Bali Christmas Diary Day 10:
Happy Christmas from Bali!
It’s funny how culture shapes memory, especially as you get older and accumulate more experiences. Everything starts to get convoluted.
I had always assumed that I had celebrated Christmas in Bali. It felt inevitable during my decade in Singapore. Only now have I realised that I had never been to Bali for Christmas. Usually, I would fly to Jakarta to celebrate with my cousins or travel with Fafa, but never to Bali.
Since it’s a day off, I decided to take it easy today.
We ordered Gojek for breakfast — Mie Ayam. It was so yummy!!!
Christmas in Seminyak, Bali
Then, we went to Seminyak to reminisce about old times, as in pre-COVID-2020. Our first stops were Revolver (Fafa’s favourite coffee shop in Bali) and Periplus (my favourite). We walked up and down the main road, just going in and out of the stores, soaking in the local culture.
Christmas in Bali felt super low-key and almost exclusively commercial. The only Christmas reminder handled in your face was the Christmas headbands worn by some tourist-oriented restaurant staff as if it’s the only items they could be bothered to wear to celebrate the festivity.
There were a few Christmas trees. Most were almost unnoticeable — small, usually incorporating nature-like, one-dimensional wood shaped into Christmas trees.
In the late afternoon, we went to Biku Bali to celebrate Christmas with an Indonesian-style high-tea date, followed by a familiar massage at Putri Ubud Seminyak and a visit to an art gallery in between.
Our last stop in Seminyak was Motel Mexicola, where we were served free Mojitos because of Christmas. We ordered and had a few more drinks before calling it a night.
We are back in our Joglo Airbnb, I’m writing this to you, and Fafa is reading something on his iPad. It has been a good, albeit unusual, Christmas day. And I hope it has been a good Christmas day for you, too.
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