Welcome to Bali?
On the flight from Perth to Bali, we hit some turbulence that must have set records. The flight attendant on board told me she had never seen it that bad in 5 years! The cause was the heat rising from farmlands in the north of Australia and as soon as we got out to sea it was fine. For 45 minutes the plane was thrown about and I had to laugh it was so ridiculous. The good part is I will never be worried about flying in turbulance again now that I've seen what a plane can take. As soon as I arrived in Bali and got off the airplane the heat hit me. It was around 9pm at night and still the humidity was incredible. After 15 minutes I felt like I had just had a shower.
I paid too much for a taxi into Kuta (the biggest city in Bali) I went to a small place someone reccommended to me. It was your basic bamboo cottage off the beaten track. I went out to get something to eat and was attacked by people trying to sell me everything and anything from $1 rolex watches to stuffed animals. Being new to this scene they somehow sensed it and followed me sometimes for 2 blocks! Things were going to get better right?
The next day I was brought breakfast consisting of tea, fruit salad, and a toasted sandwich with bananas in it. ( The Balinese are very friendly and they have very good memories. They seem to know exactly when you get up in the morning and never forget a face or your name.) I walked around town to book a bus to a place in the interior called Ubud which was not supposed to be as touristy. Anyhow, I ran into a Norwegian girl I met in Australia and we hung out for the remainder of the day. The Restaurants show movies all the time and some are ones that have just been released. I saw Titanic for example.
I travelled to Ubud and spent about 1 week there because I liked it so much. It was not nearly as touristy and had real charm. I went on a tour of the island in a small Van with six other people and hung out with some of them during the week. During our tour, our Van tried passing two other vans on a straight section and the first Van went to pass the second Van while we were passing him. We skidded and went off the road, but luckily we went into a grass field. The poor 70 year old guy in the front seat almost had a heart attack! We saw some cool things though -- waterfalls, temples, and even had a swim in some hot springs.
One funny story in Ubud was when I went to the Monkey Forest. There are loads of monkeys here as I found out and at the entrance you could buy bananas to feed them. Not knowing, I bought a large bunch of bananas and proceeded through the gates into the forest. Big mistake.
As I went down the path I saw around 20 or 30 people with monkeys all around them (hundreds of monkeys, big and small.) The problem was the people had no food I was the only one who had bought bananas. The monkeys attacked. At one point I had three monkeys on me. The old saying "Get the monkey off your back" came to mind. I had to practically throw the bananas at them and my shirt was muddy from their feet. I was lucky. A girl the day before was bitten by the cheeky things.
Today I am in Lombok, an island east of Bali. It is less crowded here and was very suprised to find a place with internet access. It is pretty dead here and I won't stay for long. Besides there is a Malaria outbreak here and I don't want to take a chance. I'm going to go rent a scooter now for around $3 a day. How does that even pay for gas? -- I don't know.
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