Hello you!
So I am now writing from Bali, Indonesia's own slice of paradise. I have to say that Bali is a place that I never really imagined I'd ever get to go. I've always thought of it as some super luxurious place, the setting of many a perfect picture featuring beautiful beaches, palm trees and stunning sunsets. But here I am, and for a whole month too! Feeling rather lucky...
When I last updated you we hadn't yet touched down in Bali but I was majorly raving about AirAsia - totally sticking by that one, we landed early & our bags arrived safely and quickly. You get a big thumbs up from me AirAsia!
We grabbed our bags and left Denpasar airport in search of a taxi to take us to the hotel we'd booked for two nights. The taxi ride was quick but demonstrated the fact that Balinese roads are much like the roads in Jakarta, rammed and impossible to cross! We've found ourselves wondering where everyone is going at all times of the day but haven't quite come to a conclusion just yet!
We arrived at our hotel, the Suris Boutique Hotel in Kuta, and checked in to our lovely room. Amazing value for just under £10 a night!
However, I'm very confused about one thing. The bathroom. It seems that hotels in Indonesia do not seem to value privacy when it comes to their bathrooms. Why on earth would one want to use the bathroom with the shutters open? Very bizarre, stay classy Indonesia!!
We got settled in to the room, had a quick browse through trip advisor and headed out for dinner, Lonely Planet guide book in hand!
We found a lovely little restaurant called Warung Strawberry. It was located in the night market area of Kuta and served a mix of Indonesian and Chinese style food. It was tasty and super cheap! Around £5 for two large main courses, two drinks and a crab meat soup!
We consulted the guide book and found that beach bars pop up at night (well, deck chairs on the sand and locals with freezer boxes full of bottles of beer!), so we thought we'd give that a go if we could find it!
No such luck, we must've been too late or too early or something, so we headed into the club/bar area further into town. We ended up at a place called Apache Bar, which had the most awesome live band and fairly cheap Bintang (the local beer).
Earlier that evening we had decided we'd just have a few drinks...forget that. It escalated fairly quickly when happy hour came round and we ended up having a really great night!
We went to Bounty, a bar on a boat (on land) and a club I can't even remember the name of - great job Danii!
^^ loving those headbands!!
At some point during the evening I managed to make friends with a bouncer and proceeded to teach him to twirl...okay then...
Such a lovely chap! They say Balinese people are some of the nicest in the world and I'm starting to believe that! I also managed to get myself into the DJ booth and DJed for a while - pretty darn cool if I do say so myself!
So our night out in Kuta was a success - it has a reputation for great all night parties and that was definitely what we experienced, the sore head the next morning was definitely worth it!
Day 13! Sunday 20th July 2014
This morning, once I'd had a shower and made myself feel vaguely more human, we headed out in search of breakfast! On Trip Advisor's advice, we wandered along to Bemo Corner Coffee shop!
I ordered the banana pancakes and they were incredible! Just what I needed to shake off the effects of the night before!
Jack ordered sausage and bacon - which was apparently tasty but the way they had cut up the sausage was just hilarious...just look at them!
Breakfast and coffee out of the way, we wandered around to see what Kuta had to offer! I was looking particularly "travelleresque" today I think...full traveller mode initiated!
Sporting my Stanley Market trousers!
We basically found a busy beach, lots of little market style shops and, the highlight, a turtle conservation centre!
The lady told us to come back at 16:30 if we wanted to help release the new baby hatchlings to their natural habitat.
Obviously we were totally up for that so we did some more shopping and then headed back to the beach!
They were so cute and it was amazing to support such a good cause and watch over 600 baby sea turtles wander off into the sea!
I named my turtle Trevor and Jack named his Tristan. I actually got a bit attached - I didn't want to let him go!
Turtles released, we stayed at the beach for a while just enjoying the view - Bali is pretty beautiful, and this is only the touristy party area, I can't imagine how amazing the rest of it is going to look!
We headed back to the hotel after that to chill for a bit and then went out for dinner. I seriously fancied pizza so we chose a restaurant called Dayu II, which serves a mixture of Italian and Indonesian food - bit of an odd one!!
The food was really rather tasty though and the owner of the restaurant, Wayan, was so lovely. He sat down at the table with us for a chat and tried to help us plan the rest of our trip around Bali! He also taught us how to say thank you in Balinese - "terima kasih".
After our meal we headed to a phone shop to get ourselves some cheapy phones with Indonesian SIM cards so that Jack and I can contact each other whilst we're here, without breaking the bank! Here's a cute little "just married" scooter we passed by on the way there...
We ended up with some very snazzy looking phones actually, the "Hammer 3" if you're interested! For around £17 we got a phone with 100,000 IDR credit on the SIM, amazing! And, mine is pink!!
Phones sorted, we headed back to the hotel to catch up on the sleep we missed out on the night before and admire the day's purchases! Here I am, in full traveller mode, wearing my new Bintang vest top, pompom shorts, fake Vans sunglasses & my awesome beach bag - I think I'm looking pretty cool if I'm honest ;)
That's all for now! Tomorrow we're heading further south to Uluwatu and have an amazing hotel booked (got a great deal - 55% off the standard price!) so that's exciting! This is what it supposedly looks like...
Speak to you soon!
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