No thanks, Kuta

Saturday July 5, 2008 - So yesterday was the fourth of July. I almost forgot. Today we got up early and got a cab to the airport. We arrived quite early and decided to sit at one of the restaurants for breakfast. Of course all the restaurants are on the outside of the airport. And crazy expensive as it turned out. We paid 30000 for the same breakfast we had for 5000 the day before. It was yummy both times. It's bobur ayam, some kind of magical rice porridge and chicken concoction. Wonderful really. The flight to Bali took only an hour, and we changed time zones. Miranda had pre-booked a room for us at the beach in the Legian-Kuta area of Bali, so we got a cab there. They gave us a welcome drink and took up to our nice but quite pricey room. Miranda had a stomach bug, unfortunately, so the fact that the bathroom was decent was a plus. We walked around a little bit and went to the beach, quite a close walk, and took a few hours to just walk on the beach. We decided we hated it straight away. The beach wasn't beautiful and there were 10,000 people everywhere you looked. Surfers, topless sunbathers, families with little kids. It was crawling with white people. Really unpleasant. And the tourists all seemed to be from Australia. It's closer to fly to Bali for people on the west coast of Australia than to fly to other parts of Australia, so it is quite a popular destination. It is like the Caribbean for Americans. And they are just as obnoxious. Really unfortunate. On the plus side, everytime we moved we were offered massages, or transport. They just won't stop asking. Grrrr. We watched the sunset on the beach, had an ok dinner, internet time, and then a shower. End of day.

Sunday we had breakfast and then got a thermometer for Miranda. There was some concern about malaria or dengue, but it seemed she was in the clear. It also seemed we left a lot of mercury behind as she dropped the thermometer on the ground and it broke. Doh! After this she bought some necklaces and then we sat on the beach for a few hours. We thought about leaving but with Miranda not feeling well it seemed to be smarter to stay an extra day at least. It was cloudy and yet we got burned. So it is true. Miranda went back to the room and I went back to the beach to watch the sunset. I looked at a used bookstore and bargained for a trade with my book and a couple more dollars for the only book that looked at all decent in the shop. I came back for Miranda and we had some dinner and went for a walk to see some other parts of town. Had some internet time and some decent sleep considering it's a party town and we could hear the parties from our room. The streets are so loud.

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