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Published: April 6th 2006
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Bali is sweet
Everything it is meant to be - sun, sand, surf, shops, bars and even a bit of culture thrown in! Scott writes:
Flying to Bali
Flying to Bali via Brunei for our two week stay on Paradise Island was like an economy class dream on Royal Brunei Airlines. Even though flying still gives me the Hibbie Jibbies I soon forgot about that once the movies on demand flashed up on my seat TV and PS2 style joy pad for arcade games. A choice of meal and to cap it all stainless steel knife and folk. Very Posh. We were wondering what first class gets you!!!
Flying into Brunei to change planes gave us a window view of the country. We think we saw Sutan Palace as the building was huge and very gold but we are not sure. Anyway, another three hours at 35,000 feet and we touched down in Bali. We had already booked our first two nights before we left the UK, so off to Kuta beach we went. Kuta Beach, is the mecca for all tourists on Bali with shops, hotels, restaurants etc all in abundance and touts on all corners trying to get your business. The hotel was just off the beach and pretty much in the mixer of the surrounding facilities.
My birthday!
Happy Birthday Scott!
Your carriage for the day awaits. The day after we arrived was my
BIRTHDAY. Wahoo!!! We had booked ourselves on a boat tour to take us to a neighboring island called
Nusa Lembongan and it was fantastic. The boat was a beautiful yacht and we cruised for 2.5 hours over to the island. On arrival we had drinks and later a buffet lunch on the boat. All the other dudes left the boat to either go ashore or glass bottom boating, so we had the boat to ourselves. That was pretty sweet. It felt like it was our boat for about an hour. We did a bit of snorkeling on a nearby reef and then went on the banana boat a couple of times around the bay. On the second trip Kat went on the front and as we were circling at the most far out stop, the swell was quite big and after two big bounces, she flew over my right shoulder and landed in the drink! The afternoon was filled with beers and a gentle sail back to the mainland. An excellent relaxing boat trip, oh yeah, and the weather was glorious. In the evening I had presents and a sparkler cake and spoke
Danger high voltage
Back at the hotel and time to start the evening birthday celebrations - the cake. to my family and Kats family which was great. We had a few cocktails and i was able to watch the whole Arsenal Liverpool game and enjoyed the result, which I knew would be a good one as my birthday was an omen. All in all a great birthday on Bali.
At $30 a night the hotel was too expensive for us to stay so we moved across town to a better place with nicer rooms and a better pool for a fraction of the price. Basically after we arrived we planned on staying about 3 days but never left. The beds were amazing. A real comfortable bed, it was so nice. No more sheets on one big sponge. Ha ha!
Everybody goes surfing
We booked ourselves on a two day surf course and after a few days on the island we were finally surfing or finally trying to surf. To be honest with you, it is bloody hard and for a beginner it is a lot of work to get out there, all to have one big fall as a result. But by the end of the two days we were standing up pretty much all the
time and could now ride the wave all the way in. So two days and we were Pros. Kat bought some boardies, we both purchased rash vests and we were cruising around with our own rental boards mixing it up with the narly radicals and the locals chasing the waves. After a couple of hours, a few big falls, one cut, one bruise and very sore shoulders we went back to the pool to think about our actions!
Seeing the island
In the lull of surfing we went on a tour of the island and visited many local factories for woodcarving, silk weaving etc. Very touristy but hey. For lunch we stopped at a cliff top restaurant over looking bali's biggest active volcano. The scenery was very impressive with a huge lake at the base of the volcano. There were little houses dotted on the hillside, which you know if the thing blew they would be goners. We visited a coffee plantation and sampled the local produce. We were the only people on our tour, so it was us, the guide and the driver. We did quite a lot driving in the day and probably the best bit was
chatting to the pair of them, especially the driver, as he had just come back from his first ever trip overseas to Australia and was talking about how he pulled five girls in one month and is in contact with them all but doesn't know which one he truly loves! He was funny, just listening to him explaining how he met them was entertaining in itself. Then almost as we were back to the hotel, one of them calls!! We are thinking, bloody hell it's true!
The next day we exchanged the 4x4 for a rubber boat and went white water rafting for about three hours. The river was high and pretty rapid. We had to duck under a few bamboo bridges made by locals and some we could only just get under, much to the amusement of all the boat. In quieter points of the river, locals (all men) were washing naked and not at all shy as a boat sailed by them. There were two very big drops in the river and we had to abandon our usual kneeling position and to sit in the boat and hang on as we rolled over the top. Wicked!
The rest of the time we enjoyed the hotel pool or went for a surf. Kuta was busy with lots of tourists but the locals would always say that it was very quiet since the bombs had hit. After a while you can see that it must be quiet because the amount of shops is just staggering and you can only imagine how many people there must have been around for all these shops to survive.
We were sad to be leaving as we had had a really good time just chilling out in Bali and probably could have stayed longer and moved around a bit more. But our time in South East Asia had come to an end and OZ was on the horizon. The days of eating and sleeping for a pound and beers for 40p would be behind us now.
One thing is for sure though, we will be back. Its too good not to. Link to our hotel 'New Arena' if you want to see
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Sarah Jagra (still getting used to it!!!!!)
non-member comment
looks wonderful........
Hi guys, thanks for the update you obviously had a wonderful time! Great work on the surfing you will be able to perfect those moves in Oz! Too right you will be back in Bali, as you didn't make it to our wedding you must really try to come to our Balinese wedding next year.... go on ...do you really need an excuse to go back. Have fun in Australia.. keep teh updates coming.x.x.x.x