My Bali trip has been off and then on and then off and then on again. The first cancellation was to accommodate a job interview in San Francisco. The second booking was avoided due to bad weather. There were a few other mental misfires as well – many Delta search scenarios were run. Finally, the weather looked good, the Skymiles redemption miles looked decent, and it was time to go. Instead of booking to leave immediately, I decided to wait a few days and finish out the week in SF. Such uncharacteristic restraint. I decided to break up the trip with a stopover in Japan. All was set.
The Bali of my memories was beautiful, natural, uninhabited. All 48 hours of it (clearly enough to be an expert). I arrived late at night and was shuttled over to a beautiful resort in Jimbaran Bay. I ventured out a bit to Seminyak and other areas for southern Bali nightlife. The missing pieces in my imagination had been filled with stories from my friends’ past trips, including an over-the-top celebrity Indonesian wedding of a high school friend where the bride and groom had flown some of our friends out to Bali on a private jet from the U.S. I wish I had been invited to that one! Damn. Yes, my view was extremely distorted.
My arrival in Bali this time around was a rude awakening. Continue reading Ubud-iful