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| Our cabana in the afternoon sun. |
“Sightings on the Beach in Bali”
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| A young woman carrying a large basket on her head, a young boy playing on the beach and a driver on a motorbike, all commonly seen on the beach in Bali. |
Getting online and staying online is an ongoing source of frustration here in Bali. On Sundays, when no staff is around we get a decent signal 90% of the day. When the staff is on duty six days a week they hang around next door in an area designated for their use while they stay on site for their workday.
If there are no guests staying in that villa, they hang around inside and outdoors the villa next door all day using their phones for email and Facebook. Some have SIM cards on their phones, others use the villa’s signal. There’s a huge data tower between the two houses but the signal is not sufficient for everyone to be online simultaneously.
The general service to the area is poor, but with as many as seven users online at any given time between the two houses, let alone the activity from other users in the general area, we can’t get online many times during the day.
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| The narrow road we walked with Gede to his family home. |
As a result, we attempt to do research and planning a little at a time. When applying online for visas this past week, we often found ourselves kicked off in the middle of preparing an online form, unable to save our work, and having to start all over again. What easily could have been a 30 minute process proved to take four or five hours each day.
As I prepare today’s post, I’m doing so in LiveWriter, an offline program, when I can’t trust work being saved writing in Blogger.com. Although Blogger automatically saves edits, if the connection disappears midstream, the work is lost, had it not been able to save it in the interim.
WiFi has been a major issue in many areas in which we’ve traveled. We accept that our choice to live in more remote areas is definitely a contributing factor. And, without a doubt, we can handle a “slow” service. It’s the “no” service factor that provides the greatest degree of frustration.
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| An electric generating plant along the highway. |
Of course, we’ve tried other options including buying a SIM card for our own device. This also only works intermittently with a relatively poor signal as well. It isn’t entirely due to the two villa’s sharing the pole between the two villas and two routers…it’s the signal to the area in general which has to travel across a 1.5 mile, 2.78 km, stretch of sea to Java, Indonesia as described here from Wikipedia:
“Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of over 141 million (the island itself) or 145 million (the administrative region) as of 2015[update] Census released in December 2015, Java is home to 56.7 percent of the Indonesian population, and is the most populous island on Earth. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is located on western Java.
Much of Indonesian history took place on Java. It was the center of powerful Hindu-Buddhist empires, the Islamic sultanates, and the core of the colonial Dutch East Indies. Java was also the center of the Indonesian struggle for independence during the 1930s and 1940s. Java dominates Indonesia politically, economically and culturally.”
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| There are no regulations regarding burning garbage in Bali. This is a common scene. |
As shown above, Java is “the most populous island on Earth” which is the reason we have no interest in taking the ferry across the bay to see it. We hear the traffic is worse than on this island. That’s just too many people for us!
As a result, the wifi signal coming across the ocean from Java is impeded by distance and also by the necessity of traveling across the sea. We just have to live with it.
We only expect it to get worse when other guests are arriving to the villa next doors in a few days and when again we return in September when both villas will be fully occupied during those two months.
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| Kids are heading to school wearing required uniforms, required for all age groups. |
Otherwise, we had a pleasant Sunday with clear weather at 92C, 33C, a fascinating high tide and more interesting action on the beach. We were able to complete the online application for the visa for Cambodia and now must wait five business days (beginning tomorrow, Monday in the US) to receive the actual visas via email.
Other than the necessity of booking our favorite hotel today in Sydney, Holiday Inn Old Sydney the Rocks, for our next cruise, a “back-to-back” (two cruises, one after the other) for 33 days departing on October 31st, we anticipate another quiet and low stress day in paradise.
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| Driving over a river on the road to Negara. |
This cruise will commence on the exact date of our four year anniversary of beginning our worldwide travels. It will be a day to celebrate as we embark on our longest cruise to date.
Sure, the wifi issues are annoying and cumbersome. But, it appears there’s nothing we can do about it. We’re locked in for our return and refuse to let the issues prevent us from further enjoying our otherwise ideal time in Bali.
We hope no annoyances prevent YOU from enjoying your day! Be well.
Photo from one year ago today, June 6, 2015:
There was no post one year ago on this date due the fact that while we went to bed before midnight it was June 5, 2015. At midnight, it became June 6, 2015. At 2:00 am, we crossed the International Dateline and it became June 7, 2015. We slept through the two hours it was June 6, 2015. Funny, eh?
Here’s the post from two years ago with two fun videos while in Madeira, Portugal when we purchase fresh caught tuna from the traveling fish guy. Oddly, this morning, the two Ketuts brought home fresh caught tuna for tonight’s dinner. Another coincidence!