{"id":1640,"date":"2011-07-21T10:44:24","date_gmt":"2011-07-21T02:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/?page_id=1640"},"modified":"2017-08-17T21:34:27","modified_gmt":"2017-08-17T13:34:27","slug":"bali-pg-4","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/?page_id=1640","title":{"rendered":"Bali Pg 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before I go further I do need to say that there were a couple of nice desserts at dinner as well as the crepes.\u00a0 Checking my photos I saw a triangular shaped chocolate layered sponge with a thin chocolate \u2018skin\u2019 that had been tasty.\u00a0 And I had forgotten to mention that the men had been given a single red rose as they entered the dining room to give to their lady.\u00a0 So that has set that straight.<\/p>\n

David also says that I whinged a lot in yesterday\u2019s report.\u00a0 I hope it didn\u2019t come across that way, it was just that I mentioned something that we were not thrilled with and it led me to air the rest while I was on topic.\u00a0 So I must say that we would not hesitate to go there again.\u00a0 It was very nice indeed, we just needed to get used to this resort and let go of unfounded expectations that it would be the same as Whitsundays!<\/p>\n

Anyway, the next topic is the show for the night which was truly spectacular!\u00a0 Instead of being in the theatre tonight we were seated facing the pool, between it and the main bar.\u00a0 They had rigged two poles with a cross bar holding a trapeze ring with some other trapeze-type things tied up in readiness to be used later.\u00a0 All of the pool lounging chairs had been cleared away and directors chairs put in rows for the audience.\u00a0 Damn those things are uncomfortable!!!\u00a0 And eventually the show started.<\/p>\n

The show each night started with 4 people standing stage front.\u00a0 Phillippe, the village chief, started and gave a full introduction in English then passed to a girl G.O. who repeated his message in Chinese, another girl who did the spiel in Japanese and then a boy in another Asian language that I could not recognise.\u00a0 Then Phillippe did it again but this time in French.\u00a0 I love languages and find them totally fascinating so I was in heaven listening to this lot!\u00a0 David was bored.\u00a0 I understood most of the French, and the \u2018sheh sheh\u2019 sound of thank you in Chinese at the end of that message.\u00a0 We were both incredulous in the speed at which all 3 Asian staff spoke, it was mind blowing.\u00a0 They must have lungs like a blacksmiths bellows, well-oiled teeth and unbiteable tongues!<\/p>\n

Anyway, you want pictures, right?<\/p>\n

\"Turquoise

Turquoise & Silver Dancers<\/p><\/div>\n

This was the opening dance act \u2013 all performed by G.O.s with varying tasks around the village.\u00a0 One there is a professional choreographer but the rest could be travel clerks, reception staff, bar staff and who knows what other main tasks so they did a more than awesome job!\u00a0 I loved the turquoise costumes with the silver hair \u2013 a colour scheme I\u2019ve always liked.<\/p>\n

Next up was a girl on the ring who was joined by another fairly shortly.\u00a0 I believe there was only 1 female G.O. in the circus team so one of these was a girl originally hired for other skills.\u00a0 Pretty impressive!<\/p>\n

\"Trapeze

Trapeze Ring<\/p><\/div>\n

Here are 2 more pictures showing the kind of thing we had through the hour show.\u00a0 The guy alone (next picture), named Raphael, was the boss of the circus team who taught guests how to use the flying trapeze in the circus school in the resort and his skills were professional enough for Cirque du Soleil in our opinion.\u00a0 He did several acts, with a different costume for each, and showed amazing strength and skill.<\/p>\n

\"Raphael's

Raphael's Trapeze Act<\/p><\/div>\n

Many of the acts arrived standing on a large flat float that apparently glided across the swimming pool from the back but this was powered by one guy who spent his night submerged up to the neck swimming or walking this float along while trying to remain inconspicuous.\u00a0 It looked so effective!<\/p>\n

There was one dance act by a guy alone who we later discovered was the choreographer.\u00a0 He was really good to watch!\u00a0 And there was one act where a female G.O. sang (genuinely, well, and not miming!) while 2 guys lifted 2 girls into various poses in yet another impressive display of strength and poise.<\/p>\n

The final act, I had thought was going to be 2 people on a solid trapeze, but nothing so simple.\u00a0 It began with 3 guys performing amazing feats and then they were joined by 2 girls.\u00a0 It really was a top quality show and completely amazing!\u00a0 The applause was thunderous for the size of the audience anyway.<\/p>\n

\"Five

Five Person Trapeze<\/p><\/div>\n

After this, David went to get himself a drink and a cocktail for me and I asked him for a shot of brandy on the side so that I could add it to the cocktail so that I could taste the alcohol.\u00a0 I did, and the cocktail was worse than ever ROFL.\u00a0 I decided the next night to try a different one.\u00a0 I\u2019d tried 2 now so far and not liked either.\u00a0 C\u2019est la vie \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

The next thing on the agenda was to be a firework display so I\u2019d got my tripod and had read up on all the hints and tips on how to take good photos of these as you don\u2019t often get the chance.\u00a0 One of the things we\u2019d done during the afternoon must have been to sit on a beach chair because we\u2019d seen the guys setting up the fireworks.\u00a0 Compared to the distance you have to keep from the Australia Day setup here in Perth these appeared to be dangerously close and unguarded and, when we\u2019d heard a couple go off at the beginning of the show, we thought the lot had been set accidentally or as a prank!<\/p>\n

So, only a few minutes after the water show had finished, we made our way towards a good spot for taking photos.\u00a0 Next thing WHOOOOOOOOOSH, BANG, BANG WHEEEEE!!!\u00a0 The fireworks were going off a dozen at once.\u00a0 We hadn\u2019t even got the tripod out of its bag!\u00a0\u00a0 Fortunately I\u2019d set the dials where they needed to be as soon as the show finished so all I could do was crouch down and shoot with the camera in my unsteady hands for the long shutter speeds.<\/p>\n

The fireworks seemed to have an altitude phobia and were bursting only inches above our heads.\u00a0 I tried to keep my eyes half closed as I was positive that cinders would be falling all over me.\u00a0 We experienced that once and it is not pleasant!\u00a0 I\u2019ve never seen so many fireworks let off in such a short length of time.\u00a0 I managed to take only 5 photos before the lot were spent and silence reigned once more!\u00a0 There had been no fanfare, no announcements, no pomp or ceremony.\u00a0 Quite the surprise!\u00a0 And not what firework photos are supposed to be about but I realise it’s not all about me LOL<\/p>\n

\"Fireworks\"

Fireworks<\/p><\/div>\n

There had been a special long display table set up with the featured cocktails already made up so I tried a new one and it was quite nice.\u00a0 I can\u2019t remember its name, sorry.\u00a0 And we spoke with the Aussie G.O., Anita, who tried to give me another cocktail but I can\u2019t take many.\u00a0 However, she told us about a blowhole to the south along the beach and promised to draw us a map so that was lovely.<\/p>\n

And we settled for bed as the next good idea.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m faced with a quandary.\u00a0 I have some photos that I\u2019ve missed so I can either pretend that these things happened later in the holiday to save face or I can \u2018fess up and tell you about them now LOL\u00a0 Fact is, I was falling over myself to tell you the other things and was far too carried away to slow down for these assorted items.\u00a0 So, in addition to having seen the fireworks get set up, here are the rest of the things that we seem to have done on Thursday afternoon *cheesy grin*.\u00a0 They\u2019re bitty and really interfere with the continuity of the story but are pictures I want to share so I\u2019ll just be brief about each one \u2013 are you laughing or have you fallen off your chair?<\/p>\n

I got my macro lens out of the safe, grabbed the tripod and went outside the room to take a few flower photos.\u00a0 David who \u2018hates that damn camera\u2019 just about fell over himself to come and help and give his advice ROFL\u00a0 He likes to moan but is actually a wonderfully helpful and observant assistant.\u00a0 So here\u2019s my favourite of the flower photos anyway.<\/p>\n

\"Strelitzia\"

Strelitzia<\/p><\/div>\n

Outside the bedroom window soon after this was a darling little honey eater feasting on the strelitzias and I managed to get a not-too-bad photo of him despite having the settings all wrong on the camera.\u00a0 There was no time to readjust or he\u2019d be gone.<\/p>\n

\"Honey

Honey Eater<\/p><\/div>\n

Oh and the other thing was that the village is fumigated twice a week for mosquito larvae and we heard the noise approaching and were then stunned by how much smoke there was!\u00a0 Very happy to report that the guy waving this thing around was wearing breathing apparatus and we must say that we were very impressed with the overall care taken of guests and staff at Club Med.\u00a0 There have been outbreaks of dengue fever in Bali but we felt totally safe with the measures taken around us.\u00a0 We also sprayed well with fly spray each night before bed and I wore mosquito repellent when we went to dinner each night.\u00a0 Trust me, there\u2019s nothing as tasty to a mosquito as May!!!\u00a0 (Photo taken from inside our room and we stayed put for at least half an hour!)<\/p>\n

\"Fumigation\"

Fumigation<\/p><\/div>\n

Now, finally clear of the 14th<\/sup> July I can move on \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Fri 15th<\/sup><\/p>\n

We had a breakfast of pancakes and pastries for May, and English breakfast and pastries for David followed by showers to be ready for the arranged 10am pickup by Moh.\u00a0 We were at reception 10 minutes early but when he hadn\u2019t shown by 10 sharp we presumed he\u2019d been stopped at the Club Med security gate so wandered the few metres down there.\u00a0 And sure enough Moh was waiting as we knew he would be.<\/p>\n

Traffic, bikes, you know the drill, and on this trip I particularly noticed the way T-junctions were handled.\u00a0 You\u2019re cringing aren\u2019t you?\u00a0 Let\u2019s hope I can get my words succinctly around this because it was not possible to take a picture.\u00a0 If you approach a T-junction to turn left, well that was done in the usual way \u2013 just charge out, or in the case of bikes, flap your arm as you go because that creates an invisible barrier to protect you and appeases anyone approaching.\u00a0 But if you\u2019re turning right it\u2019s another story.\u00a0 Most junctions seemed to have a statue of some sort in the middle so if you wanted to turn right you do not go to the left of this statue and use it as a roundabout.\u00a0 Oh no, not on your nelly!!! \u00a0You turn to the right of it.\u00a0 Face on to the cars turning left into the street you\u2019re exiting!\u00a0 And you know what?\u00a0 That works too.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve said before, no anger, no aggression.\u00a0 I think it only caused us to come to a total standstill on one occasion.\u00a0 Other than that, slow ahead and the car obviously shrunk to fit on the outside as we went through non-existent gaps with bikes hitching a ride either side.<\/p>\n

We skirted the flanks of Denpasar as Moh assured us the traffic there would be too busy \u2013 we hated to think!\u00a0 And continued on along busy, narrow roads until Moh asked if we\u2019d like to go to a batik shop with fixed prices \u2013 he remembered about us not liking to barter bless him.\u00a0 So we decided \u2018why not?\u2019\u00a0 If we were lucky it would make a toilet stop if nothing else.\u00a0 I\u2019m shuddering.<\/p>\n

Moh parked in a space barely wide enough for a moped between several coaches that had apparently come on shopping trips from Java.\u00a0 These were full-sized coaches and they certainly wouldn\u2019t want to go any closer towards the Denpasar or Kuta areas.\u00a0 I think they\u2019d come to a grinding halt in traffic and never move again.\u00a0 Evening peak hour is apparently from 5pm until 9pm while I think of it.\u00a0 I mean, wow!<\/p>\n

So Moh escorted us through a large shop with steps up, down, up again, and out through the back doors where there was a courtyard with lovely ornate architecture and a beautiful water fountain adorned with the obligatory statues.\u00a0 The fountain is on the left here and the ornate doorway goes back into the shop.\u00a0 Behind me was another door and Moh seemed to want to take us in here.\u00a0 We never did find out why as there was a man at the door who wouldn\u2019t let anyone through.<\/p>\n

\"Batik

Batik Shop Courtyard<\/p><\/div>\n

I saw a sign pointing to the left saying toilets so we went through there, out of a garden wall into a kind of garden come alleyway.\u00a0 I wish we hadn\u2019t!\u00a0 Oh please.\u00a0 I\u2019d rather have used the garden!!!\u00a0 I will spare you and not post the photo.\u00a0 The \u2018ladies\u2019 was 3 cubicles, each with 2 vertical planks of wood that pushed inwards.\u00a0 Once inside it was fairly dark and difficult to figure out how to lock the door but I eventually realised it was a chunk of wood that clunked down into a huge wooden scoop thing that accommodated the chunk.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to be alone in there I really didn\u2019t but some things have to be done.\u00a0 There was not enough room for the length of my foot before a step up, and the tiles on the floor, step and walls were disgustingly filthy.\u00a0 There are not words to tell.\u00a0 On the right, looking from the door, was a floor toilet that lacked the footplates that I remember from my European childhood holidays.\u00a0 On the left, and taking up most of the space so that you had to brush up against it, was a knee-height tiled (in those filthy, nauseating tiles) \u2018bath\u2019.\u00a0 It met the walls in the corner but was curved at the front, rather like a triangle but with the front part rounded.\u00a0 It was full of water which looked clear (as in allegedly clean but I wouldn\u2019t put anything living in it myself!) and sitting on the lip was a greeny blue tin saucepan with its handle chained to who knows what.\u00a0 I am left to presume that this may have been some kind of bidet, or more likely that you were supposed to fill the saucepan with water and stand on your head and pour it over your parts that usually get toilet paper because there was none of that in there and I sure wouldn\u2019t have used it if there was!<\/p>\n

I took a hasty photo, almost getting caught by 2 women coming in LOL\u00a0 When I came out, with eyes bigger than saucers, David smiled kindly at the attending lady and made a big fuss about the fact that he was now paying for me, having obviously already paid for himself.\u00a0 Man I hope those coins are going towards some decent toilets for the future!!!\u00a0 For all I know the woman comes off the street, belonging to no-one, and stands there all day getting money for nothing.\u00a0 We both lied through our teeth and thanked her profusely while hurrying away.\u00a0 I shuddered all the while I was writing this and again as I just proof-read it.\u00a0 It\u2019s OK May, it\u2019s over now!<\/p>\n

Back in the shop we were given stickers on our arm (as we had been at Krishna\u2019s) which was to give us 10% discount.\u00a0 I\u2019m fairly certain that it was more like a number so they knew to give Moh a cut of what we spent, but that\u2019s cool.\u00a0 We instantly gained our own personal shop assistant who shadowed our every move and I felt like telling David to split up just for the fun of confusing her ROFL\u00a0 But we shopped and chose a garment each for our daughters-in-law and some cool shirts for our sons plus a few other things.\u00a0 The shadow proved very effective at finding sizes and colours for us anyway and then we were done.\u00a0 As we reached the exit we were told that Moh had gone to the loo.\u00a0 He\u2019d had plenty of time for that so that\u2019s when I suspected he was getting his payment but he deserved it.<\/p>\n

As we drove further there was one thing mystifying me.\u00a0 I had noticed these on Wednesday as well but not asked.\u00a0 This time I do have a photo.\u00a0 These little stands with bottles appeared regularly in front of shop stalls once we got away from the main city streets and I wondered what on earth they were. \u00a0To be honest, and not just because I\u2019ve just finished my compulsory-for-every-holiday toilet story, they looked like urine.\u00a0 I was clueless and in the end asked Moh if it was perhaps coconut water in them?\u00a0 He laughed and replied \u201cOh gosh no, you wouldn\u2019t want to drink that!\u00a0 It\u2019s petrol!\u201d\u00a0 It was so that people in the outer villages could buy fuel without having to go into the city to buy it.\u00a0 How wonderful.\u00a0 Just the right amount for a little moped.<\/p>\n

\"Fuel

Fuel Shop<\/p><\/div>\n

At a later time I saw an old woman with a straw-woven basket on her back full of these bottles.\u00a0 She\u2019d obviously walked to the garage to fill them and was carrying them back to her shop.\u00a0 Wow!<\/p>\n

Well I guess I\u2019d better stop here for today or the page will be too lengthy to read so \u2013 more later!\u00a0 Don’t forget to comment, I love to receive them!<\/p>\n

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Before I go further I do need to say that there were a couple of nice desserts at dinner as well as the crepes.\u00a0 Checking my photos I saw a triangular shaped chocolate layered sponge with a thin chocolate \u2018skin\u2019 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1633,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1640","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1640"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3911,"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1640\/revisions\/3911"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}