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Sorry we did not pose any blogs during our travels but we encountered some technological difficulties and many, many power cuts so we are going to update them now we are back in Perth!
We arrived in Kuta, Bali at lunchtime on 5 January and sailed through immigration as we had already got our 60 day visas from the Indonesian Consulate in Perth. We were met at the airport by someone from the hotel which is called Suji Bungalows. We usually stay at Hotel Sorga but when we went there in June last year it was a bit run down so decided to try a place just down the road. We really liked the new hotel which has a great pool and air con and a fridge in the room which is great. It is actually cooler in Bali than Perth (by almost 10 degrees at the moment as Perth swelters) but it is much more humid and we are constantly sweaty messes. It is the wet season at the moment in Indonesia so there are less tourists and accommodation is cheaper which suits us tight people! We also prefer it as we have missed experiencing proper weather. This probably
sounds crazy to those folks back in Blighty but it does not rain that much in Perth and there have not been any impressive storms so we are really enjoying the torrential downpours and thunder and lightening. It does not rain everyday and when it does it is usually very heavy and over in a few minutes so it does not really affect us going out and about, plus swimming in the pool and having a hot shower in an outside bathroom in the rain is quite fun as you can see in the photos!
We love Kuta and had initially planned to stay there 5 nights but decided to cut that short to 3 nights and head for the Gili Islands because it felt like we were on a weeks holiday and not travelling! Whilst in Kuta Rich had a few surfs at the beach break and we hired a moped and went to have a look at a surf break called Dreamland and at Ulu Watu where Rich got a surf in as well. We had hoped to hire the moped for another couple of days and explore West Bali but the traffic around Kuta scared the
you know what out of Rich and we decided perhaps it would be better to not bother!! One night we headed down to the beach for a couple of beers to watch the sunset which we do every night we are in Kuta and well, the beers were going down quite nicely!! We had a few more beers at a couple of bars and decided we fancied some cheesy disco and surely there must be a Balinese Trek! Yep we found it at The Bounty which was massive and full of young, hip and trendy, sunburnt strumpets. We felt old enough to be their parents but showed the young ones how it is really done! Kerry dared Rich to get up on the stage for a photo opportunity and that was when Rich found his rhythm and, as we all well know, rhythm is a dancer. Kerry nearly died of laughter and sheer embarrassment as Rich proceeded to do the bum dance up on the stage with no shame. Rich stayed up there for what seemed like an eternity and Kerry thought she have to leave without him but Rich finally dragged himself off the stage to get another beer.
We got back to the hotel at 1.30am, pretty sloshed eating seaweed crisps reminiscing over our brilliant moves and how amazing we must have looked to all thouse young 'uns!! Needless to say we both felt terrible the next day and Rich didn't even get out of bed until 11.30 and then we had a swim in the rain which made us feel a lot better!
The next day we got the fast boat over to Gili Trawangan, the largest island of the three, which is known as the party island. After our drunken night out at The Bounty, we could not even face the thought of drinking so only stayed one night as it got a bit rowdy when people started to come back after the parties! We hopped on a boat to Gili Meno which was much more of our cup of tea with lovely beaches and sparkling turquoise water plus it was much cheaper than Gili T so we spent 3 nights at Kontiki Hotel by the best stretch of beach on the island. Our 3 days on Meno basically went breakfast, beach, snorkel, lunch, beach, snorkel, walk round the island and have a beer at
sunset, dinner and then bed. We could have stayed on Gili Meno forever but it was time to hit the road and go to the last of the islands - Gili Air. We were only going to stay one night but we had a brand spanking new bungalow with a beautiful outdoor shower and the waves were good so we stayed an extra night so Rich could have another surf. Then we headed to Senggigi on the Lombok mainland where Rich did more surfing and we hired another moped to have a look along the northern coast which was stunning. Gunung Rinjani, the highest volcno on Lombok, means that this area of the island receives a lot of rain so it is very green and lush with high volcanic ridges which reminded us of Hawaii and Tahiti. We then did something very naughty and went to stay at the Novotel Kuta Lombok on the southern coast. The hotel was lovely and the breakfast buffet was amazing (for those who do not know, Rich loves breakfast an awful lot and was the main reason to stay at this place!) but to be honest we felt uncomfortable there. When local peope asked
where we were staying we were emabarrassed to say the Novotel as the locals are pretty poor in that area and we felt like we were flashing our money and amazing lifestyles in their faces. Despite this, we enjoyed our time there especially as we hired another moped and went to Gerupak and got a boat out to a very good but crowded surf break where Rich had a brilliant surf with Kerry bobbing up and down over the wave on a tiny boat taking photos. Note to self, never go mad at a breakfast buffet right before bobbing up and down for two hours on a big swell!
We went back to Sengggigi for one night before getting the boat back to Bali and a transfer to Ubud. We went to Monkey Forest again (we were there in Feb 2007) despite Kerry being a bit apprehensive as a large male monkey sat on her lap last time but all was well with the monkeys. On our second day we went for a walk along Campuan Ridge which was spectacular - amazing valley views and rice paddies and then we got totally lost and a two hour walk took
In the cage!
Just like a Friday night down the Trek! four and a half hours but the scenery was worth the effort! Another thing that it made it worth it was Richard being a plonker - bless him!! He nearly slipped on the pavement in dramatic style and then later on, somehow (it could only happen to Rich) his shoe laces on his walking boots tied themselves together and he nearly came a cropper. Kerry was crying from laughing so much on both occasions and was very sorry that she did not get to film the those two little episodes as they were hysterical! In the afternoon we hired a moped and went to Goa Gajah, the Elephant Cave, which is a Hindu temple with a jungle walk and then went to Petulu where hundreds of herons roost and the rice paddy views were fantastic. We then went back to Kuta where we are staying 4 nights before heading to Java. One morning we hired a moped to brave the traffic and went north to Canggu. This is a surf spot and we expected it to be quite crowded but it was not too bad as there were quite a few different places to surf which totally baffled Rich and
he could not figure out where to go in. We kept hold of the moped and went up there again the next day as it is really nice there with great views of more rice paddies on the way. Then we had one more night on the town and ended up at the Bounty again strutting our stuff in front of the young 'uns! Java and Sumatra blog to follow soon!
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