Our last few days back in crazy Kuta

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After an amazing few days on the Gili islands we boarded a boat back to Padangbai where we would then get a minibus back to Kuta for the last couple of days of this holiday. The boat took about 2 1/2 hours and the seas were quite rough so even though we were inside, we and our bags got soaked! When we got back to Kuta we were dropped near the main street so walked back to where we had stayed for the first few days and got a standard room there for about £30 a night for 2 nights.

It was late afternoon when we got back so we went for a walk in search of a bite to eat, and ran into the taxi driver who had taken us to Ubud a few days earlier. We had heard a lot about an area at the very tip of Bali in the south called Nusa Dua which was supposed to have an amazing beach, great snorkelling trips plus the best seafood in Bali, so we agreed with him to pick us up the next morning and go spend a day around that area. That evening we were quite tired fom the day's travelling and knew we were being picked up early so decided to just have dinner and call it a night. As we have said before, the Indo cuisine hadn't lived up to our expectations (the food was fine, but there wasn't much choice, and in Kuta there is even less as its so Western), and we love our food! So went in search of a restaurant away from the main road and came across...a Mexican! This place sounded awesome and even though we had Mexican in Ubud we love it so went inside and sat down. It was very authentic, with the staff wearing Sombraro's and salsa music playing in the background. The food was amazing! Fresh chilli con carne with rice for Vic, and pulled pork taco's for Scott, washed down with a Corona and a Margarita, lovely! Feeling full we went back to the hotel and got an early night.

The next morning we met our driver and headed out towards Nusa Dua for the day. Firstly we stopped at XX where all the water sports take place and you can snorkel and get a boat to a turtle sanctuary on a small island. There was a bit of a mafia here and the first few quotes for some of the activites were so expensive, like £50! The annoying thing about Bali is that because its main tourists are Aussies, the prices are not as low as they should be for Asia and they now expect everyone to pay these mad prices. Of course we haggled down and got a private glass bottom speedboat for 2 hours, which would include snorkelling and a trip to Turtle island for about £16, much better 😊 We set off on our private boat and stopped a couple of times for snorkelling - the water was quite clear but there wasn't that many fish or much coral - before heading towards Turtle island.

Turtle island is a sanctury for turtles and other animals, and there are plenty of turtles here! There were some tiny newborn ones and some huge old ones, who we held and got photos with - these ones were heavy! The sanctury not only rescues and looks after turtles, it also sets them back into the 'wild' if they are fully recovered which is nice. There was also snakes, birds, bats and a few other reptiles in enclosures in the sanctury. Scott held a huge snake but Vic wasn't going near it! He also went in with some bats which again Vic wasn't too impressed wiith, but she did go in with the Tucan's. We then got the boat back to the beach and met up with our driver again.

Next stop was at Ulu Watu which was a high cliff overlooking and leading down to a famous surfing point, and while the driver waited at the top we hiked down the makeshift steps towards the ocean, passing many little restaurants and surf shops built into the rocks which was cool. We made it about halfway down and stopped at a small decking area for at least an hour where we had refreshing fruit shakes and a bit of lunch whilst sunbathing on the floor and listening to the waves crashing below. This was still quite high up so the views were amazing, right across the turquoise/blue ocean. After a rest there we carried on hiking down until we reached the little bit of beach, where we watched in awe at all the people surfing the waves. They were so high and strong! Some people had boogie boards and were being knocked off but there were some professional looking guys on their surf boards who were riding the waves and making it look easy! Scott waded in but after a while came back out as the current was so strong, so we hiked back up to the top and got back in the car.

Lastly we were on the way to Jimbaran, the well known seafood area on the beach, to watch the sunset and gorge on some amazing fresh seafood. At sunset the whole beach is lined with restaurants all selling huge amounts of seafood, and it turned out that our driver actually worked at one of these restaurants at night! They were all quite similar so we ate at his because we got a discount! Scott had a mixed platter of all different seafood including prawns, crab, calamari and red snapper, and Vic had fish and chips, while watching a gorgeous sunset. It was a really nice way to end the day and also our holiday in Bali. We then got a taxi back to our hotel at around 8pm which took 45 mins and decided what to do later that night.

We were flying home the next morning and knew we had to leave about 7am, so weren't intending to have a big night, but sometimes these things just happen! So what was only supposed to be a few drinks turned into a big night out visiting several bars and ending in Sky Garden, the huge bar/club complex near our hotel, taking advantage of the drinks specials and getting back to the hotel at gone 3am! It was a great night but probably not the best idea we have had because of course at 6am when the alarm went off we felt rather worse for wear and didn't really fancy the 18 hour flight which lay ahead of us back to the UK via Singapore! We got up and checked out, then jumped in a taxi to the airport, sad to be leaving after a great 2 weeks.

Overall, we really liked Indonesia, even though we only saw a small part of it. Kuta, whilst very touristy and by no means the real Bali/Indo, was fun and although the beach wasn't as nice as we had thought, we had a really fun time there, stayed in a hotel with a nice pool, and the nightlife was really good. Ubud was fantastic and a little pocket of calm and culture, whilst the Gili's were truly gorgeous with incredible beaches and had the right balance of peace yet had fun things to do at night. The people were all so friendly everyhwere we went and even though Bali got hit terribly by teroism a few years ago,they are on the way to recovery. Hopefully we will be back one day to visit and explore more of this fascinating country!

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