bali still..

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hello my friends.

still in bali, still doing touristy lovely things. ventured far out today, visited a couple of new temples, and even got blessed with holy water. saw some women making batik on the batik making making wheel thing. crazy to think that the batik costs only about 10 aussie dollars for a metre or so, and it takes oh so much time for them to create it. and i'm sure they don;t see half of that in profit. our tour guide told us that the women only make 30 000 rupee a day - that about 4 aussie dollars! for a whole day. 8 - 5. crazy different world out here.

also went to a pretty amazing zoo - saw a hippo and some tigers. had a lovely lovely encounter with some baby monkeys. god i love those things. the way their hands move is just so human - i just want to take them all home and care for them. don't know what customs would have to say about that though.

going back a couple of days however, we visited an elephant park which was apparently named by steve erwin the top one in the world! i'm not surprised, it was incredibly well kept and beautiful - as were the elephants. i was lucky enought to be able to ride one - i'll defintitely add some photos of that experience when i'm on a more capable computer! my elephant was female - you can tell by the fact that females don't have tusks and male ones have huge ones. she was amazingly placid, i'm sure this is due to the fact that they have been handled by humans since they were babies. we went on a walk atop the elephant through some rainforest just near the park - it's all so beautifully balinese! i was even able to get a few lovely photo opportunities - the elepahant sort of laid down and i sat on it's knee!~! haha. how lucky am i. at the time was extremely apprehensive, thinking that at any moment the elephant would do a summersault and squash me under it's 2 and a half tonnes. but no, she was lovely and i got away completely unscathed!

getting a bit lonely without young company by my side. at times i think maybe it would have been better to do this trip with other youngsters such as myself, but then i think of the freedom that i have in doing this how i'm doing it. when i get to europe i think there will be many opportunities to meet up with other young people and travel, and this is just my time to reflect on the decisions i have made in coming here solo, and choose to love this for what it is before i really share myself with the big world! ubud and candidasa are more destinations for older travellers, the young scene is defintely more prominent in kuta. ill be back there on tuesday, ready to prepare myself for the crazy european world. to think - in about a week and a half ill be in wales, sipping a good old pint in a couple of hundred year old welsh pub/. by the way - just a warning to anyone coming to bali - beware the beer!! it is extremely yummy and doubly addictive - and also can enable you to establish a serious beer belly in about a week of you starting to consume it. i swear i've put on about 5 kilos in the time i've been away. my diet has been consisting purely of rice and bintang! not the most effective way to get a beautiful beach body, i assure you. but fun nonetheless...

so, i will say goodbye from this little internet cafe somewhere in the middle of ubud, bali. shall write again at some point in the near future.

ciao for now beautiful people. keep an eye out for the next installment!! it's sure to be a ripper. haha x

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