Kuta: The Aussie Ibiza (or is Down Under by Men at Work still top of the hit parade in Australia?)

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**Sorry. No photos today. The computer is misbehaving**

And so we arrive on the last leg of the South East Asia trip. Three weeks beckon in Indonesia, mainly on Bali with a side trip to Lombok thrown in for good measure.

We arrived at the airport in the middle of the night, so were pretty much at the mercy of the taxi drivers. 1 night in an expensive dump was enough so we set off to Kuta, the Aussie equivalent of Ibiza.

Kuta is pretty much what you would imagine if Ibiza was full of Aussies rather than Brits. They are up early to surf, they wander around the town in singlet tops, they go to bars and get very excited when Down Under by Men at Work comes on the jukebox (and it does - very regularly). It is as if it is still No.1 - quite amusing to watch, very similar to Brits abroad.

But Kuta has a darker side. In 2002 a bomb exploded in a bar in the centre of town. The bar was packed and 202 people were killed. The plot of land has been left empty and a memorial has been erected. Almost 3 years to the day later, 3 more bombs were exploded in Kuta. All have been linked to Al Quaeda. Bali is the only Hindu island in Indonesia (the most populous Muslim nation the world). It all leads to bad feelings among the locals: especially as the bombs have decimated the local economy leaving many carrying not only physical scars but financial scars aswell. It also means they are persistent hawkers and terrible pests, unfortunately.

The beach in Kuta is fantastic. The surf is good and the sunsets are spectacular. We spent most of the time there. There is not much else to do. After 3 days we fancied a change, so we got a ticket, packed the bags again, and set off for the full moon party on Gilli Trawangan....

*Travelblog fell over a few days ago and caused many people to lose their history. Thanks to Wilf and my Dad I have managed to recover my entire history.
Many many thanks to all the other people who hunted through their inbox trying to help me. I am eternally grateful

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