Bye bye Bali

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Bali - Sanur & Lovina

After leaving the Gili’s we had less than a week left in Bali. First stop was Sanur, on the south coast. To be honest, there’s not much to love about Sanur. It’s very nice, but definitely a well-developed tourist town. The local ex-pats call it ‘Snooze’, with good reason. A couple of plus points are the long beachside promenade which is quite nice, and Warung Little Bird which does the BEST food in Sanur – the beef redang is highly recommended. After a few days Gill left us (how very dare she!) to go back to Blighty and the exciting, fulfilling world of work. So, just the two of us again.

Next stop was Lovina on the north coast, which was a 4 hour bus ride over the mountains (they’re volcanoes actually). The journey was worth the trip – fantastic vistas all around. The town is fairly quiet, and there isn’t a great deal to do, but it’s famous for one thing – dolphins! We took a trip at dawn on a very small boat (only 60k - £4) and hoped we would see some. We saw plenty, they were everywhere. It was cool. Less cool was the other 40 tourist-filled boats (mainly shrieking Chinese tourists) chasing the dolphins around. I suppose the dolphins don’t mind, otherwise they would fish elsewhere, but it was quite an amusing sight. We also struck gold with our guesthouse (Villa Jaya) which was a very pretty place with an awesome pool, which was needed as the heat here was oppressive. It’s also close to some great warungs serving awesome food.

We then popped back down to Kuta, our last stop before we flew back to Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia - KL

We love KL. It’s modern, but still has plenty of charm and character. It’s the wet season here and boy has it been wet. You’ve not seen rain until you’ve seen it Asia-style. More on that later. On the first day we went shopping (there are massive malls everywhere) and to see a film. Lunch, dinner, a film (plus snacks) for two people = £14. Nice.

The main reason we’re here is for the MotoGP (Motorcycle Grand Prix). We’re both big fans and were amazed we could get a weekend ticket for £12 each! We went to the qualifying session on Saturday and wandered around the exhibition area – think super-hot models sat on amazing bikes. What a combo.

The next day was race day. The atmosphere was awesome and the race itself was great. Then the heavens opened, the lightning cracked and the skies rumbled. Sensibly they ended the race a few laps early and the crowd made a dash to the waiting buses. Imagine rain so hard it feels like you’re standing under a shower. The roads turned to rivers. I’ve never felt rain like it – we were both wet through to the bone. Luckily a bloke gave me a carrier bag to put my camera in, otherwise it would’ve been ruined. What an experience. A great weekend.

Next stop is Bangkok for some fabulous mayhem. We’re not sure of the itinerary after this, so we’ll keep you updated.

Lou’s Bit

Sanur was ok but I never thought I’d miss Kuta. There just doesn’t seem to be a kinda pub culture here, it lacks ambience as Micky Flanagan says. It’s more for oldies and families. Gotten bitten to buggery as well by the mozzies. Tip for the other travellers, they love you if you have eaten anything with banana in! I got about 30 bites on my left leg and owing to being allergic to them, they still look all bruised and itch now, over 10 days later!

Lovina was cool. I finally got to see dolphins, loads of them. Sunrise was cool as well, watching that from the boat was amazing. The food place we liked in Lovina near our guesthouse is called Warung Apple and does the most amazing chicken wings and hot sauce I have ever had. I highly recommend it.

Kuta just involved some boozing and chilling out ready for our flight back to KL. Now that was interesting. First we spotted ‘black leg of doom’ following us around (see pic), it was everywhere we turned, like a scene from The Prisoner. I took this to be a bad sign. Some hours later on our landing in to KL airport, we were 300 feet off the ground when we took off again at high speed. I can tell you I found God in those few minutes, spent the next ten praying we survive and with Chris laughing at me. It was awful. I was waiting for the singing nun and her guitar to appear just so I knew it was the end. But hey ho, it was a simple case of the runway being too wet and the pilot only seeming to have been told, what I deem rather too bloody late, that he couldn’t land! So off we flew to the next KL airport, refuelled, waited 2 hours then flew back.

If any airport staff are reading this, please could you tell me why after going through two security gates, you can sell me water before I go to the departure gate, then take it off me as I cannot take it on the plane, which you do not provide free water on at all, even after delays of hours but the others can take on 6 bottles of whisky at a time?! So, it took us 12 hours from Bali to KL, one burger king coke and that was it, pardon my language but w***ers! (rant over).

I love KL. It feels like normality to me. I get to go shopping, buy clothes that I fit in, eat great food, go to the cinema (and freeze to death from the aircon). The GP just topped it off. The race day was so funny owing to the biblical rain, but I so enjoyed the race and can’t wait to go to another one. Got to see some of the riders close up and got a wave from Lorenzo, how cool!

Bangkok next and hoping to meet up with some friends and this time we are wanting to do things we never did before in Bangkok, ping pong show, muay thai fight, river tour, gun range etc can’t bloody wait! Oh and can’t wait to have a “super super double f***ing strong” whisky bucket on the Khao San Road.

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Photos

Jorge Lorenzo
Waving right at me.