Surprise Invitation to Bali
I tidied up after dinner, started the dishwasher and grabbed a freshly brewed coffee from the pot on the counter. The sweet, creamy coffee was just what I needed on this cold January evening in Calgary,Alberta. This winter seemed to be colder than the rest and I was getting a little restless. The wind blew outside and the frost was building on the windows. We had temperatures that worked their way below -40 degrees and the 7 hours of daylight was just enough to go to work and make your way home. Spring was a long 2 maybe 3 months away. Sometimes it made you feel trapped and sometimes it was like a warm blanket, wrapped around you keeping you safe. My daughter Stevie was in her room playing make believe house with her barbies and my husband was on the phone with his brother-best friend. I went to our computer room to see if I had an interesting forwarded messages in my email box. Once I opened up my email box I was given the opportunity to join a dating service, enlarge many body parts, oh, and a nice an email from my sister. She is always short, sweet and to the point – I love getting her notes. She wants to know what we are doing for Easter – she is always looking forward and making nice plans. I send her back an email telling her we should see each other and lets stay in touch to make a plan. I move on to see if there is anything else in my email box to entertain me and I find an email in my spam box from a girl named Sharon. Wait! I remember meeting a Sharon at a club thru one of my husbands friends and yes, we did exchange emails. I open it up and click on the boxes that allow the entire email to be seen – she is in Hawaii and then on her way to Bali. She had been doing an around the world trip that started in England and was going to finish in Bali before she returned to England. I met her at a club in Calgary. She was with one of my husbands friends and she seemed to be around for about 2 weeks before she moved on. We exchanged email addresses and I thought I would have an email penpal friend, if anything. There was a message from her!! She was having a blast in Maui with the hiking and swimming of her life time. She was heading to the Indonesian island of Bali in a couple weeks to finish off her tour before heading home. She would be going there alone and wondered if I would like to meet her there. I reread the email again – I could not believe my eyes! I wondered if she really meant it or just put it in the closure of her email. My husband came into the computer room………I looked up at him and said “Look at the email I received from Sharon”. While he was reading I watched his face – he finished reading smiled and said “When are you leaving?” We had been having some rocky times and he knew a vacation would do me good. I knew I was very fortunate to have his blessing without any hesitation and my daughter said “have a great time mom, bring me home something cool”. So I knew I was on my way.
I started to scour the internet for a flight and came up with one that got me into Denpasar airport in Bali, just one day before Sharon. I was so excited and had to make sure I was prepared to go. I ran and got a passport picture taken – a passport application and the required money order. I went the the Travel Clinic for some updated shots. I received my passport and was good to go. I booked a room at a guest house in Kuta which would be a 15 min taxi ride from the airport and was very reasonable at $12 a night. I booked 3 nights and we would look for a place after that. The flight from Calgary took me on a long 35 hour tour of airports in Vancouver, Hong Kong, Singapore, and finally Denpasar, Bali. I met a girl on the flights, she was from Montreal, and she came with me to my guest house for a room for the night. I saw her briefly during my stay but she went her own way once we landed. My room was rustic and smelled of mold and humidity. All of Bali smelled of mold and humidity. Most of the stairs and sidewalks were moss/mold covered and all green in colour. My room was all wood – the floors, the walls, the ceiling, the furniture everything was wood. It was wonderful and the change from the Canadian winter made me feel like I was on another planet. I opened the window and noticed a small balcony. Their was an unusual small double door that opened to the balcony. It had a built in bench across the front and some trailing flowers growing over the side and hanging down. The smell of the ocean – the heat and humidity – I was in paradise.
While I waited for Sharon, I walked the lanes. There were back lanes, side lanes, winding lanes all going somewhere. I started off and found a more traveled road that lead to some restaurants and shops. Walking on the raised sidewalk in front of restaurants with chickens and large animals hanging in the windows. They were making soup and shredded meat dishes and the smells were odd but enticing. I stepped down into a restaurant stall and took up a table. A little woman came to me and offered me a menu. I opened the menu and was pleasantly surprised to see little pictures of dishes with prices beside them. There must have been 50 items – did they really make all of these?? I picked an item that looked like chicken soup as I was getting over some flight sickness and needed something bland. I was sadden and shocked when the lady came back with a bowl that contained very little broth, a ton of chicken parts and pieces and green veggies that I have never seen before. Before she could walk away I asked for some crackers or bread to help my tummy situation but her lack of english and my lack of Balinese didn’t help me much. I was left looking into the bowl of chicken part soup and tried to make the best of it. That evening I ordered room service and had a clubhouse sandwich – a little different that I am used to but very delicious. Sharon showed up after my first day in Bali and was very tired and quiet. We walked the beach and got to know one another – she told me she had become pregnant from the fellow she met in Calgary (my husbands friend) and was terribly confused and unsure what to do. She wanted to spend the next three week figuring out her next steps as did I. We decided to have a quiet vacation and not expect each other to accompany on all tours/days. This allowed me to do some necessary timeout thinking to see what my next steps in life were.
We checked out of our guest house in Kuta and headed inland to Ubud. Getting around in Bali is very easy since there are so many hired drivers just waiting to take you out for the day and they will charge around $20 for the entire day. The drive to Ubud took about 45 min and the road was terribly windy. There were many villages and shops along the way and Sharon became motion sick on the way. We drove rolling green hills covered in rice fields that appeared to be edged with the deep blue ocean. We passed through villages of artists, museums, temples, kites, and I even witnessed a cremation celebration. Our driver, Putu, came to pick me up 5 times during our 3 week stay. Once we past his family home and he took me there to meet his parents. This was not a conventional home – there was one wooden home/shack for sleeping, one for eating and one for the washroom. I met his mother and father and took a tour of the homes. Putu took me back to what would be the family common area for tea and cookies and I asked him to collect his mother and father for a picture. When he arrived he was standing with a different woman than the one he had first introduced me to so I questioned him and he said “This woman is my mother, she is married to my father but she could not bear children so my father also married the first woman you met and had children with her and this woman raised us. We all live together” Their form separate family never did separate and had some definite pluses since they all got along and lived under one roof. When I left the island I felt as if I was leaving my family again and saying good bye to Putu was a sad day. I will some day return to visit and continue my adventure of this beautiful and magical island of Bali.
About the Author
Michelle is an avid traveler and loves to adventure to new and exotic places. You will find more stories at www.chemuyilproperty.com
