Bali - February/March, 2000

Bali Sunser

Bali is a small island to the right of Jakarta in Indonesia. It isn't very big - only 5620 square miles inhabited by about 3 million people. You could drive across it in less than a day. It is very pretty. And very humid, the kind of humid where you just walk outside and you start sweating just because your breathing. From December through March is what is termed the wet season, meaning that it rains. I suppose that's what it means although the only time it rained while I was there was at night - the days were hot, sunny, and sticky.

Bali is only 8° south of the equator so one must liberally apply the suntan lotion or one will become very painfully pink. Since I am fair-skinned and can get sun poisoning from just sitting in a car, I took everyone's advice and applied a lot of WaterBabies SPF 30. Didn't burn at all.

This trip was different from my other, recent trips in that I spent all 8 nights at the same hotel, the Ramada Bintang Bali Resort in Kuta. Reportedly, this is a 5-star hotel. I don't know how hotels are rated, but this one was very, very nice. I would definitely recommend it. It has all the amenities and the people who work there are very friendly and helpful. (Just for the record, Bali has an ordinance which states that hotels cannot be taller that a coconut tree. Therefore, 99.9% of all hotels don't have many floors. The Ramada has two wings with four floors each; the wings, however, are very long.)

Kuta is a major tourist village near the airport. It only tooks us about 10 minutes to reach the hotel from the airport. If Bali has a crime capital (and crime is pretty non-existent in Bali), then Kuta is it. Kuta has a nice beach which I did not visit due to the persistent street vendors - they also lay in wait for the unsuspecting tourist on the beach - although I did gaze at it from within the hotel walls. The hotel actually is separated from the beach by a very low wall; on one side is the pool and on the other is the beach. About 20-30 feet from the wall is the ocean.

Ramada Pool I spent a lot of time at the pool, at least a couple of hours each day. The pool was huge. In the center was a stage, accessed from the pool deck by a bridge. The pool encircled the stage, going under the bridge. At one end of the pool was a restaurant, with waiters which served the guests around the pool. Near the restaurant at the poolside itself was a sunken bar, so guests didn't even have to leave the pool to get a drink. At the other end of the pool was the kiddie pool and waterfall. At the top of the waterfall was the hot tub and an ice cold tub (I never used the latter but did hear that it was very cold). Some nights, the hotel had barbecues at the pool and provided cultural entertainment on the stage; during these nights, the pool was closed early. One could also get a massage near the pool for the ridiculously expensive price of $15 an hour. So, of course, I got two but not at the pool. I went to the health spa and got mine in a private room. And, no, there was no hanky-panky going on with the masseuse.

My aim for this vacation was to relax. I didn't want the constant hustle and sight-seeing of the last vacation in Eastern Europe. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed that vacation and am glad I went. But I came home exhausted. This vacation, I decided, would be a lot less hustle and a lot more relaxed. Yes, I took a few tours but mainly I took my time, spent about 2½ days total just by the pool, and did what I felt like doing when I felt like it. And isn't that how a vacation should be spent?

Trip Highlights

Well, you might ask, what did I actually do on the vacation beside sit around that terrific pool? Below are links to what I consider the trip highlights. I did more than this but this is what I choose to tell all of you about.