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Bali Trip Adventures, Chuck’s Notes
We left on Thursday morning, but because of time zones we reached Doha, Qatar (our layover) on Friday morning, and then Day 1 in Bali was Saturday.
We arrived in Doha at 6am local time, got ourselves together and took the city tour starting at 8. Of course, it was early on Friday morning and a holy day, so while we could check out the architecture, there wasn't really a lot of shopping to do. Also, it was over 100 degrees and humid, so spending more than ten minutes outdoors at any time wasn't exactly feasible, either. (Fortunately, it was an air conditioned bus.) The guide was originally from the Philippines, and it was the sort of tour that was interesting both for what was said and what wasn't.
We were back at the airport before noon, had lunch, and napped in the "quiet area". Alex would not have enjoyed the city tour, but the playground climbing equipment in the airport was very impressive. I appreciated that Qatar Airlines provides, among other things, a free hour of wi-fi on each flight: My body was thoroughly confused, so why not write emails?
Day 1
Or sorta day 1. We got to Bali at 9am local time and rolled right into touring. We got a long scenic drive to a temple, then went walking through a tourist village and the bamboo forest it abuts. Then we had crispy fried duck and Balinese fried rice. I recorded my thoughts in midafternoon at the hotel, while Jethrien was napping, and we were getting picked up again at 5:15 for lots of food and a dance show.
Having the private driver is very important here-- the roads are tiny, the cars are manual, they drive on the left and there are motorbikes ignoring traffic laws everywhere.
Aside: Upon reflection about Qatar, the tour was all about showing off wealth to cover up the lack of (or lack of interest in) culture. They have an amazing skyline; it's all been built in the last few decades. The only public art is images of the king-- but the fact that it's a dictatorship with a ruling dynasty and a Sharia-based Ministry of Morality is soft pedaled, to say the least. The tour guide noted that it was among the richest and among the safest countries in the world multiple times, though.
This was brought into contrast driving around Bali: They have no buildings over 4 stories tall, but they have temples that are over a thousand years old and are still in use. There is public art everywhere, most of it based on Hindu mythology. It's obvious there's a lot of poverty, but that doesn't stop them from having beautiful things that everyone can enjoy.
In Qatar, they build giant desalination plants so they can show off wealth with giant green spaces in the desert. In Bali, they put sarongs on old-growth trees to declare them holy so they can't be over-timbered.
Day 2
We woke this morning after an actual night's sleep in a glorious bed, which was amazing after the transit adventure. Then we had hotel breakfast--"American" breakfast was an option, but we went for Indonesian style, which means Rebecca had a mini banana crepe and then fried noodles, and I had cinnamon French toast and then chicken curry over rice.
...I also managed to put salt in my tea and had to request a new cup. In my defense, I hadn't had my tea yet and was still rather asleep.
This morning's activities included a nature walk through rice paddies and a small village, visiting an art museum, getting traditional roast pork for lunch, and shopping in an open-air market. Then we got the fancy dessert we'd skipped last night and got massages. The weather continues to be idyllic, hot but not too hot with a pleasant breeze and many very vocal birds. I wrote this as Jethrien went for a pre-dinner swim.
Traditional Balinese art is very "Richard Scarry does the Ramayana". It's very busy, full of intricate tiny details and activity, and mostly revolving around Hindu mythology. My favorite painting we saw was a demon who was foolish enough to attack the Monkey King, and was swarmed by monkeys for his trouble. There's also a very clear agreed-upon design for demons, as they all have the same giant-fanged face.
Traditional Balinese roast pork is glorious: Tender, spicy, accompanied by rice (as is pretty much everything), veggie-coconut salad, and the best fried pork cracklings I've ever had.
The market is full of tchotchkes and there are no listed prices: everything is haggled for. We started finding souvenirs but opted to skip the penis-shaped, colorfully-painted bottle openers that were abundantly for sale. (The fact that 100,000 rupiah is about $7 means it all feels like play money, of course.) I later asked Cika (CHEEK-ah) about them, and he confirmed that they’re for tourists and have no role in any particular Balinese tradition.
I have now had mango meringue pie with green apple sorbet. Rebecca had a Balinese-spiced creme brulee. Yes, they were as good as you're imagining.
As were the massages: 60 minutes of barely staying awake as a paid professional made my muscles stop complaining. And the spa, integrated with the rainforest and crisscrossed with waterfalls, was what every spa in America is trying, but failing, to be.
We had an hour back at the hotel before our fancy dinner.
Day 3
By this point, days were actually starting to feel properly like days. Last night's dinner was a fancy three- course experience; tonight's is apparently a French-style six course meal. I'm concerned my pants won't fit on the flight home.
This morning I tried a different breakfast variant: steamed banana dumplings and veggie pancakes. Rebecca had the breakfast I tried yesterday.
We had a long car ride up the mountains, but given that in Bali roads apparently must curve every 100 feet or so, reading in the car wasn't really a great plan. Rebecca was smart and didn't try; I managed to make myself mildly carsick. Did I mention that they don't believe in stoplights or traffic signs here?
The long ride was to a family compound in the mountains, where they're still living the traditional way but are monetizing it by showing it off to tourists. We learned to weave leaves into offering boxes and decorations and a bit about the traditional writing system. (They wrote our names on traditional coin necklaces and had them blessed for us, too.) Then we had the cooking lesson, where we learned the base spice mix for most savory dishes and used it for steamed chicken meatballs and chicken satay; we also made ginger flower salad and fried bananas. They gave me a recipe book and we discussed substitutions for things like banana leaves that are hard to find in the States.
The farm tour continued with us opening a coconut and learning the way traditional coconut oil is made. (Fresh coconut water tastes so much better than the bottled stuff.) From there we hiked out to the rice paddies, drove cows around a new field they were plowing, and planted rice sprouts. On one hand, being up to your knees in mud is gross. On the other hand, people pay a lot of money for organic mud bath treatments.
Then we washed off, walked back to the farm, and ate the big lunch we'd had a hand in preparing. They also served (and included in the recipe book) fish satay, roast pork, candied tempeh, veggie salad, and black rice pudding.
The next stop was at the giant lake temple, which was an Instagrammer's dream. The sun came out long enough for us to take lots of pictures.
We're back at the hotel for an hour before dinner, and the hotel staff are actually having a celebration for the hotel's anniversary. Guests are invited, but this is clearly a celebration for the staff and it's really charming. The Balinese love a good celebration.
Jethrien took photos of all of the dinner courses; I think that needs its own post from either her or me.
Day 4
Today! The water temple and the temple of many steps, and then Jethrien got heavily over-caffeinated.
After a six-course meal last night (plus three amuse bouches, plus olive bread and walnut bread, plus petits fours), I couldn't handle a fancy breakfast and had fruit and oatmeal. Rebecca had fried rice but declared the fried noodles were better.
Our first stop was the water temple, which is said to have magical healing powers. Our guide brought all of the necessary offerings (a variety of flowers, incense, and cake) and we rented water sarongs to go in the spring. (You need to be wearing a sarong to enter a temple, but they helpfully supply them at the entrance for a modest fee. At this one, you needed a regular sarong to enter and a water-safe one to go in the spring, and there were changing rooms and lockers.) It's actually three pools and a long row of fountains in each, and each fountain apparently cures a different thing. You're supposed to douse yourself with each one. The locals also drink the holy water; I suspect the magical healing properties are just as effective on the intestinal parasites as they are on me, and opted out of that practice. Then we dried off and toured the rest of that temple complex, including feeding the fish, which is apparently good karma.
There were people selling snack food in the parking lot, and I bought banana chips, which were tasty and also indistinguishable from plantain chips from my local supermarket.
Then we went to the temple of 300 steps. Unfortunately, due to the dollar/rupiah exchange rate, it's actually approximately 14,000 steps. There are some beautiful views and ancient shrines and hermitages and selfie spots and a Bali swing... aaaaand I did a lot of sweating and then declared I needed to stop for a while, because I had hit the Too Much Vacation point.
So we went to lunch (another variety of Balinese specialties, including a green soup, chicken curry, minced-chicken satay and several vegetable salads), and then I was dropped at the hotel while Rebecca went to the coffee plantation. (I played game boy for two hours. It was great. I won't burden you with other details.)
Jethrien tells me the coffee plantation was fun but very touristy-- much more "here's a civet in a cage to look at, here's a coffee plant in a pot" than anything in real production. She then had nine small cups of assorted coffees and teas, learned that she doesn't particularly like the unfiltered Balinese style of brewing but likes the heavily sweetened chocolate, vanilla and coconut coffees; and that civet coffee tastes weird and has very little caffeine. (We aren't bothering to bring any home.) She got back to the hotel and told me all of this very, very quickly; and she was in the pool burning off energy while I wrote it down.
At six we head for what promises to be another exciting dinner, then a bit of souvenir shopping before bed. Tomorrow we have the morning off and then we head to the second hotel near the beach.
Day 5
I wrote this at 8:30 pm, as we waited on the beach for our seafood to be barbecued. A band of Balinese musicians have just completed their rendition of "No Woman No Cry" with both the enthusiasm and the talent of NYC subway buskers. But I get ahead of myself.
Today was the first of our two quieter beach days. We had a relaxing morning at the first hotel (I was up with the duck party and watched the sunrise from our veranda, actually) then packed up and drove down to our second hotel in Sanur, the nice beach town. (Sanur is where families go, Kuta is the college spring break beach town; we're avoiding it.) The new hotel is more "touristy", but also has a great abundance of comfy places to lounge, and a bar that is also a jacuzzi.
Lunch was at a hole in the wall that had excellent local food, including fried chicken, beef curry, curried hard boiled eggs, and stewed tapioca leaves. (I know, right? I didn't know they were edible, either!)
Midafternoon, we set out to briefly visit a few beaches on our way to a temple for the fire dance show, which is best described as an acappella Purim spiel -- two dozen men formed a chorus of rhythmic chanters, as dancers in Ramayana costumes did subtle interpretive motions. Well, except for Hanuman the monkey king, who wasn't the slightest bit subtle and was clearly the crowd favorite.
Day 6
At this point I’d fallen behind, and wrote my final log on the morning of Day 7 at the airport. We had to get up at 5:30am, but at least the hotel took a final chance to feed us within an inch of our lives, providing breakfast boxes that could have fed six people easily.
Backing way up: Back in the evening of Day 4 we had our second zillion-course dinner. Day 3's was at Mosaic and was amazing. Day 4's was at Locavore, which was fascinating but not actually very tasty, if that makes sense. Just as an example, at Mosaic they used a blowtorch to caramelize a banana as part of a complicated drink. At Locavore, they used a blowtorch to burn a pine cone so you could smell it while drinking the complicated drink. It had passed through food wizardry into parody. Rebecca took pictures of everything at both places and I suspect they'll be their own write up. The evening of day 5 concluded with a seafood barbecue on the beach, but you knew that already.
Day 6 was the "resort" day, which began for Jethrien with a yoga lesson as the sun came up and began for Chuck with video games on the veranda. The breakfast buffet at this hotel was the stuff of legends: Tons of fruits, pastries, bread pudding, monkey bread, pancakes, waffles, eggs many styles, bacon and sausage, fried chicken, potato dumplings, fried noodles, yellow rice, and a giant chicken soup cart. Oh, and fresh tropical juices. We ate way too much. So Chuck got a massage, and Jethrien went to swim in the ocean. Then they alternated swimming in and lounging by the infinity pool, the beach pool, and the jacuzzi bar, with a brief stop for a light lunch.
At 3:00 we started the last great food march of our trip, which included cocktails at a rooftop bar, sunset on the beach, nine appetizers at one restaurant, a variety platter of entrees at a second, and five desserts at a third. Notable highlights include crispy-fried pork buns, candied tempeh, beef dumplings, beef curry, chicken satay using lemongrass as the skewers, and a glorious caramel mille feuille. And we saw someone fly a kite that looked like a rainbow pirate ship.
Remember how I talked about the motorbike culture here? Well, we got to experience it firsthand. Something went wrong with the "sexy car" (topless jeep) we were supposed to go between restaurants in, so our guide hailed a trio of bikes to ferry us around. It was only mildly harrowing. (I'm vaguely interested in driving a motorbike at some point, as it seems fun, but NOT IN BALI.)
Then there was packing, sleep, and getting to the airport.
Car culture here is fascinating, upon reflection: Owning a car means you're rich, everything else aside, and people take very good care of their cars. I didn't see a single car that was muddy or had a visible dent or scratch. (Motorbikes came in all states.) Also, there are relatively few gas stations, but plenty of warung (small shops) selling petrol in repurposed vodka bottles.
Also, spelling of English words is viewed as a gentle suggestion. Whether that's a taksi sign or a message parlor. And the grammar is Google-translate level, though in their defense, the Balinese language apparently doesn't have tenses. But everyone is very cheerful and does their best regardless of their level of English experience--they might not get it right, but it won't be for lack of trying.
Regarding this trip overall: The tour company, the guide, the hotels and the overall experience were great. I'd happily recommend them. I think we should have maybe planned fewer fancy meals and spaced out the heavy touristing days a little more. A good trip, though only middling in terms of relaxation.
We arrived in Doha at 6am local time, got ourselves together and took the city tour starting at 8. Of course, it was early on Friday morning and a holy day, so while we could check out the architecture, there wasn't really a lot of shopping to do. Also, it was over 100 degrees and humid, so spending more than ten minutes outdoors at any time wasn't exactly feasible, either. (Fortunately, it was an air conditioned bus.) The guide was originally from the Philippines, and it was the sort of tour that was interesting both for what was said and what wasn't.
We were back at the airport before noon, had lunch, and napped in the "quiet area". Alex would not have enjoyed the city tour, but the playground climbing equipment in the airport was very impressive. I appreciated that Qatar Airlines provides, among other things, a free hour of wi-fi on each flight: My body was thoroughly confused, so why not write emails?
Day 1
Or sorta day 1. We got to Bali at 9am local time and rolled right into touring. We got a long scenic drive to a temple, then went walking through a tourist village and the bamboo forest it abuts. Then we had crispy fried duck and Balinese fried rice. I recorded my thoughts in midafternoon at the hotel, while Jethrien was napping, and we were getting picked up again at 5:15 for lots of food and a dance show.
Having the private driver is very important here-- the roads are tiny, the cars are manual, they drive on the left and there are motorbikes ignoring traffic laws everywhere.
Aside: Upon reflection about Qatar, the tour was all about showing off wealth to cover up the lack of (or lack of interest in) culture. They have an amazing skyline; it's all been built in the last few decades. The only public art is images of the king-- but the fact that it's a dictatorship with a ruling dynasty and a Sharia-based Ministry of Morality is soft pedaled, to say the least. The tour guide noted that it was among the richest and among the safest countries in the world multiple times, though.
This was brought into contrast driving around Bali: They have no buildings over 4 stories tall, but they have temples that are over a thousand years old and are still in use. There is public art everywhere, most of it based on Hindu mythology. It's obvious there's a lot of poverty, but that doesn't stop them from having beautiful things that everyone can enjoy.
In Qatar, they build giant desalination plants so they can show off wealth with giant green spaces in the desert. In Bali, they put sarongs on old-growth trees to declare them holy so they can't be over-timbered.
Day 2
We woke this morning after an actual night's sleep in a glorious bed, which was amazing after the transit adventure. Then we had hotel breakfast--"American" breakfast was an option, but we went for Indonesian style, which means Rebecca had a mini banana crepe and then fried noodles, and I had cinnamon French toast and then chicken curry over rice.
...I also managed to put salt in my tea and had to request a new cup. In my defense, I hadn't had my tea yet and was still rather asleep.
This morning's activities included a nature walk through rice paddies and a small village, visiting an art museum, getting traditional roast pork for lunch, and shopping in an open-air market. Then we got the fancy dessert we'd skipped last night and got massages. The weather continues to be idyllic, hot but not too hot with a pleasant breeze and many very vocal birds. I wrote this as Jethrien went for a pre-dinner swim.
Traditional Balinese art is very "Richard Scarry does the Ramayana". It's very busy, full of intricate tiny details and activity, and mostly revolving around Hindu mythology. My favorite painting we saw was a demon who was foolish enough to attack the Monkey King, and was swarmed by monkeys for his trouble. There's also a very clear agreed-upon design for demons, as they all have the same giant-fanged face.
Traditional Balinese roast pork is glorious: Tender, spicy, accompanied by rice (as is pretty much everything), veggie-coconut salad, and the best fried pork cracklings I've ever had.
The market is full of tchotchkes and there are no listed prices: everything is haggled for. We started finding souvenirs but opted to skip the penis-shaped, colorfully-painted bottle openers that were abundantly for sale. (The fact that 100,000 rupiah is about $7 means it all feels like play money, of course.) I later asked Cika (CHEEK-ah) about them, and he confirmed that they’re for tourists and have no role in any particular Balinese tradition.
I have now had mango meringue pie with green apple sorbet. Rebecca had a Balinese-spiced creme brulee. Yes, they were as good as you're imagining.
As were the massages: 60 minutes of barely staying awake as a paid professional made my muscles stop complaining. And the spa, integrated with the rainforest and crisscrossed with waterfalls, was what every spa in America is trying, but failing, to be.
We had an hour back at the hotel before our fancy dinner.
Day 3
By this point, days were actually starting to feel properly like days. Last night's dinner was a fancy three- course experience; tonight's is apparently a French-style six course meal. I'm concerned my pants won't fit on the flight home.
This morning I tried a different breakfast variant: steamed banana dumplings and veggie pancakes. Rebecca had the breakfast I tried yesterday.
We had a long car ride up the mountains, but given that in Bali roads apparently must curve every 100 feet or so, reading in the car wasn't really a great plan. Rebecca was smart and didn't try; I managed to make myself mildly carsick. Did I mention that they don't believe in stoplights or traffic signs here?
The long ride was to a family compound in the mountains, where they're still living the traditional way but are monetizing it by showing it off to tourists. We learned to weave leaves into offering boxes and decorations and a bit about the traditional writing system. (They wrote our names on traditional coin necklaces and had them blessed for us, too.) Then we had the cooking lesson, where we learned the base spice mix for most savory dishes and used it for steamed chicken meatballs and chicken satay; we also made ginger flower salad and fried bananas. They gave me a recipe book and we discussed substitutions for things like banana leaves that are hard to find in the States.
The farm tour continued with us opening a coconut and learning the way traditional coconut oil is made. (Fresh coconut water tastes so much better than the bottled stuff.) From there we hiked out to the rice paddies, drove cows around a new field they were plowing, and planted rice sprouts. On one hand, being up to your knees in mud is gross. On the other hand, people pay a lot of money for organic mud bath treatments.
Then we washed off, walked back to the farm, and ate the big lunch we'd had a hand in preparing. They also served (and included in the recipe book) fish satay, roast pork, candied tempeh, veggie salad, and black rice pudding.
The next stop was at the giant lake temple, which was an Instagrammer's dream. The sun came out long enough for us to take lots of pictures.
We're back at the hotel for an hour before dinner, and the hotel staff are actually having a celebration for the hotel's anniversary. Guests are invited, but this is clearly a celebration for the staff and it's really charming. The Balinese love a good celebration.
Jethrien took photos of all of the dinner courses; I think that needs its own post from either her or me.
Day 4
Today! The water temple and the temple of many steps, and then Jethrien got heavily over-caffeinated.
After a six-course meal last night (plus three amuse bouches, plus olive bread and walnut bread, plus petits fours), I couldn't handle a fancy breakfast and had fruit and oatmeal. Rebecca had fried rice but declared the fried noodles were better.
Our first stop was the water temple, which is said to have magical healing powers. Our guide brought all of the necessary offerings (a variety of flowers, incense, and cake) and we rented water sarongs to go in the spring. (You need to be wearing a sarong to enter a temple, but they helpfully supply them at the entrance for a modest fee. At this one, you needed a regular sarong to enter and a water-safe one to go in the spring, and there were changing rooms and lockers.) It's actually three pools and a long row of fountains in each, and each fountain apparently cures a different thing. You're supposed to douse yourself with each one. The locals also drink the holy water; I suspect the magical healing properties are just as effective on the intestinal parasites as they are on me, and opted out of that practice. Then we dried off and toured the rest of that temple complex, including feeding the fish, which is apparently good karma.
There were people selling snack food in the parking lot, and I bought banana chips, which were tasty and also indistinguishable from plantain chips from my local supermarket.
Then we went to the temple of 300 steps. Unfortunately, due to the dollar/rupiah exchange rate, it's actually approximately 14,000 steps. There are some beautiful views and ancient shrines and hermitages and selfie spots and a Bali swing... aaaaand I did a lot of sweating and then declared I needed to stop for a while, because I had hit the Too Much Vacation point.
So we went to lunch (another variety of Balinese specialties, including a green soup, chicken curry, minced-chicken satay and several vegetable salads), and then I was dropped at the hotel while Rebecca went to the coffee plantation. (I played game boy for two hours. It was great. I won't burden you with other details.)
Jethrien tells me the coffee plantation was fun but very touristy-- much more "here's a civet in a cage to look at, here's a coffee plant in a pot" than anything in real production. She then had nine small cups of assorted coffees and teas, learned that she doesn't particularly like the unfiltered Balinese style of brewing but likes the heavily sweetened chocolate, vanilla and coconut coffees; and that civet coffee tastes weird and has very little caffeine. (We aren't bothering to bring any home.) She got back to the hotel and told me all of this very, very quickly; and she was in the pool burning off energy while I wrote it down.
At six we head for what promises to be another exciting dinner, then a bit of souvenir shopping before bed. Tomorrow we have the morning off and then we head to the second hotel near the beach.
Day 5
I wrote this at 8:30 pm, as we waited on the beach for our seafood to be barbecued. A band of Balinese musicians have just completed their rendition of "No Woman No Cry" with both the enthusiasm and the talent of NYC subway buskers. But I get ahead of myself.
Today was the first of our two quieter beach days. We had a relaxing morning at the first hotel (I was up with the duck party and watched the sunrise from our veranda, actually) then packed up and drove down to our second hotel in Sanur, the nice beach town. (Sanur is where families go, Kuta is the college spring break beach town; we're avoiding it.) The new hotel is more "touristy", but also has a great abundance of comfy places to lounge, and a bar that is also a jacuzzi.
Lunch was at a hole in the wall that had excellent local food, including fried chicken, beef curry, curried hard boiled eggs, and stewed tapioca leaves. (I know, right? I didn't know they were edible, either!)
Midafternoon, we set out to briefly visit a few beaches on our way to a temple for the fire dance show, which is best described as an acappella Purim spiel -- two dozen men formed a chorus of rhythmic chanters, as dancers in Ramayana costumes did subtle interpretive motions. Well, except for Hanuman the monkey king, who wasn't the slightest bit subtle and was clearly the crowd favorite.
Day 6
At this point I’d fallen behind, and wrote my final log on the morning of Day 7 at the airport. We had to get up at 5:30am, but at least the hotel took a final chance to feed us within an inch of our lives, providing breakfast boxes that could have fed six people easily.
Backing way up: Back in the evening of Day 4 we had our second zillion-course dinner. Day 3's was at Mosaic and was amazing. Day 4's was at Locavore, which was fascinating but not actually very tasty, if that makes sense. Just as an example, at Mosaic they used a blowtorch to caramelize a banana as part of a complicated drink. At Locavore, they used a blowtorch to burn a pine cone so you could smell it while drinking the complicated drink. It had passed through food wizardry into parody. Rebecca took pictures of everything at both places and I suspect they'll be their own write up. The evening of day 5 concluded with a seafood barbecue on the beach, but you knew that already.
Day 6 was the "resort" day, which began for Jethrien with a yoga lesson as the sun came up and began for Chuck with video games on the veranda. The breakfast buffet at this hotel was the stuff of legends: Tons of fruits, pastries, bread pudding, monkey bread, pancakes, waffles, eggs many styles, bacon and sausage, fried chicken, potato dumplings, fried noodles, yellow rice, and a giant chicken soup cart. Oh, and fresh tropical juices. We ate way too much. So Chuck got a massage, and Jethrien went to swim in the ocean. Then they alternated swimming in and lounging by the infinity pool, the beach pool, and the jacuzzi bar, with a brief stop for a light lunch.
At 3:00 we started the last great food march of our trip, which included cocktails at a rooftop bar, sunset on the beach, nine appetizers at one restaurant, a variety platter of entrees at a second, and five desserts at a third. Notable highlights include crispy-fried pork buns, candied tempeh, beef dumplings, beef curry, chicken satay using lemongrass as the skewers, and a glorious caramel mille feuille. And we saw someone fly a kite that looked like a rainbow pirate ship.
Remember how I talked about the motorbike culture here? Well, we got to experience it firsthand. Something went wrong with the "sexy car" (topless jeep) we were supposed to go between restaurants in, so our guide hailed a trio of bikes to ferry us around. It was only mildly harrowing. (I'm vaguely interested in driving a motorbike at some point, as it seems fun, but NOT IN BALI.)
Then there was packing, sleep, and getting to the airport.
Car culture here is fascinating, upon reflection: Owning a car means you're rich, everything else aside, and people take very good care of their cars. I didn't see a single car that was muddy or had a visible dent or scratch. (Motorbikes came in all states.) Also, there are relatively few gas stations, but plenty of warung (small shops) selling petrol in repurposed vodka bottles.
Also, spelling of English words is viewed as a gentle suggestion. Whether that's a taksi sign or a message parlor. And the grammar is Google-translate level, though in their defense, the Balinese language apparently doesn't have tenses. But everyone is very cheerful and does their best regardless of their level of English experience--they might not get it right, but it won't be for lack of trying.
Regarding this trip overall: The tour company, the guide, the hotels and the overall experience were great. I'd happily recommend them. I think we should have maybe planned fewer fancy meals and spaced out the heavy touristing days a little more. A good trip, though only middling in terms of relaxation.