Balilujeh

With our visit to Tibet concluded, we made our way back to Hong Kong to recover from the long, arduous journey. Once back in the big city, we had a chance to spend a few pleasant days with our friends Suvarna and Shiv as well as Shiv’s adorable parents visiting from Pune, India. After a week of eating uninspiring Tibetan cuisine, indulging in delicious, home-cooked Indian meals (featuring Maharashtrian specialties) was nothing short of divine.

From Hong Kong, we flew Singapore Airlines to Bali via Singapore. This flight represented our first time flying on Singapore, and we were both curious to experience the carrier's famed service level firsthand. Despite our initial dismay with the airline’s do-nothing telephone reservations customer service from before our trip had started, we had to admit that Singapore’s onboard flight attendants were remarkably attentive and friendly, almost laughably so relative to the norm to which we were accustomed back in the U.S.

With a slight delay, our connecting flight arrived at Bali (an enclave of Hinduism in the predominantly Muslim Indonesian archipelago) at about 10:00 pm. By the time we had purchased Indonesian visas on arrival, recleared security (Bali, presumably because of the senseless bombings in 2002 and 2005, is the only airport where we had to go through a security screening to gain access to the baggage claim carousel) and collected our luggage, it was nearly 11:00 pm. Making our way outside to hail a taxi, we were immediately reintroduced to the tropical humidity that we hadn’t experienced since leaving Thailand over a month ago. At this point, we still had a one-hour ride awaiting us before reaching our lodgings on Bali’s western coast.

A few minutes before midnight, we reached the town of Tanah Lot where Vik’s Stanford friend, Anin, had generously arranged for us to stay at his family’s private villa. To our surprise, we were met onsite by the villa’s personal butler, Bagiana, who escorted us to our rooms via golf cart. When we awoke the next morning, we discovered that we had landed in our own personal paradise. From our posh quarters, surrounded by tropical flora, we had 180-degree views of vivid aqua waters beyond a black sand beach, fronted by the manicured green carpet of a Greg Norman-designed golf course. During our first twenty-four hours in Bali, we were more than content to simply lounge in our private pool and dine al fresco with jawdropping views of the waves crashing along the black lava rock-lined shoreline.

The next day, Kaberi’s friend Jason arrived from Chicago to meet up with us. With Jason’s company, we easily fell into a rhythm that prevailed for the remainder of the week: Kaberi and Jason welcoming the morning with coffee on the patio, Vik going for a run after sleeping in until the early afternoon (a practice which he claimed precluded his ability to blog, both from a time constraint and energy level perspective), the three of us partaking in sunset chats over wine and cheese, and Jason's trusty Bali Luxe guide leading us to a different, fabulous dining venue each night.

Our week in Bali proved to be heavenly. Picture perfect weather accompanied our vantage point of Bali’s beautiful scenery of tiered rice paddies, lush foliage and pristine beaches. Nevertheless, we were most impressed with the genuine warmth and gentle graciousness of the Balinese. We were quite literally greeted at every turn by a warm smile or a hands-clasped namaste-style gesture. And almost every one we encountered (after invariably apologizing for not being more fluent) spoke excellent English, welcomed us to the island personally and asked how we were enjoying our stay.

On several occasions, we were charmed and touched by local taxi drivers (with nicknames like “Smiley”) who thanked us for giving them their first business of the day. It was a bit heartbreaking for us to learn that the aforementioned terrorist bombings had wreaked havoc on Bali’s tourist-dominated economy, particularly in the offseason, by driving tourist visitation down 50% or more. This dropoff has taken a disproportionate and unfortunate economic toll on the island’s hospitable and respectful denizens, who clearly deserve much better for their troubles.

Our time in Bali also gave us the chance to partake in a number of compelling local experiences. One morning, we made our way north to the middle of the island for a whitewater rafting excursion. Our time on the river (which was characterized by Jason and Vik doing most of the paddling for the 5-person raft while Kaberi was banished to the no man’s land center) afforded another view of the island’s distinctive topographical nooks and crannies. Midweek, Bagiana escorted us on a sunset tour of the nearby Tanah Lot temple, which involved a barefoot walk across both plush golf greens and razor-sharp, pebble-strewn paths.

Together, we also indulged our inner hedonist by having decadent (but not inappropriate) four-handed massages at the luxurious Chedi Spa, eating sinfully across a number of cuisines and observing a small sample of the local nightlife, the highlight of which may have been spending forty minutes guessing as to the correct gender of a rather talented bartop dancer at MixWell, a festive gay bar (the dancer improbably turned out to be a she).

Not content to let a spare minute go by, Kaberi and Jason also found time for other pursuits, including a Balinese cooking class featuring a tutorial on local spices and preparation of a ceremonial menu, a traditional and dramatic firelit Balinese dancing show portraying the Hindu Ramayana, numerous shopping outings to the boutique centers of Ubud and Semiyak and daily afternoon cocktails with prerequisite pre-dinner desserts. During their outings, they also discovered (and eagerly supported) Threads Of Life, a local non-profit that worked with women to preserve and promote traditional weaving techniques. In the meantime (and to his considerable glee), Vik was far less active or productive.

Our week in Bali passed far too quickly. Each of us, to a person, was completely taken with the island, its traditional -- but still accessible -- culture and the leisurely pace of life. We enjoyed everything from watching the local women make morning offerings at temple to discerning the ubiquitous night-time aroma of clove cigarettes. And when the week came to an inevitable close, Bali had, without fail, moved to the top of our list as our favorite destination of our far-flung, globetrotting travels.