Part 10 - Back to Bali

Back to Ubud (Thursday 14th January)

Most of today was spent travelling. We left Senggigi just after 10am for Lembar, then our ferry left around noon. It was much older and falling apart than our last ferry - the roof even leaked when it started to rain and the toilets (which I tried to avoid for as long as physically possible) were the usual dirty, smelly squat toilets. The crossing was 5 hours long instead of the usual 3 hours and I was surprised the ferry didn't fall apart as the ceiling was falling off and the outside was heavily rusting. It will fall apart soon, I am sure, but at least I'm not going to be on it when it does. I'm sure they just sail the damn things until they eventually sink. We chatted to another Scottish guy on the boat who was spending 5 months in Indonesia before returning "home" to Spain. He had lots of interesting stories to tell and a laugh like John Buggy (a friend from home). There was a guy selling T-shirts on the boat for 10,000rp each - the same as the ones we paid over 20,000 for a couple of days ago, so we bought a couple - what a bargain ! It was a bit sad to leave Lombok, as I've really enjoyed it, in fact more than Bali. It is probably just as well we are leaving now though, as it is approaching the end of Ramadan where Muslims fast from dusk till dawn and cannot drink even water or wash themselves till after dark. At the end of a whole month of doing this there are two days of celebration and feasting. Many of the hotels and restaurants also close around this time, so it's not a good time to be a tourist in Lombok. Bali is not affected by this as the people there are mostly Hindu.

We arrived in Bali at around 5 o'clock, at last, and got on a cramped bus with the least legroom I have ever seen on a bus in my life. Gavin couldn't even fit his legs in and my legs were pressed against the seat in front. Luckily it was only an hour to Ubud. In Ubud we went to the Frog Pond Inn, but decided againt it after seeing a room - a not so nice open air toilet and no ceiling fan. After that we tried another place, but it was $60 US which is a bit out of our price range. In the end we chose a place called Lumbung Sari, which is very nice for the money (60,000), with a big room, ceiling fan, hot water (!!) set in a lovely little garden (monkey Forest Rd, Tel (0361) 976396). Tonight we had a nice meal at the Monkey Cafe and an early night after a hard day of travelling. Gav is upset because the T-shirt is too small - boo hoo.

Ubud (Friday 15th January)

We spent a pleasant day in good old Ubud, wandering around, looking in shops and eating nice food. Ubud definately has the best food in Bali (from my experience anyway). I've not been disappointed in any restaurant here. Tonight we went to the Cecak Fire Dance, which was great. A choir of around 100 men, clad in sarongs, with a flower in their hair and rice stuck to their forehead singing "Chaka chaka chaka chaka" while dancers dressed in colourful costumes performed Balinese dancing. At the end a pile of coconuts were set on fire and a guy riding a "horse" who was supposedly in a trance ran through the fire numerous times, scattering the coconuts uncomfortably close to the audience. All very enjoyable and everyone was covered in soot at the end (thankfully I had a black dress on). I felt sorry for the people in white.

And Finally... Back to Kuta (Saturday 16th - Sunday 17th January)

We took the bus back to the busy, noisy streets of Kuta today. Funnily it didn't seem quite as mad as we remembered it. We went back to Sorga Cottages since we like having a swimming pool and checked into a fan cooled room, rather than an air con room. It was 128,000rp each including tax and breakfast and also has hot water. There are cheaper rooms for 96,000 with only cold water (a bit older), but it's great having hot showers again after all these weeks of cold water showers.

We spent the day sitting by and swimming in the pool and looking around the more upmarket shops which we hadn't noticed the last time we were here. At night I had my final Gado Gado, a few Bintangs, then off to bed.

On Sunday we went shopping again and bought some Bali coffee in nice wooden boxes and a couple of these cute little headrests for the beach which are like tiny little fold away deckchairs. I bargained the price down to 40,000rp for two and the guy agreed saying "Morning price for good luck". Our flight to Singapore was at 17.55, so we arrived in the airport around 4pm. Not surprisingly the place is full of shops (and not many seats - I wonder why ?). The prices in the airport shops are extortionate - 9000rp for a can of coke (compared to 3000rp in the shops) All the big shops charge in US $$ and charge prices like $3 for a little packet of wafer biscuits. The departure tax was 50,000rp, so by the time we paid that and bought a couple of cans we didn't have enough money to buy anything else, so it all went into the charity box, "To a very good cause". At least our flight went on time though ! I've had a good time overall in Bali and Lombok - it's been interesting and different, but I'm glad to move on and go somewhere else.