If all were to go swimmingly…

For the last month, we have been an exotic species on islands where few buleh(westerners) ever visit.   Now in Bali, where there are hundreds of hotels and resorts, Crocs stores, Dolce and Gabbana, and Mexican restaurants, I am just another tourist.  So far, I haven’t decided which is better, or worse. 

Once we arrived at the airport in Denpasar (though not actually in Denpasar, but rather a man made peninsula on which the airport was built), we spent a few minutes at a hotels desk, and decided to get a hotel of our dreams… which, lucky for us because we are in Indonesia, was still in our price range.  We had been daydreaming and brainstorming for almost the whole month in Alor, and made a list of the things we really, really wanted when in Bali.  Here goes:

1.  Air conditioning

2.  Western toilet

3.  tv (we really wanted to just zone out for a while…)

4.  a location close to the beach

5.  a refrigerator (with hopes of having cold beverages anytime we want)

6.  Internet access

I can tell you with great joy that we managed to get all this… and more!  To better explain, I will just give a short summary of our first few days in Legian.  (Legian is the town we are in in Bali). 

Matt and I wake up… pretty much whenever we want.  Thanks to our schedule in Alor, this is normally around 7:00 a.m.  The first thing we do is head to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.  There are several menus to choose from, including “Continental Breakfast,” or “American Breakfast,” like you can get at a Best Western, or Dragon Foot (not an actual dragon foot), Pok Coy, or other delicious Indonesian breakfast.  After breakfast, we head back to the room and take the necessary malaria medication (which is actually just an antibiotic), which signals the start of at least 30 minutes of sitting upright.  At this point, I head out to the pool to get some sun and read Harry Potter (now on book five), while Matt begins his morning activity of reading sports on the Internet and catching up on the Twins and Vikings outcomes from the night before.

These activities (reading sports for Matt and alternating sunning and swimming for me) lasts until mid afternoon, or until we are ready for lunch.  Our lunches, I am slightly ashamed to say, have mainly consisted of indulging in unhealthy American food that was not available on a tiny island on the equator, but is now available at our tourist destination… This has included Stuffed Crust Pizza from Pizza Hut, horrible hamburgers from A&W, and delicious burritos from Mojo’s Burritos, a burrito place that has a menu in a font suspiciously identical to that of Chipotle.  I admit, our lunchtime destinations have been slightly embarrassing, but, in my defense, I always order the Indonesian breakfast…

After lunch, I head to the room for a few hours of reading, watching television, and staring at the top of my lovely canopy bed.  Come to think of it, I am not exactly sure what Matt does in the afternoon, but I think it may have something to do with either watching television or reading about sports on the internet…  Sometimes I hear tidbits about the prospects of supposed fantasy football team as well.

These afternoon activities continue pretty much until we are hungry enough to eat dinner.  This is sometimes postponed for souvenir shopping or- searching for beer that is not Bintang (which is quite difficult).  On a motivated day, we may walk the 15 minutes to the ocean and watch the surfers for a while or wander around a bizarre Indonesian supermarket.

Oh, and sometimes I get a massage or spend a few hours reading in the jacuzzi in my hotel room (I told you the hotel was great!).

I know what many of you are thinking now… rough.life.  Well, I admit, spending a week in Bali is not too bad of a deal. But- at least remember that on the path to get here, I took an anti-malaria drug that made me lose my mind, so I think it’s about time I get to spend a week by the pool.