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Good morning uk and good afternoon from now ko phangan as I catch up from about 2 weeks ago.
This going to be short and sweet. We arrived in Bali and stayed in Kuta situated on Bali's west coastline. Supposedly the best beach in Bali but I have to say it looked more like ash. The sunset of Bali was of course very much worth it as you can see the silhouette of surfers as the sun goes down.
The weather was not great given that it rained much of it but we still managed to look around much of Kuta. We visited 'The Monument of Human Tragedy' which occupies ground zero. This pays homage to the victims of the first terrorist attack in 2002 and then the further attack in Kuta square in 2005. As always you try and take in the human tragedy when seeing all the victims names but there is always some insensitive tourist trying to pose with their thumbs up while someone takes a picture.
I had such high hopes for Bali but I had been pre-warned about Kuta which was a good thing. They have also built alot on the beautiful coastline but unfortunately this has gone unchecked as many of the places that occupy the beach spots are KFC, Macdonalds, pizza hut etc... It is always a disappointing when any place does this but even more so when it is somewhere as potentially attractive as a Bali coastline.
Our hotel was awesome (I don't use this word much but it describes it in one). A small bungalow esque building near to a swimming pool, a porch like balcony and a toilet that was so random it was brilliant. Basically they built and outside enclosed area next to the room with a toilet and shower. So in the morning when having your shower it feels like you are at one with nature given the garden surroundings, random but quite satisfying. Tina's eyes also lit up with the fact that gave massages by the pool side and mine lit up that they had a poolside bar and a buffet breakfast.
Not much else to say about Kuta except the seafood I had was very nice and I managed to buy a very nice copy watch. We found the cost of Bali increased quite a bit due to the fact every place you eat they added service charges and tax but the percentage they charged seemed to vary by the day. Somedays an increase of 5% for both and other places 20%, those sneaky Indonesians'.
Bali was always going to be a stepping stone to get onto the Gilli Islands due to the time we had left but I do wish we could have seen a separate area to it to get more of an essence of the place, rather than the typical overbuilt tourist site you would find in magaluf or plats like that.
I will now post Gilli Islands as well so I am almost caught up.
Robbie C out for now.
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