Bali Report 2008

After a stressful few months it was time for a well needed trip away. A sort of spur of the moment “get me out of here now” thing that comes over you when the last of your energy is a known quantity and can be measured by the teaspoon. Somewhere to escape to with a few necessary and critical features such as warm, beach weather, great shopping, great food, not too far away but far enough for people not to call on you unless it is a major crisis that nobody else can manage and all at a cost that won’t put you in hock for the rest of your life. Somewhere familiar but at the same time different, a place where one can ease into a holiday without too many unknowns but enough challenges to make it interesting and remind you that your brain still works, you can solve problems and make decisions, plus the opportunity to spend time with friends. Somehow Bali keeps popping up as the obvious destination. As any Bali tragic like myself knows, it is the perfect choice.

I told a friend of my plans. She had never been to Bali before, had wanted to go for some time and said that she would like to join me. Initially I thought this would be a great idea, tired and strung out as I was, knowing that at the best of times she was hard work and it would mean a whole journey of investigation and considerations that would not have been necessary had I been going sendiri. How best to book the trip so that her needs would be met, she’d have a fabulous holiday and would get the most out of her Bali adventure? Why do we do this? Decisions as to type of accommodation and best location, close to shops, near beach, near restaurants, a place that meant I didn’t have to be a constant companion, available and present for each and every activity and wasn’t switched on 24/7. Oh dear, if I thought I was tired before I agreed to this I was certainly pushing the envelope now. Somehow I dredged up the energy and kept telling myself it would be fun, if I managed to bring it all together.

My needs were having my own room - I’m way beyond sharing a room with anyone other than my husband - somewhere with a kitchen/lounge area and flying Business Class as I wanted my holiday to start at the airport. My friend agreed with all of these points. I looked at many different places between Legian and Batu Belig with some very lovely villas available but many with prices that were way beyond what I wanted to pay. One villa property along Jl Beraban was a very strong possibility and I came very close to booking this place with a villa each but in the end I decided somewhere more central to the Kuta/Legian/Seminyak shopping district would be a better option for us both. I became concerned that I would be in the position of having to be a constant companion and minder if we were too out of the way. That demand would have just caved me in. Even so, I was formulating a back-up plan and calculating how much it would cost me in ‘’minders fees’’ to employ some local youth to look after my friend while I enjoyed some serious down time of thinking about and doing absolutely nothing. In the end the Jayakarta became the choice. I have never stayed there before and had always wondered what it was like. A number of people I know have stayed there and been quite happy and so I decided that the time was right to give it a try. Next decision was whether to spend some time in Ubud. I thought it would be nice for my friend to also experience a different part of Bali and gain a broader view than one would otherwise achieve by staying in the one location place. Now if you’re starting to say to yourself that this trip of mine has somehow shifted to being all about my friend, well, what can I tell you? It was perhaps at this point in the process that the thought started to occur very strongly to me also. However, it seemed that it would be fun, with certain limits in place, to enjoy Bali with someone who was experiencing it for the first time. A renewed enthusiasm and fresh approach, notice of things that you no longer saw because they were too familiar and the pleasure of sharing something wonderful and much loved with a friend.

The idea of staying in Ubud was too compelling to ignore, a place everyone should be fortunate enough to experience, absorb and enjoy, to feel the unique energy that exists there, a place I longed to get back to myself. The process of choosing a suitable place to stay started again. With similar considerations to the first part of the holiday and after looking at many properties in various locations, somewhere in the Monkey Forrest Road became the obvious – all the shops, restaurants, market, etc. within easy access to a person on their own with no desperate need of a life-support-companion to be available and on call. After looking at and considering many places I decided, with my friend’s approval, of the Champlung Sari Hotel. Looked lovely in the brochure and at $120 a night each for a superior room it gave the impression of somewhere of a high standard, a bit of affordable luxury.

As we all know there are endless choices and you can go on for ever trying to find the perfect point of compromise between price, location, facilities and amenities, etc. A decision has to be made or it’s never going to be more than a vague plan with no end or outcome. So the plan was decided and agreed upon.

Sound relatively easy? Well, there were a few curved balls which were tossed into the ring that I haven’t yet mentioned. Elements which made the whole process a roller coaster journey of rather strange and unchartered territory for me. I was working hard to keep this ship afloat and learning how to juggle while standing on one leg. It’s interesting how we can extend ourselves that bit further, bit further when we thought we were already at the limit of our endurance. This I was managing to do, amazing myself.

The curved balls were these:

My friend rang at some point during the process to say that she knew someone, “a friend”, who worked in the corporate area of the same travel agent that was doing our bookings. She had already spoken to her “friend” who said that she would look after us, was really interested in getting the business and would give us a much better price. As I’d already been speaking with the person who always does my travel bookings I wasn’t comfortable with playing a bargaining game with two people from the same place and certainly not without “my person” knowing what was going on. So I phoned her and explained the situation, apologised for the direction that it had now taken and expressed my discomfort with it. She was baffled as to how we would be able to get a much better price as they all go through the same wholesalers and unless someone is prepared to forgo their commission on the booking there is no “mate’s rates” special price opportunity hiding under the counter. Well, the thing bounced around between my person and the person my friend’s friend set up at another branch to do the booking. Emails went to my friend, forwarded on to me and phone calls went all over the place. I tried to explain to my friend that the whole thing didn’t make sense and the reasons why a special mate’s rate thing was so unlikely it was bordering on the delusional. No darl, she said, I just didn’t understand and her friend was in the corporate area, blah, blah, blah.

Well, THERE WAS NO SPECIAL DISCOUNT! After all the messing around and the other booking agent getting very frustrated and impatient, me apologising to everyone and my booking agent being very patient and understanding, the price was NO DIFFERENT!

My friend blamed her friend who turned out to be her sister’s friend who she didn’t like very much anyway and now she really didn’t like because she thought she’d been conned. Then my friend wanted to use her father’s Qantas frequent flier points. I explained that she would take three times as long to get to Bali, that her accommodation would have to be paid separately and that we would be on different flights. However I did the research and gave her the details. Meanwhile our reservations were expiring and had to be re-requested. Time was running out. This proved to be a bad plan so we were back to plan A. Then my friend decided she couldn’t fly Business Class so I went back to both booking agents for my friend’s part of the booking to be re-costed. At this point I was trying not to fall on the ground and scream, apologised and grovelled to all involved at unprecedented levels. On the other hand I was starting think that there was a God after all and that I could disappear into the Business Class lounge at the airport, swan onto the plane and have a lovely flight over without a constant stream of white noise in my ears for the entire flight. Call me horrible but part of me was a little pleased. OK, OK, a big part of me.

Time was running critically short and a firm booking locked in and paid for needed to be done. As our bookings were in effect quite separate I decided that I would pay for my, with my agent, and my friend could deal with hers separately. As she was out of radio range on this particular day I was unable to speak with her until late afternoon. I told her I had paid for my trip and that she should do the same as it needed to be finalised. At that point she stopped me and said “before you go on, I’m not going”. Wha?

OK, I now have a plane to catch….seriously…..I’m heading north for two weeks so will continue my story when I return.

Catherine

I could see that coming a mile off, I know a woman just like her.
The consolation is you were sooo better off without her, think how many times you would have wanted to scream and run away from her in Bali when she 'insisted' she knew the better restaurants or ways of getting to a place.
Looking forward to hearing more.

Oh my god I would want to hit her one! cannot wait to hear the rest :)