Inevitably the time has ticked by even though at times it seemed like 2010 would never get here. There are still a couple of hurdles to get over but right now it looks as if my planned departure on my Round The World will actually be happening.
Journal
On Friday all my possessions with the exception of my backpack and one suitcase will be packed up in a whole heap of boxes. On Tuesday week the boxes will be picked up and taken away to be stored for 12 months.
In 18 days I will officially be on leave. In 29 days I will be on a plane on the first leg of my trip. I will be taking my new camera the Lumix TZ10 on a test run to see if I like the photo’s it takes. If I don’t then I’ll pick up my DSLR before heading off to Buenos Aires.
I will also be taking my iPad for a test run as well to see how that goes instead of my laptop. All going to plan my day bag should be considerably lighter.
If you’re Australian and heading off on your own trip and do not have a NAB Gold Banking account with a Visa Debit card then I suggest you check it out. It’s currently one of the best accounts for travel.
The blog will become active again once I hit the road on 19 October 2010. Until then probably not much going on, particularly since from Friday my computer is going to be packed up along with the rest of the house and the Internet account will be cancelled along with everything else.
I’m ready I think….
I’m sitting outside our villa beside our pool in the cool morning air, its a beautiful time of the morning here, Jeanette is up reading in one of the other chairs The girls haven’t made an appearance yet, still I have no doubt that they are awake. When I say ‘our pool’ we have to share it with the villa next to us however since that villa is empty so far it’s our own private pool.
We’re staying in the Villa Agung just out of Ubud, Bali surround by the rice crops. Oh and do not forget the ducks. There are lots of ducks and you know what? Ducks are surprisingly noisy for such small creatures.
It’s been a very chilled holiday so far. We’ve had a massage the every day so far and have another one lined up is afternoon. Still Jeanette and I are going on a three hour bike ride this morning so I think we will deserve that massage this afternoon.
Er, sorry about the the rather abrupt ending to the post if you started this yesterday (it’s now Friday) I had to go have breakfast.
No, honestly. I did. It was that bike ride thing I mentioned. We were being picked up and I lost track of time as one does on holidays. The bike ride was great by the way but I’ll get into that on another post later.
Other than massage we haven’t done much really.
On our first full day here in Bali we went into Ubud to the Joga Barn for a session of Tai Chi. Now while the movement itself wasn’t to bad I am so not that spiritual. That part just had me bored to tears. Still I kind of knew that before we did the Tai Chi, not sure I’d bother to do that again though. That session basically killed the morning and we went out searching for food.
We certainly didn’t have to look all that far to find it and it was good. In line with that whole decadent theme we’ve been developing we ordered a cocktail each. Can not remember which one I had but it was certainly yummy.
After lunch we found the Monkey Forest (really not that hard to find we just sort of wandered into it. There is a fee of 20 000 rp to get in which really isn’t too bad. Not that big but there is, as one would expect monkeys everywhere. Of course there were people feeding the monkeys despite the signs asking people not too. One has to get that ‘adorable’ photo of the monkey drinking from the coke can doesn’t one?
Next on the adgenda was, you guessed it, massage. We went for one of those package deals which included massage, scrub, bath, facial and pedicure. Two and a half hours later we wandered out thoroughly pampered. The idea of budgeting has gone out of the window for this part of the trip. Even so it’s really not that bad since the costs here are so low.
By this time it was almost getting to that stage where we were thinking about dinner. Still we had time for a quick run through the markets before dinner. The two girls did a spot of bargaining purchasing a couple a dresses each.
That was pretty much it for the first day in Bali.
The massage was probably the best bit as far as I’m concerned, even if your on a budget, splash out and treat yourself. It’s so worth it.
So I haven’t really written much for Bali, probably because we haven’t really done much. We arrived in Kuta yesterday which managed to confirm all my stereotypes for Bali. Still the girls have been shopping up a storm and went out to party last night. I even made my first purchases for the trip being a dress and a pair of shoes since the dress didn’t really look all that good with a pair of Teva’s, surprising that!
It’s that all to familiar pattern, piles of ‘stuff’ all laid out so that I can see it all. My bag on the floor, open, empty. Not that it will stay empty for long. All that ‘stuff’ will end up in the pack.
I’ve found over the years I do not really have a problem packing for the average 6 to 8 week holiday. For this trip and the multiple climate zones there seems to be way to much ‘stuff’...