We were without internet last night due to the ship’s location (we had been warned that this would be the case), so I am posting this the next morning.
If you, like me, are not very familiar with the Asian ports we’ll be visiting, I’m going to try to provide a little information about each port, mostly by (somewhat shamefully) plagiarizing from the Princess-published Port Guides. As you might know, I am not above stealing borrowing content from various sources, but I do always try to identify from which source I’ve stolen borrowed. If I get a nastygram from Princess Cruises, I’ll have to cease and desist, but between you and me, Princess Cruises has nothing to complain about (cough…eight years of free promotion…coughcough). My additions will be in < >.
The island of Bali is part of the Republic of Indonesia, the largest archipelago <there’s my favorite word again> in the world with over 18,000 islands. Bali is located on the southernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east <both are also part of Indonesia>. With a population of about 4.5 million people, Bali has a tropical climate year around, with a rainy season from December to March.
It is generally believed that settlers from China arrived in Bali around 2500 BC. Over the centuries, immigrants from India and Java settled here and firmly planted their religious beliefs. While Islam spread throughout the archipelago during the 16th century, Bali remained dedicated to its own unique religion, Agama Hindu. Combining animism (ancestor worship) with Hindu and Buddhist beliefs, Bali remains steadfast in the middle of the world’s most populous Islamic country <and, past tensions have resulted in conflicts and deaths, as in the Kuta night club bombing in 2002, and again in 2005>. Bali is just 90 miles wide and 60 mile long, but is home to 20,000 temples of various sizes and religious meanings. Source: Princess Cruises Port Guide for Bali
It’s midnight, the end of a wonderful day. We just took the one minute walk from watching “Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again” on MUTS (the big screen overlooking the Neptune Pool) to our cabin (we love this cabin location!). Considering we woke up at 5:30am, I guess it’s safe to say we are over our jet lag and caught up on our sleep. And, most fortunately, we will remain within one hour of this time zone until we fly to Hawaii in January.
We made it to breakfast this morning for the first time this cruise (go us!), and were in the Horizon Court Buffet when it opened its full breakfast offerings at 6am. Since our arrival time in Bali was at 7am, and Princess excursion groups were meeting as early as 6:40am, the buffet was chaos. I found a table for two right in the traffic flow, and G found me, and we got our own coffees and juice because the wait staff was being run ragged. We returned to the cabin to pack up and were in the Savoy Dining Room shortly after 7am to pick up our Elite tender priority tickets.
A Viking cruise ship had overnighted in Benoa, where the port is located, and had the berth, and the Sapphire Princess was so far from port that the tender ride was close to 40 minutes. That’s certainly not optimal, but there are other ports that are similar. However, Benoa is particularly tricky (as explained to us by Captain Ravera) because of the other boat traffic, especially freighters and fishing boats, and the currents and debris in the water. In fact, one of the Sapphire Princess tenders hit a submerged log today, damaging it and requiring the passengers to move from that tender to another one while afloat.
Luckily, we faced none of those issues, and were on the second tender to shore. We joined up with a couple from the Viking ship and shared a taxi for the 25-minute ride to Kuta, a main tourist town due to its location next to a long, long stretch of wide beach. Our first impression of Bali? Motorbikes and traffic. And crazy drivers who paid no heed to the rules of the road.
We had decided not to get local currency from an ATM because this was our only visit to Indonesia and everyone accepted US$.
Greeting by Balinese dancers
But Kuta Beach was spectacular, shallow, with bathwater-warm water and enough wave action to keep the many surfers happy. We quickly learned the ways of the beach (because, just like airport security practices, they’re different in every country). All along the beach were “beach bars” which were actually coolers filled with an assortment of drinks that were displayed on a table. For the price of a beverage (US $2 to $3 for sodas and beer), we had those stackable plastic chairs to sit on and shade provided by a fiberglass canopy stretched between the trees.
Kuta Beach
This stretch of beach is miles long, with different names.
Kuta Beach
We wasted no time getting into the water (one at a time, to keep an eye on our valuables). We have missed having a beach day so far this season! We alternated between the water and the chairs in the shade, using cellular data to check on things at home, pay a couple of bills and upload photos to this blog.
This is really good beer. Don’t ask me how I know. ;-)
Our hosts for the day, father and son, really nice guys.
By noon I was getting hungry and there were plenty of mini restaurants, just ten feet wide or so, set in the sand all along the beach. But I knew G wouldn’t want to eat at them; he is a fussy, meat and potatoes-type eater, and if he can’t pronounce it, he isn’t going to eat it. Finally, at 2pm we left the beach and walked a block or so in from the beach to the Matahari Mall, a very small collection of a few stores, one of which was a pretty well stocked Food Mart.
Don’t ask me, I don’t know.
We were at the beach so early that I observed several vendor placing plates of small arranged flowers on the sand. When I asked what these were, I learned they are daily offerings to the gods to bring blessings on their efforts. What a beautiful practice!
Daily offerings to the gods
Where there were rows and rows of cheap souvenir stands...
...there were many offerings outside on the sidewalk.
No shortage of places to eat along the beach
We took the opportunity of finding something resembling a grocery store at home to restock several items to carry us through to Shanghai (mouthwash, toothpaste, shampoos, face wash and makeup remover cloths and Mentos). We had a shopping bag heavy with items and the total came to the equivalent of US $14.80. We couldn’t get over how inexpensive things were. Face wash for 50 cents. Mentos for 35 cents a roll. A large tube of toothpaste for 60 cents. It was tempting to buy more, but we couldn’t. Very few toiletries will be able to fly to Hawaii with us. We’ll have to restock there…for ten times the cost.
Of course, while we were in the store, we had to check out the fruits and veggies, too. This is always fun and there were several unidentifiable items (with tags in Balinese, so they weren’t much help).
In the Kuta Foodmart, lots of fruits we didn’t recognize
We exited the store right into a taxi driver who offered to take us back to the port for US $20. This morning’s ride had cost US $25, but we had shared it with another couple. We probably could have found others going back to the ship to share a cab with if we had walked back to the beach, but we were heavily laden and it wasn’t worth the effort. Thirty minutes later we were standing in a long tender line. It was only 3:15pm and last tender wasn’t until 4pm, but I think everyone had the same idea, to avoid that last tender.
It was hot and sunny (the forecasted heavy rains never materialized and we had a beautiful day) and the crew was passing out large Princess umbrellas to stand under (but we had our Tilley hats and full hands and didn’t take one) and water and cold washcloths that felt heavenly. We finally made it back to the ship about 4:30pm, showered and went to dinner in the Vivaldi Dining Room.
I knew we’d be late leaving due to the tender situation, but, from the window next to our table, we continued to see tenders arriving packed with passengers. Each time we’d think it was the last one, but they continued to arrive until after 6pm. We later found out that the line at 4pm was exceptionally long, and excursions were still arriving back, delayed because they had gotten a late start due to the morning’s tendering issues.
I guess I can see why we’re not returning to Bali on any of our other cruises this year. Still, we had a beautiful day and are happy to have gotten there one time, and to have spent the day on a Balinese Beach. The locals were so friendly and welcoming and many spoke excellent English. Due to its proximity, a lot of Australians vacation in Bali. In fact, the 2002 nightclub bombing killed over 200 people, many of them Australians.
The show tonight in the Princess Theater was a female vocalist, Monique Lualhati from the Philippines, and she was really excellent. She was a finalist in The Voice and sang many of Celine Dion’s, Aretha Franklin’s, Tina Turner’s and Whitney Houston’s songs. Afterward, we still had energy (surprise!), and went to the movie on MUTS.
The next two days are at sea, though we have evening commitments each night, so they’re not entirely free days. But we are firmly back in cruise mode, have restocked and are set to enjoy 34 more days on the Sapphire Princess. I can’t say the hardest part of our season is behind us, because many of these Asia ports are going to be challenging, but it’s nice to have the moving around complete and a few more beaches to look forward to.
A sort of sunset from our table at dinner.