New Year eve is that moment in a year that we have been waiting for. It's not always about the crackling fireworks or freeflow wine and other festivity paraphernalia, but on this special eve especially for me it's time to reflect, express gratitude and put great hopes. This year we (I & my husband) decided to spend our reflection in Bali. Just the two of us.
I must admit it was a sudden thought and I was totally unprepared. I was also a bit too late in arranging everything, the hotel prices are ridiculously high. The worse is that at the last minute, booking.com informed me that the villa in Seminyak I just booked has cancelled my booking due to high occupancy. So, I needed to make a new booking in such a short time.
Here goes my story.
After receiving that cancellation email, I re-booked for another accommodation from agoda.com. I was so lucky that I still could get us a bungalow in tranquil Seminyak area, hidden away from the hustle bustle of busy Seminyak. The place we stayed is Chi Chi bungalow and villa.
Upon arrival, we found out that the room was spacious and comes up with a big bathroom. Only one drawback and it's the biggest one: the AC did not work. In the middle of a boiling Bali's sun we felt like being roasted alive. It was just bloody hot. No kidding. We felt lazy to jump into the pool either since the water did not look very clean.
My husband politely asked the lady owner if she could help fixing the AC. This lady was super rude. First she denied that there was anything wrong with the AC and second she abruptly said to us that if we were not happy we could find another accommodation. Talk about bad hospitality!
Luckily, one of her staffs was very helpful. He provided us with a fan (not very clean - again!) which, thank God, was working well and of a great use compared to the broken AC. Since New Year was just a few hours away we did not let this incident bothered us too much, so we kept the room and continued with our plan. And thanks heaven the weather was so nice!
A few minutes later my stomach (and his) started to rumble. Truth be told, we have not got a proper breakfast. So, we asked around if we could hire a motorbike. Unfortunately during peak season like this it was very hard to hire a motorbike or get a cab. Luckily, one of the owner relatives was kind enough to lend his bike to us although we still had to return it before six pm. We were so grateful.
For somebody who rarely ride on a moped, I had that amazingly great feeling to be able to ride on a bike with my special someone. It was such a different experience roaming the streets in such manner. As the wind blew my face I felt like I was so ready for any sinuous trail that lies ahead. It's like nothing gonna stop me.
The scenery around us was trully relieving. There are still so many green paddy fields in the neighborhood. A trully amazing eye candy! But, this beauty does not always look safe. Sometime during our journey we saw a cobra snake crossing the lane between the fields and someone elses's villa. This thing moves freely like none is our business. Hahaha - for sure a dangerous thing if it bites you! It did not scare us at all though.
We had lunch at a place called Barbar. The lunch was not so great unfortunately eventhough the restaurant has a nice atmosphere complete with pop-art paintings surrounding the walls. The food was a bit bland and for that kind of food quality their price was way overpriced. I won't make a second visit for sure!!
We came back to the bungalow before six pm. But, we were a bit confused on how to go around when transport was so difficult to get hold of. Thanks to Go Jek, no more transport crisis. Go Jek is an online platform for transport made easy. You can download it to your smartphone - if you haven't got one. Trust me, this app is so helpful.
We were lucky that our Go Jek drivers know how to get to our place. Many roads were closed during New Year eve. So, only those who know shortcuts will survive the New Year.
My husband made an arrangement with the local church community in Kuta to join them for some gathering on the beach in Legian. The gathering time was around 8pm in Mama's german restaurant, Legian. Therefore to kill the time we had dinner at this restaurant. Surprise..surprise. Mama's German restaurant was so damn good!
After dinner, we walked a few kms to Legian beach. Bali's weather was so humid that day I could feel my sticky skin.
When we arrived on Legian beach we were introduced to some people in the church. We met two very interesting ladies that night. One is a teacher at a disability school for children of French-speaking countries. I learned about autism a lot from her. The other one is a hotelier working in sales. She had a very high spirit and faith in Christ. This girl is such a hard-working person and very enthusiastic on what she is doing. We hope for all the best to these ladies and cannot wait to catch up with them again sometime in the future when we visit Bali. The rest of the night we spent for reflection, singing, worshiping and praying together.
After Legian beach, we walked to Kuta beach (not so near to each other apparently) and had a stop at The Stones Entertainment Center ("The Stones"). We still had a few minutes before the countdown started, so to fill in our tinge of anticipation we ordered some drinks whilst taking a good rest after that long walk. It was a busy night at The Stones, some people were dancing near the stage, some were enjoying their standing chat with their group of friends, some were dancing near the pool and the music kept on rolling on.
At before midnight, the countdown counting started: five..four..three..two..one....2016. Amazing fire dancing by professional dancers greeted us and welcomed the New Year, whilst the fireworks flew high up there on the sky, exploded and beautifully sparkle all the way adorning the dark night sky with some colorful lights.
Happy New Year 2016, everybody.
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