Still in Bali

Still in Bali
but are leaving tomorrow bound for Nongsa Point Marina in Batam, Indonesia. The trip is approx. 1000 nautical miles
and will take approx. 6-7 days all being well. Unfortunately there is little
wind expected which means motor sailing most of the way. It will be nice to be back on the water
after being in the Bali Marina for the last few weeks. We did manage to leave the boat last
week for a few days in Canggu which was a terrific spot on the west coast of
Bali. To have a villa and pool was
a delight after sweltering in 40 degree heat. We also drove to Ubud to have
lunch with our Swiss friend Sam who we had met earlier in the year – we also
caught up with him and Miriam for dinner near the marina. We have eaten at some
great places in Bali and the food was fabulous – our favourites were Sardine,
Mamasan and Metis. We have met
some lovely people in the Marina – a Norwegian family (parents and 2 children)
who have sailed 17,500 miles since last August – they are heading to Thailand
and we will catch up with them there. Another Swedish couple who have arrived in
Bali (77 years old and 67 years old) – they are great people who have been
sailing for decades and are really amazing. We received
the spare parts on Friday for the bilge pump and bow thruster and have been busy
installing these today and getting ready for our departure. On our way to pick
up the spare parts we were overtaken by a cavalcade of black government vehicles
and then we saw the Australian flags on the back of each car and realised that
it was Julia Gillard here for the Bali Democracy Forum.Greg cannot believe we
had to stop for Julia(you can imagine what he really said!) You’ve gotta love
the lack of security - on the back of each car they had a big sign that said who
was travelling in it eg. SPOUSE, MEDIA – so I hope Tim wasn’t a
target. Nothing is
easy here as we wanted to extend our visa for another 30 days and had planned
with our agent to go to immigration on Friday – unfortunately on Thursday they
advised that the approval process could take 1-2 weeks and we couldn’t leave
Bali until then – so of course it was possible to get it processed in 1 day if
we paid $80 per passport!!! Greg
was happy to pay it so he got out of having to queue at Immigration for hours! I
will be off to the Harbour Master and Customs tomorrow before we are allowed to
leave. |