Bali

Kuta

Our first stop as we flew into Bali was Kuta. The little we knew about Bali before we went there essentially said, “don’t go to Kuta”. But, as our flight got in late and it’s the closest place to the airport we figured a couple of nights couldn’t hurt. Kuta is to Aussies as Ibiza is to the Brits. It’s loud, commercial, and drinking is the main activity. Our hotel was actually a little way out of Kuta, which meant is was a little less crazy. We’d found a good deal for a private double room, with ensuite, free breakfast, AC, hot water and a pool for only 7 pounds a night. Although with an exchange rate of 17,000 Rupiah to a pound, I nearly fell over when our hotel bill was 400,000Rp. Anyway, the hotel was basic but nice and refreshing after the last place we’d stayed in Perth (the room stank of smoke, and after two days, so did we). The pool was much needed. While the temperature was down to about 30 degrees, 10 degrees cooler than Aus, the humidity was up in the 80%. Nothing better than diving in a pool when it feels like that outside. We spent our couple of days in Kuta trying not to buy things. The street sellers are really pushy. Everywhere you went you were offered a massage, manicure, pedicure, bow and arrow…
It’s also incredibly western there with a starbucks on every corner, KFC, mcdonalds and even a Marks and Spencers!

Bungy on a bike

It was here that Alan also got to do his mega bungee trilogy. The pictures do a great job of explaining quite what happened there. He was able to get all three jumps, DVDs and pictures for cheaper than the one jump in New Zealand! Still, it wasn’t quite as scenic. The BMX jump has got to me one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen. One girl watching even screamed when he rode off on the bike (I’m not sure what she thought he was going to do up there). But Alan came off of that as high as a kite from the adrenaline, complete with burst blood vessels above his eyes from doing the three consecutive jumps. He was also a little warm after they dressed him up in a leather evil knievel outfit over the harness.

Everyone we met in Bali from the security guard at the airport to the taxi drivers asked us if we were on our honeymoon! It must be a pretty standard question for any couples I suppose, but it made us giggle.

We found an amazing little bakery in Kuta called Breadtalk, which made every different combination of snacks involving bread. You could have a “meat the cheese” with salami and cheese baked into a bread, or a brioche with cream cheese baked in, or little bread puddings. And to top this, each one had a very badly translated explanation. One of these promised that if you want to make friends with the Mafia then eating the Kung Fu Chicken was the way to do it. I wish I could remember in more detail what they said, because Alan and I were in hysterics in this shop reading them.

Ubud

Because of the exchange rate, everything seemed so cheap in Bali. But instead of saving ourselves lots of money, it meant we just spent more. What can you do when the cocktails are only 50p? And we also had to treat ourselves to an hour long, full body, Balinese massage at only three pounds a go. Alan had two.

Ubud

As advised, we got out of Kuta pretty quickly and we picked up a shuttle bus called the Perama bus to go onto our next stop – Ubud. Ubud was described as the cultural centre of Bali, and is the gateweay to get to visit most of the more impressive temples.
We were in a hotel called Nick’s Pension which was absolutely beautiful. We had almost a whole floor to ourselves with a giant four poster bed, ensuite bathroom and a large balcony looking out over the rice paddies.
I’ve decided that Balinese hotels have some sort of Shower curtain allergy because we only came across one once in all the places we stayed. I managed to flood almost every bathroom, every time I showered. But quite frankly, I’m not sure what they were expecting…

Anyway, so when we got off of our bus from Kuta, we had no idea how to get to our hotel. We had a half-formed idea to get a taxi, but it turns out the taxis don’t really operate there. So all of the local guys hang around the bus stop trying to persuade you to have them drive you to your hotel. We agreed with one guy what seemed like a reasonable deal and off we went in his car. It turns out his name is Tutde and we got on really well with him. His English was wonderful and he was incredibly sweet. He offered us a really good deal to be our guide around the local sights and it seemed like a great idea, so the next day Tutde took us all around the important things to see from Ubud. These included the Rocky Temple, the Elephant Cave, the rice terraces and the Barong Dance. He also took us up to see the Volcano and Lake Butar. Except when we got there the cloud was so thick we actually couldn’t see out of our window. Tutde was really upset that we hadn’t been able to see this site as it’s considered to be one of the most beautiful spots in Bali. On the way home he took us to see his house, meet his family and have a cup of tea.

While we were in Ubud we also spent some time wandering around the market and haggling for some little mementos for ourselves. It’s a lot quieter and there are far fewer people trying to pressure you into buying something out there. We also tried some of the local restaurants and bars and were extremely excited to find Bali Cider! It turns out, it’s not exactly cider, more fermented rice with apple flavorings, but we were thrilled nonetheless. We did also try a cocktail made from the local spirit of Arak. Which was incredibly tasty, although very strong.

From Ubud we also went out on canyon tubing adventure. It pretty much involved being thrown into a river running down a canyon in a little rubber tube, no paddle and hoping for the best. We a group of aussies who were doing it with us, and got on really well with them. Just as well really, because it turns out you need all the help you can get from everyone to pull you out if you get stuck. We also had our fair share of wildlife turning up in the boat. Where we’d bash into the river sides where all the bushes and other planty stuff was all of the bugs would get knocked into your boat.

Monkey Temple

Alan had a big spider turn up on the end of his boat and start to rear up on it’s hind legs at him. The spider was quickly squashed. At another point, one of the aussie guys saw a spider go into his boat but then couldn’t see it anymore. Next thing we knew the guide was diving out of his own boat and into Curt’s, shoving his hand up Curt’s shorts and pulling out the poisonous spider he’d just seen go up there. Luckily nobody was bitten but there were a couple of people with leeches…

After this, we thought we needed some more wildlife, so we went to the Monkey Forest in Ubud. You’ve probably seen the pictures from this. The monkeys were very cute, but also incredibly tricky. Alan would be feeding them the bananas and one would run up and grab another banana off the bunch for himself. Luckily there was a guy there offering some advice, so that we made sure to feed the big daddy monkey whenever he came up and didn’t feed too many more than their share. We also fed them some lychees which are apparently their favourite fruit. We managed to escape without picking up any monkey viruses, or buying any of the guide’s paintings. Although one monkey did jump up on Alan’s leg and start trying to eat through his pocket to get to his wallet. (apparently, it’s not uncommon for people to teach them to pickpocket).

Candi Dasa

Our next stop was Candi Dasa which promised to be much quieter than anywhere else we’d seen in Bali so far. Tutde had again offered to take us here and to visit several places on the way. We tried again to see the Volcano but for the second time we were thwarted by the weather. It cleared just enough for us to see a little of the lake. That’ll have to be on the list of things to do next time. But we got to go to the Mother Temple, the oldest and biggest in Bali. With the huge amount of rain we had at the time it was very atmospheric.

Candi Dasa was definitely a lot quieter. We spent the two days lying by the beach enjoying some time and watching knock-off movies in the hotel. Alan fell in love with the owner’s two cheeky dogs; Poopsey and Honey.

And then we were on the move again, back towards Kuta for our last couple of days before we flew out to Singapore.

Seminyak

We actually stayed even farther out of Kuta this time in a set of Bungalows which had been recommended in a magazine. For 30 euros a night we got our own bungalow with garden, ensuite, kitchenette tv and dvd player. We had wanted to book into somewhere a little bit nicer for our last couple of nights and Valentines. It turned out to be very lucky as we had two days of near monsoon weather. We were sunbathing a playing in the pool when a little bit of rain started. We ran back to the bungalow to watch a movie and within an hour enough rain had fallen to turn the path outside into a river. Within two hours the pool was flooded and the street outside had actually become a river. So we were very pleased to have our own DVD player to while away the hours and all of the knock-off DVDs we’d bought.

Luckily the weather cleared up in time for us to fly out.

Now here we are in Singapore. Gem’s finally here and quickly adjusting to the heat and being back in dorm rooms again. We celebrated on the first night by going out for cocktails. They even had proper cider at the bar which made us very happy. Although not as happy as the $5 house cocktails, just for girls. They sold them to Alan too though…

We visited a ridiculously huge shopping mall where Gem and I got dragged into a display for women;s health. They did give us vouchers for a store though, which we then hunted through to find anything less than $10 to buy. Free earrings wasn’t too bad for our first day in Singapore.

Sentosa Island

We visited Sentosa island yesterday where we lounged on the beach, swum in the sea and tested out their luge track (New Zealand wins by a mile). We had hysterical giggling trying to climb out on the palm tree to be at the furthest point south of continental asia.

Tonight we’re off to visit the much-recommended night safari and then tomorrow we jump on a train to Malaysia.
More adventures await!

Hope you’re all well, keep in touch!

Sarah (Alan and Gem)