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| This is a view of the pool and the sea at the exquisite private home we'll be renting in 2016. |
It's hard for us to believe that today's post is #700. In some ways, it seems as if this should be #7000. We've experienced so much since our first post on March 14, 2012. Click here to read post #1 which is one of our favorites.In the early days, we posted few photos when we'd yet to own a good camera or know how to take a post-worthy photo. As time marched on, after we left Minnesota on October 31, 2012 and later left the US on January 3, 2013, gradually we came to realize that photos were a vital part of this form of communication.
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| View of the house from the water. |
It took awhile for us to finally post each day and to include at least a few photos in each post. Now, we never miss a day or a day with photos unless its a travel day without Internet access, a rarity in this world.
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| The infinity pool. Note the cabanas at the far side of the pool. Perfect for after sun relaxing. |
Speaking of photos, today we're excited to share the photos of our latest booking which may prove to be the last booking for awhile when we're set for the upcoming almost two years.
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| Facing the house from the lawn. We're unable to see the pool in this photo due to its infinity edge. |
We're going to Bali! Who goes to Bali? We've rented a four bedroom, four and a half bath villa, obviously more room than we'll need but, without a doubt, we'll treasure every moment while we're there.The only people I've ever known who have gone to Bali are ambitious newlyweds, young people with the patience and stamina for the long trip from the US, the costly airfare averaging at US $2000 per person, EU $1465.31, taking from 27 to 42 hours with 2 to 4 layovers, plus the cost of a hotel, meals, tips, rental car and incidentals.
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| There are multiple areas for lounging by the pool. |
However, we'll already be in Perth, Australia at the end of our cruise on April 28, 2016 and the round trip cost for us will be US $463 per person at 3 hours and 40 minutes, non-stop. How could we not go to Bali? When will it ever be this easily accessible?
The challenge was in finding an affordable place to live. In addition we had to face the reality of getting a visa for Bali which is tricky. At most, we can get 60 days at immigration at the airport. However, if we hire a visa agent in advance, we may be able to get a retiree's visa for a longer period. It's too soon to apply for that now so we'll wait until we're closer to the time of our visit.
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| Each day, we'll have to decide where we'd like to lounge with many options by the pool. |
Bali is an island in Indonesia with strict immigration laws. There's no way we'd be interested in flying to Jakarta to extend our visas. Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia is overcrowded with some of the worst traffic in the world. No thanks. |
| The dining table set for eight with beautiful dinnerware. |
Unsure about being able to extend our visas at this point, we booked the Bali house shown here today for 59 days. If we'd known that we could have stayed longer, we'd have booked it for many more nights.
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| The main floor lounge, one of two living rooms in the villa. |
The glorious property, owned by a lovely couple who don't permanently live in Bali, was one of those that kept me awake at night anxious to hear back if our rental terms were acceptable. When the owner didn't receive my message accepting the terms, we thought all was lost when we didn't hear back with a request for deposit through PayPal.
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| The upper level living room. |
(Here's the link to the Bali house listing from which we "borrowed" today's photos).
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| One of three master bedrooms, all with king sized beds, en suite bathrooms and air conditioning. |
Almost a day passed with no word. In my persistence, I wrote back again to later discover she never received the message. We were experiencing Internet issues as Portugal's part in the World Cup was in full bloom with locals most likely online more frequently. |
| Bedroom two with another king bed. |
Finally, we settled on mutually satisfactory terms. We were giddy. Once again, we'll have a full household staff as we did in Morocco. However, we'll be able to cook our own meals with the staff helping with all of the chopping and dicing, if we so choose. Tom won't have to do the dishes!
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| Bedroom three with another king bed. How will we decide which one we'll choose? Here again, I'll have a separate bedroom for showering and dressing so I don't awaken Tom on the rare occasion he sleeps in. |
However, in Bali with the pool and ocean at our door, we won't feel trapped inside as we did in Morocco, unable to leave the riad unless we were ready to tackle the crowds in the souks. This will be very different. Walks on the beach, dining poolside or at a cozy beach side bistros, shopping in quaint farmer's markets will be the order of the day. We couldn't be more thrilled. |
| Bedroom four with twin beds. |
No, we're certainly not young newlyweds reveling in an exquisite South Pacific experience. But, us old timers, may just settle back and pretend for awhile that we are, from April 28, 2016 to June 26, 2016 in Bali, Indonesia.______________________________________________
Photo from one year ago today, July 10, 2013: |
| Whether it's mountains, hills, lakes or sea, we love to have a great view from the veranda of our vacation homes, as was the case in Boveglio, Italy one year ago today. For details for that date, please click here. |