Indonesia

 

Here we go again.

After heading home after our latest adventure and spending some weeks on maintenance and cleaning up around the property, a trip to Indonesia was planned. So, after some organizing, documents and flights were obtained.

We flew into Dempasar in the middle of August at 11 pm. A good sleep at an airport hotel found us rested and ready for our new adventure.

 

After breakfast we negotiated a taxi ride to our pre booked hotel in Nusa Dua. Bargaining prices is expected and calculating the value of the new currency is a bit daunting at first, but with a bit of practice it got easier.

 

The hotel was in the Indonesian style and very comfortable. The people, from the staff to the locals were smiling and friendly.

 We spent a few days relaxing and going for walks around the streets trying local cafes and bargaining with hole in the wall shop owners for dresses and souvenirs. The streets are narrow and crowded with cars, trucks and many scooters, all vising for position, not a place I would want to drive in. Again, everyone we met were pleasant and welcoming, most wanted to sell you something, but they do it warmly.

Din wanted to have an experience with orangutans, so breakfast with the orangutans was organized. In the early morning a driver picked us up and drove us through Denpasar to the zoo, where we walked through the well-kept grounds to a bus which took us to the breakfast site. Buffet breakfast was served and before long a mother orangutan, with her baby on her back, came negotiating a rope strung above and along the pathway, then sat on a platform next to the tables. Then another joined her a little further away. There they sat and observed us all and had their own breakfast, which their keeper handed to them.

 We had a wonderful time with them and enjoyed a look around the other animals' homes.

 

Another week or so and a couple of hotel changes saw us at the end of our stay. We had enjoyed our little adventure into yet another culture, soaking up the sights and smells of another land, I also had some needed dental work done at a fraction of the price of Australia, but as they say, there is no place like home and we prepared for our trip back.