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So as you can tell I have been on the I've constantly since leaving England (and you all thought I was going on a holiday, but this travelling thing is quite tiring hectic). A when I landed on the beach in Bali (almost quite literally, the airport is on the shore) I decided that I would take a few days to relax I this paradise. Lucky for you this means a much shorter edition of my blog. For the first 4 days I was staying in a very nice hostel in legion. I spent these days relaxing, interchanging from the pool to the beach, which was only a 5 min walk from the hostel. Watching the sunset on the beach was a definite highlight, add a beer in my hand a couple of mates and surfers on the waves and in truly felt like I was on holiday. I think the biggest excursion I had those few days was a long walk on the beach and a slash in the waves. I did not surf as the white water of the waves were pretty powerful and threatening. Walking around the nearby streets you notice little flower parcels with incense, these are put out in the morning as offerings to protect the persons inside, there are so many of them it is almost as if they had been rained down every morning.
The streets the self are rather difficult to navigate as much of the walkways are little unnamed ally-ways, not that the size deterred the motorcyclists from going down. At night we would have to shout 'beep beep' like a car horn so that a bike would know that we were there around a corner.
On the 5 th day I moved to another hostel even nearer to the beach, but in Kuta as I was meeting some friends that I had made whilst staying at ENP I. Thailand. I had been warned before that this part of Bali was very commercial and full of Australians, their version of Ibiza. Walking around it was very touristy with western shops and market tat, but it was quite convenient. I was sharing a room with Amanda and we met Francesca and Colom. In the evening and had a few drinks and a catch up. It had been about 3 weeks since we had all seen each other but it felt like so much longer as we had done so much in that small space of time. We spent a couple of days in Kuta enjoying the beach and pool and lay-ins. We sampled a few of the bars in the evening, having a few drinks and a dance with some locals, and some Australians of course.
After a few days we fancied a change of scenery and to see more than the commercial Bali, we had heard that Ubud was a good place to go as it was cultural and a central point to get to most other places in Bali. We managed to get a super cheap room which had a little gas stove that Amanda (a cook by profession) was excited about cooking on and I excited about eating the food. Ubud has a much quieter place, with little art Cafes and people who did yoga tended to stay there. We stayed for a couple of days, on one particularly hot day we rented some bicycles and cycled off to the rice fields. They ended up being much further than we thought, all 4 of us completely exhausted and dripping with sweat, we made it to the rice fields. They almost looked like a giant grew jelly, the formation of the layers up the hill wee flat and went on as far as the eye could see in the valley.
We went up north west to a place called Padang bay. It's place was even smaller which in one way was good to see Bali without all the tourism but it also ment we walked up a massive hill with our bags and then I went off and walked for an hour in the sun looking for other places to stay. We finally found somewhere near the bay. It's bay was like a secret drop of paradise, we had to climb over and down a hill to the cove of white sand and clear blue sea. On the beach were a couple of bamboo shack bars selling delicious local grub and beer. We had an early night as I was off the following evening and the others were going on to the Gili islands. At the hostel I was staying at I had hatted to the owner who had advised me to go snorkelling off the bay in the morning, and to just borrow a snorkel off one of the bars. So the next morning I did just that, went and bought a bottle of water then borrowed a snorkel and walked out into the shore with aim to go a little to the right of the rocks. It was my first time snokeling and I can't believe how many tropical fish I saw, I wasn't even 2 meters deep to begin with and there was a reef right before me, I felt like I was in a tunnel in the aquarium. The water was crystal clear, I saw clownfish and a colourful squid, it was amazing. I was probably in the water for about an hour and a half when I came out I had some grub and spent the rest of the day chilling at the beach before showering and getting a taxi to the airport.
So as you can see I have had a truly relaxing part of my travels, but not to worry I have been very busy in Singapore!
- comments
Peter Driver Wow Sounds like a nice place to Holiday, Very different from the place I visited back in 1966/67 Love Grandad XXXXXXXXX
Diana Driver I know the feeling with computers- will try another comment! Thank you so much for your lively descriptions - can't believe how many photographic opportunities have been seen - rice fields - wonderful beaches - thronging people. Glad you are chilling out as well. Love Nana
sue Just fantastic to hear your travels and to keep up to date. We are off to Maderia for a week - not as exotic, but lovely the same. Just absorbing every minute of your writing - fantastic pictures you describe for us xx
Anne Sparks Love reading about your travels I can just picture myself there. Bali sounds wonderful, did you do any yoga? Can't wait for the next installment, so pleased you are having a great time and meeting new people. Hoping to be in Portsmouth beginning of Dec but not sure if you will be home then, if so, hope we can get together so I can see the photos. Love Anne xx