Not the name of some Balinese cocktail, but a description of my adventures there, a mere 50 hours, with lots of things to do and see.
I'd gone to make use of the 2 days free accommodation at Contiki that I'd won last year, at the Travelblog competition. The Bali Scuba promo in May made an excellent day out on the Balinese drop-offs affordable at half their usual rate. Besides that, I hadn't had much planned on my other day, and had just planned to go with the flow.
I arrived at Bali late friday night, expecting it to be an
ang-moh infested place where everything was excruciatingly overpriced, but looking forward to some chill out time by the beach, or in my excellent free accommodations, where it's free to sit in the sand. My experience in the airport was not terribly good, where all us ASEAN people with visa waivers were directed to the lanes you'd think would move faster than the
ang-moh queue. But as there were only two lines open, and the immigration officer spent a few minutes leering at each passenger, it took forever to get to the front, by which time the multitude of
ang-moh lanes had long cleared. I smiled at the leery chap who finally stamped my passport, and went to pick up my bag, dumped unceremoniously beside a luggage belt which had long been cleared. By the time I'd gotten to the resort, after my heart stopped when the cab driver, driving this beat-up, unmarked taxi, had turned into this dark alley along the way, it was around 11pm, and I hit the bed early, after a quick shower, in preparation for diving the next day.
Don't get me wrong. I've got absolutely nothing against foreigners most of the time. It's just that they can become quite annoying when they are on holiday - or at least the bulk of those I meet on holiday are annoying, drinking like fish, getting pissed drunk, behaving like idiots, and prancing around like they own the place all the bloody time. The locals pander to them in hopes of selling them stuff, and everyone pretty much ignores you, rather dismissively, if you're Asian in appearance. Which is perfectly fine by me, actually.
Thankfully, my roommate, a pretty Queenslander called Becky, was pretty sedate, a tidy, polite girl who constantly invited me to go out with her, overwriting my initial plan to be a hermit on a resort that promotes the exact kind of social interaction that I'm keen to avoid. We grabbed some drinks at the pool bar, did meals together, and went shopping in Kuta for a couple of hours. As an unfortunate individual with an abundance of overactive ADH and the lousy ALDH2 mutation that causes me to go and stay bright red even after just a beer, as well as an allergy to alcohol that causes me to break out in ITCHY watery blebs the next day, my tip to survival was constantly ordering the hideously overpriced, highly gassy and horribly sweet version of coca cola they have there, and nursing it slowly. I did try a bottle of their local brew, and found it ok, quite bitter and not fantastic.
Contiki was pretty nice actually, but not the kind of place for the off-the-beaten-track kind of traveller like me, who likes to soak up local culture, and enjoy being by myself on my days off. Still, it made for a clean and comfy place to bunk down, even if the mattress sucked. The staff have an uncanny ability to remember the names of all guests that pass by, however fleetingly. They plan lots of themed activities for the predominantly caucasian, boozing and clubbing bunch - dinner time games and performances - a percussion group, called Malinke, that was quite good, and a flair bartender from Balimoon strutting his stuff. However, the people are quite nice, if you happen to enjoy drinking and socialising at bars and stuff. They also provide a helpful organising service for all sorts tours and trips that you could possibly want to do around Bali - culture tours, diving, surfing, elephant rides and the like. At an elevated fee, of course. But for the additional expense you get the convenience of transfers to and from the resort, and your activity all planned out for you so you only have to show up and do it. Again, not too suitable for me, as I tend to favour cost over convenience when planning such things.
I did take them up on a learn to surf package, as I was bored on the second day, having done all the shopping I'd never intended to do, and had my fill of hanging around on the massively overpacked beach, just a 5min walk down the road. It was quite gruelling, I couldn't maneouver the board too well as my arm was too short to go around it, and it was essentially behaving like a huge wind sail in the gusts going along the shore. I think on the whole I should just stick to diving.
My day dives with the Bali Scuba people were quite pleasant, though I coudln't help but be disappointed that the conditions didn't allow us to go to Manta Point. We ended up doing 3 drift dives along the Northern side of Nusa Penida, and I didn't get to see any of the large pelagics I'd wanted to see - to top it all off the dive guide had to go and tell me we'd just missed a whale shark sighting at Tulamben by a day or two. The coral cover was pretty extensive and diverse, and the fishes were probably the most colourful I'd ever seen anywhere. All in all a good dive site, but not spectacular. Still, there will be more dives.
I think I spent a total of $500 on this holiday, including the airfare, diving, surfing lesson, a couple of trinkets, unprovided meals and airport tax. Accommodations were free. Things are still pretty affordable, even inflated as they are. Not too bad for a weekend off, and it definitely beats the torturous 8h journey to and from any of people's favourite weekend getaway dive sites in Malaysia, so I wish people would stop asking me why I spent so little time there in the tone that implies they think I'm nuts to fly all the way there for 3 dives.
Still want to go back for an extended trip some day, and check out the large pelagics at Nusa Penida, as well as the other dive sites around. Also would probably spend a couple of days doing a cultural thing while I'm there. Would definitely arrange for some single accommodation the next time, though.
Pictures up soon, I guess, once I get everything installed on the new laptop tonight. Wm's been too cranky for me to do much once I get home.
Labels: Diving
