Bali – Our Amazing Trip To The Airport (Day 4)

Today we had our 3 hour trip to the airport to complete and Mum and Dad had arranged for us to be picked up 3 hours earlier so we could break up the journey and also be shown some sites on route. As we had only been in the villa since we arrived we didn’t know what to expect. Firstly though we said goodbye to our villa and staff which was strange as they all lined up to wave us off, but a nice experience.

Our driver today was Abi the brother of Adi (our first driver on the way in ) and Mum were intent on making the most of the 6 hour journey whilst Dad and us children took photos of the journey.

Firstly we began our journey on the single track roads that went through the rice fields next to our accommodation. It was explained to us that the families that own the fields pretty much employ most of the village to run the fields and they get 3 crops per year. And spend most of their time tending the fields and scaring away the birds.

From here we started our journey up the mountain and we observed that the roads whilst reasonably maintained didn’t have markings down the centre of the road or potentially speed limits! Properties were plentiful and came right on top of the road – a mixture of houses and businesses. We did note that there wasn’t any pavements so if you wanted to walk you had to take your chance with the traffic – cars, mopeds, and lorries.

We also saw the stray dogs again, but it was explained to us that animals are held in high regard and that during the day the dogs are free to roam outside and do as they please, but then they return at night for food and shelter. They get rabies shots 3 times a year too. It does explain why the dogs appear to have a lot of road sense as vehicles come towards them they just hop off the road.

We briefly stopped so that Dad could jump into a bank to get a little more local currency, which he achieved. What was weird as we stopped outside the bank on the road was a man that came across and our guide paid over some money and received a ticket in exchange. When questioned it turns out that the government employs parking attendants in all locations where parking on the road can take place. As we progressed we saw this more and more, was strange to see a human rather than a ticket machine!

We also kept driving past buildings and flags painted in red and white, rather than them being Southampton football fans as dad thought, it turned out that in the middle of August it was the celebration of the independence of the island. Made the journey interesting and a joyful experience seeing all the colours as drove past.

When we hit our first stop after an hour we were on the top of the mountain and the view looked over 2 lakes that collected and distributed water to the different sides of the island. Mum and Dad were happy taking photos but we had been distracted by 2 local men who had some animals on display. A quick check with Dad and we were allowed to have our photos taken with a fruit bat, a snake and 2 lizards! An amazing experience, even Dad touched the snake. This experience cost about £3.00.

After this stop, no more than 5 minutes we came to a road junction, across the road we all saw wild monkeys, our driver didn’t really make anything of them, but to us, wild monkeys were another great spot and a tick off our bucket list.

Our next stop was another 40 minutes drive and was a coffee plantation, which we children weren’t really that bothered about until it turned out that they actually also produced chocolate!

We went into the plantation and were shown the trees and the berries on them, we smelt them. We then saw a mongoose which was used as part of the coffee making process we didn’t quite understand until Mum and Dad translated….the berries were ingested (whole) by the mongoose and then pooh them out, still whole. This is a luxury process! Yuk!

Moving on we each had a go at cooking some beans over an open fire and then we used a huge pestle and mortar to crush the beans into coffee powder. This was actually very interesting, but not as interesting as the tasting session which we had next.

Our guide was great at making Mum and Dad drink the coffee that had been poohed out of the mongoose, but we children were more than catered for with the tasting of some very sweet drinks also made on the plantation. Our favourites included the cocoa powder, mangosteen tea, and the lemon grass were all lovely as well as sampling the chocolate. What made it even better was that we purchased a few of our favourite flavours and some chocolate so we could remember the trip when we return home to the UK! Win, win.

Mum and Dad wanted me to take a picture of the cables that ran along every road, not just 1 or 2, but lots, at 1 point up to 50 cables. Our guide told us this was for the internet providers who when they get a new customer, literally just add one of their cables to the pile. Although you get used to them it does make the roads look strange.

Finally within a 10-minute drive of the airport and still with plenty of time to spare we stopped for some lunch. When we arrived we were the only people in the restaurant although there was plenty of staff around to tend to us. With the aid of our driver/guide who wasn’t going to accept our offer of lunch…..but after we all asked he did join us, and he helped us navigate the menu.

A lovely meal and even though we were outside as we were in the shade we had a lovely time. On the way out we saw a sign which we think summed up what Mum and Dad say to us lots…..Help each other, be thankful, know you are loved. pay with hugs and kisses, try new things, be happy, show compassion, be grateful, dream big, respect one another and remember to laugh out loud.

We had a great time in Bali, nothing but relaxed compared to Dubai and Australia, with lovely people, lovely accommodation, lovely time. Next stop Thailand.

Bali – The North Cape Beach Villa (Day 1, 2 & 3)

Dad here – in a change to our original schedule as Japan is still not letting normal visitors in yet, we switched across to Bali, as quite a few people we met in Australia commented that this was the go to place from Australia for its beauty and value for money. We actually let Adam pick our accommodation and he was very excited!

On checking in at Cairns for our flight, it wasn’t plain sailing. Firstly, although I had checked about visas I had forgotten about Covid vaccinations. The airport representative wanted our vaccination certificates before we could check in. 2 problems; – I was using an Australian sim card on my phone so my NHS app wouldn’t work and Lucy, as you may be aware, left her phone in Melbourne by accident and as of today 15 days later it still hasn’t found its way to us so there we were……the airline lady was very nice, She calmly chatted with the children whilst Lucy and I scrambled around my phone and her laptop trying to find an old certificate they’d accept. Luckily, after what seemed like hours we found old certificates from when we travelled last year which we could use. I took a photo of Lucy’s screen and crossed our fingers. By the time we had finished check-in there was nobody left in the queue! Just as we walked away from the check-in desk the assistant asked if we had the visa app, which we didn’t so we had to sort this out after we’d got through security. This would only let me add myself and not the rest of the family.

Anyway, the flight was good and we arrived in Bali, as we stepped off the plane the heat hit us! 6 weeks away and this was a first. Now, this next part took about an hour as our flight arrived at 0030 local time, I think if it had been in the daytime we may have been there 2 hours just to get through.

1. Queue and show our covid vaccinations to a nurse (she accepted both proofs)
2. Join the next queue and pay for a visitor visa £28 each (so although we didn’t need one to travel they did charge us to enter).
3. Passport control.
4. Finally, after collecting our bags we then had to fill in a declaration form.

I had spotted that my case had an orange cable tie attached to it, so I presumed it needed to be searched through customs. So on the declaration, I declared the medication I was travelling with and customs then checked it out and set us on our way.

Out in arrivals we hunted for our name amongst all the taxi drivers and the person at the end of the line was for us – Adi. We walked about 3 minutes through a lot of other taxi drivers who wanted our business but our transfer had been arranged by the accommodation. He brought his bus round to meet us – it was like the A teams bus with blacked-out windows all over and had a slight pimp my ride kind of feel. Adi was very nice though. Once in place and given a bottle of water each we departed.

Another confession here is that when Adam picked the accommodation I hadn’t realised just quite how long this transfer was going to take – 3 hours! Although it was only about 90km it was literally on the opposite side of the island and I guessed that we would be going up the mountain and down the other side.

I guessed right, luckily I hadn’t known we had a formula 1 driver with us who within the first 15 minutes had navigated around numerous moped drivers carrying 1,2 or 3 occupants or large quantities of stuff and who all didn’t believe in crash helmets.

At the start of our journey from the airport, there were a lot of cafes open and busy and also street stalls selling food at this hour and lots and lots of mopeds. As we were all tired we all got some rest, occasionally opening our eyes to see us being driven up the mountain at an unknown speed navigating the roads and sharp corners and mopeds oh and dogs, there were a lot of stray dogs on the road who to be fair did move out the way when we approached. I also found it strange that houses were built right on top of the roads to the left and to the right and also what appeared to be on every inch of the mountain road we were on.

When we came down the other side we had to stop for 5 minutes to let the brakes cool down, and give Adi a break, now at this point Adam and Matthew pointed out that seat 3 in all 3 rows wasn’t fixed in position, in fact, you could lift them with ease out of position……oh and there weren’t any seat belts….back to sleep.

I was awake however when we turned right into a field/lane (there was a worn concrete single track) and after about 10 minutes of this lane and 1 bamboo lift gate, we arrived at the villa. It was 5 am but we were all excited, the accommodation was large and looked lovely, it even came with a few geckos!!!

We then read the welcome booklet and realised that at 8 am our housekeeper would be coming to clean, do our laundry and cook for us! And the best bit was that it was costing £90 a day to stay here.

When our housekeeper came at about 9 am there was a bit of a language barrier but using the suggested menus at the back of the welcome booklet we managed to organise what we would like to eat for the day and off she went to fetch the shopping (she guessed how much it would be and gave change with receipts on her return).

What followed was 72 hours of doing absolutely nothing! We didn’t realise how much we had done over the last 6 weeks and this was perfect as we literally are next to 2 other villas that aren’t booked out and rice fields to the other side and the beach at the bottom of the garden.

For the first 3 days, we didn’t move off the property and apart from going in the pool our housekeeper has been cooking for us and the Little Rockers have had lots of pool and Ipad time as well as card games whilst Mum and I have been catching up with some work and planning for our return to the UK. It is hot and humid so we’ve been happy to be in the air-conditioned bedrooms and warm pool.

What I would say is although it is a lovely location we do feel a little isolated. The villa manager said we can book a driver to show us the island but we have been content to just relax and I think we all needed the rest after the busy few weeks we’ve had.

There is a mosque close by as we can hear the call to prayer which happens several times a day.

The gardener comes every morning to clean the pool and water the plants and there is security every night between 7 pm and 7 am. Our housekeeper is with us between 8 am and 4 pm and cooks us breakfast and lunch. We do have the option to pay her £1.50 per hour extra to stay later and cook dinner but she works so hard during her hours that she deserves to go home on time, plus the delicious food she cooks is enough for leftovers for dinner anyway. The children have asked if we can arrange for her to come to England and cook for us there as she is a much better cook than Mum! Mum agrees, and she is much better at ironing than Dad too, the clothes have fitted back into the cases with heaps more room, as they are all nice and flat.