Bali, and all the scams

---

So i thought i would leave my trip up the middle of the australian outback for the time being, as there is a lot more that happened but have now left the country and more things are now happening since i've arrived in bali.
Was a bit worried about my arrival and getting from the airport to where i was going to be staying, had arranged airport pick up, but had sent about 5 emails trying to confirm this and they never really made me feel comfortable that they would be there and as i was landing at about midnight, didn't want to be stuck in the airport all night. But came out of customs and taxi man was there with a sign wit my name on, and was all cool and took me for a bit of a tour around kuta on the way to the hotel, although it was dark i couldn't really see much.
Kuta is supposed to be the main touristy area of bali, and had said that it was really busy etc. but it's not so bad, quite good actually.
But anyhow, Faye has come over as well, and is staying on a bit longer after i leave, she arrived yesterday morning, had given here my hotels address, but not actually arranged about meeting, and i couldn't really remember what time she was supposed to land, so i got up early to sit outsidew the hotle and wait for her, for an hour and a half, but she got here safely in the end. But she had a nit of an interesting taxi ride, with her driver not knowing the hotel she was coming to, so he had to make a call, then asking her for the oney for it, and as the taxi had stopped, a parking attendant coming over and charging for stopping there, but she was fine once she had arrived.
The hotel we're staying in is really quite nice, although there is no reception desk, we have to go to the really posh resort next door. And having air con makes all the difference, although the heat is ot quite so intense here as was back in darwin.
So we took it nice and easy yesterday and spent a few hours down at the beach, and really wasn't busy at all, although the usual of what u get across asia, with people offering u different thiungs every 10 seconds, although not that bad compared to other places have been. But the same guy kept offering me a surf board every 5 minutes as if i would change my mind the more he asked me. Really is a good beach for surfing and apparently some of the other beachs around bali are supposed to be some of the best, don't think i'm really goood enough to get amoungst those waves though.
But after still trying hard to get a tan, we headed back into town, and faye needed to change some money. Had read up that there are scams around doing this, so were extra careful when changing money, double checking what he had counted oput, quite difficult here, because the exchange rate is around 17500 rupiah to the pound so is very easy to bec ome a millionaire, but had checked this through and took the money that we had changed back to the hotel, where faye counted it again, and realised that it was about 300,000 hort. And the guy must have slipped some off the counter as we weren't looking. Not toi happy about it, but not alot u can really do, works out to be about 17 quid, but that goes a long way here.
This morning, got a phone call put through to our room, had one yesterday but it got cut off, but yeah, have to wonder who's trying to get hold of u. as literally no one knows exactly where i am, but took this call this morning, and my name has been drawn and i've won some nights at a 5 star hotel, alledgedly, they get lists of people who have arrived from customs, but this smelt already, said i would come down to there exibihition to collect it later, really didn't want me to do this, and then he started saying about my partner that i'm with, so this is where i hung up, cause me and faye arrived at 2 complete different times and there is no way of connecting us through there customs lists, and could only be told that by the hotel. So at the moment we are standing at 1 all on the scams front, not sure what will be tried next.
Even though these things are going on we are having a really good time, taking it easy, going back to the beach after this, and then tomorrow, will be going around the island to see some of the sites, and will hopefully have some photos to put up then.
Will speak to u all soon, not long now till i'm back in thew mother land

---