I was disappointed in the straw market. I thought it was going to mostly be hand made goods by the people selling, something like you might see at say Pike Place Market in Seattle. I think there was a fair amount of the market I didn't see, however what I did mostly see was the same mass produced "Made In Indonesia" stuff over and over again.
It was my first time there and we did the Ardastra Gardens and City Tour. The gardens were pretty cool, especially once I saw the signs about how most of the animals are rescues and the work they do to figure out which animals can cohabitate (personality wise). Feeding the lorikeets was a lot of fun and there's some birds that display a lot of personality. Plus marching flamingos.
The city tour was interesting. It really puts the economic situation on display. When you're in port if you look to the left you will see the lush Atlantis resort. To the right is the city. The city comes across as rather poor. I will say we did not see anyone begging or living on the streets, but it still came across as generally poor, in the way of a lack of upkeep mostly--peeling paint on all the buildings for example. We you go from there to all you can eat buffets on the ship it really gives you a sense of privilege. We used this as openers to some good conversations with the kids.
