Kuta (again)

---

Wednesday 23rdthrough tillThursday 31st:
Well, after the tragic death of Nikki the Nikon, we headed to Kuta to sort out the insurance claim. It's been 8 days and not even a response from the insurance company yet.

Kuta is the main tourist destination and the capital. It's busy, overcrowded and often costs more than the rest of Bali. It's basically an Australian holiday resort similar to the Costa Del Sol or Tenerife.

So, we basically spent the first night in the first hotel we found, which was a rank place - but for Rp50,000 a night, you can't expect much. So we upgraded and moved to Aquarius, a nice little place on Jalan Legian, between Poppies Lane's 1 and 2. It had a swimming pool, free breakfast, was clean and had hot water. All for Rp85,000 (about 2 or 3 quid each a night)

Basically we spent a week sat by a pool sunbathing, so we haven't got a lot of interesting stuff to write about. However...

...We did see a strange creature in a cage, right by our room. It was a scary looking cat/monkey hybrid thing that hissed when anyone went close to it. If anybody can identify it please tell us. It's currently on the run; One night we were sat on our patio, smoking, drinking Arak and playing cards - when the Cat-Monkey thing ran off our roof, cross the wire and onto the roof of the next bungalow. It was followed by 2 friends. The next day the staff were all looking for it. We think it was a breakout.

We also went to see the monument, right next to the former Sari club (which is now an empty plot of land), where some crazy Islamic fundamentalists from Java (The next country along in Indonesia) decided to set off a bomb (2nd of the 2004 Bali bombings). 188 Toursists died and lots more were injured, although because native Balinese people were not allowed in the clubs (drugs, prostitution etc.), they used to all hang about outside. The number of people actually killed is said to be a lot higher. Although because it was just built out of bamboo and wood, a lot that weren't killed by the bomb blast, died in the fire after it.
It doesn't seem to have dampened the Balinese spirit though, most of them wear T-shirts that say 'Osama Don't Surf.', which we guess is true.

And continuing our quest to sample global fast food fare worldwide, we visited McDonald's here. Like most countries in SE Asia, McDonald's do delivery - McDelivery. We realised we hadn't mentioned it yet, or taken a picture - So we did. Also we saw a surfing Ronald McDonald as it's opposite Kuta beach, where everyone goes to surf.

Everyone here seems to eat chicken legs and chips - just like they do in KFC - why not just go to KFC we keep asking ourselves? (But then again on a Hindu island, the only one, in a Muslim country it's understandable)

The only other thing of interest was a nighclub we went to Paddy's, which had live music. The Balinese band and singers were pretty good (they sang really well, even more so for saying it was in English - their 2nd language). Unfortunately they let people get on stage with them and sing, Karaoke style. Some English girl sang. It was so bad it hurt, so we left.

And that's about it really, sorry it's not a more interesting post, but we needed to relax by a pool for a bit after all that travelling. In a few hours we fly to Australia!

---

Photos

Our pool.
Except for a few Australian's.
Ho, Hum. If only Sudbury hadn't been overcrowded that time.

Monkey-Cat
Please, somebody identify it. Nobody here could tell us what it was, and Matt's explaination of a drunken monkey having it's wicked way with a cat doesn't seem likely.

Leanne and Ronald the surfer
Osama might not surf, but Ronald does. Leanne tried to ride with him.

McDelivery
What a genius idea. We need it back home.

The monument
With all the names of the dead people on it.

The former Sari Club.
Just a field in the middle of a city now.

Comments

[billy]

kuta
hi matt-leanne, by the time you read this you will probably be in oz, hope you enjoyed bali and all it had to offer..its one of my favourite places in all the world..kuta is mad, we made some good friends with the taxi guys..cipto the taxi driver made some money out of me on world cup bets..a mad but very funny guy... have some v happy memories of my wife and i getting very drunk in the wig-wam bar on legian st. tripple bacardi for rp25.000..ahh happy days. i see your having a bit of trouble with your insurance claim..some things never change..i've tried to find out what that creature in the cage is..no luck yet but i'll keep looking..i think matt's idea of the monkey and the cat could be a winner..lol looks like an insurance man to me.. well thats my lot..take care and have fun.. billy.

[Wendy from Oz]

Strange creature -
It looks very much like a possum - but don't know whether they are indigenous to Bali or not. However, that's my best guess!! Cheers!