Bali and The Gili Islands - August 2011

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After a drunken flight from Bangkok and a night of no sleep we arrived in Bali to the lovely area of Sanur and promptly crashed. It took about 2 days to recover but luckily we were in the nicest hotel we'd stayed in so far... HBO, comfy beds and a lovely swimming pool occupied us.
Once we were fully recovered we moved on to Ubud, with everywhere being so close in Bali the 1 hr taxi ride was a welcome relief from all the 12 hr journeys in Vietnam/Cambodia.

Ubud was a lovely quaint town, occupied mostly by monkeys and tourists looking for something a little different. Up in the mountains it was a refreshing change from seasides and cities. We soon realised we were going to love Bali, the national dishes were satay chicken and sweet and sour of which we ate our fair share, with all the local restaurants having the best live music.

Whilst Vicky spent the first day chilling, Sarah decided to try out a balinese massage, unexpectedly from a balinese man, who ended the session with, "I do massage in hotel room, take my card incase you want try"...maybe not! The next Ubud adventure was monkey forest sanctuary, home to a bazillion naughty monkeys. We bought a bunch of bananas at the entrance, about 5ft inside the entrance Sarah was promptly mugged of said bananas by an over eager monkey. It was pretty crazy seeing so many monkeys in a wild habitat up close and personal, and they certainly weren't shy!

Our next stop was Kuta - the Aussies' Benidorm! Full of surf, high rise hotels, some great night life and some over friendly Balinese men who were either going to try to sell us something, or mug us! We basically spent 3 days ogling surfers at the beach and a couple of extremely messy nights with one club offering free drinks it was never going to end well. One of the beach days we were able to see some baby turtles being released into the sea for the first time, the situation was made slightly odd by some crazy guy cheering them on and getting the crowd involved.

For a bit of respite we headed off to the tiny paradise island that is Gili T, one third of the gili islands. With crystal clear water (literally the clearest water we've ever come across!), white sands and lots of palm trees it was certainly idyllic. The island itself has no fresh water (it has to be imported from nearby Lombok) this meant 1 week of salt water for teeth brushing and showering, it also has no roads meaning the only transport available are really old bicycles or a horse taxi.

The days in Gili were mostly spent on the beach, with one afternoon spent cycling around the perimeter of the island for sunset with some american friends, it was very quiet and picturesque with some real views of the island. Another day off the beach was spent on Gili Air (another of the islands) on a snorkelling trip, with the water as clear as it was this allowed some great snorkelling, seing all sorts of coral, fish, sea snakes and even a glimpse of a turtle!

The nights on Gili were a whole different story, with nothing else on the island but a street of bars the fact that we would go out every night was an inevitability. The main spot was a great Irish bar (Tir Na Nog) where we met a group of Irish guys (and a girl from Milton Keynes) who soon became our drinking buddies for the week. The only issue with the nightlife being Ramadan, a religious festival which meant that at 11pm every night all music had to stop on the island, however the partying continued most days until sunrise.
One night resulted in another phosphorence swim, with less rocks than Halong Bay, most of the other nights involved a game of ring of fire or mushroom with some extra Joss shots. Extra Joss is this sherbet like substance which you have with a shot of vodka as a substitute of red bull....and its bloody brilliant, not quite sure what its made from but 24 sachets made their way out of the country in Vicky's suitcase so it's got to be legal! The end of the night/early morning was spent down at Rainbow bar, with a bonfire on the beach and someone's ipod blaring away until the early hours.

After a week on this incredible island it was time to head back to the mainland. But first we had to endure the ferry! There is no way this boat would pass health and safety back in the UK, the petrol fumes gassed everyone out, not great when combined with some rocky wave action on a not so watertight boat. Everyone came off looking a little worse for wear.

With our flight at 6am the next day there was no time for another Kuta party, so on an early night we said goodbye to Bali and headed on to Singapore.

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