Australasia 2006 - Phase IV - Indonesia, Bali

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We arrived in Jakarta, from Kuala Lumpur after a short flight. Our initial plan was to spend some time here, then head south towards Yogyakarta, but the few days in KL really got me tired of big cities. I don't like big cities. So I convinced my brother Robert, to try to skip Jakarta, find a flight to Bali, and come back from the South instead of to the South. After a bit of convincing, Robert concurred. After running around the airport for hours, we were able to find stand-by tickets on Garuda to the airport in Denpasar. On the gate, we met Clara, a brasilian that used to live in Bali. We soon got to talking, and she invited us to watch the Brasil x France game with a group of Brasilians in Bali.

We arrived late, found a nice little hotel in Kuta. The game started at 3am, but we decided to head to the bars earlier to catch a glimpse of the Portuguese victory over England. Met all the brasilians, but Robert was really tired, and decided to head back to the hotel before the game started. I stayed and had a real adventure. After the chock and deception of Brasil's World Cup elimination (at 5:30 am), I went to catch a motorcycle-taxi back to hotel but my memory played tricks on me and took the hotels name and address right from my head. No problem: I paid the nice (like all balinese) man to drive me around town searching for the hotel with the scooter. About an hour and a half and still nothing. I finally had the brilliant idea of asking the man to drive me to a internet cafe to search online for the hotel's name (lonelyplanet.com). He agrees and 5 minutes later I was walking inside a internet cafe/whore house. As I searched the web the "girls" are saying, in the worse sounding English I've ever heard: "Brazilian boy... forget hotel... sleep with me, I make you happy!". And I was still able to find the humor to laugh in all of this. But luck will have it, I heard one of the nice ladies saying the name of my hotel, and immediately remembered, got up from the computer, payed the cashier (FOR THE INTERNET ACCESS!!!) and ran back to my nice bed at Sorga Cottages Hotel (I will never forget this name again!).

On the second day, we took a bemu (public transportation) to the Uluatu Temple. At the entrance, Robert was warned about the magnetism the monkeys had with glasses. Of course he thought it was all an exaggeration. But I guess he had that bad karma to deal with from laughing at the lady on the steps of Batu Caves, in Kuala Lumpur. So the monkey stole his glasses right from his face. We eventually recovered it. We strolled there for a long time, and ended the day with a breath-taking sunset at the cliffs of Uluatu. We had a hard time to find transport back to Kuta, since we dismissed our bemu, and the demand overpriced every transport back. We ended up spending the money we saved for taking the bemu instead of a cab.

The third day, we had booked a scuba diving trip in the north of Bali (Tulambeh). The dive at the shipwreck of the USS Liberty was incredible! Fishes all over the place. Brilliant colors, beautiful creatures. Absolutely amazing. On the way back, we admired the scenary of rural Bali, the rice fields, the volcano. At night, I decided to experience the Bali night-life. Robert, once again stayed at the hotel. I met this group of american surfers, and joined them for their last night in Bali. We had a whole lot of Bintangs (Indonesian beer), payed homage to the victims of the 2003 terrorist attack, and headed to Club M Bar Go. I used my "latin irreverence" to find those guys a few girls, but ended the night on my own, as they all left the club early, but grateful.

Robert came down with our first case of food poisoning of our trip. So I left him at the hotel on the fourth day, to go explore some o the beaches. By coincidence, I ran into Clara and her boyfriend at Uluatu beach, and spend most of the afternoon with them. Luckily, Robert felt better and we headed to Java early on the next morning.

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Photos

Sarongs
I'm ok with wearing a Sarongue... but Laker colors????

Comments

[Jena]

Latin Irreverance?
I want details on that one! I think this is my favorite entry thus far by you - and it's neat to watch the countrys gradually turning red with your adventure. :)