After a nice holiday in Bali last week - this week has been a quick return to a reality of 14C, rain, and homework, which I am struggling to settle back into. Here is the short version why and how Sara became the proud owner of a magic box:

I left for Bali on Saturday, August 28 with Emilie, Pernille, Sara and Emil from CBS. The flight was 1.5 hours delayed so things started out well. Because of the delay we built up a decent hunger before we actually took off. So, naturally, when the food cart was pushed through the cabin we asked what we could have (and by 'have' I mean buy, because obviously nothing comes for free with Air Asia…). They were pretty much out of everything despite only have served 10 of 40 rows in the plane so the hunger would have to wait. Arriving in hot and very humid Kuta, Bali we took a cab to Barong Hotel where we would be spending the first couple of nights. The hotel turned out to be a real bargain with rooms with air conditioning, two swimming pools and swim-up bars, and a restaurant with breakfast included.

The first day was spent exploring the beach, dealing with the culture shock, and going out. "You want transport boss?!" That was the sentence we were met with from at least five different people with scooters whenever we left our hotel in Kuta's Poppies Lane II. After that, we were openly offered drugs by the next wave of people before having to deal with the shop merchants all the way to the beach. Nearly every store was selling the same craptacular stuff (t-shirts, sunglasses, lighters, towels, bracelets, necklaces etc) so if you didn't like the price you bargained for, you could just go next door. Bargaining, it turns out, was to be our favourite activity in Bali since nearly every price is debatable. I didn't matter that Bali is already a million times cheaper than Perth - we couldn't get it cheap enough… At the ATM you easily take out 1 million Rupiah (around 600 DKK) or 1 million and half to support your decadent lifestyle as newborn millionaire.

Two nights in chaotic and touristy Kuta flew by quickly and then it was time for full-time relaxation as we had decided to go by boat to Gili Trawangan. Before we got that far though, we had to drive 1.5 hours in a minivan to the harbour at Padangbai on a road, which Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear wouldn't undoubtedly crown "The worst driving road.................. in the World!" The road was supposed to be (and probably will be in the distant future) a highway with two lanes in each direction. However, at the present time it was a mix between and 18th century dirt road and a road with one lane in each direction. The bumpiness of the road combined with the lack suspension in the minivan combined to create a less than joyful experience. For some reason AC/DC's song "Highway to hell" kept popping into my mind...

Luckily we survived and the boat trip was more enjoyable. As we got closer to Gili Trawangan we could see that it was worth the trip going there. Crystal clear waters, white sandy beaches, and perhaps best of all: no scooters/moped or cars on the island! The island was a huge improvement over Kuta and we enjoyed every moment there; lying on the beach, snorkelling, and investigating the "nightlife" which consisted of two bars or so.

It was sad to leave Gili Trawangan behind and the boat trip and drive back to Kuta didn't exactly help. We left the island more than 1 hour later than planned and half the boat got seasick. Arriving back in Padangbai we quickly had to find our minivan for another memorable trip on my favourite road. We had lunch already at 17.00/5PM so I was of course close to a starving death at that point and not in the mood for anything. However, we still went out to explore Kuta's bars and meet up with a number of other Curtin exchange students who had also gone to Bali. The last days followed loosely the same pattern with trips to the pool, beach, restaurants and bars (especially Alleycats near the hotel).

One of the highlights of the trip was when we went white water rafting on Telaga Waja River in the deep jungle 2 hours away from Kuta (on my favourite road most of the way...). As we got closer the clouds became darker and we did get some showers going down the river. The five of us were in a boat with a guide and the first objective was to get everyone in touch with the elements (read: wet!) so we went under a waterfall where Pernille managed to fall out of the boat after having been in around 30 seconds in total (could be a new world record). The trip down the river was mostly calm except for a few rocks, cliffs, and wilder parts. Halfway down, we stopped at a beautiful waterfall where we also saw a monkey in the wild. At the end of the 2 hour, 12 km rafting trip we reached a dam which we had to go over... So after lengthy preparations and instructions to hold on and lean back, we were pushed over a 4 m dam and got the biggest adrenaline kick of the day (if anyone has tried Splash Mountain in Disneyland... this was probably even better). We finished off with a climb of 50000000 steps up a mountainside to refreshing showers and a buffet lunch with excellent views over the rice terraces. Then there was just another dreadful drive home...

On the last days I went with Pernille and Emilie to get the last rays of sun before going back to Perth. We hired a few sun beds and were quickly swarmed by numerous sellers and the persistent behaviours. Despite mentioning close to a million times that we couldn't care less about what they were offering and that we had very little money left since it was our last day, they stuck around and especially one would not go away. Pernille started showing an interest in the things for sale - and especially a "magic box" caught our attention. The woman, who we believe was quite drunk, brilliantly started explaining how the box worked. It could contain 3 packs of cigarettes and when you lifted the lid, one cigarette would magically appear on top of the box. Since none of us are smokers, we decided we HAD to get the box for Sara and started the bargaining process. The woman wanted 300,000 Rp (~200 DKK), but we only had 50,000 Rp so that was all we were going to pay. The woman didn't believe us and stuck with the price. Slowly realising that maybe we actually only had 50,000 Rp she started saying how she liked our belongings such as flip flops, bags, and towels and wanted to include them in the deal. The towels were from the hotel so.... we kind of ended up paying 50,000 Rp and 1 hotel towel for a magic box... We had a blast bargaining with her and couldn't stop laughing afterwards. The people on the sun beds next to us 10 meters away had seen it all and were equally entertained. So when the next sellers came, the people next to us started shouting how we could use their towels to bargain as well. Luckily we managed to get rid of them all and make our way back to the hotel.

Leaving the sun and the heat behind, we headed to the airport to catch our midnight flight. However, Air Asia was nowhere near done playing games. One of the more puzzling things was that they decided that apparently we only paid to bring our suitcases to Bali and not back to Perth. Only in Bali does that make sense... Not in my mind anyway... Tired and exhausted we boarded the plane - in need of yet another holiday - to go back to Perth.

A week of rain and cloudy weather and 14C followed when we got back. Luckily, the next break is only 3 weeks away and I have started consider where to go next.

This post is already too long, so I will end it now. Take care wherever you are!

Michael