It is true, from the moment that you step of the plane everyone in Bali seems to be smiling. This is not our first trip to Bali, we know it well.
It’s a warm tropical kind of smile that only really seems to occur here.
This time, for the first time, we stayed at Villa Bugis in Seminyak, close enough to all the lovely restaurants, shopping and nightlife but far enough away to enjoy a little serenity as well. We travelled to Bali to celebrate one of our friends’ 50th Birthday along with a group of our closest friends. An all too quick four days away.
There’s a distinct smell of clove cigarettes as you walk into the humid air past all the guys trying to offer you transport to your accomodation, our driver leads the way.
The gardens surrounding our villas were lush and filled with the heady scents of Frangipani and Gardenias. The structural beauty of giant Heliconias and colourful Crotons and perfectly pruned palms and lots of verdant green lawn around the long warm water pool.
Stepping outside the villa and we were surrounded by rice paddies and small vegetable gardens as well as green spaces filled with green vegetation and lots of singing frogs. many of the open air restaurants face out onto rice paddies, reminding diners that flat space is at a premium and it is al being used every square metre.
Bali is a very special place, the people are friendly and deeply spiritual, they are not wealthy in material ways, and yet they seem so much happier than so many with lives filled with stuff! It is highly likely that while out for a morning stroll you will come across a ceremony taking place, now that’s a surprise you will want to see again and again.
