April 9 and 10 Seminyak, Bali

Tuesday, our cheap AirAsia flight from KL to Denpasar was a short 3 hour flight, on time and our bags arrived. The airport was chaotic with many tourists and operates as both a domestic and international terminal in a very small space. Our B&B is Teka Teki House which was recommended to us by our friend Abdul Ralph Woods who lived here for a month in 2010. The driver from the B&B was waiting for as arranged and it took an hour to get the short distance to Seminyak (perhaps 4 miles) because of all the traffic even mid day.  We stopped and bought Bali SIM cards for the phone on the way so we could call our friend Helma Eppstein and arrange to get toghether for dinner.  Helma, after leaving Oman, now is the Director of Housekeeping at the Intercontinental Bali Resort.

In the evening we hired a taxi to take us down the coast to Jimbran beach where we were to meet Helma at the Resort. It took almost an hour to get there and 20 minutes to get home.  The resort property is just lovely! Helma has a very nice apartment with a view of the waterways and trees. She took us to the hotel's Italian restaurant and we had an excellent meal - main course we chose was Mahi Mahi cooked in parchment paper.  It was wonderful to catch up with her and hear the differences in cross cultural management. Helma is an astute observer of human nature and thus picks up on these sutleties - like don't ask a yes for no question because the answer will always be "Yes" -- instead ask which day such and such a task will be completed.

Wednesday morning was catching up on emails and phone calls to family. We walked to the Seminyak beach for lunch and a swim.  The walk took over 20 minutes but there are some lovely shop windows to look in along the way.  However the sidewalks require your full attention most of the time.  This is the weathier residential and tourist area. Seminyak Beach and Petitenget Beach is a continuous expanse of grey sand stretching in both directions as far as the eye can see. To the south it becomes Legian Beach and then Kuta Beach, but is noticeably quieter than both.  While there are many beach chairs available for rent, there is more than 50-foot spacing between them, so you feel like you are not overwhelmed with tourists. Yes there are beach touts selling various trinkets - but when they are kites like these "flying ships" it is uplifting --- I know we will come home with one of them for another young friend. Perhaps a couple for some older friends too!

Someone insisted on continuing to relive his youthful vacation in Hawaii 50 years earlier and try surfing...the other was life guard on the beach.  The life guard then decided to give it a try as well... it was fun to play in the water as it was a wonderful temperature, lovely sandy bottom, but the exercise wore us out. We had a delicious dinner at Mannekepis bar. We also tried a glass of the local Bali wine and both were quite good - Two islands Shiraz and Hatten Aga White.