Bali- 'Transport ladyboy?'

For our second last day in Bali we decided to go and get ourselves a nice cheap massage in the morning. This was all going well until the women who started to massage me swoped with the man, next thing I knew he was straddling me! That was a bit of a shock to the system, a little Indonesian man sat on my bum! After I came to terms with it, it was actually a good massage and I only paid £2 for half an hour!

We then spent the rest of the day by the hotel pool, and wondered round the shops. The shopping here is really good, but not as cheap as you would hope for! When your on a budget window shopping was the better option. 

As we were wondering more to the edge of the town you stumbled across a little market, where you can bargain to get everything so cheap, it had some really cool stuff. However you did realise you were coming into the market zone when a taxi driver shouted at us 'you want transport ladyboys!' I thought I just heard him wrong, apparently not, not only do we stand out to the Indonesian people they also thought we were ladyboys! 

Bali- Beaches and Celebrations

So we arranged earlier in the week to have a driver pick us up at 9 in the morning in order to spend half a day going to different beaches, and to fit in some water sports, a temple and lunch. 

Out first stop was the water sports beach... 

Expectations: arrive at a beautiful long sandy beach have a wonder along, paddle in the sea and have a look at the options for water sports, it would all depend on the price. 

Reality: greeted at the car door and taken to a resturant type place, sat and shown all the options for water sports and prices, basically pressured into picking something straight away! Luckily we could barter the price down for the 3 of us to do the doughnuts! Next thing we knew we were sat on a doughnut in the sea looking back at this smaller, kind of dirty beach (There is a lot of rubbish in Bali). 

I am however very glad that we needed up ok these doughnuts just to witness Lara's reaction the whole time, ive never seen her so scared! 

We then went to a few more beaches which did meet our expectations, beautiful sandy beaches and lovely views.

We then were taken to a temple in Uluwatu where we had to wear these purple sarongs to enter and were told to watch our personal items because of cheeky monkeys! Here we got to see an amazing view of the coast as well as the temple. We then headed on to Padang Padang for lunch on the beach.

We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool and I recieved all my university grades, finding out that I will graduate with a 2:1! This obviously called for celebration with a few bottles of wine and a meal at Motel Mexicola. Which is a really cool, obviously Mexican, restaurant which was decorated with lots of colours, had a DJ, and was very busy, it is definitely worth going to if you find yourself in Seminyak in Bali. 

This was one of those rare days for me when something funny doesn't happen, oh wait no, I had 2 Bambooda insects getting a bit fruity on my top! 

Bali- 'Freckly Monster'

Your probably wondering why this post is called 'Freckly Monster' well I shall get onto that in a minute...

Today we decided to take a chill day and head down to the Potato Head Beach Club in Seminyak, know in Bali as a good place to visit. (Tip: if you want a sun bed get there early), we found this out before hand which was a good job as when we arrived half an hour early there was already a queue! 

We spent the day relaxing, going in the pool and sitting at the bar which was in the pool with cocktails, it was pretty cool! Anyway the reason for this name of this post is because one very drunk Australain man said to me 'Oh your a freckly monster aren't you, you best get yourself in the shade, your going to burn.' Now this may not seem funny to you but at the time it was, especially even people I don't know seem to be in on the 'pale amy' joke! 

I then ended this day to the good news of getting a 2:1 in my dissertation! So it was even more of a reason for the 'cheeky' bottle of champers, a lovely way to spend the day! 

Bali- Elephants and Coffee Poo

We arranged to have a driver take us to Bali zoo and to bring us back as it was an hour and a bit journey which worked out cheaper with a driver.

we arrived at the zoo and booked tickets which included a 15 minute elephant ride, you don't need any longer than that (they are so slow). This cost us all 877,000IDR about £42 each, which is not too bad! Obviously we headed straight to the elephants! They were so amazing and tame, we had 2 between us on the ride and then got to go and feed them after, they really love food! 

After this we looked round the zoo and were really shocked to see how small the cages were for most the animals, it was quite sad! We quickly moved on to the restaurant for lunch and to get the chance to hold a baby crocodile and monkey. The monkey was the cutest fluffier thing I've ever seen! I really want one! 

On the way back our driver then took us to a coffee plantation to see how they make their coffee and to see animal which makes the Luwak coffe by eating the coffee plant and pooing out the beans! Apparently the most expensive coffee in the world and the best. 

Bali- Naughty Mosquitos, Airport Troubles and Lara's arrival

Today we had a very early start, woken up by the hotel staff at 5.30 but then delivered breakfast at 6 (included doughnuts, that's all I needed). We then spent the first 5 minutes of our taxi trying to get the 'Naughty Mosquitos' (as the taxi driver explained) to leave the taxi! 

On arriving at the airport, to fly back to Bali, we were not prepared for the few issues we faced, first we had to pay airport tax at check in, neither of us had cash and the card machines wouldn't work, we finally found a way of getting cash and eventually boarded the plane, everything was going as normal until as the plane pulled away the engine turned off (slightly worrying). They then took us back to the boarding place, we sat on board for an hour to then be taken back off to sit in the airport for an hour! Despite the delay and worry of whether the plane was safe we eventually arrived in Bali. 

We are now staying at Sense hotel in Seminyak for 6 days which will be nice rather than constant moving. It is a lot different to Lombok and Ubud, with many restaurants and boutique shops, you can tell there are a lot more tourists here. Lara (Yas''s sister) has also flown out from Sydney for the week to stay with us which we are looking forward to! 

Senggigi- Goodbyes

We had our last breakfast with the remaining people from our intrepid group, followed by a dip in the pool and breakfast. It's funny how you can get to know people in a just a week, we had an amazing group and met a lovely bunch of people, so saying goodbye was quite sad. It's not going to be the same having dinner tonight with just Yaz and myself, our next group have a lot to live up to!

We then headed down the road to our last hotel, Kila Senggigi Beach hotel, in Lombok. We had already paid for this before hand and got a really good deal online, so we treated ourselves. The hotel is more like a resort with a spa, massive pool, bar on the beach and tennis courts, it's the nicest place we will stay out here! 

Whilst waiting for check in time I had a manicure and pedicure which cost 70,000IDR, sounds a lot but this works out at about £3.50! Yaz's massage was only 60,000IDR about £3, it's so cheap out here! The rest of our afternoon was spent having lunch on the beach, follow by a dip in the pool and dinner watching the sun set, where we bumped into two of the ladies from our trip who joined us for dinner. 

Gili and Lombok- Senggigi

Obviously we made the most of our last morning in Gili with a dip in the pool, followed by a walk to the beach to relax in the sun and have a swim. We all enjoyed a lunch on the beach before heading to the boat to sail back over to Lombok for our last night.

We stayed in the Senggeggi resort which wasn't so exciting, but had a massive pool the shallow end was 1.30m! 

We then all had one last dinner with the group and a few drinks, Anthony on karaoke! And said goodbyes to those who were leaving in the night!