Surreal Bali

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Indonesia is busy.... properly busy.. there are people everywhere.... lovely lovely people everywhere.. and they like a motorbike, in fact i'd go so far as to say they love a motorbike.They perform amazing feats of balance every day by loading their beloved two-wheeled friends with, what looks to us like, unfeasibly large amounts of water bottles/ beer/ chickens (live) /vegetables/sarongs/children. I saw a 12 year old girl do her homework on the back of one whilst her 12 year old friend was driving... asbo? I don't think so!

In Lovina , in the North of Bali, we had lunch in the "Swasticka" cafe, enjoying their "gordon blue" cuisine whilst listening to James Blunt's greatest hits. We came on this trip to get away from him!

Squeamish men don't look now but girls will appreciate this... in Sanur, South Bali, i had the pleasure of enjoying, or should i say enduring, the four women wax off. That one on one waxing is just so last year... this is a brilliant system - whilst you are recoiling from the pain in one area, it's going on in another so you never really catch up. Plus you daren't scream cos it's four against one and it's all over in about 15 minutes... genius!

We can also report that the 3am towel drop on sun lounger is alive and well.. in our first hotel there were lots of Europeans and all the loungers were taken by 8am. Pre-breakfast is just rude isn't it? Our only chance of getting one was blatant opportunism - loitering around with intent between the time the departing guests departed and arriving guests arrived. A window of about 23 minutes so you gotta be quick! There aren't many brits around, we've seen loads and loads of French (insouciance par excellence), Dutch (tall), Germans (personal space issues) and of course Aussies (loud).

We managed a bit of tennis, till my string broke again (not that easy to find a re-stringer here!) and as we were playing the guy was sweeping the court and asking us about ourselves - people are just incredibly friendly and chatty here. There's a fair to middling amount of hassle but it is all extremely well-intended - you are just followed down the street with cries of "transport", "massage", "batik", "sarong" , " i make you nice price" and very amusingly "hello" (done like Leslie Philips) and "lovely jubbly" (not done like Del Boy).

So what else... I got a dose of the old Bali Belly - about time i suffered i suppose. We climbed up Ganung Batur one of Bali's volcanoes which was fun especially as we had to walk the first bit in the dark as it was 4am (what's that rustling?). We visited Lovina which was more mellow than South Bali and witnessed the Indonesian Harley Davidson Chapter strut their stuff. In South Bali we have been to Kuta (Aussie touristy), Seminyak (European touristy) and Sanur (European slightly less touristy). Today i visited the Memorial Wall for the bombing at the Sari Club in 2002 in Kuta - it was very moving especially as my friend from Epsom College, Anneka Linden, died there along with many many others from all over the world.

It's hot here and high season which makes a change for us! One of the most wonderful aspects of the country apart from the people has been the flowers and plants - Hibiscus, Frangipani, Bougainvillea, Birds of Paradise in just the most amazing reds, pinks, purples, oranges and they are absolutely everywhere... delightful.

Next stop Yogyakarta in Java for some shopping, culture and templing...

xx

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Comments

[Justin Amos]

Baliness
what no tales of surfing , calzone pizza's , eggs cooked in hot springs for brekke ! - did you make it accross the lake to view the open bamboo graves ?

[Poulu]

Bali old timer
Sorry Fash, no surfing - too old for those kind of antics, thought i did pretty well to get up that hill. Also no calzone pizzas though did have the egg breakfast thing which was nice/bizarre. Also didn't make it to the open graves though sounds like a fun day out. Back in London on Wednesday... eeekkk... and look forward to catching up when i'm back. x