Gotta love the Bali Belly

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Bali, Calm, Serene, relaxing.....god I think not. Bali is one of the most intense, hectic, party ready places I have ever been too. Minimal sleep, long hot days and sweaty insane nights. But you have to love it. This was a short trip, only 8 days but it was so worth it, Who would have thought that six day befor we left we were all sitting around a table cramming for our finals when Renee said she wanted to ride an elephant, we kept bantering away and the next theing I know im scraping together every last dollar I have and heading to Bali (thank god for cheap student deals). Bali surprised me, the people, despite thier island being ravaged by tourists still love us and are dedicated to thier religion and thier island, they were probably one of my favorite things about Bali, the people, you just gotta love them. Even the Shifty shop keeper who cornered me in his shop, took my money and only gave me half of my merchandise. Eh, i couldnt complain, he pissed me off but i still only gave him an extra $2, small price to pay for a shirt i am still wearing today.

Our two day speed trip aroud the north of the island was amazing, the drivers need to get some training, speeding around a cliffside road at 110km/h on the wrong side of the road is not my idea of a relaxing trip, but none the less he just got us to more amazing places in half the time. Cheers to him. the Waterfalls are so refreshing, especially after the 3 hour drive. Although snorkelling at Lovina was really quite sad, years of pesticide use and excessive tourism have killed what once would have been an amazing reef.

As for night life, Kuta takes the cake of course. M Bar Go was excellent for its relaxed bouncy atmophere, the Aussie Bar (I know its tacky) was good for its live local band doing aussie covers, somehow i cant really believe they come "from a land down under". But the killer club, the one that we all miss the most has to be the new Paddys 2. after staying right next door to the old paddys it was good to see the people are moving on and rebuiling after so much sadness. Paddys was a total headspin every night. Everyone was bouncing, the dodgy bubble machine was making the tile floor like a slip and slide and the Jungle juice was definatly king of the drinks.

with so much happening in so little time we all thought we were out of the clear and invincible until the untinkable happened, Renee got Bali Belly, seriously funny for those that don have it, utter hell for thaose that do. Cheers to Renee, she was a trooper for two days, Gotta love ya.

I've been home for two days now and after 36 hours of stright sleep I have to say I miss Bali, Paddys, cheap food, Jungle Juice, our hotel staff, the bad as ever Kuta beach......the list goes on. thank god for photos.

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