Sunset on the beach @ Legian, our last evening in Bali

We spent our last evening in Bali on the Beach at Legian, just near our hotel, the Kumala Pantai. The young man who sets out the sunbeds and the umbrellas is one of one of those unfailingly cheerful, very active, and indeed proactive people who brighten your day – this is why he keeps a lot of loyal customers compared to other competitors further down the beach. He trusts his customers and remembers them by face and by name, and is always happy to be paid “next day” or “later” if you find you have left your purse at home (or spent it on beer and with the beach sellers).

We sat near the edge of the sea and watched the sunset mixing with the big black clouds coming up from the horizon, signalling our nightly rain storm. The beach was busy with people of all nationalities playing games – football here, a bat and ball game there, people on jogs and people like us, just idling the time away with a glass of beer. It was the best kind of happy hour. And tomorrow we had the excitement of traveling our last leg to Timor.

A taste of Ubud, and a short drive through the countryside

After another long day on the beach at Legian, we were ready to spend the next day away from the coast. We elected to visit Ubud, after reading about it in the Lonely Planet Guide, where it is described as the centre of cultural tourism in Bali. You drive up through some villages renowned for particular art forms, for example Batubulan is lined with enormous, dramatic stone carvings, samples of the work done there while Mas is full of wood carvers. Arriving at Ubud we drove around to find specialist stores selling jewelery and batique cloths. Eventually we traced the stores we had ear marked from the Lonely Planet guide and were disappointed at both the high prices and, in the case of the jewelery, the lack of originality and style. Instead we turned into the open market and shopped around for cotton batiques eventually getting some serviceable pieces for the sort of prices we had expected to pay based on our earlier investigations in Kuta. After this we made our way to the NGO store called “Bali cares” where you can get an excellent chai masala (spiced tea) and rub shoulders with the darlings of the alternative Berkeley California hangouts. Here Zaria made a new American friend called Zaya (short for Zionaya). They shared maize and boiled peas in their pods. Zaya lives with her father who is from Berkeley and does a variety of artistic things like dance and painting in Bali and had even visited the Art project we planned ot visit in East Timor.

Like Legian and Kuta, touristic shopping seems to be the main experience with culture coming a second, and so, on the whole we found Ubud expensive and rather affected but of course we only visited on a day trip and didn’t have the opportunity to know more about it.
By now we were so fed up of shops and shops and more shops that we longed for some real country side, so we asked our driver, Wayan, to take us in a northerly direction. At last we saw some of the Bali we wanted to know about – bright green rice fields and temples at frequent intervals, groves of banana trees, shrubby clusters of hibiscus and oleander. It poured with rain drenching the trees, the temples and the rice fields, and after we had enjoyed this scenery for a while, we turned down towards the coast again and returned to Legian.

Here are Birds of Paradise and Komodo Dragons !

We chartered a Blue Bird air conditioned taxi for the day (worked out at under $50.00 for about 8-9 hours with as many stops as we wanted). Our driver for the day was Kadir. Kadir is Muslim, while other members of his family are Hindu, Christian and even Buddhist – he told us that this is the Bali way. Like every Balinese person we have met, incredibly kind to the children and very gentle and patient. Kadir took it upon himself to help us manage our two children, to push the push chair and to chase Zaria around the park when she got bored.

We set off through the narrow streets of Legian and Kuta lined with shops, shops and more shops, for Taman Burung Bali Bird Park and Rimba Reptil Park – these are conveniently located side by side on the way to Ubud. This is a journey of only about 30 km or so from Legian where we were staying, but takes about an hour, because there doesn’t seem to be much speeding, and in the built up areas, cars seem to amble along at about 20 mph most of the time. We stopped at the bakery to buy red bean jam bread buns, which have become popular with Zaria. The chain of bakeries called “Bread First” has an amazing variety of buns with different stuffings, and an array of almost scary, lurid cakes.

We started with the Bali Bird Park. This is utter enchantment from the moment you enter to the moment you leave. The park is lushly landscaped with trees, shrubs, water (complete with flamingos) and stone features in the typical Balinese style. Right by the gate you see fabulous parrots of every variety and colour. As you walk along the paths, pelicans amble by. The birds are of picturesque and flamboyant and we even saw a bird of paradise in full display, a first for me. Halfway round, we came upon a little thatched shelter with a small bespectacled man sitting within, quiet and intent as he painted exquisite eggs for sale to tourists, truly beautiful objects which take him several days to make (he told us) and which he sells for about $5.00, neatly packed in a sweet little double layered basket container.

Next door, we entered another natural treasure house in the Rimba Reptil Park. There are delightfully evil reptiles of all kinds – crocodiles, pythons and the famous and most evil of all Komodo dragons. There is an enclosure where visitors supervised by staff can handle a variety of creatures like an enormous python. There quietly keeping himself to himself was a large-ish tortoise, and a number of XXX. There is a particularly interesting souvenir shop which no-one seems to patronize, filled with interesting little bone, wood and silver carved reptiles. We bought two intricately carved, tiny sandalwood frogs and a pair of silver frog candlestick holders – destined to decorate the new home in Timor. This was enough of a day for our party and we drove back down the road towards Denpasar, passing a procession on its way to a local temple headed by a double line of about 24 women dressed in traditional sarongs, and headdresses, carrying offerings, with a line of men in traditional attire coming along behind. It was very spectacular and beautiful. Religion is totally embedded in daily life. Every shop has its daily offering set out artistically in a little square basket consisting of food, flowers and some times a small currency note like Rupiah 1000. We had an offering at the door of our breakfast café, in front of the hotel and within the hotel, in front of every major entrance or doorway.

Shop till you drop

Today we decided to get our basic shopping out of the way. We took a taxi to the new Discovery Shopping centre, thinking that this would be where Balinese people buy their sheets and towels and general household goods. Goodness gracious me, were we ever wrong. This is a very modern air conditioned shopping mall on three floors with all the designer outlets you have ever heard of, and no bargain basement in sight. Although not quite what we expected we succumbed to the lure of the shops - purchasing numerous towels, some "non-hippy trousers" for Kate to go to work in from Giordano's and a couple of cubic metres of disposable nappies. We are holding on the issue of bed sheets until we are sure of the nature of the beds to be made up - Kate's boss to be arrives from Timor today and will meet Kate for a catch-up - it will be interesting to find out whether he has such details at his fingertips.

We stopped at one of the several coffee shops to drink iced tea sitting next to a group of mature New Zealanders on holiday. I hadn't expected New Zealanders to be quite like that. Hmm. The international flavour of this place is very striking. There are vacationers from all over, though very few from Australia compared to before, and we have been told that more holiday makers come from Europe than anywhere else these days. Zaria has a new "best friend" called Alex, who at 18 months, swims like a fish, has a Polish born-and-bred mother and an Argentinian father. Alex is already built like a mini-surfer boy with wide shoulders and sun-bleached blonde hair! He wears the right sort of shorts. His parents are working on one of the Indonesia Islands and come to Bali for rest and recreation.

This afternoon was spent at the swimming pool, and this evening we plan a walk along the beach and dinner at a little Greek place that has been recommended to us. Tomorrow, we plan some expeditions into the interior - butterflies and reptiles will be our target.

A child-friendly hotel

Hotel Kumala Pantai is definitely a child friendly hotel. We are not the only ones staying there with small children - there are numerous little ones of about Zaria's age. Yesterday we met Ellie almost exactly the same age as Zaria, from Earl's Court in London. Zaria escorted Ellie back to our room in order to offer her the hospitality of her potty. That done, they played together for a while before Zaria got a bit possessive about her little sister and her toys and slagged Ellie off. Hey ho. The staff are all very kind too. At dinner last night the lady in charge of serving our table, picked up Freya and carried her about while we enjoyed our dinner. She told us that she had a daughter of 2 years old, who had recently been ill enough to be admitted to hospital with fever, and chesty cough etc. She works an eight hour shift every day from 16:00-12:00 midnight, then has a 30 minute motor bike / scooter ride home to her family. Kate was impressed that she had breast fed for nearly two years, and generally was doing all the "right" things. Thumbs up from Kate for the health services in Bali / Indonesia - very high praise indeed!

We spent our first morning on the beach on a couple of loungers and an umbrella for shade. You should see the surfers here - they are all handsome young men bronzed and what have you. Otherwise you can only really paddle on the edges of the waves as it is not safe to swim in the ocean. However that is luckily just about adventurous and boisterous enough for Zaria! Like at the beach resorts in Goa, there are many beach hawkers selling an amazing assortment of goods. We bought some interesting fruit we had not seen before. The woman who sold us the fruit told us that she had to buy a licence to trade on a small stretch of the beach for 450,000 rupiahs (100,000 is about US $ 10-12), and then either every quarter or every month she has to renew it for anout 350,000 rupiahs. It's a really hard life trudging up and down the beach in the hot sun, trying to sell stuff to indifferent (sometimes rude) tourists. You can also get a foot massage, a manicure or pedicure, any number of Buddha figures and other touristic stuff like bags and baskets. More workaday items are fruit, cold drinks and ice creams.

In the afternoon, we took the children indoors, out of the sun - Freya had managed to get a rosy cheek and so we were anxious hens and smeared her with Aloe Vera. However by evening we were ready for another foray, and took a walk in the gloaming around the nearby lanes, lined with little shops, getting a feel for what's on offer. The best jewellery is made of different shades of mother of pearl (ranging from white to grey to beige to charcoal grey) really beautifully worked and set in silver by local silversmiths. There are lots of tailors, internet cafes and money changers, and a nearby ATM.

I am in the process of getting two pairs of baggy cotton pants and 2 cotton shirts made with longish sleeves, ready for Timor and the battle of the Dengue - not absolutely dirt cheap, but certainly very cheap by UK standards of course. This way I can avoid the pitfall of buying the lovely but rather hippy wraparound trousers and nothing tops that are really meant for young things with less flesh than me. Kate is refusing to buy stuff even though her needs are greater than mine, because she doesn't feel back to her normal shape after Freya. I shall threaten her with my baggy pants if she's not careful!

A lovely evening, at Cafe Sand where we both ate local fish dishes. They steam the rice in a perfectly folded cone of banana leaf and it comes to the table under its leafy cone. Accompanied by some more Indonesia Anker beer, we feel that we are living the life of larry (whatever that is).

A first gentle day in Bali

We arrived Bali on Sunday afternoon. Malaysian Airlines were simply excellent and made our journey with heaps of luggage as pleasant as it could possibly be. We have a mountain of luggage because Kate is moving house from Tajikistan to East Timor. When checked in at Delhi on Saturday evening, we had 120 kilos of luggage with an allowance of only 60 kilos. The official did everything he posisbly could to help us by allowing us to take one extra bag as hand luggage and then discounting several times until at last Kate only had to pay for 20 kilos excess. We sweated our way to the departure lounge and bought little paper cups of milky spiced tea, and slowly recovered from the stress. Zaria my grand daughter aged 2.75 years old has been finding the hot weather and moving about stressful and generally throws a hissy fit whenever she gets tired. Once aboard, she and Kate tucked up on some empty seats at the back of the aircraft and I kept vigil over Freya aged 3 months - she selpt in a Bassinet for most of the journey waking a couple of times for a quick drink at the milk bar.

In Bali we got through every thing at the airport easily. You get a visa on arrival on payment of US $25 for a month or US $ 10 for a week. We noticed that there is a departure tax of about UK $ 10 -12. We swept up to the hotel in two taxis - one full of luggage and one full of people. Kumala Pantai Hotel is really lovely right beside the beach, and with beautiful shady rooms with their little patios. We have a room on the ground floor looking out at tropical trees, and near to a water feature full of large goldfish, which has proved a major attraction for Zaria. Kate and I traumatised after what seemed like endless travel with enormous luggage and two little babies, got oursleves into the room, and ordered three ice cold beers which we split between us and knocked off in a flash. Later we had a gentle stroll aloing the beach here the nighlife was getting going - fire jugglers, drummers and all the usual stuff that you also see in Goa. We paddled on the edge of the enormous breakers and enjoyed the last golden glimmers of the sunset. Back in our room we got ready for bed, with cool showers and a little food. Then a long, magic night, as the rain whispered and pattered in the trees and thunder rumbled gently in ther background. How I love tropical rain. It always fills me with nostalgia. Next day everyone of us slept through to 09.00 a.m. Bali time.

New Tibetan Colony Delhi

Departed London at 3.30 a.m. on Thursday in order to be in time for a 06.00 a.m. take off for Milan. On arrival at LHR Terminal 2, there was already a long queue for the Al Italia flights. However by 04.30 we were all queued up again, ready to go through security checks - but they don't start until 05.00 a.m. so it was rather tedious. On getting through security, I had to loiter in front of W H Smiths as they weren't ready to sell me a newspaper right away, but I had to have my cross word and Sudoku! We boarded on time but then had one of those silly experiences where the plane for one reason or another sits on the apron, thereby missing its take off slot (which is always an issue at LHR). In the end we were 69 minutes late taking off and therefore arrived Milan (with ravishing views of the Alps as we came in to land) with literally 10 minutes before the Delhi flight was due for take off. From my discussions with other passengers this is pretty well the norm for transit in Milan, and there is no express way through the Milan transit security - so we had to be patient. Luckily an Al Italia official was waiting for three 3 passengers going on to Delhi (most of the UK passengers seemed to be en route for Mumbai and there were very few for Italy itself!) . We three arrived at the plane to find that we constituted a significant percentage of the custom. Apart from the fact that this is about the cheapest economy flight at present, this is also a good route to India if you want space - most direct India-bound flights from the UK are booked to the gills every day of the week. The flight eventually took off at 11.00 instead of 10.00. I had a whole middle row to myself and slept for most of the flight - better than business class.

On arrival in Delhi everything was smooth and Chidi was waiting for me outside, with a pre-booked taxi. We drove off into the heat of the Delhi night to New Tibetan Colony. The driver left us on the road, and we transferred my luggage onto a cycle rickshaw, while Chidi and I walked in through the narrow, characterful alleys of New Tibetan Colony to Wongdhen House a guest house, with modest rooms and views of the river. Incidentally the best room is room 106 with A/C and own bathroom. Here Kate was still up waiting for us, and we had a nice catch up, until about 01.00 a.m. on Friday morning.

Next day, we walked out of the Colony and took a taxi to Humayan's tomb, strolling around the exquisite building for about an hour, and then going on to Impetrial Hotel where we sat in the cool inside courtyard and drank ice cold beers and fresh lime soda before making our way back to Wongdhen House. Wongdhen House is full of Tibetan families and Buddhist monks (probably in transit to Dharamsala) with a reasonable sprinkling of westerners - mostly young of the more serious backpacking variety (i.e. some of them are doing Tibetan studies at college and are on their way to Tibet). It was very pleasant to take a stroll around the Colony, enjoying the atmosphere, the monks doing a bit of catching up and shopping. There are fewer beggars here on the whole than in other parts of Delhi so you can go about your business calmly. You can watch craft workers especially silver smiths working and you can pick up nice things made by Tibetan refugees in India. I purchased some silk purses for about UK 50 pence each.

Getting ready to go

I'm going to meet my daughter-in-law and my two granddaughters in Delhi and then travel to Dili, East Timor via Bali. Kate has a new job in East Timor, and I am her travelling companion between Delhi, Denpasar and Dili, to help with the babies (Zaria, aged two and three quarters and Freya, nearly three months).

My son, Chidi, Kate and the children have already arrived in Delhi travelling from Khorog in the Pamirs up to Dusanbe in Tajikistan, and from thence via Kabul to Delhi. On Friday later this week, Chidi goes back to Tajikistan for a few more months to complete his job with Focus, and I take over from him as Kate's "deputy" at some yet to be defined moment at Wongdhgen House in the Tibetan Colony in Delhi which is where we make our rendezvous on Thursday night.

Someone at work today described this as an "exotic" holiday. Right now I'm in that pre-travel state of wondering if I'll ever complete my packing (which is complex) including a 3-6 months wardrobe of clothes for Freya, plus all sorts of garments deemed appropriate for East Timor, which is almost the complete opposite of the Pamirs climatically. Moreover we have been warned by resident experts that the children must be covered from head to foot all day whatever the temperature, for fear of being bitten by Dengue fever carrying mozzies. My luggage seems to contain enough expert mosquito repellent suitable for children to last a decade.

Tomorrow morning I leave the house at 06:30 and travel to London, where I will do a little work in the office there, meet up with Paulita to collect a "package" for Kate, and spend a happy family evening with the rest of my immediate family celebrating a 30th birthday.

Now I'd better get packing.