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Published: August 29th 2007
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The Blogs that I though were lost have now been reinstated, everyone can sleep easy tonight (& Jan your pics r back!)!
I headed over to Bali by Ferry from Java, heading to the transport hub, Depensar. I had decided to head to Kuta which was only a few Kms away from Depensar. Kuta kinda is like a Spanish holiday resort except with loads of Australians not British. For me this was ideal as after all the traveling across Java, I was in need of a holiday!!
Bali - Kuta
As said, Kuta is kinda is like a Spanish holiday resort and I was happy to just lay on the beach and chill for a couple of days, soaking up the sun and enjoying the cheaper Bintang (cheaper local lager as we were now on a Hindu Island though was still part of Muslim Indonesia).
After a couple of days I decided to head to one of the Gili Islands as all the travelers I had met in Indonesia had informed me of how cool it was, so I booked my trip to Gili, knowing that I could return to Bali for further days of sun worship.
Scuba diving
Whilst doing advanced PADI in GILI Islands, LOMBOK Gili Trawangan, Gili Islands, Lombok
Gili Islands are three very small Islands off the North West coast of Bali neighboring Island Lombok. As with many trips in Asia, the actual time you take to arrive somewhere is often alot longer than the advertised time. This was a 6-8 hr trip from Kuta to Bali and after a 12hr trip that started at 6am I finally arrived on a boat that it felt like would capsize at any moment!
Trawangan is the busiest of the three Islands that make up the Gili Islands, and this one is still very quite, and all three Islands are ideal places to come and relax and enjoy the beautiful sandy beaches and warm clear blue waters. No motor vehicles are allowed on the island, and so if you wanted to get around the island this will need to be either by bike or horse and carriage. Me and a couple of other guys hired a bike for a morning and got right around it in under an hour.
I actually decided to do my Scuba diving PADI advanced course on the Island which included doing 5 dives (which for me
Turtle Power
One of my many underwater friends :) were: Deep dive/Photography/Navigation/Multi Level diving/Night dive). The diving took up most of my time, but was happy to find out that unlike the first dive qualification I got this one did not entail spending half days in a classroom doing tests, but was more interested in practical experience 😊. Unfortunately the coral in the Gili islands had been greatly destroyed, though there were quite alot of varieties of fish still to be seen.
The night dive was something different, and I really enjoyed it, and I can now dive to 30m, though this had not previously stopped me in Borneo! Day after I completed the diving I headed back to Bali (Kuta).
Bali - Kuta again!!
On way back met tow Danish guys who asked me if there were any attractive women, when I said yes of course, they said that’s thanks to the Danish Viking's!! Went out for a few cool nights with these two who with the bald heads looked like the lead singers from Right Said Fred! (Kjeld hope you’re enjoying Oz)!
As well as spending far to long in the local nightclub called Bounty (was the shape of a ship!), I
Hindu religous ceromony on Kuta beach -Bali
Young children dressed in colourful traditional outfits also hired a surf board and went out to catch a few more dives in Kuta. I was starting to get the hang of it and was able to stand up on the board with every other wave (even if this was in 1m deep water 😞 ).
Before I left Bali for Melbourne was lucky enough to see a Hindu festivals that was taking place actually on Kuta beach. About 200 hundred locals were taking part in the events and it was really cool with all of them dressed in authentic colourful ritual clothing.
I was gonna miss these locals, and the daily calls of "Transport Boss".
Nusa Lembongan
Met some really cool guys (Kate/Geir/Christina & Dillion ). And we headed for an overnight trip to Nusa Lembongan which is a small Small island off South East Bali. Was a really nice Island but we could only afford to stay a night as we were all leaving soon after. After a couple nights more in Bali, got flight to Melbourne Australia.............
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