For the past two months we've been on the move every three days, so we were delighted to be checking into our hotel in Bali for a lengthy seven days. Bali as an island has everything you could ever want (or at least anything Gaz could ever want anyway). The island has a varied mixture of landscapes from stunning beaches through green rice fields up to lofty volcanoes. We spent our first two days lying on the beach and learning to surf. Our balinese surf instructors had the patience of saints, which was fortunate because they really needed it in order to teach us how to surf. Fortunately their perseverance paid off though and by the second day Gaz was managing to stand-up and ride some waves. Luckily Tara had thrown in the towel by this point so we even have some photos to prove it.
We spent our third day on the island underwater, as we tried our hands once again at Scuba diving. We are starting to think that we're not destined to be regular divers because we had another disappointing dive. Bali is renowned for its usually calm seas and and thirty-metre visibility underwater, but this was not the experience that we were treated too. The ocean was so choppy that our boat captain couldn't even make it to the dive site, so instead we had to go a dive site nearer shore. Here we were treated to claustrophobic five-metre visibility, but fortunately our dive master had brought some bread down with us to feed the fish and we were soon surrounded by swarms of tropical fish. It was a great experience to have the fish eat out of our hands though we're not convinced that this constitutes the unobtrusive diving that was encouraged during our PADI course in Thailand.
On the fourth day we hired a scooter and set off to explore the southern tip of Bali. Within 30 minutes of setting off, we had our first (and thankfully only) brush with Indonesian corruption. We were flagged down by a police officer and asked to show our license. When Gaz showed his UK driving license we were told that its not valid in Bali and that we required an International driving license. We were then told that we'd need to come to a law court tomorrow to sort it out, but for a 150,000 Rupiah bribe the officer was willing to let us off. We'd read about this in the Lonely Planet, so we weren't entirely surprised but it was frustrating nonetheless. So we paid our bribe to the fat police officer and set off again unsure as to how many times we'd have to pay such a bribe. Thankfully this was the only time that we were pulled over, but it took the shine off of what was otherwise a really fun day. We rode down to the Monkey temple in Uluwatu, where we ambushed by monkeys looking for peanuts, before heading north to Dreamlands beach. Dreamlands beach is a surfer's paradise with an amazing break, but was far beyond our surfing skills so we stuck to admiring it from the beach.
On our penultimate day we hired a car & driver and went on a tour of the island to see some of the culture that Bali had to offer. We started off our day with a Balinese dance show (which was essentially an Indonesian panto), we then went to some local craft factories (Silver, Batik, and Wood-carving) before heading up the mountain for views of the volcano (which we couldn't actually see because we were shrouded in fog). On our way back from the volcano we stopped at a coffee plantation, and the rice terraces before finally making our way down to the Monkey Forest in Ubud (where we were once again ambushed by over-friendly monkeys).
Bali is without doubt Gaz's favourite destination so far. The island has so much to offer from mountain hiking through surfing. The beaches are the most stunning that I've ever seen, and the local people are really friendly. Furthermore accommodation and food are excellent value especially near Kuta beach, although prices seemed to get higher as you move inland. I'd love to go back. The only things the island needs to get rid of are the corrupt policemen, and the hawkers that put on irritating Australian accents when they're trying to sell you something.
We spent our third day on the island underwater, as we tried our hands once again at Scuba diving. We are starting to think that we're not destined to be regular divers because we had another disappointing dive. Bali is renowned for its usually calm seas and and thirty-metre visibility underwater, but this was not the experience that we were treated too. The ocean was so choppy that our boat captain couldn't even make it to the dive site, so instead we had to go a dive site nearer shore. Here we were treated to claustrophobic five-metre visibility, but fortunately our dive master had brought some bread down with us to feed the fish and we were soon surrounded by swarms of tropical fish. It was a great experience to have the fish eat out of our hands though we're not convinced that this constitutes the unobtrusive diving that was encouraged during our PADI course in Thailand.
On the fourth day we hired a scooter and set off to explore the southern tip of Bali. Within 30 minutes of setting off, we had our first (and thankfully only) brush with Indonesian corruption. We were flagged down by a police officer and asked to show our license. When Gaz showed his UK driving license we were told that its not valid in Bali and that we required an International driving license. We were then told that we'd need to come to a law court tomorrow to sort it out, but for a 150,000 Rupiah bribe the officer was willing to let us off. We'd read about this in the Lonely Planet, so we weren't entirely surprised but it was frustrating nonetheless. So we paid our bribe to the fat police officer and set off again unsure as to how many times we'd have to pay such a bribe. Thankfully this was the only time that we were pulled over, but it took the shine off of what was otherwise a really fun day. We rode down to the Monkey temple in Uluwatu, where we ambushed by monkeys looking for peanuts, before heading north to Dreamlands beach. Dreamlands beach is a surfer's paradise with an amazing break, but was far beyond our surfing skills so we stuck to admiring it from the beach.
On our penultimate day we hired a car & driver and went on a tour of the island to see some of the culture that Bali had to offer. We started off our day with a Balinese dance show (which was essentially an Indonesian panto), we then went to some local craft factories (Silver, Batik, and Wood-carving) before heading up the mountain for views of the volcano (which we couldn't actually see because we were shrouded in fog). On our way back from the volcano we stopped at a coffee plantation, and the rice terraces before finally making our way down to the Monkey Forest in Ubud (where we were once again ambushed by over-friendly monkeys).
Bali is without doubt Gaz's favourite destination so far. The island has so much to offer from mountain hiking through surfing. The beaches are the most stunning that I've ever seen, and the local people are really friendly. Furthermore accommodation and food are excellent value especially near Kuta beach, although prices seemed to get higher as you move inland. I'd love to go back. The only things the island needs to get rid of are the corrupt policemen, and the hawkers that put on irritating Australian accents when they're trying to sell you something.
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