Paradise is Not Lost in Bali.

It’s Alive and Kicking

We flew to Bali on Jan. 17, 2004, for 9 days of glorious relaxation in one of the most beautiful places imaginable—and to help about 30 close friends and extended family relatives of the incomparable Dennis Floyd, Auntie Pat’s witty and fun-to-be-with partner, celebrate his 60^th birthday.

Bali is a popular tropical destination for Australians—akin to the Caribbean islands for many Americans, except 100 times more beautiful. And in spite of the tragic Oct. 12, 2002 bombing at Kuta beach, in which 202 people, including 88 Australians, died, the Indonesian “Spice Island” is starting to make a tourism comeback of sorts. Our Airbus 310 on the 6-hour flight up and back was chock-a-block.

The marathon pro-Dennis pep rally was held at the Ananda Cottages in Ubud, in the foothills of a range of ancient volcanoes in central Bali. The cottages are spacious dwellings made mostly of bamboo, thatch and rattan and situated in the middle of a series of rice paddies surrounded by dense rain forest of stunning beauty. The senses are assaulted by brilliantly-colored flowering trees (red and yellow, mostly), a bubbling brook, blue kingfishers and other tropical birds and endless varieties of exotic tropical plants of all colors imaginable.

We partied a lot, because that was the first order of business. But we also rustled up a car and driver for tours of central Bali villages, some steaming volcanoes, Hindu temples, several art museums and lots of art galleries. Ubud is Bali’s art capital and home to numerous famous European expatriate artists over the years, as well as Indonesia’s own best artists. Virtually every Balinese is an artist. It’s deeply engrained in their culture.

Dennis and Pat treated us all to a night of Balinese dancing by a local troupe of young Balinese girls (11 years old and up) who enthralled us. Pat also organized a huge Balinese feast that included a roasted suckling pig and numerous Balinese dishes. The next day we partied on until Alma and I had to head back to Melbourne in time for our citizenship ceremony.

Now to the pictures:

An unruly mob of celebrants calms down long enough for a pose

Bill seemingly lost in a huge spring-fed pool	Alma hitting the books beside our resort pool
Alma in our room at the Ananda Cottages	The view from our room over rice paddies
Alma and Pat at breakfast	Roadside bamboo arches for Hindu holiday
Alma and Adrienne on a rural driveabout near Ubud	Alma at one of several Ubud art museums
Alma, driver Wayan and Bill (in sarong) at Hindu temple	Balinese farmer and his water buffalo in rice paddy
Alma and Adrienne at the Holy Water Temple	At a steaming volcano at Batur in central mountains
Alma, Pat, David, Leanne and Geoffrey at “drinkies”	Sabina, Katherine, David and Sally at drinkies
Alma, Ron and Robyn chat it up at party	Katherine and Geoffrey discuss Geoff’s scalp
Dennis, Sabina and Pat in Balinese attire	Balinese dancers (framed by Pat and Dennis’ heads)
A night of Balinese dancers was memorable for all	Bill posing with some of the Balinese dancers
11-year-old dancers (who start at age 4)	Look who came to dinner—a suckling pig
The feast to celebrate Dennis’ 60^th birthday	Bill and Alma get tucked into Balinese feast
Robert and Jim do some speechifying for Dennis	Guests raise a toast to a lovely and generous friend
Dennis makes a speech-- short and sweet as is his wont	Geoffrey reads from his cryptic notes made during memorable journeys abroad with Dennis and Pat

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