* Tuban Beach and friends,

* the Pantai Restaurant,

* Balihai ducks and flowers,

* You want Beads?

Our real home in Bali is the Balihai Resort and Spa, formerly known as the Holiday Inn before being bought from that chain and re-named, with the staff remaining.

We once were in the habit of spending our entire holiday there, before we began to explore the other parts of the island. It is an area we know very well (and in turn we are known very well in the area) and it is where we still spend the final days of our holidays, last minute shopping for some of us and trying to relax at last for others of us.

Tuban beach from the front of the Pantai Restaurant looking past the Balihai Resort and Spa towards the airport runway extension that reaches out into the Kuta and Jimbaran Bays and up the slopes of the Bukit Peninsula, that dot that hangs on the bottom of Bali when you look at a map.

This really is a nice, safe and fairly natural beach although there are rock walls and concrete groynes down towards the airport. It is protected by the off-shore reef located by the white line of surf that runs across the horizon here.

The jukungs anchored just off-shore are really fishing boats but they also take tourists for a trip around the reef and take surfers out beyond the reef where there are several popular breaks.

Just seen below the centre on the right hand edge is a small breakwater that protects the front of the Pantai and creates a shallow area when the tide is in. It is special at night when the Pantai floodlights shine down across the visiting and local children who play on the beach and in the luminous shallows.

This is the view in the other direction from the Pantai, towards the Ramada Bintang Hotel in the right middle ground (where we have our massages from Mystri and Wayan) and Kuta, Legian and Seminyak beaches across the horizon. The structure that juts above the horizon towards the left of centre is Hackett's Bungy Jump tower in Seminyak.

The faint shadows in the clouds are Mount Batukaru (2271 metres), the closest mountain in the volcanic chain that runs from west to east (left to right in this view) across the entire length of the island.

The front 'bale' (raised platform for relaxing) of the Pantai Restaurant. The open construction is quite common in Bali and allows any cooling breeze to come right in. The corner table right down the far end on the right is our favourite but one we don't manage to get too often as it seems to be everyone else's favourite too.

Its nice for lunch or a cold Bintang in the afternoon but its best at night when the view across the beach is usually highlighted by the twinkling lights of the Jimbaran Bay fishing fleet on the horizon and the winking lights of the aircraft either coming or going.

The Pantai is always the scene of our last dinner in Bali, while we are waiting for one of those planes to take us away again.

How lucky are the staff here?

They enjoy this view with their friends every day, and Fransiskus the manager pays them to endure it!

Papa and friends.

The little boy first took my hand for the walk and a talk. His mother soon joined us and then our friend Adi swung in on the other side.

We all had a drink at the Pantai.

The gardens at the Balihai Resort are always a delight and frequently turn up something new or something just previously un-noticed.

This year, for me at least, it was this group of ducks in their own garden pond.

Ducks are not unusual in Bali, being working birds in many rice fields still, but the one in the foreground was a bit unusual as most are the upright Indian Runner breed, looking most comical with their end tail feathers curled up.

Besides the ducks there are of course the profusion of flowers, from the standards of pink frangipanni - - - -

- - - and Bougainvillea - - - -

-- - - - - as well as ruby Hibiscus - - -

- - - - and pink Hibiscus - - - -

- - - - - and white ones - - - -

- - - that simply serve as hedges.

There are others more exotic - - -

- - - - and ones I don't think I've seen before.

BEADS ARE POPULAR WITH BOTH THE BALINESE AND TOURISTS.

This is just one local shop, Toko Central. ('Toko' means 'shop'.) Toko Central is at N0 105 C-D, Jl Raya Kuta.

It is about a kilometre from the well known Matahari Department store in Kuta. The simplest directions you can give to your driver is to get to Bemo Corner then to proceed over the river bridge (which means a left turn if you approach Bemo Corner down Jl Seminyak - Legian -Kuta). Just after you cross the river the road turns left and heads towards Denpasar but right on the outside of this bend you will see the veranda sign, 'TOKO CENTRAL'. With skill your driver will negotiate the turn across the traffic and you will have arrived in one of Bali's 'Bead Heavens'.

Strangely Toko Central did not have the very popular tubular beads when we were there but we found then in 'OLIVIA SHOP' in Garlic Lane, otherwise known as Sahadewa Street in Legian, N0 1A.

Toko Central as you see it on the bend in Jl Raya Kuta.      Stacks of beads all bagged or skeined. Just point!

Racks and shelves and cascades of beads followed by more beads, and patches and sewing tools and equipment and coins and tokens and - and - and - - - .

You can use this link to go back to our Home Page index - - -

- - - or this one to go straight to the beginning of '2005, the year of the toiletry bags' - -

- - - or this one to go to our Bali Travel Forum Recommendations pages (which will take a while to load as its a big file).

I like my photography (did you notice that?) and if you want to find out what I think I know and what I don't you can use this link.

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