- The Journey Begins – The 2018 Grand World Voyage
- Leaving San Diego for Fort Lauderdale
- Arriving in Fort Lauderdale and our first day
- Fort Lauderdale – Day 2
- Day 1 – The Adventure Begins
- Day 2 – Our First Sea Day – Abba Fabulous!
- Day 3, Georgetown, Grand Cayman
- Day 4, At Sea En Route Puerto Limon (San Jose), Costa Rica
- Day 5, Puerto Limon, Costa Rica
- Day 6, Transit the Panama Canal
- Day 7, Fuerte Amador, Panama
- Day 8, At Sea
- Day 9, At Sea
- Day 10, At Sea
- Day 11, At Sea
- Day 12, At Sea
- Day 13, At Sea – Enroute to Nuku Hiva
- Day 14, At Sea, Enroute to Nuku Hiva
- Day 15, At Sea – Enroute to Nuku Hiva
- Day 16, Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia
- Day 17, At Sea
- Day 18, Avatoru, Rangiroa, French Polynesia
- Day 19, Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia
- Day 20, Mooera, French Polynesia
- Day 21, Bora Bora, French Polynesia
- Day 22 – At Sea
- Day 23, Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
- Day 24, At Sea
- Day 25 – Alofi, Niue
- Day 26 – At Sea – Crossed Dateline – Jan 29th GONE!
- Day 27 – At Sea
- Day 28 – At Sea
- Day 29 – Auckland, NZ
- Day 30 – Tauranga – 3 Feb 2018
- Day 31 – Napier
- Day 32, At Sea – Super Bowl Monday
- Day 33, Port Chalmers, Dunedin
- Day 34, Fjordlands National Park – Milford Sound
- Day 35 – At Sea – Enroute Sydney
- Day 36 – At Sea
- Day 37 – Sydney, Australia
- Day 38 – Sydney, Australia
- Day 39 – At Sea
- 2020 World Cruise Possibilities
- Day 40, Hobart, Tasmania
- Day 41, At Sea
- Day 42, At Sea
- Day 43 – Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
- Day 44 – Adelaide, South Australia
- Day 45 – At Sea
- Day 46 – At Sea
- Day 47 – Albany, Western Australia
- Day 48 – 21 Feb Perth
- Day 49 – Perth Yarn Crawl
- Day 50 – At Sea
- Day 51 – At Sea
- Day 52 – At Sea
- Day 53 – Benoa, Bali
- Day 54 – Benoa – Bali
- Day 55 – At Sea
- Day 56 – At Sea
- Day 57 – At Sea
- Day 58, Puerto Princesa
- Day 59, – At Sea
- Day 60, Manila, Philippines
- Day 61, Manila, Philippines
- Day 62 – At Sea
- Day 63 – Hong Kong
- Day 64, Hong Kong
- Day 65 – At Sea
- Day 66 – At Sea
- Day 67 – Phu My, Vietnam
- Day 68 – Siem Reap (ms Amsterdam at Sea)
- Day 69 – Siem Reap
- 2020 World Cruise – w/detailed dates
- Day 70 – Singapore
- Day 71 – At Sea
- Day 72 – Phuket
- Day 73 – At Sea
- Day 74 – At Sea – Enroute to Sri Lanka
- Day 75 – Columbo, Sri Lanka
- Day 76 – At Sea – Enroute to the Seychelles
- Day 77 – At Sea
- Day 78 – At Sea
- Day 79 – Victoria, Seychelles
- Day 80 – At Sea
- Day 81 – At Sea
- Day 82 – St Denis – Reunion Island
- Day 83 – At Sea
- Day 84 – At Sea
- Day 85 – At Sea
- Day 86 – Maputo – Safari Day 1
- Day 87 – Kambaku River Sands – Safari Day 2
- Day 88 – Kambaku River Sands – Safari Day 3
- Day 89 – Kambaku River Sands – Safari Day 4
- Day 90 – Cape Town, South Africa
- Day 91, Cape Town, South Africa
- Day 92 – At Sea
- Day 93, Walvis Bay, Namibia
- Day 94 – At Sea
- Day 95 – At Sea
- Day 96 -Luanda, Angola
- Day 97 – At Sea
- Day 98 – At Sea
- Day 99 – Crossing the Equator
- Day 100 – At Sea
- Day 101 – At Sea
- Day 102 – Banjul, Gambia
- Day 103 – Dakar, Senegal
- Day 104 – At Sea
- Day 105, Praia – Cape Verde
- Day 106 – At Sea
- Day 107 – At Sea
- Day 108 – At Sea
- Day 109 – At Sea – April 23, 2018
- Day 110 – At Sea
- Day 111 – San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Day 112 – At Sea
- Day 113 – At Sea
- Day 114 – Fort Lauderdale
- 2018 World Cruise Entertainers
Day 53 – 26 Feb Benoa, Indonesia
Benoa, Bali
We slid into Benoa Harbor before 7 AM, gliding past fisherman in motorized outriggers and buoys marking the channel. Nice and cool at the moment, but you could feel the humidity and once the sun rose in the sky the temperatures would turn this pleasant morning into a sauna.
Our plan for today is for seven of us to take a private van we chartered thru Bali Safest Driver (More HERE) and go to Tegallalang Rice Terrace, the Monkey Forest Preserve in Ubud and spend a few hours exploring UBUD with a stop for lunch along the way. The price for a 13 passenger Toyata Hiace was about $70 for the day including a driver and an English-speaking guide. This is an incredible value and you should always consider this option for your day in Bali.
Welcome to Bali
The ship was cleared quickly, and our group was off the ship a little before 9 AM to meet our driver. A small group of costumed dancers with a Balinese band greeted us on the wharf and happily posed for pictures.
Once inside the terminal we had to have our bags/purses X-Rayed, apparently looking for contraband of some sort. We didn’t receive the warnings about bio security or removing food from the ship, so I assume that it is OK, but I didn’t ask.
Bali Safest Driver
A relatively small parking lot outside the cruise terminal is fenced off from a small tourist market and a larger parking lot with access to the city. In this first parking lot you will find all the HAL tour buses and a handful of people selling taxi rides and tours. If you arranged a private tour in advance, as we did, your van will be in the larger parking lot, maybe 50 yards away, outside the immediate cruise ship area. As you enter this larger area, you will be solicited by a small crowd of drivers trying to sell tours, but you will spot a dozen or so people holding up signs with passenger’s names. Asking anyone to help locate your driver is futile as they don’t know, and they will only try to sell you their tour once they have your attention. Keep moving and you will eventually find your name on a sign.
We quickly located our guide, Sri, who was holding a sign with my name, and she led us to a Toyota Hiace with our driver Bali. They drive on the left side of the road here, but after being in New Zeland and Australia for the past month, it no longer seems unusual.
More about Sri HERE
Batik Factory
While only 25 miles away, north of the harbor, it takes about 90 minutes to get to the Tegallalang Rice Terraces. On the way to Tegallalang our guide asked if we wanted to stop at a local Batik factory – AKA shopping stop – and we said OK, knowing full well that we would find a small demonstration area adjacent to a large gift shop. We didn’t mind since we agreed to the stop and were interested in perusing the various souvenir offerings and getting a feel for the pricing in a location where the prices were more fixed than you would find elsewhere. We arrived here about 10:15 and left at 11:00 AM.
Tegallalang Rice Terrace
The Tegallalang Rice Terrace is one of many similar rice terraces you will find throughout Bali. We arrived here about noon. There isn’t any place for our driver to park so he dropped us off near the entrance and would come back later when we were ready to leave. The terraces were created as a result of an irrigation technique called ‘subak’ which creates a stepped landscape. Each of the small terraced plots is privately owned and no single person owns the entire terrace.
NOTE: Bali is organized into hundreds of small villages, with about 500 to 1000 people in each village. The villages aren’t political bodies but more akin to a HOA in the USA. The villages establish local cultural norms and can collectively organizes certain activities and manage certain activities – like these rice terraces. Everyone is born into a particular village and while you may move to a different village and live there, you will always be a member and maintain some allegiance to your home village. This information was provided to me by our guide and I may have missed some of the details of nuance of this organization.
We didn’t see a formal ticket booth for the terraces, but our guide directed me to a man wearing a yellow vest who collected our 10,000 IDR per person admission. We didn’t ask if they accepted US Dollars, but I would have local money available for this and other small purchases.
NOTE: We changed about $100 into IDR and used local money for all our cash purchases. Most establishments you will visit in the tourist areas will accept credit cards and would probably accept USD or Australian Dollars as well. We did stop in one fabric shop that did not cater to tourists and they would not accept USD or credit cards. They were willing to see a $50 USD purchase walk out the door rather than accept anything other than IDR. If you are going to visit any area not on the normal tourist path, be prepared with IDR for any purchases.
Some of the activities here include walking around the terraces, posing for pictures holding traditional rice baskets or riding on a giant swing. There was a nice café at the top of the terrace with an amazing view and we spent some time here rather than more time walking down the terraces and then back up. You can see everything most people will want to see without going more than 100 feet from the entrance to the rice terrace.
We left after 30 minutes which was plenty of time unless you wanted to spend more time hiking around, in which case you could easily stay here an hour or longer.
Balinese Lunch
Our original plan was to go the Monkey Forest first and then get dropped off in the center of Ubud for lunch. Sri suggested we go to lunch first, then shop in Ubud and visit the Monkey Forest on the way back to Benoa. Even though the Monkey Forest is only about 1 mile south (toward Benoa) of Ubud it still takes about 20 minutes to drive there and since it was open until 6 PM we would avoid backtracking.
We asked Sri to select a lunch spot with authentic Balinese food and she selected a place called Warung Makan “Bu Rus” which was within easy walking distance of central Ubud. The driver had to stay with the van and would eat on his own, but we insisted that Sri join us for lunch. After staring at the menu for a bit, we asked Sri to order everything for the group and we would all share. Local beer and Coca Cola were available in addition to some fruit juices.
There were 8 of us and Sri ordered 8 different dishes which arrived promptly. Here are some of the dishes we enjoyed:
- Nasi Campur (Fried Rice)
- Mie Goreng (Fried Noodles)
- Bihun Goreng (Fried Corn Noodles)
- Chicken Satay (Chicken Stick BBQ)
- Pork Satay (Pork Stick BBQ)
- Babi Kecap (Sweet Pork Chop)
Throughout lunch, Sri discussed more about life in Bali and answered our numerous questions. The total for our entire meal, including beverages, was 475,000 IDR or about $35 USD or $5 per person.
Ubud Walkabout
We finished lunch around 2:15 PM and walked a couple of short blocks to the center of Ubud where we split up and agreed to meet at a nearby café named Kopi Bali Express at 4 PM. Ubud is located in the uplands of Bali and is known as its cultural capital where you will find art galleries, museums, and temples. You could easily spend several days here exploring. It pays to research your options in advance. Judy and I walked down one street and back up the other and enjoyed seeing all the different items available for sale.
Monkey Forest
Our group assembled at 4 PM and headed off to the Monkey Forest where the admission was 100,000 IDR (About $7.50) per person. Once inside, you will find that the Macaque monkeys are everywhere and despite the signs warning you that they may steal anything not tied down, they will leave you alone unless you have a banana or a visible water bottle. Bunches of bananas were available for sale for 50,000 IDR (About $3.75) per bunch which had about 7-8 bananas.
Once you had your banana, you would stand still and hold the banana up over your head and wait until a Monkey scampered up your side and sat on your shoulder or head and munched on your banana. We had a great time with our bananas and we got some great pictures and the monkeys didn’t take anything except the bananas. Even if you are not interested in having a monkey climb on you, its fun to watch the monkeys scamper around and jump on the other tourists. We spent about 30 minutes here which was plenty of time before heading back toward Benoa around 5 PM.
Luwak Coffee
We stopped at a tourist coffee place called Teba Sari which sells the very expensive Luwak Coffee (about $90 a pound for beans). This is a very popular stop and most tours will end up stopping here at one point or another. If you are interested in tasting the Luwak Coffee you can try a cup for about $4 USD. Judy enjoys their Lemon Grass tea and bought 2 kilos to take back home. She hasn’t been able to find it anywhere else.
Cantika Busana
After 15 minutes we headed off to a local fabric shop called Cantika Busana which sold beautiful lace fabric for the traditional woman’s lace tops. Judy bought some gold lace to make a Kebaya when she gets home. This is the shop that I mentioned earlier that didn’t take USD or credit cards – local currency only.
After a long day we returned to Benoa Harbor about 7 PM and said our goodbyes to our excellent guide and driver, Sri and Bali.
Back on the ship
Dinner tonight continued with an Indonesian theme and I chose the Beef and Chicken Satay and Indonesian Style Laksa Soup for starters followed by the Beef Sumatra for the main.
Balinese Dance Show
There was only one show this evening at 9:30 PM. Barbara was standing in for Hamish and she introduced a local Balinese Dance Group which featured several traditional dances: the welcome dance, the warrior dance, the Balinese Oleg Tamulilingan and the bird dance of Cendrawasih. The costumes were gorgeous and the dancing superb. A perfect way to end the perfect day in Bali.
This entry was posted in 2018 Grand World Voyage, Bali, Indonesia