Days 189-191 -- Bali

So our flight from Jakarta was delayed for a few hours so killed time in the airport charging up all the electronics and sitting around drinking Bintang's...Indonesia's domestic beer. Its pretty tasty and @ 17,000 rupiah for a large bottle...a good value (10,700 rupiah = 1USD). Our flight landed into Bali at 1:30am and it took us a while to negotiate a cab since at that time of night we're at their mercy. Finally got into Kuta, the main beach area, at about 2am and dropped the bags with my brother at McDonald's and went in search for a room. After about 20 places I finally found a place that was within budget at 90,000 rupiah for the night...real dump but only needed to crash for a few hours before finding another place in the morning.

Got up at about 8am after being killed by mosquitos and waking up to a guy counting aluminum cans...sounded like he was right on our porch and he must have had at least 1000 of them. Anyways, we moved down the road to Kedin's II, a popular place full of backpackers, mainly Scandanavians it seems like. They have a really cool pool so spent a few hours lounging around there before moving to the beach. At the beach I ran into Becca and Jacob, a couple from Baton Rouge I met diving in Vietnam. We spent a few hours on the beach and then headed back to our places to get ready for a night out. Had some dinner at the food market, lots of stalls all competing for your business and bought some beers from the nearby Circle K...familiar site! Along with us were Lena from Denmark and Bridgette from Holland and after dinner we decided to check out the nightlife...first stop was Bounty discotheque where we were surprised to find Buy 1 Get 2 fishbowls for only 45,000 rupiah...put down a few of those, played some pool, jammed out to the cover band and then moved the party next door to Paddy's. Don't remember the theme at Paddy's but I do remember a kiddie pool inside and yeah...definitely got wet. More importantly, as we walked in I ran into Ross and Saxony, a Canadian couple who were on my Halong Bay Tour...crazy how small SE Asia is...We danced the night away and made it back to Kedin's and went swimming before finalllly calling it a night.

Woke up with the intentions of going surfing, but a solid headache put those plans on hold so spent most of the day at the pool 'trying' to read a book...think I'll need to reread those pages...That evening we booked our fast boat to the Gili islands leaving on Sunday and a couple of dives for Saturday...doing a wreck dive and a wall dive and the diving in Bali is supposed to be spectacular so should be good times. Didn't plan on going out again, but we all wanted a drink after spending two hours dealing with all the travel plans so it was back for the buckets...such a good deal you can't pass it up! Before we knew it...the night was a repeat of the previous and ended at Paddy's again for their 'Glow in the Dark' party....not really sure what it meant, but a good time nonetheless...no swimming this time though...straight to bed!

Woke up this morning at about 9am and got ready since the driver was picking us up at 10am. The 6 of us hired a car for the day, recommended by the girl I met on the plane to Jakarta for 150,000 rupiah for the day...less than $15USD! We got in and headed to Uluwatu, home of one of the best surf breaks to see the experts in the water. First stop was at a Hindhu temple where we were attacked by monkeys, but luckily were warned to leave our sunglasses in the car...definitely saw them take glasses, hats, go after water bottles, these guys were ruthless. Hungry, we arrived at Uluwatu and had lunch on the cliffs overlooking the waves....waves were huge and the surfers were definitely pros...I think had I tried to get out there I might have died...no joke. After Uluwatu we stopped at Dreamland beach...let me tell you...absolutely amazing! Huge surf that broke right on the beach which was lots of fun to play in. I got banged around a little bit in the sand since I kept trying to ride the waves in...but more importantly was the CLEAR water...I hope we get this kind of visibility when diving tomorrow. Spent a few hours on the beach and then headed to Jimbarra for some fresh seafood. Fish were still alive when we picked them out and the group went with grouper, red snapper and mussles...real solid meal and at Indonesian prices who is going to complain. Watched the sunset from our beachside table before heading back to Kuta...everyone is pretty exhausted from the past few days and since my brother, Ashish, and Becca/Jacob and I all have to be up at 7am tomorrow to go diving, taking it easy tonight and got you guys all caught up! Just ordered some McDonald's delivery since don't want to take any chances with the stomach for tomorrow...if only they delivered at home. Pictures going up now...enjoy!

Oh yeah...so I guess I should at least tell you about Bali. What an awesome place...aside from the nightlife you got lots of friendly locals, good surf, nice beaches, great food and everything is sooo cheap....make sure you get out here - you won't be disappointed!