1 May 2005

Bali, Indonesia

On 30th April we went to bali with the whole family. Rizal was supposed to join us but cancelled at the last minute.
Even Mother came with us so its the whole family (minus Rizal). Ton, Ain and mak long would be coming later. We arrived in the afternoon - around 1pm and the car from Tegal Sari was already there. We'd be staying in Ubud at this little place called Tegal Sari. Rizal stayed here before and he said it was lovely. He's right.
It is lovely - a tiny oasis in a sea of green. Tegal Sari is just outside Ubud and is made up of bungalows set amid green padi fields. It's peaceful and calm atmosphere gives it a really restful feel. Our bungalow is the furthest away. Mak shared a bungalow with the girls and Wan and Ain shared another one. Our room is really fantastic - the padi field is all around us. The room itself is not big but it has a small sitting room, an ensuite bathroom and shower stall and a verandah for us to sit in the evenings. I could stay here forever! We don't even feel like going out once we are here - you just want to sit on the deck chair and look at the padi field, the blue skies and fall asleep.
Suprisingly even the girls love it here. They like their room which has a jacuzzi and is very spacious. After checking in they went for a swim at the pool, then late in the evening we all took a walk to Ubud, a short distance away for a meal of pizza at a place called Pizza Bagus!
Ubud is rather quaint. Its streets are narrow, the shops are all single story bungalows and quite small after the huge malls we are used to. But the goods are elegantly arranged and cheap too, which rather surprised me because seeing as there are so many foreign tourists here I thought they would surely hike up the price of goods. There are no bookshops however. We bought some lovely cotton blouses - I got a pink, Sarah a red blouse and Shasha a blue one.