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Kuta, Indonesia

Today is the first day of it actually feeling like we are on holiday – and it’s actually a Saturday!
Its great to be back in Bali. The Balinese hospitality and their genuine welcoming nature hasn’t changed over the years. Unfortunately though, each year it’s becoming more and more western. It’s great in many ways, 80% of Bali’s income is tourism, but it would be sad to see the local street markets replaced with Starbucks and Billabong. I am told that the Chinese are buying much of Bali’s coastline and building up large. As a spin on that, it’s good to see the streets busy and it’s recovery from the disaster of over 10 years ago. Bali means a lot to us. It was the first destination Dave went on a holiday as an adult and it was the first destination we went on holiday together, with the exception of New Zealand. Each and every time we visit, Bali continues to get under our skin; maybe it’s the people, maybe it’s the memories, maybe it’s a mixture of both. What is for certain, we can’t wait to see everyone and their reaction to this chaotic place called Kuta. I’m sure it will be mixed. Kuta isn’t what we love about Bali that’s for sure. It’s central location makes for an ideal location, hopefully, suiting the 90% of our family and friends staying with us at the Adi Dharma Hotel. The hotel’s wonderful staff made a point of remembering all of the 35 guest names, which made our stay there a memorable one.

The arrivals began with Jeremy, Mum, Dad, Chris, Allison and Adriaan. We were like children at Christmas, waiting on the steps of the hotel awaiting each and every arrival of our family and friends to emerge from the arriving taxis. In between friends arriving, we still had a list of jobs to achieve before the big day in a week’s time. Being an overly organised person, I had pre booked our welcome dinner for our guests a year in advance. On the Sunday, I had a gut feeling to confirm our booking. So we made a night of it and headed for a dinner out with our guests who had arrived. Sure enough, my gut feeling was right – Segara Asian Grill bumped us for a larger group. Fortunately with a little Julia persuasion / enforcement we were upgraded to a prime venue for our upcoming dinner.

By the Monday there were 8 of us so hiring a mini bus was required to take us to the Monkey Temple, in Uluwatu, south of Bali. Dave and and I visited here a few years ago and remembered it as a place where the hundreds of monkeys steal things. For example, the monkeys will have both hands full of human belongings (a thong from your foot) then trade you bananas for your belongings. Unfortunately or fortunately, on this visit there were only one or two monkeys at the temple so nothing was seen or stolen. Lunch followed our visit to the monkeys.The magnificent rock bar on the bottom of the cliffs of Ayana is accessible only via cable car (Flash -as place in the middle of nowhere). Cocktails in Bali are about $5. Here they’re upwards of $15 so only one was consumed between 2!

By the Wednesday another 15 friends had arrived. The Christmas feeling of opening the doors of the taxi vans to see who had arrived next continued. On the Thursday I opted for spending the day with Chris and Rhian lounging by the pool, buying supplies for the wedding day and taste testing a place to take everyone for dinner the following night. I was getting slightly stressed with the ever increasing list of jobs to achieve before the big day. I really, really enjoyed spending quality but relaxing time with Rhian and Chris. The rest of our friends went to Bali Safari and Marine Park with Dave. Monkeys were held, Elephants were ridden and cats and guinea pigs performed…. Dave thoroughly enjoying spending time with friends and a day with no lists.

We have already had a bucks and hens in Australia but many of Dave’s friends live in New Zealand so what better excuse than to spend the day with them. Dave chose to to spend the day whitewater rafting for his Bali bucks while the girls and I lazed around the pool drinking over – priced cocktails at the beautiful Potato Head beach front pool and restaurant venue.

On Saturday night, eight days after arriving and two days before the wedding, we all enjoyed the best (or at least second best) party of the trip. Our Welcome party was held in our very own beach front private function area complete with pool and DJ. If only we could always live like the rich and famous. I can’t recommend enough having a wedding overseas. At no other time in your life can you bring all of your family and friends, from different cities and countries, to congregate and enjoy a week or two of pure fun. The alternative was having a wedding in Australia with only an evening together. The stress was worth it! The welcome party was important to us both as we wanted to gather everyone together for the first time for friends to get to know one another before the wedding and week at Gili. With only 38 people here in Bali, it’s a small enough group to spend quality time with each and every one. We reflected on this thought as the boys were backflipping into the pool while the rest of us had the best pool party of our lives!

Our guest list included: Mum and Dad, Chris, Ruth, Linda, Peter, Anita, Peter, Helen, Jenny, Uwe, Allison, Adriaan, Rhian, Brendan, Chris, Cathie, Nibbs, Jeremy, Jin, Webb, Erica, Bel, Grant, Mel, Steve, James, David, Heather, Blake, Bex, Alex, Rochelle, Brad, Steph, Sam and Barb

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