the past two weeks had been extremely busy for me (until now, actually) – the feeling is like i’m a one-man-band in a 24-hour concert. picture that! so as the week ended – friday night, i went a little crazy – just impulsively decided to book a ticket and hotel to visit and stay in bali for the first time, alone, over the long weekend! Mindset was – “be adventurous, do whatever, give yourself a break, indulge and feel the expat life, go get a piece of happiness!” so here are some thoughts written down as i explored and enjoyed bali!
1. jakarta‘s jw airport lounge is overpriced. let-down food, stinky toilet, crappy smoking room exhaust. never again!
2. assigned planes on domestic airport gates keep on changing. what’s the point of having a gate number printed on the boarding pass & having something different on the flight schedule monitor and on the actual gates?! duh! why do they make it so damn complicated?!
3. wearing sunglasses while in the boarding gate may appear weird to some – though not for me and the four other youngsters here.
4. then I’ve arrived. my impression – one small city beautifully situated in a beach. has a suburb charm. a place I would be going in and out often I guess.
5. first meal: saturday dinner. rosso viro, italian resto under chef roberto bogni. i had scaloppine di pollo alla panna e funghi (pan fried chicken breast in creamy mushroom sauce). it was just heavenly! simply a perfect first meal! standard iced lemon tea drink on the side and “the purple” – a vodka-based lychee cocktail to end the initial feast.
6. people walk around with beer cans or bottles clasped in their hands – such a carefree and i’ll-simply-enjoy-my-life look. why can’t we have this mindset anywhere and everywhere? why do we need a party place as valid license to do it?
7. walking from kuta main street to legian is quite tiring if you’re in an oversized havaianas. good thing though is that you’d see a lot of things that will amaze you – from restos, bars, clubs, boutiques, jewelry shops, market stalls, coffee shops, reflexology & massage centers, tourist info booths, convenience stores, stray dogs, taxis, horse carriages, locals offering various services and tons and tons and tons of motorbikes! ohhh, have i mentioned motorbikes?
8. people are generally nice, friendly & can speak decent english (yup, a whole lot better than in jakarta as 10 people out of 10 that i’ve spoken to can articulately, relatively speaking, speak the language). it really pays off to be a tourist capital of a country – people are forced (perhaps) to act accommodating and speak the universal language.
9. nothing beats the massage by the beach – natural ambient sounds, windy breeze, sand on your skin, and of course the relaxing mix of trained hands with aromatic oil.
10. bali locals are so creatively enterprising – they offer a whole lot of things and charge for everything. if i were to read their minds, the only objective is to get as much money they can from tourists! would you believe, a woman forced me to buy bracelets from her coz she pulled a strand of white hair from my head while being massaged by another old lady?! (note to self, having a white hair, even just a strand is not a good sign – I’m only 28 damn it!) arggghhh! so annoying! with that, my most used statement that morning was “no, thank you!”.
11. in the strip where i am in now, i am the only asian tourist. most of them look european and caucasian. they seem to be loving kuta so much – pity them, boracay’s and palawan’s white, fine sand is still a whole lot better. yeah, the beach itself is kind of a let down, but I won’t discount the fact that the experience so far is extremely nice! simply put, bali is a little bit overrated, but its dynamism will allow you to explore what you want in an island, to warrant the raves it received from the world.
12. it’s a surfer’s paradise, some people dub. true enough, it is – there are even mnemonic devices to prove the point.
13. amongst all the hard rock cafes and hotels i’ve been to, bali earns my vote for being the “most unique”. it is well well customized to the balinise look and feel, yet the atmosphere remains “hard rock”, just like the starbucks in ongpin and jollibee in pagudpud.
14. as all tourists here are on vacay mode and are simply embracing good vibes, everyone’s extra friendly. no need to think twice of talking to someone, nice thing about it is that you’ll even find more entertainment from them especially if you’re alone. aside from the locals that i’ve spoken to, i made acquaintances with a couple of australian girls and an old bloke from czech republic. many more to come tonight.
15. staying just in kuta is not a good idea. so i rented a car with a driver to take me around. i’m in jimbaran beach now – a stretch of seafood restos, while waiting for the sun to set, while listening to classic bossa, while relaxing on a wooden seat along the shore, while enjoying a gastronomical feast, while taking pictures of the amazing horizon, while feeling that this is life, while thinking why life can’t be like this everyday!
16. learned a few bits from my rent-a-car driver about Hinduism (the prominent religion in bali). canang – morning and afternoon ceremonial activity, this box-container made from coconut leaves has flowers (5 colors) and uncooked rice, it is lit for blessing & thanksgiving in the morning and evening respectively. also, the rationale why there are no tall buildings in bali? it’s also part of the belief, i.e. no building should be higher than 15 feet or taller than the usual coconut tree! very interesting.
17. now i’m this coffe shop recommended by my officemate called cafe moka to have coffee (latte, as usual) and dessert (éclair and truffles). it’s a standard, cozy coffee place in seminyak. the area is filled with posh boutiques and shops beside each other. it reminds me of liliw in laguna and carmel in california – tiny shops with good finds. this area really has an endearing suburb feel that will charm the laid-back person in you.
18. haven’t done club hopping for such a long time – college years I guess was the last time. being in bali is a license to do all that again – if i were to count it, i went into 5 places which translated to 5 drinks, random acquaintances from all over the globe & interesting conversations that made this vacation alone a fun one.
19. when you’re in a vacay mode, your tendency is not to have a care in the world – all you want is to have fun to the point of splurging! I was kinda victimized by the commercialized thought, good enough I was able to take control of getting the wallet out of my pocket to buy stuff that i may not necessarily need now or even in the future! the strip in the matahari block was quite tempting though!
20. the hardest thing to do when your holiday is about to finish is packing your luggage! literally – kinda difficult to organize & fit in used clothing & new stuff you bought; figuratively – your mind says you have to go to face your real life again, but your heart says, you just want the escape to be permanent coz life seems easier and better this way! but, life’s real – we are not living in a fantasy world, or should i say i don’t have the courage and means yet to do so. perhaps upon retirement (hopefully still at age 40), i can make this fantasy world an everyday destination.
21. the smoking booths in indonesia airports are really funny – it’s like a birdcage with a welcome signage: “enter at your own risk – this booth will ensure that you’ll suffocate at the short term, and get lung cancer at the long term”.
in an hour, i will be bidding bali farewell. for a first-time trip, i’ll give this one 9 out of 10. the 1 point deficit to make it excellently superb will be reserved the next time I go back to this superficially “carpe diem” destination. hopefully, the second-time-in-bali trip happens soon… very soon!
Posted by lifedefiningpicks 
