Airport, and then off to Jakarta!

We left in the morning, near noontime, to fly out to Jakarta to meet my relatives. I haven’t seen them in 7 years, and I can’t wait to see how they’ve become.

Funny thing though, the airport had the most inconvenient customer service I’ve seen so far. There was no one available at the ticket counter until 1 hour before the flight, and they close 45 minutes before the flight. So that left us with 15 minutes of window time to check in and get our boarding passes. Note that there were 5 families together in our group. With 15 people total and an average of 2 check-in bags per person, the process was lengthy. Moreover, they had a crazy rule that the weight must not be more than 15 kg, or 33 lbs. This was much lower than the American standard of 50 lbs. So we had to take certain items out and take them as carry-on. But the dilemma didn’t stop there, as another rule stated that each person could not carry more than 1 carry-on. Already, at least half of us had 2 carry-ons each person. Luckily, all we had to do was to hide them from view and just sneak them in. Some security they have. But it didn’t stop there. This particular airline we were taking doesn’t assign seats. That means passengers must rush to the gate, hoping to be in the front of the line to get their seats. Essentially, the availability of seats was on first-come-first-serve basis. Wow! In the end, we managed to get that, and we got a group of seats within close proximity. So then we were off to Jakarta!

More temple by the day, dinner and show by night

I was still exhausted and rather pale. But I was still able to move around. Taking food much more lightly and carefully, I managed to keep my stomach under a certain control. And I told myself, this wasn’t going to stop me from sight-seeing. So today we all went to see another temple by the ocean. This one was built much higher above the ocean, atop steep cliffs. The view was also breathtaking. But having seen one temple, I guess other temples began to look the same. We didn’t stay too long. Since the drive up to it was long anyway, we left for home early.

For the night, we had an exclusive invitation from the next governor of Bali. Apparently, my dad and he used to work together back in the 70’s. My dad knew that by this time this governor guy owns at least 1 hotel in Bali. So finding him was easy for my dad. Right away, the next-governor invited us to his hotel for dinner and a show.

The hotel itself was definitely 2 stars better than the one we all were staying in. The dinner, wow! It was much, much better. Feeling a little better, I managed to eat a little more than chicken porridge by this time. I wasn’t allowed to drink anything other than water though. Oh well.

The show was called the Kecak, or monkey, dance. Search for it. It was a great show. But I still like the Barong dance more. Nonetheless, having being the last night in Bali, it ended quite well. Aside from the unfortunate ailment, I really have enjoyed my stay in Bali. I would definitely visit the place again, though I would most likely to avoid certain restaurants.

Barong, photo shoot, and the hospital

We went to see a cool performance called the Barong, or lion, dance. You can search about, but basically it’s about a battle between good and evil spirit. The characters mostly performed in enigmatic, spiritual costumes that represent significant spiritual figures, accompanied by the gamelan orchestra. That’s another one you can search about. My mom noticed how some of them, particularly the humans in the performance, were dressed in the traditional Balinese clothes. It is possible for anyone to get their picture taken in these traditional Balinese clothes. So we made a quick stop on the way home to do that. We all dressed ourselves up, or rather, had people dressed us up. We got some pictures taken professionally. Although the photo result could have been better in my opinion, it was a cool experience.

We came home, and I decided to swim in the hotel pool and chill on the beach. About around this time, my stomach started to feel queasy again. To top it off, I was drinking a bottle of beer. This was a bad idea, because I just became a victim of food poisoning from the lunch in the previous day. That night, I started to feel it even more. In fact, it got so bad that everyone decided that I should see a doctor in a hospital.

My family took me to an international hospital. They didn’t really helped much, and they were clearly charging a lot of money for me to stay for 2 hours. Even though I found the hospital bed to be surprisingly comfortable, they decided it would be best if I try a “cheaper” hospital. There, I was diagnosed. The prognosis was that I became the unfortunate one to eat bad food and got food poisoning. By that time, I’ve taken 2 different kinds of medicine. Of course I was still in pain, since the drugs’ effect didn’t kick in until later. The doctor gave me an option for a faster remedial result, via needle injection. I didn’t even think twice and agreed on it. Little did I know, it wasn’t like the typical shot you’d get on your arm. It was closer to my wrist, right on the biggest vein they could find. They popped in this thing that allows multiple injections, because my medicine involved 2 injections. The pain was way more than the stomach. For a moment, the pain trade places. After a minute of numbness, it was back to the stomach. Amazingly, it took less than 3 minutes for me to feel the effect of the medicine. After a little more rest, I was released. We all went home, and I rested early.

Lake, Tanah Lot, and getting sick

On the 3rd day we went to a local restaurant somewhere between the city in Bali, and we had lunch with what I thought was a tasty meal. I soon found out the price later that night and the next. More about that in a bit. First, we stopped at a place high in the mountains somewhere, where they have a lake. We weren’t exactly by the lake, but far enough to see the entire of it and its surrounding. We didn’t stay that long there though since it started to rain, and because of the altitude it was actually cold.

Then we went to a place called Tanah Lot. This is located in Uluwatu, the southern tip of Bali. From here, they have a temple overlooking the ocean. This place is primarily famous for the sunset. That was what we were there for. It was breathtaking. There was a sense of spiritual calmness having seeing this picturesque event of a sunset on an ancient temple ground. This was just about the best tourist place I’ve seen so far in Bali.

After dinner, I found out that I started to have this weird, queasy feeling in my stomach. I mentioned earlier, the restaurant that served the succulent pork had served to not just humans, but also flies. There weren’t a swarm of them, but I guess enough to hit 1 person out of 15. There were 15 of us, and I was that “1” person. So since lunch, I started to feel sick. It wasn’t as drastic yet, as it feels as if I have an upset stomach that seems to be going away. I had hoped that it would stay away. But I would find it to not be the case.

Monkey temple and more clubbing

We went to this one place called Ubud, where they have an area within it dedicated to monkeys. And what I mean by this is that they’re free to roam around like people. So we got to see them as close as an arm’s reach. This is the closest I’ve been to my ancient cousin, haha. It’s funny to see how they behave and stuff, especially with and to other monkeys. They groom each other and pick fleas off of each other’s body. Play and swing from places. And occasionally we saw monkey fights. One of them was how this monkey tried to steal another monkey’s baby. So I guess the family, or group, retaliated. They screamed so loud. It was interesting to see.

In the night, we went clubbing again, but at a different location. I could only say that it was near the place where a night club was bombed in 2002. They have a memorial shrine dedicated to those perished in it. The club that we went to was filled with foreigners, primarily from Australia, America, and Europe, I suppose. The music was mainly hip-hop. It was also cool.

First day in Bali!

I arrived with my mom and dad separately and after my brothers in Bali. So they got about 4-5 hours extra of wandering around the city and checking out sights. When I arrived, I got to start off around dinner time. First off, Bali, like most of Indonesia, is hot and humid. Loose-fitting clothes are recommended. For people who are not used to it, like me, will find themselves drenched in their own sweat every once in a while. But the night time can bring the temperature to a comfortable level, and the humidity equally drops.

The trip from the airport to the hotel involved plenty sights of local shops, beaches, and what seem to be a large number of people of both natives and tourists. Some foreigners, in fact, had decided to make their living in this so-called paradise island. I say that, because it takes getting a little used to the big changes from home in America.

The streets are incredibly narrow, yet most are wide enough for two cars. To compensate, the cars width are much shorter than what Americans have. The most prominent difference is that they drive on the left side of the road, and the driver’s seat is on the right side of the car. It’s like UK and Japan. And the drivers in Bali are insane, cutting lanes, passing thru intersections carelessly, nearly hitting the next car; though I heard there’s hardly any accident. Basically, if you can drive here, you can drive anywhere in the world.

Not wasting time, the first night we decided we want to hit the club scene immediately. We looked around near the hotel and found a few, though most seemed barely fun. This was already midnight. We found one though, which happened to have lots of tourists. Nonetheless, there was a good mixture of tourists and native Indonesians, so it felt normal to us. It was a good night.