Bali May 2017

Some photos, better late than never (perhaps!)....
LATER (9 OCT): Added a few photos, and Mr Oberoi's response to me!  (See bottom)

Echo Beach

Releasing turtlings

Baby turtle release just twice per year. We were just luck to be there
when they released this lot -- on the day we arrived

Some of the other releasers, watching their releasees make for the wide ocean

The beach in front of our Oberoi Hotel, where the release going on

Five pm-ish on our first day, at turtle release

Looks like we're pretty much the only people on Kuta beach

"Jing" makes her way to the ocean. She has a 1 in a 1,000 chance of adulthood

Our Pool Villa at the Oberoi, the first luxury hotel on the island
having set up in the 1970s on what was rice paddies

Another view of our Pool Villa, with my new iPhone wide angle

Our guide when we went inland. Hindi.  He's Hindu

Echo beach. Waves don't look much, but top left out on the break they're
a decent size. You can just make out a guy on the rocks timing his
jump into the waves. Gets it wrong he's on the rocks...

Seminyak night life.  "The Beatles"

Danau, volcanic lake in the north east

We went looking for some Balinese clay pottery.  Not much available and all
expensive ($US 100+) and twice as much again to ship to Hong Kong!

After our stay, I wrote this letter to Mr P. S Oberoi ("Biki") the son of the founder and current Chairman of the Group.  I'd met Biki in 1997, when I was with DFS and he was a stripling of 68.  I went to his Farm, where he still lives.  It's just outside of Delhi and if you can imagine simply the most elegant, grand place in the best Indian (Raj?) tradition, with attentive servants and a gracious host, you've got the picture.

The cc. of the letter is to Vikram,  Bikki's son, third generation in charge of Oberoi Hotels.  They are truly wonderful hotels -- I've also stayed at the one in Cairo, which overlooks the pyramids, so strongly recommended! (yes, pricy, but worth every penny...):
LATER (9 OCT): Mr Oberoi's response to my letter (below his)

H.E. Prithviraj Singh Oberoi (P.V.)

Chairman Oberoi Group

Oberoi Farms

Palam Farm, Delhi,  India

Dear Chairman Oberoi,

You may recall we met at your beautiful farm in 1997.  I was then working for the American company Duty Free Shoppers, based in Hong Kong.  We discussed a possible joint venture shopping centre in New Delhi, a project that sadly did not materialise.

I’m writing today to tell you about our very good experience at your hotel in Bali.

We stayed at the hotel in late May, flying in from Hong Kong, and stayed at one of the lovely Pool Villas.  (My apologies for such a late “thank you” note!)

The main reason for writing is that your staff went well beyond the “call of duty”, in handling our stay. Before we arrived, I had written a rather stern letter to the management, expressing disappointment with the fact that the Villa did not include a limousine transfer from the airport and that breakfast was not included.  Now the fact is: this was my fault. I had not read the Terms and Conditions carefully.  But rather than pointing out the T&C,  your staff instead gave us the airport transfer and the breakfasts included in our tariff.  They also invited us to an evening cocktail party with the management, and made sure we were involved in the release of baby turtles into the sea – which was a truly marvelous experience.

One of your senior staff , Arie Ermawati, Executive Manager (Rooms), was particularly keen to ensure our stay was as memorable as it was.

I should be grateful if you could pass on our warmest thanks to all the Bali Oberoi staff.  They said they felt that working in the Oberoi Group was like “being in a family”.  That feeling is clearly genuine.  It is a tribute to your late father, to yourself, to your son and to all the family and staff involved in the business.

We shall always stay at an Oberoi Hotel wherever there is one, and will recommend them warmly to family and friends.

Yours faithfully,

Peter Forsythe

9 Siena One Discovery Bay Hong Kong

cc: Mr Vikram S. Oberoi, MD & CEO EIH Ltd, 7 Sham Nath Marg,  New Delhi 110054 India

Seminyak and Kuta beach in SW of the Island

Namadgi: “Lucky we survived it was so tough!” -- Anne

Anne, Lesley Hodges, Bub.  Brayshaw's Hut, Namadgi National Park.
27th August 2017. These snow-pellets later turned to fluffy flakes

Looking in fine fettle but was a tough walk apparently

Lovely photos taken by Ian Pulsford (Lesley's husband), last Sunday at Namadgi National Park.  Anne since advises that it snowed in Canberra as well in the last week. To which I reply: oh well, climate change must be a hoax then... [Later: have a listen to podcast of Sam Harris talking to Joseph Romm. "What you need to know about climate change").
I love the hut! Asking Anne: what's it like inside? ANNE: Nothing inside the huts except a fireplace and possum poo on the floor.
(posted by PF)
LATER (5 Sep): Comment by Anne:
The track is called the Settlers Track. There are three old huts like the one in the pic. Either one room or two, with wind whistling through the timber slabs. Brrr! The settlers would have put newspaper or some such on the walls to try to stop the breezes blowing through, but it would have been absolutely freezing living in these tiny huts, believe me. And so tiny! No room to swing the proverbial cat -- or possum. The complete walk is only nine kilometres of mostly gently undulating country, both forested and open. We did a shortcut of six kilometres, because of the conditions.
AND A BIT LATERER (6 Sep):  More from Anne:

Namadgi National Park (just south of Canberra)

Some old proverb says that a warm man can never understand a cold man. This can be parlayed into "when you're in your warm house, you can't imagine that you'll need lots of warm clothes when you go out". Even though it's still winter. Even though we were going to a significantly higher elevation. We were complete idiots!

I know it looks as if we're well dressed for the walk, but in fact we were only just warm enough. My fingers were freezing the whole time! And wet.

But --- it was a fantastic day out. We all loved it. 

We set off with hard pellets of ice being driven into our faces by a wind blowing horizontally (what fun, hey), but that soon calmed down as we entered a eucalypt forest. No wind, and the snow turned into quite big, soft flakes. Eucalypts look beautiful with snow on them. And there were yellow wattle flowers with a dusting of snow on them which were very pretty (and an unusual sight). A huge wedge-tailed eagle flew just above our heads.

On the way back home, we came across three cars stuck on the road! One had done a 360 and ended up half in a ditch. We tried to help but couldn't, other than take the driver back to the Visitor Centre where he could ask for help. The police ended up closing the road. 

It was a great day out!

Israel April 2017

Looking north from Jaffa (the Old Town), to central Tel Aviv.
Some surfers seen further north on the beach

Looking south to Jaffa, the Old Town of Tel Aviv

Jing and hi-tech Tel Aviv in the background.  This is a wall of Old Jaffa

Our Market House Hotel, in Jaffa, Tel Aviv.  It stands on an ancient chapel

PF in the Old Town of Jaffa

Cool Cat, Jaffa

Would like to have bought a carpet to bring back....

From Metula, North Israel, looking north into Lebanon

Golan Heights, one of the tanks used in war with Syria, the
biggest tank battle since WW2

West Bank, just East of Jerusalem, Jing with a Bedouin

This is it: just East of Jerusalem, the "Occupied Lands"...

The Chapel of St George, West Bank, east of Jerusalem, around 600 AD

Almog, west bank, Jing, with Yehuda (L) and the camel driver

Pastel hues over the Dead Sea

Jing and Yehuda, and his demon vehicle, by the Dead Sea

Michaeli, Peter H, Eva, Jing, Yehuda.  On the "beach" by the Dead Sea.
Our generous hosts for the whole trip: Eva and Peter H.

Dead Sea again

Jing, Eva and Michali, Dead Sea, West Bank

Yehuda, Eva, Jing, Peter H in a date palm oasis, Dead Sea.
Our kind and patient hosts: Eva and Peter

PF and Yehuda

Peter at the Western Wall, full of the Haredi (Orthodox) Jews

Western Wall, Jerusalem

Back in Jaffa

Jewish Market

In some Argentinian bistro, Jerusalem: Jing, Eva, Yehuda, some guy Yehuda
dragged in, Peter

PF, blessting a crucifix for Arlene, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Jerusalem.

Dead Sea; date palm picnic

P with Yehuda, a lovely-crazy guy. He spent some years in Oz, now foreman at Israel's largest building site in Jerusalem. This photo is a picnic in a Date Palm oasis next to the Dead Sea. In the background his kick-ass 25 year old Land Rover. One of many friends Peter and Eva introduced us to. 

This picnic was the day after camping on the shores of Dead Sea. With half a dozen of their other friends, including from Iraq: good Middle East food and great Israeli wine. 

Next day Yehuda met us again at a market in Jerusalem, took us to a Argentinian restaurant and plied us all with many Argentinian beers with chasers of unknown provenance. Then he went back to work as foreman in charge of safety. 

Tel Aviv

Our Market House boutique hotel in old Jaffa, built on ruins of 6th century chapel

Tel Aviv

In old Jaffa. Dates back in parts to 3,500 years ago, the Bronze Age, IIRC.

Golan Heights

Jing sets off an old tank from the Israel-Syria war, on the Golan Heights in spitting distance of Syria

Tel Aviv

The surf beach right in central Tel Aviv, from our hotel

Australia: March 2017 (II)

Watson's Bay, Sydney.  I had lunch at Doyle's famous fish restaurant
on my way back to Hong Kong (Auckland > Sydney > KL > HK)
Weather was beautiful on arrival Sydney, then next two days, the after
effects of Cyclone Debbie, which had devastated Queensland and N. NSW,
brought big rains and winds

Mutti said I should visit Barangaroo, next to Millers Point and opposite
Darling Harbour.  It's a pretty walk around from Circular Quay, still
very much work in progress.  The waterfront has been redone very well
with these here in this pic, being sandstone.  Sydney can teach Hong Kong
a thing or two about harbour-front redevelopment

This is The Cutaway at Barangaroo Point. You can see the rough-cut
sandstone on the right.  It's a great space, which this pic doesn't do justice (the link
above is better).  They have performances in here, and lovely, haunting  music
playing over loudspeakers even during the day, during the week, as it was when
 I popped in on my way from Barangaroo to the Quay.  Thanks for suggesting it, Mutti!

View from my room at the Hotel Bondi (est. 1911 and looking pretty much as it
did 100+ years ago).The day before had been shining bright and full of people
and surfers (why aren't they all at work??).This was blowy from Cyclone Debbie.
Still, I had a surf each day.
BONDI: The Best inner city surf beach in the world. Bar none.

Photo from the Icebergs Club and restaurant.  As good as ever.  Big surf and wind
after the day before's pretty little swell: due to cyclone Debbie

Taken from the Icebergs, where I had lunch before heading off that
night for K.L. thence H.K.