Bali

It's now Saturday here in Bali - day 6 of our holiday. We arrived early Monday morning and leave early Tuesday morning next week. Before we came here, Jo and I paid our annual visit to the Cellar Door Festival in Adelaide. Kelly should have been with us but was at home recovering from her illness and praying that it wouldn't affect her travelling to Bali. Chris might have been a potential stand-in but he was a bit wary too, having a tickly throat. In the end Chris' brother Matt came along with us.

The Festival itself was fine but the Masterclass we chose was a little disappointing - a pairing of whisky and chocolates. There was a bit too much waffle from the presenters and we didn't think the pairings were great. The Australian whisky was a mere 2.5 years old - not even legal in the UK - and it seemed pretty raw. It's a lovely "classroom" with huge glass windows looking over the river to the Oval:

After this was over we wandered round the stalls, sampling a few of the wares on the way. The usual collection of wineries, segregated by region, but also a number of new distilleries exhibiting this year. Unfortunately for Matt, who's a bit of a whisky buff, only one of them had a whisky available. It was all white spirits - gin and vodka.

Did I tell you that we'd spent the previous Sunday down in Port Elliot with Chris and his Mum and Dad? We had a nice time visiting their new house in a retirement community, lunch and then a look round the record and book shops in Victor Harbor. I bought a couple of old vinyl albums - couldn't resist.

On to Bali - as I said, a very early start on Monday morning for the 5 hour flight and we were at our resort by mid-morning - too early for Kelly and Chris' large apartment to be ready but the single room for Jo and I was, so we were able to take all our bags in there and it allowed the boys to get in to their swimmers and jump in the pool just a few yards away.

We had a nice lunch at the lovely pool bar surrounded by the lazy river and later Kelly, Chris and the boys were able to get in to their room. Kelly, Jo and I took a short walk to the local supermarket. When you enter, the smell hits you. We couldn't make out what it was at the time but we now know it was coming from the fresh fruit counter, dominated by the pungent durian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian). The odour is so strong that our resort has completely banned it - if you bring any on site, you are liable for a $250 fine!

The temperature in Bali is always around 30 C (86 F), day or night. It only ever seems to differ by a couple of degrees either way. It's humid, of course - tropical - so it feels even warmer. Plenty of rain - usually overnight - that's why everything looks so green and lush. The gardeners here must have a real hard time keeping the resort's extensive plants so pristine - everything grows so fast.

So far, we've spent a few days at the resort - it's hard to keep the boys away from the pool - but we had one day when we travelled up to Ubud by taxi - a distance of just 41 kms (25 miles) - which took us 2 hours negotiating our way through the busy narrow winding streets, with all human life surrounding us - fascinating for a while. You would not believe the number of scooters/mopeds on the road. Some of the riders are wearing helmets but many are not. We've seen families of 4, including babies, on one scooter; boys clearly not old enough, riding home from school, just to mention a few. Highway Code? Are you kidding? It seems at first as if it's just every man for himself but watch carefully, there is some kind of pecking order/rules in place.

Anyway, the two places we went to - the Monkey Jungle and the Rice Terraces - were really interesting and well worth the effort, although the two and a half hour drive back tested our patience somewhat as we hit rush hour in Denpasar. Here's a shot of the lovely Rice Terraces, taken just before the tropical rainstorm hit:

and here we all are at the Monkey Jungle:

That's our driver on the right - obviously receiving another lecture on Balinese culture from Jo!

Chris, Kelly and the boys took a cab to the water park yesterday but Jo and I stayed here. We shopped in the morning, swam to the pool bar for lunch, then took the shuttle bus to the beach:

We wandered through a couple of the huge beachfront hotels - especially the Grand  Hyatt, which is a massive upmarket complex. From there, we wandered round the Bali Collection, a fairly upmarket and spread out shopping complex. Then it was back to the resort to have cocktails with Chris for his birthday. Mine - basically a fancy G & T - came in a shiny copper mug:

This morning (Saturday) was the official start of the Chinese - or Lunar - New Year - the Year of the Dragon. We were treated to a morning show at our resort, with the dragons coming round to our door:

We were saddened to hear of the passing of Carole's Dad yesterday. Carole drove down and just got there in time. I think we only met Mike once but Gary really liked him and he'll of course be a miss to Carole and the rest of her family, including Luca.