Day X, Day Y, Day 'Dave'

It's been a whole 8 days and there's been no sign of an update on the blogosphere. I say that's poor form on your behalf, I blame teaching, Elise, Balinese culture and your awesome awesome villa...

Hello world, it's Dave here, writing the blog on Kate's behalf now that I'm finally here to share the tail end of her trip! She tells me that she's been totally flat out with her teaching duties and just having a great time with Elise as soon as she gets home from the Starfish Language Centre. I'll fill you in on the details and the 'goings on' of today, as for the rest of the week that has been omitted, I think Kate just simply cannot recall the events of her endless nights at this so called 'CP Lounge'.

The 5 hour flight over had no dramas for me, infact I had a bit of time to think about what I would potentially write for my debut on Frangipani & Clove. Below is a little memo of what events I thought would unfold when I landed:

What causes more of a problem with travel, scattered embers of volcanic ash in the air, or the congestion of the common cold?
Just as Kate had a travel scare before her departure to Bali, I too had one, as I became struck down with sickness 3 days before my holiday. You might argue that the severity of my circumstances wasn't as extreme as Kate's, but still... being sick surely sucks!


I've loaded up on cold n' flu tablets to help remedy this situation, in fact, I've probably got enough to tick 'yes' to declare possession of narcotics and substances! Hopefully customs won't question it (and they didn't), I don't speak Bahasa at all. 


As channel [V] provides the soundtrack to my flight, I can't help but wonder about the safety of my new Cole Clark acoustic guitar in the cargo hold. I only bought it 3 days ago, and if it breaks, well it's my own fault as I brought it along "at my own risk". And who knows, you might just get a song about it, much like this dude wrote.


Meeting Kate at Ngurah Rai International Airport will be a memory to treasure for many years to come. After spending almost a month apart from each other, I've learnt that I can survive on my own, but what would be the point if you've got no one to share it with? I've been looking forward to catching up with her and nitpicking her brain to see what she's learnt about teaching, learning, independence, identity, confidence, and most of all, living.


And I saw just that.

Kate has acclimatised herself to the culture here fantastically. I've found myself worrying about little things that she just shrugs off her shoulders, like having the right amount of money to pay the cab driver, what to do with keys at homestay houses etc. Her Indonesian is becoming more fluent as she talks to the locals. She is confident with knowing her way around Bali. She has been telling me about her communication skills with the kids at the language centre. She has learnt a tonne of things that she couldn't learn back home just yet. and I'm really proud of her :)

Anyhow... so where was I? Ah yes! My flight.

So Kate and I meet up at the airport and we hop into her drivers car and go straight to Kuta beach for a fun day spent with Ina, Blue and Sadam. We spent the day wallowing in the shore of the beach, playing beach volleyball and getting ourselves some henna tattoos. Kate got a pretty butterfly on her ankle and I got a nasty scorpion on my left arm. They'll exist for a few weeks, so you'll be able to see em when we get home. The sun at the point was beaming down hard on the beach, which set us in to fatigue mode, so we said our goodbyes to the others (followed by a "we'll see you at CP tonight") and got a driver to take us to Ubud. I severely underestimated the distance between Kuta and Ubud, as it took us around an hour to get there. The drive built up the suspense of seeing the villa for the first time (for me at least), and it was well worth the wait. This villa is 5 star luxury in the middle of the equivalent of Oodna Datta! Such an amazing atmosphere with sights, sounds and energy that is like no other tourist area of Bali. The words and pictures that Kate has posted thus far certainly do not capture the essence of what this place really feels like as it could almost be described as a 'money can't buy' holiday destination (if that makes any sense).

So after a nice swim in the private pool, we find ourselves (finally) up to date with the 'goings on' here in Bali. If Kate has the energy, she will definitely post another update real soon, but otherwise, you'll be hearing from me again very soon :)