Bali/Phuket

[Corona Man]

Some of my thoughts/observations on Bali.

Accommodation in Legian. 4.5 Star (apparently), good location, rooms a little tired to be fair. We were up on the 3rd floor. Safe to say, didn't miss going to the gym much, was up & down the stairs so much, I was getting my workout in. While I am loathe to compare per se Bali to Thailand, it's kind of inevitable. Accommodation wise, in my view, yet get a bit more for your $ in Thailand.

Food & Drink, plentiful, and well sampled. Well priced too. We ate in Restaurant's in the main, as opposed to bars. That said a few bar lunches went down well. Reckon my Bro in law had Nasi Goreng every day between lunch & dinner. Decent coffee joints abound. $2.50 a cappuccino doesn't hurt the pocket.

Tour - We did one. It was ok, but stuff me the traffic in Bali is insane. I am not talking about the lack of road rules, more so the road infrastructure is simply inadequate to handle the amount of vehicles.

Footpaths - Better than Thailand, in Bali, they actually exist!

Beach Sunsets - Enjoyable, $4 beers, sit back & chill..... other than the non stop touts peddling their wears...

Volcano - Other than seeing it in my news feed, you wouldn't have known it was happening in Legian. Reading the posts about flight cancellations, while sitting on the beach, watching a plane come in every 5 minutes made me chuckle.

Weather - Rained once in our 8 days, and that was for about 15 minutes while we were eating. Understand this week in Bali, has been almost non stop rain. We timed that well...Hot when the sun was out, but for much of our time there was some cloud about that cooled things off.

Shopping - Not my go, Mrs C didn't miss though. Sister in Law, stuff me.... she was shopping for cushions....in Bali, why, just why? I managed to pick up a few singlets. An Indiana Pacers one (then Haliburton tears the Achilles 2 days later) and the mandatory Bintang one. Reckon they search your bags when you leave, if you don't have one onboard they send you back to the airport gift shop.

Pi55ed Aussies. Pretty well everywhere. One evening, we were sitting in a restaurant, adjacent to the beach. About 9pm a group of well hydrated Aussies appear from their sunset drinks. Among them a middle aged lady (mid 50's), the kids (also pi55ed) think it's a great idea to get "gran" a moto bike back to the resort. What unfolded from there was entertaining to say the least. First she hands her entire purse to the rider.... he says no hands it back. She then pulls out some cash for the ride, hands it to him. He pockets it. Shen then hangs her handbag (full of god only knows what content) over the riders head. He says no, gives it back to her. Then she starts to line up how to get on the back of the bike. By this stage our fellow dinners have cottoned onto the situation and were all tuned in. Eventually she hitches up her dress (to the waist) showing off her G banger.... and climbs aboard. The rider hands her a helmet, which she struggles with. As the rider pulls away from the curb with his passenger, they receive a standing ovation from the dinners in the restaurant. Probably happens every night in Bali....

Will we go back? - Yes but not in the short term. Probably 3 or 4 years for another look. 8 days for us in Legian or Seminyak about right, but then I would move over to the other side, or to another location nearby - Lombok etc.