Bali - Hi!
Our time in Bali has wizzed passed at crazy speeds. Lots of fun had but the enjoyment slightly hindered in the second half of the week by the pain (oooooh the paaaain! - more on that later).
On arrival, our taxi took us from the airport passed 50 million western fast food joints. Not good. However, it was to be expected as Kuta is where everyone stays. Our hotel had a pool! WOW WEE! Alas, we didn't have time to use it as we were were trying to get out of horrid Kuta as fast as was humanly possible. Our chosen escape method was car hire! Don't panic. We survived. It was quite scary to begin with but we soon got into the swing of things. Two dodgy hillstarts, one ticket (completely unjustified in our defense) and some hair raising overtaking later, we were expert drivers.
The car gave us the freedom to go anywhere we wanted at our own pace which was great. Admittedly, our map reading skills and the severe lack of useful road signs in Bali, did hold us back somewhat but nevermind!
We drove up to the west to the national park and stayed in a jungle hut in the semi-arid forest. Excellant fun. The next day we went on snorkelling trips off the coast of an uninhabited island which were amazing. I had originally planned to do a dive in this area but the centre didn't have enough dive leaders so I had to snorkell with Mark. However, I saw more fish and wildlife snorkelling in Bali than I had done on any dive in the UK so I was more than happy. We saw clown fish, seahorses, parrot fish, little florescent fish, big florescent fish, puffer fish (which we picked up to make them puff up and depuff!), snappers and lots and lots of beautiful corals. I see now why coral reefs are called the rainforests of the sea. Incredible!
Then the pain begun. Foolishly, after our first snorkell trip we spend 10 minutes on the beach with factor 30 on and got badly sun burnt. Sleeping from then on was very uncomfortable and we lost our appetites.
Sadly, the pain ruined our early morning trek up a volcano. The idea was we would trek up with our guide at 5am when it was still dark, watch the sunrise on top of a crater, boil eggs for breakfast in the hot steam and then walk down again. However, I collapsed in a heap of exhausted 3/4 of the way up and refused to go further and although Mark got to the top, he vomited everywhere so couldn't eat his egg. Boo hoo.
Oh well, I supposed it can't all be perfect!
In Auckland airport now but again can't upload photos as the computer is hiden and locked into some kind of wooden box. Sorry!
On arrival, our taxi took us from the airport passed 50 million western fast food joints. Not good. However, it was to be expected as Kuta is where everyone stays. Our hotel had a pool! WOW WEE! Alas, we didn't have time to use it as we were were trying to get out of horrid Kuta as fast as was humanly possible. Our chosen escape method was car hire! Don't panic. We survived. It was quite scary to begin with but we soon got into the swing of things. Two dodgy hillstarts, one ticket (completely unjustified in our defense) and some hair raising overtaking later, we were expert drivers.
The car gave us the freedom to go anywhere we wanted at our own pace which was great. Admittedly, our map reading skills and the severe lack of useful road signs in Bali, did hold us back somewhat but nevermind!
We drove up to the west to the national park and stayed in a jungle hut in the semi-arid forest. Excellant fun. The next day we went on snorkelling trips off the coast of an uninhabited island which were amazing. I had originally planned to do a dive in this area but the centre didn't have enough dive leaders so I had to snorkell with Mark. However, I saw more fish and wildlife snorkelling in Bali than I had done on any dive in the UK so I was more than happy. We saw clown fish, seahorses, parrot fish, little florescent fish, big florescent fish, puffer fish (which we picked up to make them puff up and depuff!), snappers and lots and lots of beautiful corals. I see now why coral reefs are called the rainforests of the sea. Incredible!
Then the pain begun. Foolishly, after our first snorkell trip we spend 10 minutes on the beach with factor 30 on and got badly sun burnt. Sleeping from then on was very uncomfortable and we lost our appetites.
Sadly, the pain ruined our early morning trek up a volcano. The idea was we would trek up with our guide at 5am when it was still dark, watch the sunrise on top of a crater, boil eggs for breakfast in the hot steam and then walk down again. However, I collapsed in a heap of exhausted 3/4 of the way up and refused to go further and although Mark got to the top, he vomited everywhere so couldn't eat his egg. Boo hoo.
Oh well, I supposed it can't all be perfect!
In Auckland airport now but again can't upload photos as the computer is hiden and locked into some kind of wooden box. Sorry!
posted by Katie at
3:37 am
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