-western corner of the island.

We arrived at the nearest accommodation town to find a hot, dusty main road with a few extortionate hotels strung along it and no obvious reason to stay, so, to the surprise of our driver, we asked him to take us straight back to Lovina - but this time we stayed in a fishing village now largely swallowed by the tourist boom but still retaining some character.















With a big garden in the hotel for the kids to play in and a great, cheap fish restaurant around the corner run by a quirky guy who turned out to be a local Hindu priest, we stayed a few days and bought Maja a lovely piece of Ikat cloth for a sarong (also from the fish restaurant), but ultimately Lovina is not a fulfilling place to be. We headed out to the roadside to grab a bemo, got picked up by a bus heading round the coast towards Padangbai - the ferry port that would take us out of Bali.



















Along the way we passed some stunning scenery, the stuff of which fables of Bali are made. Towering volcanoes, steep sets of terraces of lush green rice plants, buffaloes sloshing through muddy fields, small bamboo huts and locals working the fields with 'coolie' hats to protect against the sun. Truly beautiful. But it was too late, we were going to Lombok.

[DISCLAIMER: We have been away and now returned to Bali. After Papua, it's growing on us.]