First, the day before we left Bali for Darwin was the one year anniversary of my dad's death. I knew it wouldn't be an easy day, so we left our house guests and taxied over to Sanur which is across to the east. I just wanted a quiet beach where I could sit and reflect with Phil that was away from our usual haunts. And it was a sad, but a good day. We sat for a few hours by the sea and walked the length of the beach and just as we were getting ready to leave, we walked into a huge parade for the Sanur Village Festival. It felt somewhat fitting to suddenly be in the middle of a massively long parade - almost a tribute that I could not have staged myself. My dad would have really enjoyed it.
I took some pictures to remember it by. This is my favourite - the girl bending down is checking her makeup in the mirrored beading of the other girls' dress.
Miss you dad. Always will.
......
Before we even got to Darwin, the trip started off weird. Our Balinese taxi driver who took us to the airport last Monday told us that his family used to live in Denpasar, but now they live north east in Candidasa because after the Bali bombings he felt it was too dangerous for his family to stay in the touristy south.
It really threw me - I have met plenty of Balinese who still are angry, sad, resentful about and traumatised by the bombings. The sudden drop off of tourism after the 2002 bombings ruined the lives of countless people. There were many who had businesses that collapsed, loans that then couldn't be repaid and then couldn't find other work. It's not surprising that it's still front and centre in people's minds. But I've never met a Balinese person who still harbours daily fears as a result of the bombings. He spent the rest of the trip pointing out the origins of the other cars number plates. DK means Denpasar. That's ok. But B means the car is registered in Jakarta. That is bad. 'Muslims', he said 'are bad... they hate America, they hate you'.
....
I had never been to Darwin before. In fact, apart from Victoria which I know reasonably well (thanks to many school holidays devoted to traveling around my great state - Benalla, anyone??) I haven't seen much of Australia at all. So I wasn't sure what to expect. I wondered if it would have a more Asian feel to it, being so close to SE Asia, or if there would be a more prominent indigenous community.
First up, it was awesome to be back in Australia. It felt like home in the larger sense even though no one would ever mistake Darwin for Melbourne. No endless mental currency conversions, no searching for the right Indonesian word, and feeling like a local instead of a tourist - such a nice feeling.
I just realized that I missed the opportunity to pick up some vegemite - GODDAMMIT!!!! Ah well, what I was going to say was it was nice to walk into Bakers delight - Oh apricot delight roll, I missed you sooo much!!
We arrived late afternoon Monday and left midday Friday, so in effect we only had three full days. To daytour or not to daytour, that was a question... answered fairly rapidly with not to daytour. For me, if there's more travel time than experiencing time, it's a big thumbs down. And most of the one day tours were drive, drive, drive, look at a waterfall, drive, drive, drive. Given that Darwin is a really easy trip from Bali, I'd rather come back on a visa run next year and go on a three or four day tour so the driving/ seeing stuff ratio is a bit better. All of which is a longwinded way of saying we decided to stay in Darwin rather than trekking off to Kakadu or Litchfield.
The waterfront area is really lovely, especially at sunset as you can see. The last photo is crappy quality but I included it because the night sky view was lightning storms in the clouds which looked awesome. You can just see the cloud all lit up in the photo.
In a previous post, I talked about the hopelessness I had seen exuding from some of the indigenous people I had seen in Darwin. I think what struck me most overall wandering around Darwin was the complete lack of indigenous people working visibly. I did not see one indigenous person working at Coles or Woolworths, or any of the cafes or restaurants, or in any of the new (I assume because it looks very pristine and new) waterfront area, or anywhere else in central Darwin.
So I'm really glad we took a bus to nearby Casaurina to see..... Kmart. Yes, Kmart - Phil's been talking about his deep desire for a black bonds singlet for three months. When he said in early August, 'I think I should get an extra singlet', I said sure, grab one. What I should have said is 'We are not leaving the country without that singlet' and then driven out and bought it myself. How is Phil, I hear you ask... He's good! He was running like crazy for quite a while there but a sore ankle is forcing a bit of rest time. He also shaved his head which has made him disproportionately happy!! Here he is mid-shave. I did ask him permission before I put this on here... I still don't know why he said yes!
I digress... Away from the city centre, and in the suburbs where people actually live, we saw everyone going about their normal routines - westerners, indigenous, everyone. Darwin definitely looked like a town with some serious integration problems, but my view changed a bit after I saw a bit more inclusiveness.
What else did we do??? Hmmm... We did go and hand feed fish for a few hours which was pretty awesome:
That's me feeding a batfish which was a bit bigger than a dinner plate and shaped like a huge diamond.
It seems that a lot of Darwin's fun-sounding attractions were closed because of the wet season (like the deckchair cinema and boat rides to see turtles on near-by islands). Next time, I'll try and aim for the dry season and spend a few days on a longer tour.
Anyway, it's nice to be back in Bali, although our return has been fraught with disaster... Firstly, we had left our apartment with a few things still in the bathroom - if there had been a booking by another guest, we would have locked every last thing away, but since no-one would be using it in our absence, we left our toiletries out (moisturiser, toothpaste, shampoo etc.) and some travel-sickness meds in the fridge. On our return, one of the over-zealous cleaning staff had thrown out every single last item. Not a great tragedy, but still seriously irritating!!! Lesson learned - lock everything away!
Then a walk by the beach on our first evening back was a bit of a disaster... This branch fell out of a tree onto my arm - freaking ouch!!
Then I twisted my ankle. And I have a cold. And there's been a weird grainy feeling in my left eye for the last two days so I'm stuck wearing glasses and being blinded by the sun every time I step outdoors. Aaaarrrggghhhh... I'm falling apart!!
But because it's Bali, it was still a gorgeous sunset walk (albeit a hobbly, squinty one):
Look just to the right of the shadow - yup, someone has dyed their poor dog Easter Egg pink!!!! At least it's a bit better than seasonal red and green...
Look at these two - I maintain that Indonesian children are amongst the most beautiful in the world.
The goal this week is to pack in as many of Bali's favourite activities as possible before we head over to London on Friday (yes, this Friday). I'm really quite pumped and i especially can't wait to see my sis!!!!!
So far I've had a massage daily. Just a mani, pedi, facial, scrub, wrap and hair treatment to go!!
- Posted using a walking cane and an eye-patch
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