jenskar

I hardly know where to start describing our trip to Bali but I’ll say one thing first in case you get bored with the details. Go. Go now, when they’re under booked and you have more of the country to yourself. Bali has definitely taken security seriously, every large hotel has elaborate security checks before you can even get on the property, and the Balinese have to be the warmest people I’ve ever encountered. Thailand may be the land of smiles but I have to say, I always found the smiles a bit of a mask, and it was hard to get people to open up and say what they really meant. The Balinese I met (and I got a villa and a plunge pool too - I think it was Kim who said in one of her posts that you might not get the most personal experience at a larger hotel), from hotel staff to our driver, to shop people and the people we just encountered daily, were amazingly warm and talkative. I know what my breakfast waitress paid for her house, how she financed it (the Four Seasons helps their employees buy homes, which I was really glad to hear, and passes out bonuses when they have a great month), how old her children are, how long she’s been married. Faced with a dining room full of guests on a packaged tour who table hopped constantly to the point that none of the wait staff could keep track of where to serve their food, and called out across the room loudly to each other, she smiled and said “Maybe it’s their culture. Tomorrow, I’ll wear my roller skates.”

I already wrote up the arrival day and first full day (see from Bali with Love) so on to day three. This was our quietest day. We woke up a bit later, hit the plunge pool and went to brunch on the beach. Brunch was really lunch. I had a tuna steak and my husband had an Indonesian noodle breakfast which he loved. Then it was off to the spa for our second visit. Having tried one of the full-blown “rituals” last year in Chiang Mai, we opted for something called the Ocean Ritual which involved your basic 60 minute massage followed by body buffing with salt and oils, the first of several showers, a wrap in seaweed (my husband had me hysterically laughing when a fly landed on his nose and he knocked off his little “eye cover” trying to get it off). Another shower and they put us in a huge tub with frangipani blossoms, more aromatic salts and drinks made out of coconut juice (young coconuts -- I felt like a coconut murderer). We spent the rest of the day just walking along the beach then had dinner at the hotel as they had some special Dutch/Indonesian plantation lah di dah planned with lots of little dishes (we love tasting dinners -- I’d always love to try 5 tiny dishes over one big plate of something I’m going to get bored eating after 6 bites -- but that’s wife of a chef learned behavior). My favorite was red snapper wrapped in banana leaves flavored with lemon grass, and a red tapioca soup dessert with melon.

The next day Dean picked us up at 9. We’d arranged with the hotel to move our bags to Sayan. We headed north, driving through the rice fields at Tabanan everyone photographs, for good reason. The weather got deliciously cooler the higher we went. Visited the lake temple at Danu Bratan as a picturesque and short lived fog rolled in and a small market at Candi Kuning where I sharpened my bargaining skills on some beaded belts. Dean said something about stopping by his friends to drop off some peanuts -- the friends turned out to be a band of monkeys that live along the road high on the mountain (there are some amazing views of the lakes the higher you get) -- these monkeys were not of the kleptomaniac variety -- but the alpha male got very upset with my husband and there were several moments of teeth baring behavior !! The little mom with baby monkeys were adorable.

We headed down the mountain towards the north coast -- I wanted to see the Buddhist temple a Thai monk had established, which now includes a small version of Borobudur. Very odd. But it felt wonderful to step into the two main temples and smell that signature Thai incense. Dean had thought I wanted to stop at a hot spring (confusion, as the pics for the spring were on the same guide book page as the Thai temple) -- so we stopped there first. He said something about how he never really went there, then I said well, why are we here then? There ensued one of those stange silences, then we all burst out laughing as we realized how that happened. But Dean became very concerned for about an hour about how he’d made a mistake. I’ve never dealt with anyone who was so concerned that he “got it right” as to what we wanted to do.

I had also wanted to see one of the older temples on the north coast. We stopped briefly but it was close to sunset so they were closed. Temples in Bali (except for some notable ones) really are a dime a dozen after awhile -- so I can now see why other fodorites have seen a few and then passed. Unless you’re really into stone carving narrative -- you don’t have to see them all -- and you couldn’t anyway.

It took us a few hours to drive back over the mountain and down to Sayan. Dean (who is as interested in where his customers come from as he is in teaching them about Bali, loves his in-car dvd) offered us a movie to watch which just cracked me up. American Beauty no less. The roads are amazingly twisty turny but I have to say I never felt frightened or nervous about the drive, even on all the hairpins down the mountains with all manner of trucks passing and motorbikes.

We got into Sayan late which is pretty magical. You walk over a bridge to the main building and you can hear the rivers on either side and a million frogs. The hotel itself is pretty modern as mentioned here previously, but in an intriguing way, I thought. Compared to Amankila, where we had lunch a few days later, it felt warmer (building materials, I think). They put us into one of the duplex suites in the main building, where the hallways are pond and water walls on one side. Ours let out onto rice paddies, with two terraces. We even had a powder room so that if you were hanging out in your living room, you didn’t need to go downstairs to use the bath.

The next day we had planned to just go into Ubud and check it out, using the hotel shuttle to get there. The shuttle only operates till about 5:30 but a cab from Ubud is about 5 bucks so no biggie if you‘re out late. I hadn’t expected all the little villages to be so close together near Ubud, so at first I was a bit disappointed as it all seemed so developed (if you can call one and two story small shops along a road built up). One thing that struck me all over Bali though is the attention to detail -- the Balinese landscape in front of the walls near their homes. And everywhere you look are the house gods and totems, wearing sarongs and sashes, shielded by umbrellas. There is so much to see.

Before we left, upon learning that the hotel was only 25% full, I asked if we might have a river view villa for part of our stay if they weren’t all booked. My husband got a bit put out that I wasn’t thrilled with the duplex (which was very nice). But when they moved us to a river villa the next day and he saw the view falling away past the deck, outside living room, plunge pool (I did fall in love with those things and am wondering whether it makes a bit of sense to put one into my backyard !!) to the river (which is not wide at all -- more like a stream, but moving very very fast over some great river-noise-water-making rocks), he decided that maybe he wasn’t so sad I’d asked after all. Bob had wondered about the privacy/rafters. They go by once a day mid morning. If you’re there, you all wave. Most of the time, all we saw was a steep ravine across the way full of trees and plants. It was amazingly private and quite magical, and all the better in that as we’d used up our employee allotted days on Bali, we only had to pay the friends and family rate of 175 a night.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself as I haven’t done the first Ubud day. We wandered down Monkey Forest Road to find an atm. The most money I could ever get out of an atm (and we tried them all over Bali) was 2,000,000 rupiah, about 165 US. As we were doing all our gift shopping in Ubud, this meant a lot of atm visits. The only problem I had was with one atm that acted like it was giving me money, and then didn’t. The second go it gave me about 110 US and then my card stopped working (I did have a bit of a moment with my password as I kept forgetting the numeric equivalent and not all atms have the letters and numbers -- which I found out when I got back is why they froze it on me). Luckily my husband had his card (we also had traveler’s checks as a back up). One note tho which I found interesting. On my return I saw that my account was down the withdrawal I did not get. I called Citibank, explained and they immediately credited that back to my account. A few days later, I noticed the bank in Bali had also realized I didn’t get the money and had credited it back as well. Rather impressive.

That day we did a bit of shopping, went to the Dirty Duck for lunch near Agung Rai. Then went to the museum to see their collection. For some reason I just was not responding to the art -- too detailed I think, which is what I’ve always felt about Balinese art. I like my art a bit simpler and more folky. Anyway, we left and planned to loop around back towards the main part of town and took a wrong turn and by the time we realized it, had walked almost all the way to Goa Gajah. We flagged down a bemo and got back to town. Found an outer island tribal art store on Monkey Forest, where we bought some great buffalo bone medicine and oil containers with little tribal head stoppers, and a few other folk art things from Lombok and Sumba. I wasn’t at all impressed by the silver jewelry, but did buy some lace edged Uluwatu (local brand) clothes.

This was actually the night we learned we were moving to the villa in the morning. The hotel had dancers that night so we went to see them (I enjoyed the dances so much more than I ever would have anticipated -- the movements are so striking, the darting eyes, make up, costumes -- and some are quite funny). We really weren’t very hungry, so I got a massage, my husband watched soccer.

The next day was another Ubud day after we’d completed our move. We had made reservations the night before for a tasting meal at Ary’s and planned on going to the dances at the Palace, as they were doing something with the barong and we really wanted to see that. Ary’s became one of our hangouts -- we got to know a few of the waiters and finding a good iced cappachino is as high on my list as some fodorites champagne -- they make a great one. We also wanted to check out Threads of Life -- the store/museum weaving workshop center.

Threads has some beautiful things. Most of their pieces are current -- they support various weaving cooperatives in Bali and neighboring islands, and they’re very knowledgeable about what they do. The prices are pretty high, and I couldn’t help but wonder if most of it was really getting back to the villagers. I also felt decidedly tag teamed by all the owners and staff. One started out explaining things to us, which was fine, we didn’t know much about the local work, though I’ve collected weaving in Central America and Thailand (remember my hemp lady visit last year in Thailand), but then it was just one person after another chatting away, so much that I couldn’t even concentrate on what pieces I liked best. One woman I swear talked for ten minutes without a break -- it was extremely annoying. As we were planning on going to Tenganan where they do the double ikat in a few days, I got my husband out of there (I had made him promise me he wouldn’t let me buy any more weavings as we have no more walls to display them), but they darn near got him to buy this 750 dollar piece from a neighboring island. We had lunch that day at the Lotus Pond (across from Ary’s) which was really very good.

The dance that night at the Palace was really interesting -- watching them get the “stage ready” -- I’d say there were over 100 people there (and they do this almost every night, with different dances). The barong dance involved monkey characters who kidnapped one of the little girls in the audience at one point as part of the dance (so I think this was a bit touristy -- no?) -- I enjoyed seeing the barong costume in action after seeing the rice version in Mengwi. Then we went over to Ary’s for dinner. The tasting was really interesting; duck, babi guling, my favorite snapper in banana leaf, and some more untraditional cuisiney type fare like pumpkin ravioli. The kitchen at Ary’s is immaculate -- and I forgot to mention the bathrooms -- very high tech with a small koi pond running along the side. Not a bad place to take a break during the day.

That night was a festival night where one is supposed to stay up all night atoning for one’s sins. This amounted to us watching (from the second floor at Ary’s) as hoards of young boys and girls in groups, or couples on motor bikes, went off to the various temples to make offerings, all dressed up in “going to temple” outfits. The guys mostly in white, the girls in sarongs with these lacy long sleeved tops and bustiers underneath. Very Madonna in a strange sort of way !! Dean commented one day that the blouses used to be opaque but now the style was the lacy ones which he (big wink) really liked.

I truly wish we’d not been so tired -- but by 11 we had to crawl back to our villa. The streets were backed up with young people moving from temple to temple. I really wish we’d just soldiered on and joined them for awhile. But it isn’t as if you have to look far for ceremonies when you’re in Bali. We’d already seen two temple dedications, someone making the palm frond wedding gates, and the next day when we drove up to the volcano to see Gunung Batur, several families were going to the temple with large offerings. I was interested to learn that people take their own priests with them.

The family that went in when we did had all sat down around their priest, who was getting out all his paraphernalia near one of the altars. I got a great picture of one worshipper on his cell phone. They had a tray of little flower offerings and some incense. I was surprised at how accepting all the Balinese seemed to be about taking pictures. I kept asking Dean if it was really ok, I’ve just traveled to so many places where people are understandably touchy about being photographed, but no one seemed to mind. In fact the family motioned for me to join them and gave me one of their flower offerings and lit some incense for me to put in front of it. This just knocked me out. It just seemed so incredibly generous -- something that seemed to underlie almost every single thing we saw in Bali. Yes, the hawkers are really pushy but we had adopted a very friendly thank you, no thank you, no, no thank you, smile smile smile way of dealing with all offers of help/transport/sales etc which seemed to work really well the whole trip.

I got some amazing shots of the volcano and valley, then we drove back down south of Ubud to see some of the craft villages we’d missed, stopping quickly to see Gunung Kawi and the water pools and fountains, which is really pretty, and a wood carver of garudas. I hadn’t expected to like the shadow puppets but I really did, so we went to Sukawati where we bought five from one of the old master puppet makers and I also found some dance headdresses that I decided to think about. It turned out I’d discovered one of the craftsman who makes these for the dancers, not for tourists -- more on that later.

Celuk (the silver village) was a disappointment until we got to Prapen. I had hoped to buy a lot of inexpensive silver earrings for coworkers but everything really looked like stuff I could by at a flea market in NY until we saw the work at Prapen. We even left after first looking, as their prices felt a little high, but two stops at other random places and we were back. I bought most of my gifts there. Some lovely little silver bells on suede thongs with silver bead sliders to adjust the length, some very pretty silver hoop earrings with dangling pearls (also got other stones for friends), a cross on suede decorated with the drop silver circle motife John Hardy lifted off native Balinese designs). They gave us a discount without even asking.

As were heading back to the hotel Dean noticed a cock fight. These are I take it illegal now in Bali and the whole thing is really rather revolting but … we pulled over and got out to have a look. Luckily, with all the men around the birds waving money and betting and chanting, all we really saw was the men holding the birds high to show the knives on their feet. It was interesting to me that the fight was inside a temple enclosure.

That night we decided to just have dinner at the hotel (I always feel when they’re doing so much for us it pays to spend some $$ there -- and we got a chance to meet one of the chefs who took my husband off for a tour of the kitchen. He really wants to go to another Four Seasons so -- work exchange ?? I can only wish !!) Most of the Sayan staff have been with the hotel since it was built in the 90’s which seems to say something about how the company treats their workers. By this time we were sick of fish so we had Australian beef which I have to say is just yummy. Go Aussies. Also, a passion fruit souffle for dessert. It is so quiet in Sayan -- you eat on the terrace above all the trees with the frogs and the geckos chanting below you, and the air is soft and cool at night and heck -- it was just the most relaxing time I think I’ve ever had.

I’m going to post this now and finish up later -- as it’s already way too long !!!! Just figured I should pay everybody back for all the great help and give as much detail as I could. I think a lot of people think oh Bali, that’s so old hat. I’m really glad I got past that impression and went.

rhkkmk

great review....i would love to return to bali...maybe next year..

KimJapan

It sounds like a lovely trip! I'm enjoying the read.

jenskar

Highlights of the rest of the trip:

The next day we only took the shuttle part way and walked the rest of the way into Ubud under the banyan tree roots dangling overhead, checking out the stores as we went. Then on to the Ubud market as it was "okay, buy the rest of the gifts now" day -- lots of inexpensive crafts -- bought some Balinese picture calendars, a decorated wooden cowbell, men’s temple headbands for Kit’s coworkers.
Walking down Monkey Forest Road we got our only huge downpour while I was back at Uluwatu Lace buying a silk batik sarong (had shopped all the silk and theirs seemed best); ducked into a hole in the wall restaurant across the way and ate a huge tropical fruit plate and fried bananas. Found a local bath store and purchased all the traditional spa wrap/rub treatments, lulur scrubs, boreh (supposed to be good for aches and pains) and some frangipani incense I now light at night to take me back. Yep, that’s the smell from the airport !!

The chef cooked for us that night -- restaurant at 4S absolutely deserted. Amazing banana wrapped fish/scallops with local spices. Had chats with many staff people about what the island had been like since the two bombings, who was traveling to Bali now. I think if we had wanted to spend more time “alone” we would have been sadly disappointed -- as everyone was so incredibly chatty, but I think this also had a lot to do with the fact that we were more “family” than guests at this point.

Kit got a massage and I went back and floated in the plunge pool, listening to the frogs and the river and looked at the stars. Absolutely idyllic and bittersweet, as it was our last night in Sayan.

Next day, our last with Dean. Drove east to Tenganan, one of the traditional Bali Aga villages where we saw the double ikat. One of the few places they still do this in the world (Japan is another -- so the Japanese tourists are great funders for Tenganan) -- amazing complex process first dyeing the weft threads, then weaving in the warp. They wanted $800 for a large (two yards long by 2 feet wide piece, albeit of very good quality) -- a small weaving was about $50 (bargained down). The weavers in Tenganan are not hurting -- kids in the back playing Playstation games. And they take Visa. We saw them getting ready for a festival the next day, building offerings and putting up a decorative bale.

Did see some of the temples on the way -- but unless you’re really studying Balinese rock carving, these do get monotonous. Also tried the crafts market in Klungkung as we’d heard it was so good but frankly, nothing we hadn’t seen anywhere else. Mad dash back to Sukawati and the dance headdress maker whose entire family helped me pick out a dance costume; two headdresses made out of leather, foil flowers, mirror and colored stones, some separate gold foil head flowers, earrings with the large oversized cone shaped backs, gold leaf screen printed batik sarong wrap, cummerbund/bodice which is actually a very long strip of fabric wrapped around the whole bodice and separate waist sash of fabric and gold metallic thread, leather gold and bead necklace. Had I meant to buy all this? Not really but … for $110 I am really not at all sad I did. I realized when I got everything home that I was drawn to the headdresses as the inset mirrors reminded me of a lot of Burmese gilded and mirrored work I saw in North Thailand the previous year. So they’re now on the fireplace mantel with my gold leafed lotus bud pot from Thailand, the shadow puppets, all smiling over at our alabaster Buddha.

We had lunch at Amankila. If we thought the 4S was expensive, Amankila took the cake. $70 for lunch for two and we don’t drink, but it was very tasty. We were the only people there. They only had 8 rooms booked. We asked to see a room and they are really lovely, separate villa, a bath dressing area that makes you wonder what the heck you’re getting dressed up for though !! No plunge pool and given how hot it is in Bali I rather appreciated having something right at the room where we stayed, but then I‘m getting older and the whole parade around in a bikini thing isn‘t me anymore. For that money I’d prefer the 4S riverfront villas. The setting is gorgeous though, looking out to sea, lots of terraces and the ubiquitous infinity-edge pool -- the beach is way down the cliff face though and the entire complex felt a bit sterile, plus the location is really out in the middle of nowhere so you would be driving to do anything at all. I think I’d try the Alila before I’d stay there.

We got back to Jimbaran, driving through Sanur on the way where I bought a carton of clove cigs for $5.50 at a local everything from groceries to books to clothing store. Sanur seems to have quite a few restaurants and shops and things -- but we were due back (more cooking for us -- I swear I am still not over how incredibly spoiled we were on this trip -- it’s like one of those silly Celebrity Cruise commercials I always despised where I come home at night and want to call a buggy to take me down to the beach for dinner) -- which is where we had dinner that night. Fresh seafood ceviche salad, a spicy chicken flat bread pizza.

We had stopped at Jengalla Ceramics our first day and were really taken with the dinnerware they make -- started out for area hotels but now they ship around the world. Very modern, wonderful colors and designs -- we picked out a dinner service for four, two tea pots and cup sets for friends and arranged to have it all shipped back home. Fed Ex direct this time, as after all the hassles with the Port of Newark last year and the hidden charges of port to port shipping, we figured it would be the same to just have it all come right to our door.

Then we had to go back and pack -- had an extra suitcase free coming over and it was stuffed going back. Went swimming down at the beach -- it was Sunday and families out playing, two big soccer games on the beach, guys out with their small boats and individual fishermen out with nets. The beach/swimming is not great -- it’s very shallow way out and lots of little rocks and things so I’d concur on the maybe not Bali for the most beautiful beaches comments I’ve seen here. We had dinner down at the beach again -- a fish soup very like the lemongrass spicy shrimp soup the Thais make, the lights from all the small sea food restaurants up and down the beach glimmering like church votive candles.

Singapore

We flew out in the morning and got to the hotel about 1pm and immediately took off for Little India via the MRT, where I’d purchased some wonderful pop up Deepali cards 6 years ago and a beautiful hand-made, bead-embroidered pashmina. The government has since widened the main road and corralled all the little merchants into one area, so it just didn’t feel the same, though the colors are all there, the smells, the flowered offering wreaths, etc. Headed down towards Raffles and the harbor and got off at Raffles Place instead of the City Hall stop, so after a very long walk, finally got to the Palm Court and Long Bar -- what a Disneyland they’ve made of that. And how weird in totally clean city Singapore to find a bar where everyone throws peanut shells on the floor. I’d say anyone could safely skip having a drink there. It’s a cartoon of itself.
Had hoped the Jim Thompson store would have a bag like the three bags in one shoulder bag I picked up in Bangkok last year, but no luck.
Foot sore, we decided to try the Chinese restaurant in the hotel that night. When you spend half you life eating cheap Chinese food late at night on film sets, Chinese food isn’t what you think of when you want an intriguing dining encounter. But the menu had quite a few Cantonese dishes we’d never tried and that combined with being completely played out and our employee 50% discount had us dressing up and heading down 3 floors to Jiang Nan Chun.
We studied the menu and realized we were completely at sea -- too many choices. So we pulled our waitress over, who for all the world looked like the geisha who mentored Ms. Memoirs of a … but I mix cultural metaphors, who became our food Mamasan for the evening. We started with a specialty tea -- white peony for my husband, a green tea that bloomed out of a flower form in my glass (all of which you can buy on line, I‘m glad to say via a site called Special Teas), followed by cold shredded chicken with peanut sauce, grilled tiger prawns in a crunchy nest of -- well something delicious, a wok seared lobster, some strips of suckling pig with crunchy skin (very Babi Guling), some kind of steamed veg that I can’t remember the name of, and three very strange desserts, a jelly that tasted like perfume and some crunchy wontons with sesame seeds and honey which our waitress treated us to. Before you think we’re complete gluttons, these were all tiny tasting portions. One thing we noticed about our waitress, and about almost everyone we met in Singapore: while incredibly efficient and business-like, if you asked a personal question or showed any interest in chatting, almost all the staff opened right up. We learned our waitress was actually Malaysian, and going on holiday the next day to her home village (4 hour bus ride).

The next day we got up and went on The Big Watch Hunt. My husband has wanted to buy me a good watch for over 20 years and I always balk at the cost. So I’d done my research on Jaeger LeCoulture’s before I left, and with the help of the concierge we went out in search of the perfect watch. Suffice it to say, we saw a lot of beautiful watches, also some really funny toy stores loaded with all the little animal things like the Smorking Labbit the Japanese are so fond of collecting, and after examining every Jaeger available up and down Orchard Road, I decided that I didn’t want to spend another trip’s air fare budget (and then some) on a watch this year and passed. We headed off to see Chinatown via the MRT (incredibly easy to use). With the Chinese New Year coming, we fell in love with the crazy red Year of the Pig decorations everywhere and ended up buying enough to hold our own Chinese NewYear’s now that we’re home. All the other souvenirs seemed really cheap and shoddy.

From Chinatown we walked (insane really) to Clark Quay, which our concierge recommended over Boat Quay (so last year, he said, he was a party boy!). Clark Quay is really several interlocking streets and riverfront with restaurant after restaurant (there’s an Indochine there, which we tried the next night), as well as some crazy themed places like the Clinic where reception is in a room that looks like and for all intent, is, a morgue wall with refrigerator doors. They also have a girlie bar -- I let my husband get 3 feet ahead of me and one of the guys just pounced on him and tried to get him to come in and let the girls dance for him. All the streets are covered with huge parasol-like protectors, lit at night in colored coded fashion so you can find the restaurants, with the lights keyed to a map. Singapore just does not miss a beat in being organized.

And across the river, what do you think had just opened ? Another Mall !! Singapore has more malls than you can shake a stick at. My one disappointment with these malls was that, unlike the young Thai designers I saw in Bangkok last year, the Singapore equivalent seemed to have embraced middle American mall rat as a fashion inspiration. Too many push down boots and calf leggings for me. We found a strange Taiwanese food store in the new mall (all the shops had large flower arrangements in front of them from well wishers, as they’d just opened) selling beautifully tinned candies and -- like all the other Singaporeans we met, once we started chatting, they got all chatty. We started pointing at some other strange things and they pulled out some crazy fake food packets you attach to your cell phone strap, and some cartooney key chains that commemorate various Taiwanese dishes -- all very kitsch and easy to pack. As you can tell by now, I’m a real fan of authentic pop culture anywhere I go.

Our last day was pack and go day -- with a late flight out. We checked out (the hotel let us leave our luggage in storage and use the spa for showers/changing before we left, in fact the room where the luggage is leads to an elevator that goes directly to the spa floor -- very handy), and headed to the Asian Museum which was a real treat. Small but really well labeled exhibition of SE Asian religious arts, an introductory set of rooms detailing Singapore history (what those people did to clean up their riverfront could be an inspiration to a lot of countries who consider themselves first world), and a show of huge iron masks someone just dug up in China. Walked to Clark Quay for Indochine dinner. My lemon grass grilled beef was pretty boring (when I read about cucumber, carrots and vermicelli, I think mixed thin strips, not big blocks on a plate -- but this was my problem with Vietnamese food in Bangkok too). My husband’s duck curry was much better, and as a non-drinker, I was glad to find some interesting “mock-tails” on the menu that weren’t so sweet you’d think they were mixed for a kid. We sat there watching the boats on the river, just lapping in the warmth -- Singapore was deliciously mild once the sun went down, much less humid than Bali. Back to the hotel where our guest services person, Nicole, put us into a cab with hugs and promises to try to come and spend her comp days in New York.

All in all, I found Singapore much more interesting than I had thought it would be, and the people absolutely amazing. The Four Seasons is very well located, the staff is warm and efficient, the spa/club area decent, and I was glad we hadn’t used the stop over option to stay down near Raffles.

Tuna can flight back until we got to Frankfurt (Singapore Air consolidates with quite a few other carriers for the Singapore/Frankfurt leg, so the flight was full), then bulk head seats back to New York. I’m thinking executive economy next year -- on the way over I don’t much mind regular economy because after all, the whole vacation is ahead of you. But it’s depressing enough to be coming home without the squished in steerage experience.

I’ll have our photos up soon -- got some amazing shots of the Balinese dancers we saw and several ceremonies we stumbled into. Thanks again to everyone who helped me plan this trip.

Since we’ve been back I’ve been researching retirement in Bali. Health care would no doubt be better in Thailand or Singapore but … Bali has it’s hooks into me. I think if I’d gone there when I was single and used to travel for months at a time on my own, I might not have gotten back.

marmot

Some lovely thoughts, jenskar. I'm passing the chief bali-booster pompom over to you. Come back soon!

jenskar

marmot -- I've been thinking of you !! How lucky to be as close to Bali as you are. And in Sing, our guest service person was Nicole -- next time you're at the 4S please tell her Kit and Jen said hi.
What do you think about the new villa developments on Bali -- we didn't actually look at any, but have been reading about them since we're back. Was very curious about this whole redevelopment of Jimbaran Bay near the fish restaurants, and whether that was something those people really wanted.

rhkkmk

thanks for the detailed and interesting report...

now i want to return to bali more than ever...

jenskar

Bob -- glad you liked it -- owed you a good read after all the great advice you've given me

Here's the web link to our pictures and some shopping recommendations (those are in the blog)

http://web.mac.com/kitskarstrom/iWeb/Bali/Welcome.html

rhkkmk

fantastic pics...thanks for sharing them

bob

marmot

Villas are springing up like a plague of locusts ALL over southern Bali from Nusa Dua to Jimbaran to Seminyak to Canggu. Most are controlled by a developer. The "owner" gets to rent his/her villa back from the management for a specified number of nights each year and the rest of the time they're in theory generating income. The market is way over saturated and there's no way that all of these properties are going to be rented and profitable so I foresee some bankruptcies as the next phase.

ARe these developments good or bad for Bali? I think mostly good in concept as they are low rise, in general aesthetically harmonious and employ people. The down side is that when the bubble bursts there are going to be a lot of half finished sites and empty villas.

If you're interested in actually building your own villa to live in it's doable but very tricky as foreigners can't actually own land in Indonesia and stay visas are not so easy to come by. You have to be very informed and very careful.

It's easier to acquire land in the beach areas (and more expensive too) as this is not farmland and is not part of the village heritage. Inland it become very complex as you are in effect renting land from the community.

jenskar

marmot -- that was my take on the villa developments too. just too many of them for all of them to be profitable. I can't imagine building one on my own without significant local legal help and even then, it just sounds ridiculously complicated.

But, the good news is, all of this dragging my husband to Asia seems to have worked: he has been talking to the Exec Chef about a transfer and we're going to throw our hat in the ring for several locations in Asia. Could take a year for the right thing to open up but at least now he wants to go!

Bob, thanks for the compliment on the photos. Just another way to hold onto the trip a little bit longer !!

dandan

Read your report - very inspired !
Travelling to Bali next week with my family, staying in Nusa Dua at the Westin. Any thoughts on the hotel or the beach ? Thinking about Ubud for the day - is that a mistake - or should we go for a few days. Kids are 11 and 13.

jenskar

Dandan -- I only know what I've heard abut Nusa Dua -- lots of hotels, not much else. I got the sense many are very nice but you wouldn't get much of a taste of real Bali there. Given that I would definitely spend at least a night in Ubud, more if you can. Your kids might enjoy rafting on the Ayung River (it's pretty mellow) and that way you can see the dances at the palace at night. There are dances almost every night -- they rotate. Of course there are also dances in Denpasar, and at sundown at Uluwatu (all relatively close but you'll still want a driver or a taxi to/from).

I hope you have a great time !

dandan

Thanks - We'll definitely plan a few nights in Ubud.
Appreciate the info.

jonbarb709

We are going back to Bali in a few days - starting with Sanur for 5 nights and then 4 at UBUD and 6 at Candisasa. About UBUD - a couple of places you mentioned: Dirty Duck, Threads, and the Palace? Have been to Ary's - its on our list of the top 10 bathrooms you have to stop at. Where is Dirty Duck, Threads and the Palace. Also been at the Lotus - a great restaurant.

jenskar

jonbarb
The Dirty Duck is right near the Agung Rai Museum -- within the same grounds. We walked down Monkey Forest Road to the end, took a left, and it was a few blocks further down on the left. Threads of Life is on Jalan Kajeng, a very small street just to the right of the Lotus Pond Cafe -- easy to miss but you know it's the right one as there are inscribed concrete pavers (rather like a Balinese Walk of the Stars !) www.threadsoflife.com Just keep going, it's on the right about a five minute walk. The Palace is just opposite the beginning of Monkey Forest Road -- the ticket sellers tend to hang out at the corner of Jalan Raya Ubud (the main street where Ary's etc is) and Monkey Forest -- at 7:30pm you'll see men set up a table to collect admissions for the dances. The dances rotate -- you can check at the tourist office or pick up one of those little ad books about Ubud in town -- they also have a great map -- very useful.

We went to Ary's so often we knew the entire wait staff. Had their tasting menu one night and really enjoyed it.
The bathrooms are really rather amazing, not often you get to commune with koi in a wc

Cookiepuss

Hello Jenskar,
I really enjoyed reading your trip report. I have heard that the Four Seasons resorts in both Jimbaran Bay and Sayan are unparalleled in Bali - do you agree? What other resorts are in their class? You mentioned an Aman resort, which you did not like - do you mind expanding a bit? I would like to go to Bali, and I am wondering whether to even look at any other resorts in those two locations! Thanks.

shelleyk

Hi Jenskar- I enjoyed your trip report. Were you there in Jan? How was the weather? Was there much rain?

jenskar

Cookie -- I want to be fair to other great Bali resorts -- my hsb works for the 4S and it wouldn't be right for me not to point that out. That doesn't make me say they're all great, or everything about them is but I would look at the Aman resort's web site before ruling them out -- I've heard good things about the one near Ubud (Amandari).
I felt that Amankila was just a bit too far away from anything else unless someone just wants a totally isolated beach location. The hotel architecture is very majestic and felt a bit cold. The beach is down a cliff. The villas had no plunge pools and for those dollars, should. I think a real high point of Balinese resort architecture is private outdoor space.
That said, Jimbaran Bay is not home to many shops or restaurants (except the fish ones that open at night down the beach). But five minutes outside the gate we were in the midst of a temple ceremony one day, and 1/2 hour from Seminyak and those restaurants and shops, so you could cab it. marmot has a favorite beach hotel in Seminyak (both the Legian and the Oberoi come to mind there). Seminyak can be a lot of fun as there are alot of restaurants and shops. I did not see those properties myself but they are less expensive than either the Amans or 4S.
What I like consistently about 4S is their design -- things just feel more intimate, less angular, and the service really is extraordinary. I also know they give alot back to their employees locally, which scores high marks from me.
I'm sure someone else will chime in on this !!

shelly -- we were really lucky -- it hardly rained at all (1 big afternoon downpour in Ubud that lasted about 1/2 hour, a few night time rain showers when it really didn't matter to us) and most days were completely sunny. I've heard it's been rainier in Bali the past month -- maybe the weather pattern shifted a bit?

I'm so glad you enjoyed the read -- thanks for letting me know !

crosscheck

jenskar,

Your fabulous report is making me want to return to Bali. Spent a month there 20(!)years ago, when there were no large resorts and you could rent a room in Ubud that looked like a small palace for $25 a night.

I love the idea of putting a plunge pool in your backyard - it seems everyone who comes back from Bali is inspired to bring back not just art, but landscaping and even architecture.