Lynn family reunion in Jakarta and Bali
Monday 10 July. Went to work in the morning and left about 1 pm. Had lunch, finished packing and were picked up at 3.30 pm and taken to the airport. Altyn Air flight to Dubai at 6.30 pm. We had a little less than six hours to kill as the Jakarta flight was due to leave at 3.30 am.
Tuesday 11 July. On arrival in Jakarta – 6 pm Tuesday by this time – Stephanie fortunately had arranged a ‘meet and greet’. One of our bags – the big one with most of our stuff, two pots of caviar and a bottle of vodka in it had not arrived. Eventually emerged from the airport to be met by Stephanie and Andrew. The Vancouver contingent had arrived on Monday via Singapore. Dinner and a start on getting reacquainted.
Wednesday 12 July. All the kids off to SeaWorld. Lots of phone calls re the missing suitcase. Still in Dubai. Went shopping (the airline had given us US$50 on the spot to compensate for the non-arrival of our bag. Good time in the supermarket stocking up on Thai curry paste, sesame oil, coconut milk powder to take back to Bishkek.
Thursday 13 July. Off to the spa. Balinese full body massages for Rodney and I. Luxurious bliss. Still no suitcase.
Saturday 14. Fly to Bali in Air Asia. Views of the tips of the volcanoes above the cloud layer. We’re met at Denpasar by two cars. First stop at Bali Deli to lunch outdoors then the drive up to the villa at the town of Ubud, Bali’s cultural and craft centre. White Lotus Lodge is gorgeous: a dining room and kitchen building, our sleeping villa with it’s own private outdoor Bali-style bathroom, two other sleeping villas, and an outdoor-indoor living area around a swimming pool in spacious gardens, all surrounded by a wall and set among paddy fields. A staff to wash, clean, shop, cook and make any arrangements for our entertainment. The dining table seats ten - great for our family lunches and dinners.
Sunday15 July. Our suitcase has made it to Denpasar. The caviar and vodka survived the trip.
Monday 16 July. A morning in Ubud visiting the market and lunch in a warang. The kids visit the Monkey Park. The rest of the day enjoying the pool and gardens. A visit to an evening performance in a nearby village of the traditional Balinese Kekut dance.
Tuesday 17 July. Rodney and I join a cycling tour – downhill all the way from the volcano, on back roads through villages and rice paddies, taking in a spice plantation, bamboo basketry and mats, woodcarving, village cremation preparations. In the evening the cook made us blinis and the adults feast on them beside the pool before dinner, with caviar and sour cream washed down with vodka. A merry evening.
Wednesday 18 July. Andrew and family, Rodney and I take a day trip to an island to the south of Bali. The trip across the 17 miles of ocean is quite exciting. Several times we’re soaked in spray. When we get there - glass bottom boat, snorkeling, kayaking, banana-boating.
Thursday 18 July. Corina and I check out the Ubud shops for a last time while Rodney does the internet café and buys bread for lunch. After lunch, bid a sad farewell to White Lotus Lodge and drive to Kubu Villas, at Seminak on the coast. Here we have the open upper floor of a two-storey villa while Stephanie, Paul, Lawren and Ririn have the lower floor. Andrew and family occupy another two-bedroom villa. Each villa is set in lush tropical gardens and has its own pool. Our rose petal bath is waiting. We all breakfast together – all breakfasts start with huge bowls of fresh tropical fruit - and hang out round one pool or another or walk down to the beach.
Friday 19 July. Walk round Seminak. The Balinese handicrafts are hard to resist. Buy peanut sauce for sate and vanilla pods to take home to Bishkek. Tourism is going through hard times because of the bombings and tsunami. Yet another tsunami in Java while we were in Bali. Dinner at the Gado Gado restaurant overlooking the beach with a fabulous view of the sunset. Our last night in Bali.
Saturday 20 July. Air Asia flight back to Jakarta in the afternoon. When we arrive home the pool is sparkling blue and kids and some adults jump in. It’s the last evening in Bali for Rodney and me. Dinner starts with champagne, the last pot of caviar, blinis and sour cream. Paul cooks a great lamb roast in the barbecue and there are strawberries and ice-cream to follow.
Sunday 21 July. After breakfast we pack our suitcases. Today the kids will swim with dolphins at Seaworld – just the three of them and the dolphin trainer in the pool. Home to wash off the fishy smell then to the Four Seasons Hotel for their famous brunch. Rodney, Corina and I opt for the champagne version. It’s a feast. Home and into the pool for pool volleyball. Too soon, we need to leave for the airport.
Sunday, Monday Tuesday. It’s a long haul home, Singapore, Colombo and at last Dubai at 5.30 am Monday. Crash out until lunchtime then get up, shower and walk into the mall – the entrance is direct from the hotel. The Bishkek flight is at 10.30 pm. It’s free seating but fortunately we get exit row seats so Rodney has lots of legroom. Arrive Bishkek Tuesday morning 5.30 am. Ages to get through immigration. So happy to be unexpectedly met by the UCA driver.
A great holiday.
The first night we experienced a yurt camp on the south shore of Issy Kul. I swam in the lake—cold but very clear. It's slightly salty and doesn’t freeze in the winter as they say it is fed by thermal springs. Then we split a bottle of Italian wine a friend had given us and watched the sun set over the lake.
The next day we drove on to Karakol, an old caravanserai town on the Silk Road to China. A detour took us up a gorge into the mountains for a hike from an astronauts recuperation camp in a wide valley reminiscent of Switzerland to a waterfall in the forest.
In Karakol, we were on the same longitude as China—which lay to the south of us over the mountains. The proximity to China and history as a Russian outpost were reflected in the very Chinese-temple looking mosque and a wooden Russian orthodox cathedral, as well as a museum dedicated to the Russian explorer Przewalski- the discoverer of the steppe-land horse that bears his name.
In Karakol, the architecture is very Russian, neat little decorated cottages.
On to the north shore of the lake and one of the Soviet-style sanitoria. A very weird experience, but very popular with Kazakh tourists from Almaty and groups of Russians from Ormsk. It’s actually quite comfortable and has lovely wooded gardens going down to a beach on the lake but is strangely regimented as to the meal times—where you can sit and what you can eat. We passed on the chicken and macaroni for breakfast.
Fortunately, now is the best time of year for fruit and vegetables so we stopped to buy apricots and grapes from roadside stalls. Other stalls sold smoked trout and salmon, but alas no fresh caught.
Another hike took us up into the mountains to the north of the lake. Here, the summer yurts were being dismantled—new snow had just fallen on the mountain tops with a change in the weather and folk were preparing to retreat down the valley for the winter. We were offered some fermented mare’s milk . . .
Back to Bishkek via another landmark on the Silk Route, the restored 11th century Birana Tower and Balasagan citadel. With views from the top of the tower of the Shamsy valley, plains stretching away to east and west and the snow capped mountains to the south, it was perhaps the most evocative of the places we visited—easy to imagine the caravans wending their way through.
