In a teeming rain, we left the shelter of our hotel in Bali, wondering if we had made a good decision in booking an 18-day circuit around the barren western & southern coasts of Australia, ending in Sydney. Did we??? Well - you decide, by reading my story of our travels....

Let us begin at the very beginning...before Bali...as it takes some doing for an American to even get there. One must start from a jumping off place in the USA & that suggests a 14 to 16 hour flight to either Hong Kong or Singapore from America's west coast, with a follow-on flight to Bali. We flew out of San Francisco & on our flight, a family decided only while on board in the airport that their child wasn't feeling well enough to fly. The poor child was slung over a shoulder & taken out...& there followed a 2+ hour search for the family's luggage which resulted in a delay that made us miss our connection to Bali out of Singapore. We waited 6 hours for a follow-on flight, & so, from the time we left our home in Delaware until we checked into our lovely hotel in Bali - it was 46 hours. You can believe that, as I checked it against my watch.

Bali must be a lovely island & it is inhabited by lovely warm people, who smile & bow to you in such a gracious manner that you wish you weren't so stupid with jet lag & could actually interact with them. We spent two days holed up like honeymooners in a quite lovely room in the Conrad, in a stupefied state trying to figure out who & what we were. Meanwhile, it being January the rain TEEMED down in a way one can only imagine in movies BUT there were still Asian tourists there determined to enjoy the beaches. This proved to us that there is something for everyone in every holiday.... Read more