Bali.. Legian beach and the off road trip around the villages

After slogging for almost half a year, it was time to let loose.. We were kinda "cheated" cos our flight was postponed to late in the evening.. and by the time we arrived at Bali, it was 1030pm at night..


Our superb airport in the background.. I never appreciated it so much till I arrived at the Bali airport.. the most run down, poorly managed airport I'd ever seen..

It was pitch black when we arrived in Bali, as well as the hotel.. We were quite let down cos the hotel was not even hotel like.. the room looked just like the costa sands chalet room.. and they called it a 4 Star Hotel.. The streets outside the hotel looked horrid too when we were on our way in..

After looking around the hotel the next morning, we did not feel that bad anymore.. it was more like a resort.. less of a hotel.. it was nice to have the beach right outside the hotel..

We lived in a hotel with mostly Australians.. only a handful were Asians, let alone Singaporeans.. At breakfast, this particular Singaporean couple kept giving us wierd and cold stares.. It's such a shame...

We booked a buggy adventure tour on our 3rd day there.. it took us almost 2 hours to get there..a remote village far away from the hotels and tourists..We booked the tour without much expectations, and we only knew that it was gonna be a ride on the off road buggy, as seen below..

I was glad I did not have to drive. The dirt road had holes soo deep that the entire ride was bumpy and dirty.. It was fun though, and Trav deary, being the driver, kept me at ease..

We drove in a row,with some other Australian tourists around the villages in that area.. what made this extra special was having mud and dirt flying and splashing at your face and body every few minutes...Our clothes, shoes and entire body had so much dirt on it, I felt as though I had just returned from a field camp.

Im not the kind who complain and whine when my manicure is ruined by all that dirt.. (my nail polish did chip off, and my shoes and socks were soaked with mud),but who cares?? In fact, I loved it!!

We passed by a few villages with many kids.. this was probably the most touching and heart wrenching part of the adventure tour. The kids were so enthusiastic upon seeing us approaching.. They smiled,waved and even stuck out their hands to give us a high five..The Australians brought along some jelly for the kids.. had we known more about the tour, we would have bought truckloads of gifts for the kids too! (Since we were only visiting various supermarts and hypermarts most of the time the day before)

We managed to stop over at a spot in one of the villages.. All the kids ran towards us to greet us. They came with no expectations of gifts or money. They came, purely with the intention to welcome us to their village, with the warmth of their smiles..

One of them cheekily shouted "Good Morning!" and ran away laughing, probably feeling shy with his limited vocabulary of English. The other kids burst out laughing at that boy, with such pure innocence and genuinity.. They were probably wanting to greet us in the same way too!

I felt guilty for not having any gifts for them, but what touched me most was their unassuming nature..After accepting the jelly from the other tourists, they came towards Trav and I, smiling happily even though they knew we had not brought them anything.. I'm sure a majority of our Singaporean kids would sulk at us if this were to happen here..

These kids came a little too late.. we had run out of jellies to give away.. but still, they greeted us with warm smiles..Even after realising the other kids had jellies and they did not, these kids did not sulk or fight with the others over it.. These are the ones who truly understand the meaning of happiness..out of simplicity...

something that many of us here will never comprehend..

The off road adventure made a difference to our Bali trip.. nothing about Bali made me wanna go back again (not the beach, nor the hotel, nor the shopping, the food..) If we ever head back to Bali, it would definitely be for the purpose of bringing gifts to the pple at the villages..