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Published: October 25th 2007
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We caught a plane to Bali (we were both very relieved to be leaving Jakarta) and wanted some time to relax before heading to Sydney to work. Due to the plane crash in Thailand about a month before we decided that we wouldn't chance it by using the cheap budget airlines (and also there is no alcohol served on these flights to calm the nerves) so we flew Air Asia which only had a late night flight. We got to Bali late that night and got a taxi to our hotel down the narrow winding roads to Kuta. We had booked to stay in a hotel as we knew we were arriving late and managed to fall into bed and sleep.
Kuta is the very touristy bit of Bali as it is near the airport, it is also full of Ozzie holiday makers who come to surf and is probably most known around the world as where the Bali bombings took place. We moved from the hotel where we were staying to get away from the families and screaming children and also to find somewhere cheaper! For 8 quid a night we managed to find a nice place including swimming
pool with pool bar, balcony, air con and a buffet breakfast included!
Kuta has got a very holiday feel to it and we both really liked it apart from all the motorbikes that you have to try and avoid hitting you. We both decided that we wanted to learn to surf and whilst sunbathing on the beach we were approached by a guy and arranged to have a surf lesson the next day. We both had an instructor each who showed us how to lie on the board and then stand up. As we headed into the sea I felt a bit scared as the waves looked quite big but once I was in it was really good fun and Mark managed to stand up the first time! Mark's instructor kept disappearing once to get a bigger board and then to go and have a rest! As we both hadn't done any exercise in a long while (me nearly 2 years!) we found it really strenuous and I found you had to have really strong arm muscles to pull yourself up and Mark kept banging his knees. Also trying to get back out to catch the next wave was
physically exerting as the current is trying to pull you into the shore. The next day we were in agony so needed time to recover but are definitely going to have another go soon.
On the way down to the beach we were approached by a guy who gave us each a card, said he was promoting Bali and told us that since the Bali bombings tourism had been badly affected so he was trying to promote it. After opening the card I revealed that I had won two free t-shirts and when Mark opened his he had one a camcorder, a weeks holiday or a cash prize, he's obviously the luckier one out of the two I thought! The guy was so excited (a bit too over excited for our liking) and told Mark that this rarely happens and wanted to meet us tomorrow and drive us 8 km out of Kuta to listen to a small talk, there would be no catch he assured us and then the prize would be his. After both pretending that we couldn't remember the name of our hotel we arranged to meet him by his office. After asking someone on the
beach they confirmed this was a scam and the next day we were given two more of these cards by a different person. I again won two t-shirts and Mark won a camcorder, a weeks holiday or a cash prize! Mark is such a lucky person!!!
Kuta is full of shops, bars and blokes with bleached long blonde hair. Its been nice to relax again - check out the picture of sunset where we sat and drank several beers whilst watching people surf in near dark conditions. Most of the restaurants have big screens in and one night we found ourselves eating dinner when the England vs Australia rugby match was on. Not the best place to be when you are surrounded by a bar full of Australian rugby supporters, but being the good sports people that we are we managed to give a cheer when we won, although this did not go down too well!
As our flight to Sydney is from Kuta we are heading back here to shop shop shop to buy some well needed cheap clothes before we go.
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