Saturday5thMay07

Day Two

Another early morning (6:20) and a very nice breakfast.

I've totally lost my appetite for the last few weeks. (A mixture of heat and being fed up with the food.) But then I saw breakfast (my favourite meal of the day) and for the first time in weeks, wanted to eat. There was proper bread, pancakes, fresh jam and fruit, loads of hot food too (but who needs that when you have bread and fruit?!) The thing that really made it for me though was the coffee. By far the best mug of coffee I've had in months. No creamer and no sweetener.

Today we took a quick tour of the city, popped in by a museum, then headed to the airport for the part I had been looking forward to the most. Bali. I was not disappointed.

The plane landing was the sort that makes you cling to your seat and pray. I counted barely two seconds between seeing land and feeling the wheels touch down on it. The sun had gone down by the time we got out of the airport so I have no idea what the island looks like so far. The guide told us there is a law to prevent buildings from being built higher than the coconut tree to help preserve the cultural experience. There are a few interesting things I did see though. When we got out of the airport we were greeted with necklaces of egg flowers by a young girl dressed in traditional clothing which was a bit surreal. Even more surreal though was what looks like a monument of a muscular half naked man in a makeshift tartan kilt wrestling a dragon in the middle of the main roundabout.

For dinner we went to a Japanese buffet place with Mongolian barbecue which was pretty interesting. Everywhere we go, almost everything has fish in it so tonight I gave in and tried my first (and last) sashimi. I was told not to breathe through my nose, only my mouth or it wouldn't taste good, but goodness knows how you're supposed to accomplish that without activating your gag reflex when your mouth's stuffed full of green spicy gunk, seaweed and sticky rice, not to mention the fish. Pleuch.

Then the defining moment came.

We arrived at our villas.

At reception we were given fresh tropical fruit juice and then were lead down beautiful low lit alleys surrounded in plants, splitting off to lead to carved wooden doors flanked by big green plants at our appropriate villas. Through the doors a path runs through the middle alongside a private lit pool, ending at an outdoor dinning room, lounge and kitchen. It was all so fresh and clean and homey looking but at the same time, beautiful. There are three rooms (and we won the master bedroom) but they look more like villas in their own right. Each are separate little houses with high roofs made from traditional Bali style grasses. Our room is mental. The walls around the bedroom all have big glass french doors, each with a perfect view. You walk behind the massive headboard of the bed (that I'm sure could sleep four people) and there are another set of doors leading into the bathroom. This in itself is amazing, separated into four sections: the toilet to the left, shower room to the right, two sinks with dresser area, one on either side of the entrance to the four centre section containing a glass room with a free-standing old Victorian style bath. It's stunning.

We all had the same reaction. At first, lots of oo's and ah's, then a lot of running around checking out everything with a mixture of shock and disbelief. It's the sort of place you should come on your honeymoon, not a class trip. Like my roommate said, it's like a fantasy place, it's just beautiful.