Bali Day One

These Bali entries were written while we were over there but I was unable to post them then due to time constraints so I've decided to do it now.

Day One

Today has been interesting. Not what we were expecting. We ended up taking a promo trip out to a five star resort which meant we missed our appointment with the tour company but then expecting people to meet with you halfway through their first day on holiday with no prearrangement…I imagine more appointments are missed than met. The promo trip was interesting because it took us to a totally different part of the island where a lot of five star hotels are. The hotel we looked at was very pretty, immaculate gardens, pristine pools, in fact as I think about it, it could be a hotel from any western country in the world, there was no real local feel to it.

While luxury like that is how we would like to be able to travel it wasn’t the hotel that I found most interesting. It was the trip itself. The mangrove swamps we drove past were drowning in plastic bags and other rubbish. The buildings were so run down. It’s amazing to me that the poverty is so obvious right next to and in between the luxury resorts.

Yes I feel bad about the poverty but it was tempered by the constant cries of ‘transport, transport’ and ‘braid your hair’. I have to wonder how many see the poverty or do they only see the opportunity for a cheap holiday? To be honest the latter is why we came here. And while I knew in my head there would be the poverty and that there would be hawkers and the like I didn’t really expect it to be how it is. I think it is one thing to know and another to experience it.

There is rubbish dumped on the streets and you constantly have to watch where you step because of it and the rough roads. I also found it very annoying to be accosted every couple of meters about getting a ride just because I chose to walk to the shops. I am also finding it creepy how much attention is being paid to my girls and I think it is freaking them out a bit too. Every time we stop somewhere, or don’t even stop people talk to the girls and our girls aren’t the most outgoing of children. I think they are trying to be polite and while I thought the fascination with pale blondes would be over it isn’t.