In order to get from the Sunshine Coast to my next assignment in Melbourne I had to fly to Sydney, pick up a car and drive to Greensborough near Melbourne.  Car rental is very reasonable and so is petrol.  Also in a country where the car is essential for getting around just like in the US renting the smallest car there is will get you a large car by European standards with all mod cons although in my case not GPS which did lead to some difficulty getting around.  Google maps only works if you set it up when you have Wifi so I had to resort to my ancient Samsung which got me to where I was going in the end.

My first stop was Wagga Wagga and due to various delays at Sydney Airport I got there after dark.  Driving through the completely parched landscape in Spring time was sobering as there’s been a drought for years now and farmers have been very badly hit.  You often see notices in shops that prices are being raised due to the drought and last week they had a televised music festival to raise money for farmers – Hay Mate. The landscape in Queensland was lush and green in comparison although that was along the coast and it may have been just as bad further inland.  Wagga Wagga turned out to be a pretty affluent place with nice shops and restaurants although finding something to eat at 9.30 pm proved to be difficult – I had to beg the barman and he did manage to find me something.

My next stop was Bendigo – now you may ask why? – well a knitting friend had told me there was a Mill there and that it was a nice little old town.  Being a knitter that proved enough for me to make a detour.  Bendigo was indeed a much older place than Wagga Wagga but not as up and coming.  It reminded me very much of those mill towns in New Hampshire which have fallen on hard times.  Judging by the signs for wool, shearing equipment and such things it may indeed have been a mill town but probably not anymore.  Apparently it was also a gold town so both of those things have gone it seems.  The Bendigo Wollen Mill is still in operation but their output was not very inspiring for a keen knitter other than the fact that they had yarn in just about every colour shading you would want.  There was also a cute old fashioned tramline you could take into town.  The town centre was pretty deserted.  This may have been something to do with the fact that it was now 37C and that everything closed at 5.30pm.  I managed to find what looked like the coolest place in town to eat before heading for Melbourne.

I visited the Sunshine Coast 30 years ago with my very good friend Olaug at a similar time of year.  We drove from Rockhampton (having visited Great Keppel Island) to Brisbane which probably took about 5 days with stops.  We got to Noosa and stayed in a hostel and I remember that we were very put out as it rained!  Not something we were prepared for.  Anyway we had done quite a lot of riding near London so decided that it would be a fun thing to do.  The stables was called Clip Clop and we went on an amazing 2 hour ride on horses that weren’t shod – I was very surprised as I thought that all horses had to be shod as I had never seen this before in Norway or England.  We rode through Lake Weyba and I have a wonderful photo of us looking like we were riding on water.

Anyway 30 years later I suggested to Peggy that we might do this again and although Clip Clop no longer existed there was a new place called Noosa Horse Riding which were doing very similar rides so we signed up.  It was a wonderful ride in glorious sunshine and we rode through the lake in the same way that I had done 30 years before.  The horses were beautifully well kept and were not shod either.  Mine was called Ken and was a previous trotter so had a looong stride when we trotted through the forest although he didn’t like water so was not happy when we had to do that.

It’s quite a strange thing to recreate your holiday after 30 years.  It’s not something I thought I would ever do.  It brings back all kinds of memories of the trip.  It was only the 2nd time that I went on a long haul holiday.  I don’t count the 4 years I spent in the US.  The best thing about it is that Olaug and I are still close friends after so many years!

Here are some photos from 2018:

I have waited quite a few days before updating the blog about  my arrival in the Sunshine Coast so that I could soak up the atmosphere.  The fact that I’m here is due to Peggy, a home swapper from Florida, whom I have known for many years and who is house sitting for 3 months near Lake Kawana.  We met up in Amsterdam and London last summer and she suggested that I come join her for a couple of weeks and now here I am.  I am staying in an apartment right on the lake – the view is beautiful – only 20 minutes’ walk from the beach.  The beach is stunning – miles of white sand and surf breaks and hardly any people particularly during the week but even at the weekend there’s so much beach it would take an awful lot of people to make it look even vaguely populated.  The apartment building is a mixture of retirement and medical professionals as it’s is right in the middle of a very large medical university campus with several specialist services and at least a couple of hospitals.  The rest of the area seems to be devoted to small businesses servicing the large property developments springing up along the coast.  It’s pretty bland with strip malls lining the main roads and enormous stores selling BBQs, outdoor gear, furniture and fitness centres.  It reminds me very much of the Florida coast with tropical vegetation and climate although the birds and occasional wild life is very different.  The bird calls are exotic and the birds much more colourful.  We see the occasional kangaroo and once met a water dragon walking along the pavement – obviously lost but exciting nonetheless.

So far I have managed to do most of the things that would be of interest – whale watching, Glass Mountains (although it rained so much I have to go back as I couldn’t see anything), horse riding (more of which later), beach days, quirky museums that were mainly about themselves, Oktoberfest (waste of time and money) and lazy days at home.  Because I’m staying in someone’s home it feels a bit like living here so I’m trying to get into the vibe of the Sunshine Coast.  The food and drink (beer and wine) are outstanding and not expensive although we tend to cook at home.

I have been to many yoga classes over the years but have never really been bitten by the bug.  I often end up in more pain afterwards either through my own inability to recognise my limits or the inexperience of the instructor.

An old friend I met up with in the summer suggested that I go for something a bit more meditative so while in Ubud I decided to take a couple of classes at Yogabarn.  This place is a mecca for people who like yoga.  The site itself is beautiful, spilling down the hill in structures that look like they have evolved organically.  The cost of a class is pretty good at IRD 130.000/class.  You can buy a pass as well which makes it even cheaper.  I decided to go with Yin Yoga which sounded gentle enough for me.  The first class was taught by Danielle who stood in for Carlos who was at the hospital with a sick friend.  She was very spiritual and also a very good yoga teacher explaining everything very carefully and she made sure I didn’t injure myself.  “We are all sacred mirrors” was what she said – not sure what that meant but it made sense at the time -😊.

The next class was Yin Yoga with healing taught by EKA who was standing in for Tina who had a family emergency and had to return to Australia – spot a pattern here?

This class was very different but had the same elements of holding gentle (and for me possible) poses for 2-3 minutes.  The healing bit was done with tennis balls – a first for me!  I emerged suitably relaxed and ran into a fellow CISV traveller – Sayaka from Japan – who was doing the same class.  We then went out and had a large Bintang (beer) which probably ruined all the Yin in the yoga.

There are 2 activities that I have enjoyed here that I want to share although one of them is more like a non-activity!

Cooking class

There are loads of people offering cooking classes with a visit to the large local market outside Ubud so it’s difficult to choose unless you have a recommendation.  I went with one that AirBnb had as an experience.  It certainly lived up to expectations.  Ayu runs a Balinese cooking experience in her traditional family compound – her husband is a traditional healer.  We were 11 people – a motley crew you might say although perhaps typical for the people here in Ubud – a French couple on honeymoon, 2 Aussie mid-40s gals, a young Chinese couple who spoke fluent American English – possibly from HK?, 3 American “students” (they refused to tell us which school they were at – vaguely indicating that it was in Northern California – they looked older than normal college students – no idea what that was all about), Matilde from Stavanger, Norway living in Crouch End, basically 10 minutes from my house in London ( a la travel the world to meet the boy next door, he was E, I was F, Liza Minnelli (Google it) in Bali with her Kiwi boyfriend and his parents) and me.

We were taught traditional Balinese dishes – quite a number – and then got to eat them at the end.  Auy also gave us a great insight into family and village life in a traditional Balinese community and seemed really genuine.  We got all the recipes and I will definitely have a go at home as living in London I’m actually able to get all the ingredients although Auy did offer us substitutes.  I also gave me a good idea of what to order in a restaurant.  I asked the Chinese man at the end if he was going to cook any of this and his was reply was: “No, I just enjoy eating!”

Ayu said that being on AirBnb had transformed her business and that she was building another kitchen so that she could accommodate larger groups.  At the moment her maximum is 12.  I’m glad I go there before it was finished as I appreciated the personal touch which I think she’s going to find hard keeping up with 2 kitchens.

 

Spa Day

I decided to go with a relaxing spa package at one of the most venerable hotels in Ubud – Hotel Tjampuhan.  It’s where one of the most well-known artists in Bali, a German painter called Walter Spies who kick started a major upswing in the Balinese art scene from the 1930s onwards, lived.  The hotel is set overlooking the Campuhan gorge with a rushing river at the bottom and the spa is outside just on the river bank.  I had a traditional Balinese massage followed by a body scrub and flower bath all skilfully administered by Sari. I was then allowed to spend another 2 hours in their spa. The massage was bloody painful to say the least as my back has been playing up ever since I got here (too much walking around and not doing my exercises).  I was also persuaded to buy something called Bora which is a traditional spice mixture to relieve pain that you smear on your body – who knows.

I had booked a tour with Peggy’s friend Made who has his own private driver business.  It was a pretty standard tourist tour with everything that entails these days – lots of tourists fighting for the one Instagram photo that everyone wants!  I would not want to be here in high season.  I do get that to the Balinese this is serious business but I do wonder whether they are “wearing out” what they have.  Maybe the time will come when they will actually have to limit visitors in the same way that other places are talking about – even in Norway which has seemingly limitless space.

I guess I am  very spoilt traveller and the reason I always go somewhere I have friends is that I get to have the local experience rather than the tourist one.  I also realise that it’s much more important to me now to just be here without rushing round to see everything. Made was a lovely guy and I highly recommend him – see his link.  I enjoyed chatting to him about his life here and when he worked on a cruise ship travelling the world.

The best thing about the tour was in fact the most surprising.  I was moved to tears by the purification ritual at Tirta Tempul.  I wished for Julia’s pain to go away and realised how tough the last couple of years have been for both of us.

So following on from the fun and games at the IMF conference I decided to skip out early and decamp to Ubud instead.  It’s low season here so it’s quite hot but the weather has been beautiful so far.  The streets are quite choked up with cars and scooters but when you go into the shops and restaurants it’s actually quite empty.  Apparently people have been scared off by the earthquakes and the tsunami.

The Agung Rai Art Museum was really good – amazing collection of modern Balinese art – an oasis of calm with very few people.  Lunch at the Yogabarn was a strange mixture of vegan and macrobiotic to which you can add chicken???and full of beautiful young people with taut bodies in tight fitting yoga outfits – oh well maybe I’ll take a class later.

Dinner was another strange affair in the local vegetarian warung (with a full meat menu of course).  The food was very good – proper home cooking according to the one other diner there – a Bangladeshi who claimed to have worked for the UN but was now doing very little – I did wonder what he was actually up to.

I can now reveal the real reason for my trip to Bali.  I am attending the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – in other words a date with Christine Lagarde!  It has been very difficult to keep this secret so far but I can finally spill the beans.  Christine and I are going to be comparing our hair colouring regime over an intimate lunch in Denpasar.  I am sooo looking forward to this.  For those of you who know how committed I am to Economics and the forecasting of the state of health of the worlds major players this is a real treat.  Meltdown – what meltdown? Never mind the increased level of my personal mountain of debt – I am too big to fail!

 

So I’m packing for my next big adventure – that’s the theory anyway.  I love travelling and am always planning at least 2 trips ahead.  This one has been on the cards for a while now and it’s getting really close!  I’m spending 9 days in Bali on my way to meet up with my friend Peggy on the Sunshine Coast in Australia.   I will try to keep you updated along the way.

London->Oslo->Copenhagen->Doha->Bali – and that’s just the flight!  What you do just to travel business on a budget…