Bali

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Bali, an Indonesian Island was our next stop on our way to South East Asia. Bali was a place to chill out and we mainly spent our time lounging on the beach with the sun baking us at 30 degrees. We stayed in Kuta, the town where most backpackers stay but it wasn't the paradisical Bali of deserted white sand beaches and palm trees we had envisaged. The town itself is a concrete jungle full of neon signs and hawkers trying to sell you everything from transport, massages, sunglasses and marajuana, often the same guy offering all this in the one sentence. There were however some nice bars, some cheap cocktails to be had and the sunset on Kuta beach is really beautiful.
However, two days in Kuta were enough and we decided to leave Kuta and head to Ubud, a town one hour north of Kuta known as the cultural centre of Bali. We hired our own local driver for the day for 10 euro who brought us around the local sites like the Elephant Caves Temple, the rice fields and the Monkey Sanctuary. The monkey sanctuary was a great place to watch the monkeys antics. Though they can be aggressive and they will do whatever it takes to get any bananas from you! Our driver was a bit of a joker though and was keen to bring us to all these shops selling wooden and art crafts where he would earn some commission for himself if we bought something. He wasn't too impressed that we weren't interested despite us telling him we were backpacking and couldnt carry this stuff around.

I wasn't giving up on our search for a piece of Bali paradise so as it was nearing Peters big 30th birthday we decided to treat ourselves to a 5 star hotel on the Southern pennisula perched right on the Indian ocean with its own private white sand beach. It is rated as one of the worlds leading hotels and it was pure luxury. We 'almost' felt out of place but we quickly adapted. It was exactly what we needed after nearly 4 months of backpacking to recharge the batteries before the madness of Bangkok.

Maire x

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