Christmas in Bali * Marking My Map

“The most beautiful in the world is, of course, the world itself.”
-Wallace Stevens

Where to Spend the Holidays

Where to spend the holidays this year? My mom has strong opinions. Unfortunately for her, me buying a ticket for a 28 hours plane ride from Vietnam to Florida for a Christmas getaway is not happening. As a traveling nomad I could find a new unexplored country, and spend my Christmas strolling through another foreign city, feasting on another new yet familiar asian noodle dish.

Or.

I could head south to a Hindu island in Indonesia and meet up with friends from the US.

I had to say sorry to my Mom, Bali won.

A Change of Scenery

Bali was a welcome change from North and Central Vietnam. The weather is warmer, the beaches are busy, and despite the tourist hoards it still exudes a sense of zen.

But their airport. Ugh the airport in Bali is the absolute WORST.

I arrived just after midnight on December 20-something. Even though it’s the off season, thanks to the Balinese adventures of Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat Pray Love, and the rice paddy backdrops on your Insta feeds , thousands arrive here by the planeload everyday.

Somewhere in the space between today and tomorrow, I spent several hours inching forward in a windy customs line of foreigners. It’s a slow meandering walk not too different from Disneyworld, except there’s no fun ride at the end. Just a passport stamp.

Having finally gotten my precious stamp, I became further frustrated/disappointed/annoyed to learn that Denpansar airport has only five ATMs, all of which my bank flagged as being high fraud risk.

So no cash for me today.

The absolute WORST part of the airport in Bali, is what greets you when you finally got out of the mess. A giant hoard of cab drivers. Even at 3am, it’s a thick crowd of people waiting to pounce. Some drivers are searching faces for a sign a recognition that your name matches the one on their makeshift sign. Others hope they will get some business through of sheer annoyance and undeterred persistence. It’s airport HELL and I was tired, cashless, and admittedly cranky.

With no cash to pay a driver, and zero desire to ask a driver to bring me to a dark ATM in the middle of the night, my ride options were limited to Grab, the Uber app of SE Asia. Twenty minutes and a few translated text messages from my Grab driver later, and I finally locate him on the 5th floor of the parking garage. With a sigh of relief, I put my increasingly heavy backpack down in an air conditioned Toyota, and we drove through the dark Balinese night to find my hostel.

This is Bali. Beautiful. Crazy. Always bustling Bali.

Solo Exploration

I arrived a few days earlier than my friends, Vinisha and Ali. Following their arrival, we will all stay in the resort area of Nusa Dua. They will be staying in a luxurious Conrad Hilton Hotel. I, at a small but incredibly comfortable and significantly cheaper guest house down the road.

For these first few days alone I decided to stay in Seminyak. It’s a popular beach and tourist area on the west side of the island, a short distance but about a 45 minute drive from Nusa Dua. Nothing is very far geographically in Bali, but the constant jam of traffic means it takes a good while to get anywhere.

I learn quickly that Seminyak is not my scene. On the positive side, the shopping is good. Local souvenir stalls and boutique shops selling the latest resortwear and bohemian jewelry trends line the city streets. I enjoyed spending much of my afternoon weaving in and out of these stores.

Seminyak is simply too touristy for me. I’ve spotted one too many Starbucks, and the beaches are equal parts drunk tourists and aggressive vendors selling cheap crafts. Because of this, I don’t spend these first few days doing all that much. I did laundry, picked up a new swimsuit, and got a much needed haircut. That’s about it.

Holidays with Friends

The lovely ladies known as Vinisha and Ali arrived a few days later and not soon enough. I needed a change of scenery, a resort pool, and time with people I know and love. Plus, my single private room at the hostel in Seminyak turned out to be much more hostel and much less private than I wanted. I was ready to leave the blasting techno music behind and get out of there.

My guesthouse in Nusa Dua, was both mind boggling cheap and ever so much more lovely. The guesthouse owner lived on-site, and I occupied one of six available private rooms complete with front patio, serene garden area, and freshly made breakfast every morning. Giant improvement

Pool Time

Vinisha, Ali, I spend the next week lounging next to the pool at their hotel, the Hilton Conrad. We swam, napped, sipped on glasses of wine at the free happy hour, and wandered off the resort once a day to hunt for food. Sometimes we would switch pools, or stop at the spa hot tub to switch it up.

Vinisha and I took a kickboxing class at the hotel gym one day with a very uncoordinated and confused hotel gym ‘instructor’. I didn’t get a cardio workout, but it was good for a laugh. We also visited a nearby Yoga studio, and being the only two people there, enjoyed a private Vinyasa class.

This is how we spent our Christmas. It was quiet and slow, and fine by me. I was plenty happy to have the company of friends, in a beautiful setting, while taking advantage of all the luxurious amenities that a nice hotel that I didn’t have to pay for has to offer. It’s good to have friends in Hilton Diamond status places. I sure don’t miss my old work travel, but sometimes I do miss the perks.

Merry Christmas!!! This is the tannest skin color I can physically achieve

Off Resort

I’m a very pale person. While I love relaxing poolside, I have physical limitations on time outdoors in direct sunlight. While we clocked several hours in beach chairs, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention our few off-resort excursions.

A short drive from Nua Dusa is Uluwatu Temple. The temple is one of six key temples in Bali making up its spiritual pillar and is most well known for its magnificent location. The temple sits perched atop a steep cliffside, and rests high above the crashing waves of the Indian Ocean. It’s easy to see why so many tourists come here.

Further back from the concrete walls along the cliff’s edge are several temples and Hindu sculptures worth exploring. The entire area takes only a few short hours to cover on foot if you take your time. The temple stays crowded, but with plenty of picture opportunities.

Surrounding the temple is a small and beautifully green forest with a notable population of monkeys. These monkeys are generally harmless but come with many stern tourist warnings. Don’t feed the monkeys. Don’t pet the monkeys. Most importantly – watch your shit around the monkeys.

Monkeys love to steal stuff. And if you can rely on tourists for anything, it’s that they won’t listen to instruction.

We saw SO very many tourists get waaay too close, and get their stuff stolen. We saw monkeys taking water bottles, sunglasses, or even wallets. They will steal anything that looks remotely shiny, or not well secured. One man chased a monkey around trying to barter a trade for his stolen eyeglasses. That’s the price you pay for not listening.

Ali showing the importance of gripping your purse tightly near a monkey

The temple also hosts nightly dance performances, We heard mediocre reviews and opted not to stay. We lingered at the temple until just before sunset and then went to a nearby restaurant for dinner.

Nights Out

Our big night out was to another famous cliffside location – Rock Bar at the Ayana Resort. Once again, the entire excursion was completely planned by Ali and Vinisha. Thanks ladies!

We arrived here early to get a table and catch the sunset. The bar is much a fancier place than I’ve been frequenting these days. It’s a place of $15 dollar cocktails, house DJs, and ocean backdrops. The wait staff dress in all black, and some wear earpieces like they’re the secret service of evening cocktails. To get to the bar, which is stretched across several lower patios built atop the rocks, visitors take a short 30 second ride on a funicular elevator.

It’s like a Sex and the City episode, Bali edition.

This environment is about as far as you can get from my year of nomadic backpacking budget travel. But it’s fun to play dress up for a day.

I probably never would have searched for a place like this, much less come to this bar if I was traveling through Bali alone. So coming here and sharing a few craft cocktails with Vinisha and Ali was definitely a highlight of my time in Bali. I’ve seen breathtaking sunsets on all continents of the globe this year. This one was the best.