Posts tagged bali

17/03/2011
Theres nothing like a steady boat journey to clear the mind. the boat was a local wooden fishing boat painted white and blue. We sat up on the roof for the journey under the bright blue sky. When we reached the outer reef nearing Lembongan we noticed just how clear that water was. See through. Beautiful shades of blue, the midday sun shimmering across the surface. i spotted the surf in the distance and i knew right away that it was exactly what i needed right there and then. I did a great job of getting of the boat, nearly stacked it face first into the water holding onto the boat ropes. Standard clumsy Candy.

12/03/2011
After a shop around the hundreds of street stalls in Ubud we hit up the Monkey forest Sanctuary. those monkeys were not shy, My water and Josie’s newly bought items were favourites to steal. I was nearly in tears of laughter when the little bastard took of with Josie bag up the tree. Luckily it was returned after the park keeper chased the little critter around. Without any provoking at all I got some kneecap bite, cheers for that! The forest was actually pretty impressive, waterfalls and statues took up the green space which meant the monkeys had plenty of space to run around like maniacs.

11/03/2011
After a stroll to the beach which wasn’t a beach, just a stone wall and the brown sea we wandered through town. Lovina wasn’t overly exciting until my Dad rang me saying a huge 8.9 Earthquake had hit just off Japan and Bali had a Tsunami warning. We couldn’t figure out how ‘in danger’ we were so we checked online for info and as usual the BBC was going off on one saying pretty much the whole World was about to get hit by a huge Tsunami. Evryone on facebook was messaging me saying I needed to get inland and up high so I was panicking wondering what was going on. Yet all the locals were going about their daily business. I spoke to the internet guy who said, very calmly, we’ll just wait until it hits another country and then make a decisions. the fact that they were so calm helped. We Packed an emergency bag just in case and worked out where we would go.

My dad rung that evening and said ‘its just  hit Java…’ I was like shit! and he went on to say ‘…it was 1/2 a meter’. Panick Over. So that was our day in Lovina….spent preparing for a Tsunami to hit! Very grateful Indo didn’t have any problems but It was exciting while it lasted though!

10/03/2011
how long was the 10th of March 2011! So we alighted the ferry in Bali and I was happy to be on common ground again. But i was happy to soon, soon after opting for public transport to Lovina we realised we’d made a wrong decision.  The local bus driver said we had to wait for more peopke to fill up the bus or pay 50,000rp each (the sign in the bus stop said 16,000rp). No chance. Had enough of being taken advantage of because we’re white. We met a an English couple and stood our ground. Josie and i took a trip to the local bus station saying we needed help and they just laughed at us and said we could stay there. ummm… no thanks. So back at the bus stop we stood our ground some more until an old couple showed up who just wanted to get out of there so we felt bad for making them wait and paid up the new lower price of 35,000rp. The bus was full of smoking locals who had the door open the whole way. The 4 of us made it to Lovina and got ourselves a luxury room pretty cheap. Phew!

07/03/2011
After a hard journey back to Kuta on the peds i booked a flight to java for the next day to meet up with a friend. What to do when you’ve got a flight at 6am the next morning? Pull an all-nighter, get wasted on free flow (2 hours of free alcohol) in Sky Garden, lose your phone, try to steal a sign and get your mate up at 430am to give you a lift to the airport whilst you are still pissed right up. Check in was an blur to me. I vaguely remember sitting in the departure lounge, my head rolling back and a local woman looking at me in strange manner. I somehow managed to walk across the tarmac, up the stairs and into the plane. The second i plugged my seatbelt in I passed out with tremendous tiredness and didn’t wake up until we were just about to land. I wish i slept that easy on all plane journeys, apparently getting rendered the night before is the answer!

04/03/2011
Another pretty laid back day. In the evening pre-Nyepi celebrations started so we watched the rowdy Hindu groups parade their Demons down towards the beach. There was an excitable atmosphere and everyone seemed to be enjoying the day. We started on the beers at 3pm and went through the night!

03/02/2011
After a couple of hours surfless sunbathing and an encounter with a giant lizard in the internet place in Balian. Shona and I headed to Tabanan on our peds to get cash out. The journey there was reasonably frustrating but interesting. Nyepi is coming up so we got to see the tens of intricate monsters being set up in the villages on the way through. We got caught up in a few Hindi parades where there were hundreds of locals dressed up in traditional white outfits. So the way there- long but entertaining the whole way.

The way back- an ACTUAL nightmare!!!Or a scene waiting for a traffic accident! As soon as we left Indo Mart with Nyepi supplies it started spitting down and thundering. Soon it was hammering down utterly and completely as we weaved in between lorries and bikes up the windy, hilly, potholed and allround sketchy roads. The rain was pelting us, almost impossible to see anything, and it got worse. Some of the heaviest rain i’ve experienced and the absolute worst driving conditions i have ever been in. the rain refused to stop and we were soaked and freezing. My lack of directional skills came into play when i thought we were lost so turned around only to find we were going the right way to begin with. By time we got to Balian we were both over it but still had another 40mins to get back to Medewi. It somehow di dthe impossible and got worse. It hammered it down some more and then the lightning came in, it was dark, gloomy and grey and then the whole sky would light up with the glow of sheet lightning. Nearing the end a huge fork of lightning hit in front of us, an amazing sight, but not so fun when your drenched on little peds. We eventually made it back after 3hours when it should of taken 1.5! I write a lot of bike journey related blogs but i think they make for the best stories