Day 9 - Bali

Bali, with a population of 3 million, is the tourist jewel of Indonesia with an indigenous population of calm and caring Balinese and not so caring entrepreneurial Javanese that come to Bali for work with the tourists. Unlike most of Muslim -majority Indonesia, about 93% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism. Minority religions include Islam (4.79%), Christianity (1.38%), and Buddhism (0.64%).

We anchored outside Benoa Harbour at Bali, as the harbour was too small at a distance similar to Sydney Heads to Circular Quay, and just as rough.

The ship had engaged the 300-person Bali Hai catamaran to speed up shore transfer but it was far too rough for the boat to dock with the ship so we endured a torturously slow, long and wet transfer ashore on ships lifeboats. Thankfully, I enjoy priority transfers so was on the second boat ashore leaving behind a growing queue of anxious passengers. 

Once ashore we were immediately lost in a sea of sellers of best quality fake teak, watches, silver and artwork. We fought our way to a taxi and, after turning on the air-conditioning, and bargaining our fare to half of the opening amount we headed to Kuta.

Kuta is not the best example of Balinese culture with more of a 24/7 Kings Cross flavour about it. Sukawasi, Ubud or even Lovina are far more interesting but a little far away for our one-day visit.

In the first few hours I bargained and bought the following:

·      Genuine fake Billabong shorts,

·      Genuine fake copies of the top ten movies on DVD at 10,000rp each (buy 10, get 4 free) and

·      A genuine bracelet made out of $2 coins with my name on it.

Then, I found my favourite massage parlour on Kuta beach and bargained for a full massage. In my experience a full massage is as much as you wish it to be. I requested a hard sports massage so only one of us disrobed and I limped out an hour later with nothing more on my mind than the pain, oh the pain!!

Later in the day I met up with many local friends from previous trips and even got recognised by the watch seller out the front of Bali Mandira Hotel four years since I last stayed there. Yeah, I bought a genuine fake Tag Heuer at a discount price for old times sake.

A quick visit to the Sukuwati Monkey Temple at Nusa Dua saw our day closing. We rushed to the Isatan Supermarket, bought some Listerine and Scotch, rinsed our mouths with the Listerine and poured out the rest replacing it with the Scotch (I learned this from an old lady in Darwin) and headed back to the dock. It was as bad as we thought, several hundred passengers huddled together being picked off at the edges by persistent sellers of Balinese bricabrac.

Each passenger had been given a numbered ticket to queue for the next available lifeboat; we noticed the sailors on the dock were not checking the tickets so we got on the next boat back to the ship (sneaky smile). The trip was wet and wild with three passengers splashing their partially digested spicy nasi goreng on the deck. I am sure I recognised a partially digested prawn!  We heard that the last passengers came aboard two hours after we should have lifted anchor.

It was so rough that the ship picked up three lifeboats on the starboard side then had to turn the whole ship around to protect the next three boats that came off the port side. We then had to turn around again to sail away.

What a great day in Bali, now on to Singapore with haste at a speedy 18 knots or 30 kph. Today is John’s birthday so party, party, party, Jammers here we come.