Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Some photos of our beautiful Bali villa....complete with sunken baths, outdoor showers, private pool, and a team of staff.  No photos of the staff!

Eat, Pray, Bali

Ok, so here's the next installment in the global tour: Bali.  In summary, we had a fabulous time.  We rented THE most spectacular villa you've ever seen (think Cribs, then amplify by twenty).  Private pool , and a team of staff on hand to create breakfast every day (oh how I struggled as I groped for the toaster on my first morning back in Dubai!) and generally tend to our every need.  We'd been warned that the weather had been wet and rainy, and were horrified when we landed just after a recent downpour.  The universe, however, was smiling on us, and we were treated to scorching sunshine and blue skies for the whole five days.

We spent those five days doing the usual: relaxing by the pool, reading books, celebrity magazines, eating crisps, and drining g&t's.  We did venture out for a day of exploring to Ubud, a lovely town with ubiquitous temples and tat for sale.  And of course we dragged our sorry selves out for sundowners and scran each night in a variety of beautiful places,  my favourite being this.

We had a fabulous time, and completely relaxed.  Taking four extremely independent, opinionated, dare I say it CONTROL FREAK women and you'd think that you'd have a recipe for disaster.  Far from it.  It was an absolute treat to spend so much quality time with three of my favourite people, setting the world to rights, gossiping, and setting life goals.  So much so that the bright idea (gin-fuelled) of all chipping in and moving to a villa on the palm doesn't seem like such a bad move right now!

My verdict on Bali?  Well, I don't wish to sound ungrateful, it's a lovely place.  BUT.  I'm not quite seeing all the hype.  It's a very long way to go (about ten hours from Dubai, 16 from the UK), is very expensive when you get there (even we, used to paying Dubai prices for wine, baulked at 20 quid for a glass!) and when it comes to beauty - well I think Sri Lanka and parts of India trump it completely - and they're all much cheaper and easier to get to.  It's also VERY touristy (I think Julia Roberts is to blame for the crowds of Americans) even though we were very much of the beaten tourist track.  I'm not sure why anyone would think it was a honeymoon destination.

Anyway, we had a super super time and my itchy feet reamin unscratched.  Next week, I'm off to Jordan.  Egypt in January, Hong Kong in Feb/March.  The world map is slowly being conquered!

Where in The World?

The next adventure is booked: in November I’ll be jetting off to Singapore, and then onto Bali. If you know me you’ll know that my hunger for world-exploration has gone up about ten notches since I moved to Dubai – and it was pretty high before I got here. The top list of places I want to visit (in order of preference) are:

Singapore/Bali (tick)
Hong Kong
Tokyo
Vegas (probably unlikely due to distance but if accessible from Tokyo then all over it)
Capetown
Vietnam
Maldives

I don’t think it’s an unreasonable list and I’d quite like to cross Hong Kong off before the end of the year – we have another public holiday coming up in December which would make it feasible.

Thankfully my desert family is also like rats up drainpipes where this list is concerned. We all have a slightly different list but with some common denominators.

This has all been made much more fun (honestly) by the procurement of a giant world map, the likes of which I haven’t seen since geography lessons in secondary school. And speaking of which, despite getting an A in GCSE geography, I have learned that I haven’t a clue where anything in the world is!

When I told a colleague I was going to Bali he asked: “Why don’t you do Australia at the same time?” I thought this was a ludicrous question and said so. He gently explained that Bali is…right next to Australia. Who knew!? And don’t even get me started on the fact that I thought Vietnam was only a 3 hour flight away. I’ll get my coat.

We spent a hilarious ten minutes scouring the map the other night at M’s, with much wine-fuelled exclamations: “Oh, so that’s where Hawaii/Beijing/Mauritius/Vietnam etc etc is.” Well, there’s only one way to truly know your way around a world map, and that’s to jump on a plane and see as much of it as possible. Watch this space.

The Wisdom of Friends

Feeling very sober at the moment.  Not just because I’m on the wagon (don’t ask) but because there’s a weird feeling in the air at the moment.  Whenever I’m feeling a little ungrounded I reach out to the people I love most in the world, and this time I had a chat to Mr L in Manchester.  He’s one of my oldest (quite literally – ha ha – sorry Mr L) friends and always cheers me up.  But this time he was the one feeling glum – a friend of his had just died of a heart attack.  Yikes. 

Then there was news of a girl who killed herself here in Dubai.  Let’s be clear – I don’t know her/never met her, but it did start me thinking about my lovely uncle, who did the same thing when I was a small child.  I have one fabulous photo of us together – I’m all blonde tumbling ringlets and bridesmaid dress, he’s sporting a debonair seventies hairstyle and enormous tache.  We’re both laughing and it’s a stunning shot.  He can’t have been more than 25 when he died, and my cousins were my age ie 3 or 4, and just born.  It’s something that I haven’t thought about for probably 30 years, but it’s been on my mind for a few days.

I’m all for mulling over lessons that life throws at me, but those who know me well know that dropping into a slump isn’t my usual style at all, so what to do to change this status quo?  

In the words of Mr L: “Don’t be glum - I have had a rude awakening.  Burying (or actually cremating) one of your friends is a sobering experience and it makes you stop, take stock and look at what's going on.  I am going to make each day count.”  Sage advice.

So this week I shall be mostly: booking flights for the family to visit at Christmas, sorting a November break to Singapore and Bali, and hitting up my international playboy friend Rich in Hong Kong about putting me up in December.  Which all sounds much more like me.  You have been warned…..