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Well a couple of weeks before
we had planned to come to Bali another dreaded bombing took
place. We couldn’t believe it but both of us still said we
wanted to go and not change our plans. We even had a text from
“Trailfinders” saying we could change things if we wanted! In
the end because of not going to China we ended up having an
extra week here…
The people here are just like
the rest of the Far East, laid back, friendly but hungry for a
sale or deal. That tied in with not having too many tourists to
pester made it quite tough at times constantly being badgered
for this and that when you left your grounds of your hotel etc…
Last time I was here (Terry) I
had got the worst case of Bali Belly. Not just your usual
couple of days of “where’s the toilet”, but serious, swollen
stomach and bleeding intestines. Nice. They nearly didn’t let
me into Hong Kong last time as I was glowing red on their
monitors!
So with that in mind from last
time and knowing their water is deadly I knew I would be having a
salad free 2 weeks and drinking beer to keep the germs away.
I had contacted a lady from the
hotel I stayed at last time about places to stay. She no longer
lives in Bali but still pops home to visit relatives etc and
recommended a hotel to stay. We checked it out on the website and
it looked really nice.
We really enjoyed it and would
definitely stay there again. Spotlessly clean rooms, great
pool, short walk to the beach, breakie thrown in and all for
about £11 per room per night.
The pound is
a great currency to have here and with a quick withdrawal from
the ATM you are a Bali millionaire...
After a good sleep on the first
day after the madness of Hong Kong, we basically chilled out for
the time here. We sunbathed (the sun was damn hot), swam lots
in the pool, ran lots on the beach, ate out and watched loads of
films on the Sky TV. As well as all that we did some internet
planning now and then for our next couple of stages to Japan and
South Africa.
We did a one day biking trip
which was a great way to see more of the ‘real Bali’ outside of
the tourist area of Kuta. This started after an early breakfast
overlooking Kintamani Volcano. Typical, the weather was mixed
with a good dose of rain downpours getting us wet. We biked
through many small villages seeing lots of locals; saw many
temples and paddy fields. You got a real sense of how rural
Bali is and how reliant they are on the land to make a living.
Even though we got a bit wet at times it was quite refreshing
and made the lunch stop at Ubud taste even better when the heavens
really opened!
On another day we hired a taxi
driver for the day. Mad I know but a done thing here. He
basically sits and waits for you wherever you want to go. We
went to Denpasar to do some shopping and Nusa Dua (the posh
package tour place) to have a nose at the holiday makers lined
up within their fluffy western hotels and walk along the beach
in the sun. Very upmarket but quite isolated.
After the nice relaxing time
here, next stop the madness of
Japan and Tokyo, after a late
flight into Hong Kong. No hotel fiasco this time. A night in
the transit lounge will be good enough being it’s an early
flight the next day! |
