Guiltless Pleasure

So I am lucky enough to be on holiday at the moment. Yes there are plenty of purposeful things I could/should be doing around the house, but I've promised myself I'll clean one room a day, and I did do the laundry so... no guilt there. Also I ticked off one of my 'health checks' for the year this morning, so the guiltometer was well in the black.
Yes. Over the past couple of days I did something completely for myself that I have not done for a very long time... Totally dedicated my time to reading a book, like it was a mission, but a pleasurable one. Actually it was a mission that did have a timeframe, as I had to have it finished by Wednesday for my Book Club, but being a Jodi Picoult novel (her latest, The Storyteller), I figured that if past reads were anything to go by, it would not be an onerous task to get stuck into. This proved to be an accurate assumption; I pretty much devoured it, and almost felt duped at having finished it by 3pm today, with 2 days to spare.
So what did I think of it? It was good - not my favourite novel of hers, or my favourite war-themed book, but a thought provoking, sometimes harrowing, always 'entertaining' read. As with others' of hers I have read, I enjoyed the telling of the stories from the different characters/perspectives. I did wonder if the tale of the Ania and the 'upior' was a Ms Picoult trying to jump on the vampire popularity bandwagon, and while I got the allegorical comparison, I didn't especially enjoy that aspect.
I look forward to dissecting it further with my Bubbly Bookworm Buddies in a couple of evenings' time.
.

Bali Adventures #3 - On The Road

Immediately on arrival in Denpasar one of the first things that struck me, and many others I am sure, was the traffic. Not necessarily just the volume, but the driving habits and the frequency of motorbikes and scooters.

Scooters are everywhere. Not only do they transport people, but they can also carry an amazing array and amount of loads. These photos give some idea of how they are utilised.

In addition to this, the scooter is also the family car. But no child safe restraints here, in fact it was not uncommon to see Mum and Dad wearing helmets, with the kids (including very young babies) totally unprotected. A younger child was often seen standing at the front on the scooter between Dad's arms, with Mum cradling a baby. This would certainly raise more than a few eyebrows in NZ!

However, my observation of the Indonesian people is that they are pretty laid back. As is indicative of this, road rage was non existent. A gentle toot of the horn to advise of their presence is constantly made by drivers. Defensive driving seems to be an innate skill, especially for the scooter riders. Same with a finely tuned sense of balance and quick reactions. The rules of the road and traffic signals were unclear to me as a passenger. Because of all this, I would have expected to see several accidents, however the only one I saw was on the open road on our way to our diving destination, when the motorcyclist simply didn't look behind him. But in the hurly-burly of the built up areas, where traffic was thick and constant, I didn't see a single crash.

It is the patience, consideration for other drivers/riders and adherence to (likely unwritten?) "road rules" that appears to enable safe travel in what looks like a certain disaster zone to the novice visitor. We could learn from that here.

Bali Adventures #2 - Christmas at Jimbaran Beach

Christmas Day 2012 was the most laid back Christmas I think I have ever had. Yes, it was weird to be without my family, but it was also very cool to be doing something completely different somewhere far from home. We ended up travelling to Jimbaran Beach in the late afternoon, at the suggestion of our taxi driver (always keen for a longer fare, though to be honest, pretty cheap travel).
The plan was to watch the sunset, which we did as we supped cocktails and watched both tourists and locals go about their business. A longboat was, we believe, completing the final stages of a funeral. Other locals were digging for shellfish. Some were searching for other treasures... amongst the rubbish. This was the one disappointment of the beach; an incredible amount of litter, both on the shore and in the ocean. We were not keen to take our Christmas dip because of this.
Whilst the sunset was not especially spectacular, there was a peace to the evening, which belied the hurly-burly that sometimes accompanies a celebration such as Christmas. So it is for the relaxing vibe that I will most remember the day.

Bali Adventures #1 - Under the Ocean

It's been a good 13 years since I have been diving. The same amount of time since I reconnected with my then-and-now-again fiance, and yes, there's a connection with him and the diving too.
Not one to be renowned for things physically adventurous, it is really only because of his encouragement that I even learned to dive in the first place. Diving in Bali was again his suggestion, and one I was a little dubious of... 13 years is a long time between dives, even with a planned refresher course.

Fortunately for me, Shane's daughter, also with us in Bali, completed her Open Water training while we were there and I was able to piggy-back on her pool sessions to have a proper refamiliarisation with the experience. This meant I could go in to the ocean dives with greater confidence and therefore enjoy them more.

Enjoy them I did. Our refresher dive was off the beach at Sanur, an amazing array of colourful marine life in warm, clear water. Only a shallow dive, but perfect for re-learning.

 

Next day we headed away from Denpasar, travelling over two hours to dive the Liberty wreck at Tulamben. The wreck lies very close to the shore, and whilst nothing is visible from land, the sea was peppered with snorkellers and divers, which clearly gave the location away.

Looking out to where the Liberty lies

 I hired a little digital camera for the experience, and although the photos I took could have been so much better (I was grappling a bit with concurrent safe diving and effective picture making!) I am very happy to have these digital reminders of our time beneath the waves.

Mind you I came away with other reminders as well... A tasty fist-sized graze on my calf from the first Sanur dive, a sting rash from some marine flora on my first wreck dive, (gotta love short wetsuits) and a decent bruise on my shin from falling on the rocks whilst exiting the water at Tulamben. They are now fading, but (vomitous cliche ahead) the memories of an incredible experience will remain for a long while yet.

No Like, No Pay! - Yeah, Right!

Another Venetian tale, although this one is not so ambiguous as to whether it was 'worth it' or not.
Shane's ambition on our one Italian stop, was to sample an excellent, authentic Italian pizza. Made by an authentic Italian. I had done some searching prior to leaving NZ and had identified an area away from the usual tourist haunts that recommended we would find exactly that. Unfortunately the iPhone GPS was not playing nicely as we navigated through the back streets, and we kept losing our way.
Hungry tums and hot feet therefore took us back to a place slightly off the beaten track, though still quite touristy looking, which we had passed earlier. Ristorante 1251. A guy had been vocally advertising a mantra of "You no like-a the pizza you no pay". We took a seat not anticipating that this would be a reality for us.
I was a piglet and ordered two courses, starting with a mozzarella and tomato salad, which despite being a little under-seasoned, was quite refreshing and delivered what it said on the packet. When Shane's pizza arrived - funghi with additional olives - it was sans olives so went back to the kitchen. It reappeared with a few cold olives scattered on the top. He ate in silence, leaving the majority of his pizza uneaten on the plate.
Meanwhile the order for my seafood dish had not gone through. I eventually realised this when it had not turned up and alerted the waiter -  foolishly as it turned out as it coincided with the realization that the funghi pizza was not good, and I wished I had just stuck with the salad.
The waiter cleared, enquired after the uneaten pizza, and was told it was 'not nice'. When he returned with the bill, the pizza was charged for. What happened to "You no like-a the pizza you no pay?", we asked.
Exit the meek waiter, enter the firey chef/owner or whoever. What ensued was a barrage of shouted insults from this dude, including his insistence that all his pizzas were excellent, and a good amount of punctuated finger pointing at Shane accompanied by "I no like you! I no like you!"
Well we didn't like him either. And we don't recommend any visitors to Venice eat at Ristorante 1251

PS Ristorante 1251, in a digital age beware the pissed off customer. This is not the only place I have expressed my displeasure!

Ascertaining 'worth'

Well it has sure been a long while between posts - a two week break overseas and the obligatory recovery time will do that for you, but will also provide topic fodder for a few posts to come. Unlike my brother, (link to his travel blog here) who is currently on a 7 week excursion in Europe with his wife, I did not blog whilst I was away - I only had my cell phone and not a lot of data or downtime. Retrospective blogging therefore means that posts will not be chronological in terms of the experiences we had. To give context to the posts I will briefly define the 'we' as being myself and my new best friend Shane lol. A man from my past who has now become my future *collective sigh*.
It was a brilliant, spontaneous holiday, and we packed A LOT into the brief time we had. This meant we did not necessarily do the standard tourist things, but in Venice, we did.

A couple in love in Venice can't NOT go on a gondola ride, can they? A quiet, romantic glide through the back canals of this amazingly unique city? We had already meandered the streets by foot as we made our way randomly from the train station to the Piazza San Marco in the morning, and I had loved the authenticity we found away from the tourist mayhem of the Rialto Bridge area and St Marks Square. The gondola ride was much like that, but with the perspective of being on the canals. Our gondolier offered us the occasional snippet of commentary, but I don't think we were particularly interested; after all the walking we'd done I think we were both glad of the chance to sit down and relax!

So we can tick "Gondola Ride through Venice" off our 'list'; although I had ridden a gondola on my last visit to Venice some 15 years ago, it was with a bunch of fellow Contiki tourists, not with my 'fellow'. But an expensive tick it was. NZD $120 was the 'city price' for this supposedly 40 minute ride; that's some hourly rate! Was it worth it? Of course it was. What price do you place on experience and memories, huh? (Even if it's just to recall how ridiculously overpriced it was lol)