It is only a short flight from Singapore to Bali. Our flight was late afternoon. It was dark when we landed. Another country, another culture. Here the taxi drivers were pitching for our custom even before we had collected our luggage. It was roughly ninety minutes drive to our hotel in Ubud to the north of the airport in Denpasar. After a little negotiating, this ended up costing us about £20.
In the morning, we could see that we had arrived in the middle of a jungle. The last part of the drive had been through rice paddies and a banana plantation. Now we could see that we were on the shoulder of a steep sided valley. Dense with rich, green vegetation and alive with jungle sounds. Our accommodation was compact but we had a balcony with a view over the trees and valley. Breakfast was in a large, open sided building that overlooked an infinity pool.
Bali is an Indonesian island, east of Java and west of Lombok. It is Indonesia’s primary tourist destination. 80% of the economy is tourist related businesses. Bali is the only Hindu-majority province in Indonesia. 86% of the population are Balinese Hindus. In India there are many Hindus. They are vegetarian as required by their belief. Our taxi driver explained that in Bali most people are not vegetarian because they are Hindu. Religion seems a bit arbitrary at times. Bali has received numerous awards as a tourist destination. It is also suffering from some of the problems associated with over tourism . David Bowie’s ashes are scattered in Bali.
We spent the day pottering around the hotel. I spotted a medium sized lizard. There were many monkeys. Mostly long-tailed macaques. We were warned to avoid them. In the afternoon we were drinking tea when a monkey hopped on our table and went for the cake. Diane was having none of this. She jumped up and shouted, loudly at the monkey to go away. She did not literally say “Go away”, instead she used the Rotherham Equivalent Expression (REE*). This was remarkably effective. The monkey beat a rapid retreat and the other guests, sipping their tea, were momentarily stunned into silence.
*A REE is a sentiment delivered in local Rotherham vernacular. It is typically concise, direct, insensitive and occasionally incomprehensible to outsiders of the South Yorkshire area.
The hotel had a kitchen garden where they were growing chillis and pineapples. The pineapple is an odd fruit. Pineapples grow as a small shrub. The individual flowers of the unpollinated plant fuse to form a multiple fruit. Originally from South America, the pineapple was first introduced to Europe in 1500s. It was difficult to grow in Europe and expensive to import. The pineapple became a symbol of wealth and status. By the second half of the 18th century, the production of the fruit on British estates became the subject of great rivalry between wealthy aristocrats. The fruit was rarely eaten. Instead, the pineapple was used for display, repeatedly, until it began to rot. To this day, you can still see pineapple carvings used on the walls and gateposts of old manor houses as a sign of prestige. In the 19th century, pineapples were being cultivated in tropical areas all around the world. The Victorians had no fear of invasive species and were happy to spread plants and animals to wherever they would prosper. In the 1960s Hawaii became one of the world’s major supplier of pineapples. Foods incorporating pineapple became known as Hawaiian. Sotirios “Sam” Panopoulos, a Greek-Canadian cook, is credited with putting pineapple on pizza first in 1962 at his Satellite Restaurant in Ontario, Canada. Whether or not this was a good idea is still hotly debated.
Next day we took the shuttle bus into town. It was hot and busy and there were plenty of tourists around. Our first stop was the Ubud Water Palace; “a serene sanctuary that combines traditional Balinese architecture with the tranquillity of nature”. We both had to don purple sarongs, jackets and head gear to get in. It was genuinely nice in a fiddly, water feature sort of way. Rather ornate statues and a plethora of gods. Fountains with smoke and numerous images, carvings and ponds. The palace was not especially large. Some stepping stones, a couple of dinky wooden bridges and some seats arranged to look like thrones. These were particularly popular with some of the other visitors. There were small queues of people waiting to get their photograph taken sitting on a throne. Next to the palace was a coffee shop. As palace visitors, we got an irresistible 10% discount.
I gave the purple sarong back. Despite the colour, it did not really seem my style. At the coffee shop we had “cappuccino brulee”. Essentially, a cappuccino with a crisped sugar topping. Interesting but only for its novelty value. After coffee, we took a walk around town. Here was an endless supply of tourist orientated shops selling assorted tat. Fridge magnets, small statues, t-shirts, wooden bowls and scarves. Diane eventually succumbed and bought a sarong.
We only had a couple of days in Bali. It would have been interesting to stay longer but we had a ship to meet. In pondering how to get to New Zealand by Jan 2026, we had lucked on a nice last-minute deal with the small expedition ship “Le Soleal”. From Bali this would take us to Cairnes in Australia by way of some of the Indonesian islands and New Guinea. We got down to the port with several hours to spare. The ship was docked but not allowing new passengers onboard. It was hot and humid, as ever. We wandered around the port area for a while but mostly got hassled by taxi drivers and hawkers selling bracelets. We did manage to find a shop selling cold beer. We also found a comparatively quiet corner outside where the pressure from taxi drivers was not actually continuous.
Eventually, we were allowed onto the ship. Found our cabin and were reunited with our luggage. It was on the lower deck, near the bows, one of the few without a balcony. However, comfortable enough; nice TV screen, large bed and a good shower. Before we could begin settling in, we needed to attend a mandatory safety drill. This required turning up in the main lecture theatre wearing our life jackets. We were given a talk about abandoning ship, had a look at the lifeboats and listened to the disturbingly loud ships alarm. Finally, we could get to the bar and enjoy the sunset as we sailed from Bali.
