12th October 2006
After 2,5 hours flight, we reached Bali at around 21.30.
A guy from Air Diving Academy was waiting for us with the huge van we used the last time we had diving safari in Bali. This time, we headed straight to White Rose Hotel, Kuta Bali, which should be around half an hour from the airport.
Bali looked like the last time we left it, low city skyline, lots of landscape and of course, the statue of the warrior with many horses, sorry I don’t know the name and story of the statue.
That night was special because it was the memoir of 12th October 2002 Bali Bombing, which happened exactly four years ago. We didn’t realize about that until our driver told us. As we looked around, we could see that Bali’s people had never forgotten the sadness and the bitterness of that bloody day. They laid white long fabric from the location of first Bombing to Jimbaran, location where the bombing happened last year. It is a very significant distance.
When we reached there, we were held by the police road block, because our hotel was located next to the Bomb Monument, big car were not allowed to get in, after circling around a few times, we had to walk to the hotel, with our luggage.
So we dragged our belonging, dive gears, haversack and we started to walk. The roads were full of people, every kind of people; Balinese, Australian, Japanese, Westerners. We walked through quite a long distance, very long indeed with all the massive weight. People were talking to me along the road. People were talking to everyone. It was crowded, but it was not noisy. On the peak, we reached the Bomb Monument where everyone was gathering and praying. There were long lists of the name of the victims, flower bouquets, and even colorful big sized pictures of the victims placed by their families. A lot of Australian or Westerner and the victim’s family came back to visit Bali. I must say the feeling was quite surreal around.
After 2,5 hours flight, we reached Bali at around 21.30.
A guy from Air Diving Academy was waiting for us with the huge van we used the last time we had diving safari in Bali. This time, we headed straight to White Rose Hotel, Kuta Bali, which should be around half an hour from the airport.
Bali looked like the last time we left it, low city skyline, lots of landscape and of course, the statue of the warrior with many horses, sorry I don’t know the name and story of the statue.
That night was special because it was the memoir of 12th October 2002 Bali Bombing, which happened exactly four years ago. We didn’t realize about that until our driver told us. As we looked around, we could see that Bali’s people had never forgotten the sadness and the bitterness of that bloody day. They laid white long fabric from the location of first Bombing to Jimbaran, location where the bombing happened last year. It is a very significant distance.
When we reached there, we were held by the police road block, because our hotel was located next to the Bomb Monument, big car were not allowed to get in, after circling around a few times, we had to walk to the hotel, with our luggage.
So we dragged our belonging, dive gears, haversack and we started to walk. The roads were full of people, every kind of people; Balinese, Australian, Japanese, Westerners. We walked through quite a long distance, very long indeed with all the massive weight. People were talking to me along the road. People were talking to everyone. It was crowded, but it was not noisy. On the peak, we reached the Bomb Monument where everyone was gathering and praying. There were long lists of the name of the victims, flower bouquets, and even colorful big sized pictures of the victims placed by their families. A lot of Australian or Westerner and the victim’s family came back to visit Bali. I must say the feeling was quite surreal around.
posted by aping at 5:09 AM
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