Melbourne Day 1

So here I am - in Melbourne! Lesson #1 - never take packing advice from Ganesh Chandran again! I am frozen. This happens without fail - I just don't get this packing for cooler climates. I have a suitcase full of t-shirts because everyone said to "layer" but what I need right now is a thicker jacket than I brought! I think that might be the first purchase I make tomorrow!

Anyway, my departure was a very eventful one. I left home at 4.30pm for my 7.25pm flight, thinking I had plenty of time. But I just couldn't get a cab! After failing to flag one, I tried calling for one but no cab responded to my call and then one finally accepted the call at 5.00pm. But he couldn't find our apartment block and by the time he arrived, it 5.20pm. No sooner had we left Dover Road, we ran into a huge jam. Then I made the wrong call - although he suggested an alternative route, I thought the jam was just at the point when we were turning into the expressway. I was wrong :( I realised soon enough that because of the F1 races, traffic had been diverted away from the city centre and traffic was backed up on all the major expressways! By the time I reached the airport it was 6.25pm and the meter read $32.00.

More anxiety followed at the airport, because would you believe it, the ONLY flight that didn't have a check-in row number was the one I was desperately trying to board. I walked the entire length of Terminal 2 to find the MAS counter was the absolutely last one. I didn't have time to thank God I made it to the airport before the staff said there was some problem with my e-ticket and went off to consult her superior. More anxiety, more desperate prayers. That was sorted out and I was given the boarding pass with the comment, "You must walk very quickly. It is the last gate. Go to the boarding gate now." All my brisk walking skills were tested in the next half hour. 

I had to make a stop though, for a bite to eat. Picked up a nice tomato & mozarella baguette and water for the princely sum of $6.00, and never had a chance to taste it because I left it in the trolley :( I had gone through security and into the boarding area before I discovered this and I actually went back through security again to retrieve my food; but the ever efficient cleaning team of Changi Airport had already disposed of it :(

So it was a very hungry, hassled and mopey Vara who boarded the connecting flight to KL. Fortunately, the rest of the journey was smooth. It must have been all the power of all the prayers that were activated :) I even had an aisle seat on the KL-Melbourne sector, which was a huge bonus - considering how late I had checked in! I also sat beside a nice Australian who helped me with my luggage.

So landed in Melbourne this morning - when the temperature was a bone-chilling 7 degrees C, was met by my good friend Pushpa, with whom I had a nice long leisurely breakfast and drank the first of the many coffees I plan to drink in Melbourne. I've spent the best part of today on the couch in R's living room - because it is closest to the heater. I hope I venture beyond this couch tomorrow :)

Staycation

J and I had a staycation on Sunday. For the uninitiated, that is a vacation in a local hotel, without actually leaving the country. This has been a family tradition for us long before the term was invented and it is something we still like doing, though now we have spilt over from a single room with a king-sized bed to a king-sized bed with an extra bed to 2 connecting rooms :) Strangely, for reasons I can't fathom, I usually feeling a little embarrassed telling anyone we are checking into a local hotel. But we have always had good times during our hotel getaways. 

Even before the children came, D and I liked staying in hotels and the old ANA Hotel (now no longer there, up on Nassim Hill) was an old family favourite because we could get a room with buffet breakfast for $100 a night. When the children came, staycations were a good way to have a holiday, without the hassle of travel, leaving home yet with the comforts of home within easy reach.

And both J & R love staycations. There is something about the smooth luxury of hotel sheets, the thick towels, the bouncy beds, the fluffy pillows that entices. Then there is the decadence of housekeeping and the miracle of fresh sheets and towels every day. For the girls, four stars must be aligned before it can be a described as a great holiday - at least one meal delivered by room service, a bath in the bath-tub, a buffet breakfast and everyone piling into the bed and watching a movie! :)

I was quite nostalgic this weekend. Things have changed, yet not quite changed. The pleasures of the hotel stay were the same - thick towels, smooth sheets, wonderful service. Yet the anonymity of the room struck me vividly and I found myself thinking about others who had lain where I lay, looking out at the skyline. I missed you, R. You would have been appalled at how much of time we spent just sleeping... 

Yes, we slept a great deal, ate the crepes we like at Out of the Pan, tried to watch a pay-per-view movie but that was foiled by a faulty movie and then by the time the hotel fixed it I was too sleepy to watch it (yes, despite all the sleeping done before that), read in bed and talked. It was a good, slow, together time. I'm glad mommy-daughter times still feel the same :)

 The view from our room at Swissotel the Stamford

Our take-out dinner

A Germ of an Idea

I chanced upon a blog today that has captured my imagination. It is written by a lady who is determined to "age disgracefully" :) I love that idea! I have been focusing on doing this gracefully and realise, hey, it is so much more fun being disgraceful about it :) My daughters, you have been warned.

Anyway, this lady (who currently feels like a bff) also maintains a website on travelling solo. And I love it! It was comforting to read about other women who feel that same nagging feeling I had yesterday but get off their butt and travel anyway. And there is a whole community of them whom I am longing to connect with. Their travel tales excite me and I feel I really want to do this - travelling solo. It is not an instinct for me. I still prefer to travel with my daughters and /or friends. But I am beginning to think, maybe, just maybe, there is another way. After all, after my first miserable night - which, my new bff assures me is a loneliness felt by every one of these solo travellers :) - I did enjoy my spa holiday at Javana.

So ... I just might ...

Bonding in Bintan

I know I have been to Bintan too many times when the receptionist at the hotel recognises me and says "Welcome back ibu" :) It is true. They should offer me Frequent Visitor status.

I was back at Bintan on National Day, with old friends. I read somewhere once, that it takes a long time to grow an old friend. And that is how we got here, my friends and I. Over a long time. We all used to teach together in my beloved school, Jurong Institute, which sadly, no longer exists. I am very glad our friendship has survived beyond our workplace :) Hey, we need a name!

It was a brief (but intense) 2D1N holiday as Bintan is only an hour away by ferry. It being National Day, the ferry operator actually distributed little Singapore flags to all the children on board. The sad fact was that none of the children seemed excited about these flags they were given. Even sadder was the fact that WE got really excited when we saw the flags being distributed, but got none :)

The absolutely first thing we did was to get a massage (of course) and foot reflexology while waiting for our villa to be ready. And once again, dear Shamala proves that she is an, ahem, "technical wizard" by getting her finger into the view finder... :)

I would say we walked along the beach as after all, we were on an island...



but this is where we really wanted to get to... Yes, my friends, you KNOW this is true ;)

I would say we swam in the pool, but again, with the exception of Mini, this is all we wanted to do...

So, hey, it was a GREAT holiday. In no order of importance, the highlights of our holiday were

• fantastic, honest conversations
• great massages
• 'silky tresses' from the hair spa :)
• the end of 'teetotaller' status for one :)
• Tamil songs especially "athi thai thai thai (sic)" and ""sentamizhnattu tamizhichiye" :)
• lots of laughter
• reciting the pledge at 8.10pm :)
  
• pseudo dieting :)
• 'Sex and the City' - oh, ever mine, ever thine, ever ours... hahahaha...
• pigging out at buffet breakfast
• jacuzzi :)
  
• great conversations - oops, have I said that already? Never mind, it is worth repeating :)

I had fun. I know you did too :)

In London

I thought last year had been a year of much travelling but this year has turned out to be just as mad. This month especially, I have felt quite disoriented because I literally moved my clothes out of one suitcase into another. I was in Depok, Indonesia for a conference til Fri 9 Jul, then moved into an overnight bag for my weekend in Bintan with the girls on 10 Jul, and then into a bigger suitcase for my trip to London on 15 Jul.

I feel out of touch with what is going on at office and am quite ready right now for the routine and normalcy of the work week. Makes me wonder - would I chafe if I were to retire? I keep talking fondly of looking forward to retirement, but sometimes, I am not so sure I would enjoy days of nothing but leisure. And there is quite a bit of truth, I have discovered, in Paul's words in 1 Tim 5:13 - talking of the idle women in church he said "And besides they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not" . Hahahaha. This I must not become :)

So what have I been up to in London? There was the baptism of my newest grand-niece, Marisha...



Catching up with family...



Great Quiet Times at Maya's dining table with this lovely reminder of God's creation...



Many cups of cappucino (skinny!), many many slices of Maya's chocolate cake.... Watched a movie (Inception) that messed with my mind in an exciting way... Watched a play (War Horse) that was a technical wizardry where the life sized horse puppets outshone the human actors hands down... .

And celebrated my niece Vidhya's first wedding anniversary at a fantastic Italian restaurant... To think it has been a year already since I last was here for my sister Su's 60th birthday and Vidhya's wedding!



So here I am, going to pack in a bit, getting ready to go home. I pray I will have as enjoyable a flight back as I did coming here. I pray I don't get another kiss-y couple in the seats next to me! Pray all the babies will sleep. Oh yeah - pray for journey mercies :)

Excited!!!!

YAY!!!! I am going to be ticking off one from my To-Do list! I am going on a spa holiday on my own this weekend!!!! I just had the tickets and the booking details delivered to me at my office! I am super excited! I'm going to the Javan Spa Resort which is a 2 hour drive from Jakarta. It is totally rustic, with no telephone, no tv, no internet. It is just going to be God and me. When I come back on Sunday I will either be a raving loonie driven to distraction by all that solitude or an ascetic saint who will resign to go live in the mountains.... :) Woooo hoooo!

Back from Melbourne

Sooo... I am back! I left on 31 March for a conference in Melbourne and came back on 12 Apr so that accounts for my long silence.

It was a good trip. I actually managed to spend 12 days in Melbourne with just 2 days of vacation leave because I could take conference leave for the days of the actual conference and the Easter weekend gave me a few extra days as well. I love it!

I stayed with my nephew's family and spent time catching up with my grand nephew and grand niece. R was on Easter hols so I got to spend time with her as well. Also met up with old friends Neena and Bee. Drank many cappucinos. Met old friends Pushpa and Ganesh, sadly didn't spend as much time with their children as I would have liked. Ate many chocolates. Visited a church that met in the sports hall of a school and had the strange experience of seeing a basketball hoop every time I raised my eyes to worship. Went on a hyped up, overpriced Hangman's Tour of the Old Melbourne Gaol - do not, do not waste your money on this if you are ever in Melbourne. Also did a day trip to Mornington Peninsula with my nephew's family and wandered around a maze which made me err.... a little claustrophobic... just a little :)

The Conference was a little bit of a disappointment. The quality of presentations was uneven and it appears as if the schools were all at different levels of competency where the infusion of ITC is concerned. But it was still a learning experience and I particularly enjoyed the school visits we made as it is not easy to get to visit schools.

All things considered, I had a good time. The past month has been a trying one for me on the home front and the trip to Melbourne gave me a chance to get away and rest. The time I spent with family and friends also left me feeling loved and supported. In the end, this is what matters - the people I love and who love me back.

Globe-trotting Plans

OK, I have decided to suspend my looking backwards and decided to look forwards. As of now, 2009 looks set to be a year of much travelling! I can't believe how much of travelling I'm going to be doing! Here are my travel plans for next year -

• Feb 2009 - I'm going to Melbourne to settle R in and then to Sydney to attend D's niece's wedding. Yay!
• May 2009 - D and I are going to the US to attend J's graduation. Another Yay! I am also planning to visit my niece in Florida and my brother in Wisconsin. Also hoping to see New York and Washington.
• June 2009 - weekend trip to Bangkok to use up my credit card rewards before they expire in Aug!
• July 2009 - 2 weeks in London to celebrate my sister Su's 60th birthday + my niece Vid is getting married! I get to see Maya and Rohan again too!
• Aug 2009 - a short trip to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat if J's friend is visiting :)
• Sept 2009 - Hong Kong during the Hari Raya weekend with my BOWALA gang to visit our dear Carol with the express purpose of crashing at her pad to drive her nuts :)
• Oct 2009 - to KL for Vid's Indian wedding ceremony.
• Nov 2009 - my long awaited, much hoped for tour of Israel. My friend Dot and I have put our names on the tour list and we are waiting for the pastor organising it to confirm the tour.

So there you go, my long list of to-dos in 2009. I'm so excited just thinking about these plans. The BIG question is, where oh where am I going to find the money???? Anyone interested in contributing to the kitty??? :)

A New Kind of Holiday

I went to Ho Chi Minh City with 2 of my office colleagues at the end of May. We left by an early morning Jetstar flight on Thurs 29th and came back on Sunday. It was fun. A new experience for me - travelling with friends instead of family. Ever since the children were born, we have always had family holidays, not counting the couple of times when D and I drove up to KL to attend a wedding or something. So this trip seemed like a milestone marking a new state of independence for me :)

It was especially unique for me not having to plan anything! I did the online booking of the tickets but Chit and Dot did the rest. Like a true civil servant Chit looked for hotels and presented us with 3 quotes to choose :) We stayed at Metropole Hotel on someone's recommendation. It was a nice enough hotel - they even surprised Chit with a birthday song, card and a voucher for coffee, and the staff was really nice - but it was not near the shopping areas and we had to take a cab to get to eating places and to the shopping belt. And boy did the girls shop! Me - I had very few things I really wanted to buy and was content to walk around with them. Dot had planned the itinerary (see, I really had nothing to do) and we went on 2 day trips out of Ho Chi Minh City. The day trip I enjoyed was the trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels and the Holy See of the Cao Dai sect. I'm writing up a separate blog on my trip to Ho Chi Minh so details and photos will be there soon!

I'm glad I went. It was nice to hang out with friends from the office. And we came back still speaking to each other! Hahaha. I wish my whole BOWALA gang could have gone. That would have been really something but this was a good start. I felt as if another phase of my life was starting - when I didn't have to keep thinking of others but travel as equals, each doing what they liked. I especially liked how cool it was that the other 2 went off shopping on Sunday while I went off to the spa. I liked that - because usually I have had to think about what the others would do while I was at the spa :) So yeah, it was nice.

Would I do it again? Yes. Maybe not go back to Ho Chi Minh, but I would like to travel somewhere else with friends. God willing, Dot and I are planning to go to the Holy Land end 2009, to make use of our leave before we go back to the schools. But I'm hoping I don't have to wait as long as that.

Family Stuff

This year seems to be extended family time. After Maya and Mala, another niece of mine, Veena, is in town with her daughter Vishaka. They have come from India to visit for 2 weeks. Veena felt her daughter did not know the relatives on her maternal side and decided to put that right :)

On thing that struck me was the ease with which my grand-niece Vishaka (11) talked to me. This was the case with Ananya (10) and Avinash (5) from New Zealand as well. It was the first time they had met me yet all three got over their initial shyness quickly and chatted about their lives. There was none of the monosyllabic answers I get from the children I meet here. This was the case with 2 delightful girls aged 7 and 9 from Auckland whom I met in church last week as well. It's got me thinking (again!) as to whether we really had got something wrong in our education of the young. It's not just that I was their grand-aunt - the grand-niece and nephew I have here don't even greet me though they have seen me since they were born. So why is there this reticence, this inability to have a conversation among the local children I meet? Hmmm....

On another note, I spent 5 days in Melbourne two weeks ago. D and I took a budget flight on 6th May and returned on the 11th. Very short trip but the price was too good to resist - we got 2 return tickets for $1040 - and I wanted to see how R had settled in. It was a very pleasant trip. The weather behaved and remained a manageable 18 degrees, I had a chance to see Neen, spent time with my other grand nephew and niece and celebrated Mother's Day with my niece (in-law)Ling Kuei.

I saw a sight to behold - my darling daughter who HATED supermarket shopping here and moaned every time we had to do the weekly shopping, actually buying groceries herself. Hahahaha :) So this pic deserves special mention...

But my best memory was the morning of Mothers' Day itself. We stayed in a little hotel beside R's hostel the night before our departure so that we could have some family time and as it would save an early morning commute to the airport. Rubhi disappeared early in the morning saying she had to pass something to her friend. Then she came back while we were having breakfast with a plate of scrambled eggs! Since the hotel only served continental breakfast she decided to make scrambled eggs (my favourite breakfast) for me for Mothers' Day. So she had asked the hotel staff for permission, then gone back to her hostel kitchen and scrambled the eggs and brought it over with a card. It was a really sweet sweet gesture. And I love the way my children still hand-make cards for me.

Now I'm looking forward to the end of June when both my girls will be back for holidays. We are planning a road trip to Malaysia - now that D has achieved his long dream of owning a car (what is it with men and cars??) - going to Port Dickson then KL. I kind of suspect that if we didn't take this trip, I won't see my daughters. Their list of things to do and people to see is long and the parents are number 2675 or something close :)

My Digital Shadow

So, I learnt a new term today - "digital shadow". Like our "carbon footprint" this is a new term coined to describe the traces we leave in cyberspace. Apparently we leave enough data on cyberspace from all our activities on the Internet for others to collect a great deal of information about us - like what we like to wear, what brands we favour, where we would like to go for a holiday and of course in perverse cases, what our sexual oreintations are :) Every website we have ever visited, every online transaction made, every email sent, every blog updated and commented on, every item googled gives away information about ourselves that can range from the innocuous (so you know I like chocolate, so what?) to the potentially scary (you know the names of my children, where they are and what they are doing) to the damaging (my credit card number is somewhere in cyberspace?)

When I first read the article, I admit I was rather perturbed and it made me pause to think about my online activities. In light of my recent narcissistic activities involving googling myself, I realised with a start that I had willingly put out a great deal of information about myself and my family. So technology has made it possible for me to contact long lost relatives, friends and students, but it has also made it possible for strangers to know me. This is especially true in Facebook where your friends' friends whom you have never met could possibly know about you depending on the kind of privacy levels set on your page and your friend's.

So what does one do then? Retreat into an Amish village and erase all signs of my existence? That's a depressing option. I'm still thinking about it. But meanwhile, for those of you haven't discovered Facebook yet, here is the link to my 50th Birthday party photos on my Facebook...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36127&l=a1222&id=607050798

Since I am already casting a digital shadow now, might as well make it a HUGE one while I am still at it :)

Weekend @ Batam

I went away for the weekend to Batam with my sisters-in-law and we had a good time. Harris Resort Hotel was pretty decent – the rooms were spacious and clean (though the shower curtain in my room had a strange smell). We didn’t use many of the hotel facilities, though, as most of the time was spent shopping in Nagoya Hill Plaza which is apparently Batam’s newest mall. A funny thing was that on the first day the hotel shuttle bus dropped us at the back entrance of the mall and we spent hours there thinking that was all there was to the mall only to discover the next morning that it was actually a huge mall and we had only seen one section of it!

Our package included an hour’s massage at the hotel spa and I must say that I did not enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would. The spa was quite run-down although the ambience was nice. At first I was excited to be ushered into a rooftop hut for the massage but was almost immediately appalled to see a cigarette burn hole in the towel covering the bed. The staff changed the towel immediately when I asked but when I lay down, I discovered that the towel they had changed was damp :( But the masseuse didn’t understand when I said it was damp and kept insisting that the towel was alright. The experience was also marred by the fact that the masseuse wasn’t very experienced and had a cold! I was quite distracted by her constant sniffling and she excused herself twice to go outside and cough. I kept hoping I wasn’t going to catch a cold from her! This was the first massage session when I did not fall asleep, so you can guess the quality of the experience….

The best part of the weekend for me was Sunday morning which we spent at a salon in Nagoya Hill Plaza. Five of us occupied the upstairs of the salon and all had our nails done at the same time. Three of us also had our legs waxed and it was great fun to be just sitting there and chatting while the girls did our nails. My sisters-in-law and I have never done this kind of thing together before. Usually we go out for a meal, but somehow this seemed like a more fun activity for me than eating together. It’s a pity manicures are so expensive in Singapore or else I would suggest doing this more often. We talked about coming out to Batam again just on a day trip, but I didn’t really like the quality of the work done on my nails to come here on a regular basis. The Batam girls were no match for my monthly routine at Serenity Cove and my massage at Spa Esprit. I know it costs me 4 times more in Singapore but it is a luxury treat I give myself and going all the way to Batam for a less satisfactory experience doesn’t appeal to me. I guess I will go just for the company and for the chance to sit and talk with my sisters-in-law, but not for my regular de-stress session. That has to be my fave places in Holland Village still.

All in, it was a fun experience and I am really glad we had this break together. I wish we had done less shopping and more talking or playing games. I still feel that although we are all family and have known each other for more than 20 years, there is still a level of closeness missing that I feel with my friends. Only 3 of us are more open in talking to each other and I wish there had been an opportunity in this trip for all of us to have gotten to know each other better. Or maybe I was expecting too much too soon?

Our Bali Holiday

We are back from Bali! We spent a wonderful 5 days, living in a villa. Really great time for me because I didn't have to do a thing! We had a house-boy, a cook and a driver at our beck & call. Every morning Dewa - the house-boy (well, he is actually a grown man:) - would ask us what we wanted to eat for the day and then he and the cook, Nyoman would go and buy the ingredients and cook the food. The meals were delicious and served right at the time we asked for it. We also had a gem of a driver, Wayan, to whom we would give the day's itinerary and then he made sure we saw all that we wanted to see.

On the first day I went crazy and packed the day with so many places to go to that we were all exhausted at the end of the day! Yet Wayan didn't say a word when I suggested an equally crazy itinerary the following day! Thank God I remembered that the reason we were staying in a villa and in Bali on a package tour was because I wanted to relax and spend time with my family. All we had done on the first day was sleep in the car while we went from point X to point Y to point Z. So, we abandoned my to-see list and just lazing in the villa became top priority!

Here's what we did in Bali:

Day 1: Mon 4 Jun

• Mad day of driving around. We went to the artisan villages of Celuk (silver craft), Mas (wood carving) and Batuan where we visited a beautiful art gallery that was set up in an actual Balinese house compound.
  

• We also drove up to a beautiful scenic place called Kintamani from which we had spectacular views of an active volcano, Gunung Batur and the lake beside it, Lake Batur. The only thing that marred this experience was the lousy and expensive lunch we ate at the restaurant at the top of Kintamani. The restaurant had a lovely view but we didn't realise how esxorbitant the cost of the buffet was because we had not mastered the art of currency conversion yet. We ended up paying about S$90.00 for a buffet lunch that was no way even near the delicious meals our villa cooks served us. We also learnt to our horror that the tax in Bali was 21%. Yikes! Here are pics from Kintamani.

• We also stopped enroute at a spot called Tegalalang for a spectacular view of terraced ricefields and at a small agro-farm at Sri Batu where we were offered samples of all their produce such as coffee, cocoa & tea as well as fruits such as mangosteens & passion fruit.
  
  

• We also went to Tampaksiring to view an old temple built around a spring that the Balinese believe has healing powers. It is called Thirtha Empul and when we visited there were some prayers going on. People filled bottles with the holy water and took it back with them. The priest also sprinkled the water on those who were worshipping.In all the temples we went to, we were asked to tie a yellow sash around our waists & women in shorts (like me) had to wear a sarong that was provided by the temple.

• We then went to another temple called Goa Gajah (the Elephant Cave) which was built in the 11th century. This temple too was built around a spring and they had erected 6 statues from which the spring water flowed, naming the statues after rivers in India
  
  
• 
  
  
  
• By now, of course, we were exhausted and the drive back to the villa in the evening was a quiet one with all of us sleeping in the car. :)
  

Day 2: Tues 5 Jun

• We spent the morning just enjoying the villa and planned a half day tour today to recover from yesterday.
  

• Then tragedy struck. My camera battery went flat! I had charged the battery before we left and assumed that it would last 4 days and hadn't brought the charger with me. So there we were, in the middle of our holiday, with no camera. Wayan then took us to Kuta to look for a digital photo shop that could help and I ended up paying S$60 for a multi-card charger and plug which looked like it would have cost S$4 in Mustapha as well as a disposable camera since the battery would take a few hours to charge :( Oh well.


• In the afternoon, we went to Ubud which is a small artists' village & then to Uluwatu which is a beautiful temple set on top of a cliff. We had left Ubud too late so Wayan really raced to get us to Uluwatu before sunset. We made it in time but it was a cloudy evening and the sunset wasn't spectacular but we had a good time. We watched the famous Kecak dance which was really a dance drama based on the story of Ramayana. No photos sorry - I have to see how the disposable camera photos turn out.

Day 3: Wed 6 Jun

• Another morning spent relaxing at the villa before going to Mengwi to look at Taman Ayun, which was the royal temple. Tourists are not allowed into the temple but the temple grounds are beautiful. The whole temple is surrounded by a lotus pond.
  

• From Mengwi we went back to the villa for a rest as by this time I had developed a sore throat :( Nevertheless, we drove out first to Kuta Beach and then to Tanah Lot, which is another temple set by the sea. It was indeed a beautiful location but unfortunately my camera battery died again, and I could not take pictures. I was really disappointed as this was a picturesque place and one of the places I had been really keen to see.

Day 4: Thur 7 Jun

• This was our last day in Bali. Wayan drove us to a nearby beach but it started to rain so we had to come back to the villa. We spent the rest of the morning at the pool and reading on the 'bale' until it was time to say goodbye to the lovely staff and the villa.