As predicted I spend as long as possible in my hotel, pretty much checking out at 2pm. It has been raining all day so there has not really been much of an incentive for me to get up anyway. I have eventually selected a new place to go, it is in Seminyak, which is about 30mins away from Kuta and is a much more relaxed part of Bali, instead of my party place. I say my goodbyes at reception, and what is interesting is that during my time here I think I have seen about 30 staff, but not one other customer. Very strange. Anyway taxi ordered and off I go.
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The rain is still pelting it down and the drainage is so poor in Bali that there is a lot of surface water lying everywhere. The driver even has the wipers on at full speed and is driving slowly in order to be able to see. There is the usual trouble in trying to find where my hostel is, with the numbers just not running sequentially at all. I try to get the taxi driver to call the hostel but he tells me that he has no credit in his phone and tells me that I will have to buy the credit for him if he is to call. A complete joke, but he is looking for less than £1 so I just give it to him, as the meter will continue to run while he tries to find my place. We eventually find it after he stops to top up his phone and then makes the phone call. I get out of the car quickly and without looking, straight in to a deep puddle of water, thank god I am in the sandals, run round to the boot and then grab my stuff and run to the hostel, entering like a drown rat. A good look. There is no one at reception to check me in but a lot of people in the common room and they tell me to help myself to the tea and coffee as it is free, while I wait for one of the girls. Some of the guys are watching a movie and I'm not joking, they have the TV turned up so loud that it is nearly impossible for me to talk the people beside me. I am actually having to shout to talk. Eventually one of the girls turns up and I get checked in. It's a nice place with good comfortable beds. I have done well for myself.
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It rains for the whole day and it isn't until later that I get a reply to a message I sent to some guys that I had met in China, Troels and Louise about having a pint. They have just arrived in Kuta and we decide to meet up tonight and have a few drinks and a catch up. So I get a taxi back to Kuta where they are staying and meet Troels in the bar of their hotel, right on the tourist strip. He tells me they booked well in advance and got a great deal. We head out for dinner to TJs which is a Mexican restaurant that they had eaten in when they were here a few years ago. It's amazing when I think about it, I met these guys for one night in Beijing about 6 months ago, yet when we are chatting tonight it feels like I have known them my whole life. This is one of the great things about travel, you really do meet some great people from all over the world, and all with travel in common. It already gives you so much in common, and I think it is a different personality type who travels. Open minded, telling stories, listening to stories it's great. After plenty of Bintang I get in to my taxi back to my hostel. I'm feeling pretty drunk all of a sudden, which is strange when I have only had beer. I think perhaps there is not the same strict controls here on alcohol production as at home, probably similar to the Chang in Thailand. Basically no one knows what % it is, it could be 3% or it could be 8%, they just make big vats of the stuff. So I reckon I may have had some of the strong stuff, based on how I'm feeling now. Of course, being a solus white guy in a taxi late at night in Bali can only mean one thing, I want drugs and women! The taxi driver does a great job of offering me everything from light to heavy drugs and women for as long as I like. I have to constantly refuse, and he can just not understand. It's funny. I get back to my hostel and stumble my way around in the dark before collapsing in to my bed. I'm not looking forward to tomorrow.