There'll be no pool dipping today.
The process of geting out of the airport was hassle free even though there ~four plane loads of passengers.
I, like a good citizen, declared our vanilla beans and tamarind but customs weren't interested and let us straight through.
Again our driver was there to meet us and given it was 7:15 on a Sunday morning the drive home was swift.
Unpacking will occur over the day as we are both bone tired.
All of which leads me to my final blogging task, my final thoughts for the trip.
Please forgive the myriad of spelling mistakes and poor grammar in this, and all my blogs.
I should have listened to Tiz and gone for two weeks.
We won't be staying in Seminyak, nor the South Bali region, again.
There are too many white people with too many meaningless tattoos.
Going to Bali and eating and being accommodated as if you were in Australia is as expensive as doing it all in Australia.
Bali, or at the very least, the coastal areas, has progressed so quickly and to such an extent that I think it may be causing irreparable damage.
You can strike it lucky and meet the nicest people on a plane.
Braids seem to be out of fashion, unless you are a child or childish.
Balinese drivers are very similar to BMW drivers having no concept of indicators or about using one lane at a time. Having said that they seem to have very few accidents. I think their generally calm attitude helps a lot.
The Balinese have well worked out "customer currency". They size you up in a flash and pitch exactly what you look like you're after at you almost instantly.
The golden rule "You get what you pay for." applies even in Bali.
Who'd have thunk!
Balinese tradesmen / craftsmen are some of the best, and hardest working, in the world. Period.
I love their sense of aesthetic for fun things, like bikes and boards.
Services, such as laundry and massages, are cheap.
The Balinese are genuinely one of the nicest, upbeat and helpful people on earth. They deserve our endless respect.
We need to pack less clothes and electronic stuff next time we visit.
I would love to take or meet our kids in Bali some time in the not too distant future.
Balinese are not wealthy and seem to derive disproportionately little from the large amount of money that is spent on their island. The poverty I saw in some places made me cry. Think about what you are doing there, as a relatively well off first would tourist and try do something to help these beautiful people.
One way to help is to donate to Bras for Bali.
Please go take a look and spread the word
"Bali belly", to some extent or other, is inevitable. For us it was a little uncomfortable and visited quite late in our holiday, thankfully.
You should all visit Bali, at least once in your lives.
Ubud sells T-shirts that say "Eat, Pray, Leave", and they wish we would take note. I think they really dislike Hollywood and Julia Roberts.
As always there are so many more things I could share, and probably will, but I need to officially finish it up, for the sake of the two or three readers of this blog.
Finally, the observations and opinions shared in this blog are mine, but are open for debate. If you do want to debate any of them be prepared to be wrong.
If there is anything I can help anyone with, based on our very limited travel experiences in Bali, feel free to "raise you hand".
Thanks for reading our blog and we hope your days are filled with more joy than sorrow and that every one of them brings you something new, something to smile about, something to make you feel grateful and something good to share.
Finally, a plug for two new excellent experiences that I think are worth sharing -
Cheers, Marino and Tiziana
