Kuta, Bali and arriving in Singapore

15.11.11

We've spent the last 2 days in Kuta, which I'm not going to write about

in any detail because we could have been anywhere in the world

quite frankly! But we had a really good time. Our hotel - Anemone

Hotel was really lovely with a clean little pool, spacious clean

rooms and a very cute little puppy! We spent an hour or so each

afternoon at the beach, which is the busiest beach we have seen so

far but still not too bad, watching the surfers. Sunrise on

our last night was stunning. We also had a really good night out,

although I particularly suffered for it the next day! It was also

nice having such a huge range of places to eat that all did reasonable

western food.

However this morning we had a really early start for our next stop;

Singapore. Our flight was at 6:20am, which in my opinion is probably the

worst possible time for a flight, especially if you are still recovering

from a hangover! So we left our hotel at 3.30am to flag down a taxi.

Of course the streets were Kuta were more busy and tragic than during

the day.

6 hours later we were hopping on and off the MRT and in no time at all

had arrived at our budget, musty smelling hotel, again in Geylang.

After a couple of hours sleep we headed out to Orchard Road, where we

wondered around the many malls. Martin was extremely excited because

he found a cinema. The prices for the cinema are so much more

reasonable than at home (about half the price) and you can pay £2 for

popcorn and a drink (ok the popcorn isn't a ridiulous size like in

England but still good value). So we booked tickets for a bit later

on and then went to find a coffee somewhere - something we had really

missed!

We saw 11-11-11, which was enjoyable. Although Martin spent the whole

movie waitiing for a dramatic battle between the mortals and immortals,

which never happened. This films worth seeing though; gives you a few things

to think about.

In the evening we decided to eat in Geylang, just a few minutes walk from

our hotel was one of many street cafes. So we pulled up some stalls

in between a couple of groups sat at trestle tables and began examining

the vast picture menu. We were obviously looking suitably confused as a

lady next to us asked if needed any help. We asked her to recommend some

dishes and ordered those, all of which were delicious: porridge with

minced pork; chilli squid stuffed with pork; tempura prawns and wantons.

Again it was a really nice atmosphere, all along the road people were

sat enjoying a beer or some food, chatting with friends.

Snorkelling the Japanese shipwreck.

12.11.11

Today we hired mopeds and went off up the coast to try and find

the site of the Japanese shipwreck. We buzzed over the

hilly terrain with terrific views over each little black

sanded cove lined with smiling water-boatman fishing boats.

We took a wrong turning in land and wound through a tropical

feeling valley, the road shadowed by tall palm trees. Coming

reound a corner at one point was a swarm of school children all

piling out of school, driving like lunatics on both sides of the

road. We had quite a hairy experience when one boy came

tearing towards us on the wrong side of the roads turning around

chatting to his passengers, after several beeps on the horn he

realised he was heading straight for us and at the last second

swerved to avoid us and then continued laughing with his friends.

We didn't find it quite so funny!! We stopped for petrol from a

man at the side of the road, sat on his veranda, he kindly told us

we were going the wrong way and were headed straight for the police!

So we back tracked and found the turning he had directed us to. This

continued up and down hill aong the coast passed numerous small

resorts and diving schools, until we came across a sign for parking

for the Japanese wreck.

The wreck was off a stony beach, only about 5 metres off shore.

However it still took a little time to find as the tide kept taking

us off in the wrong direction. Snorkelling around this wreck was

another magical experience. We had been disappointed that we couldn't

afford to scub around this and the Liberty wreck but in actual fact

you couldn't have seen a huge amount more around this wreck as it was

in such shallow water.

It's really quite eery under water, I'm always a little afraid, especially

when you are swimming over the skeleton of a near complete hull and you

can imagine what the ship must have looked like. On the ships carcass

was all different types of coral. Barin matter was being nibbled on by

tiny electric blue fish. I swam through huge sholes of silver fish

flashing in and out the autumn forest growing off the main hull. Below

on the sea floor was huge blue starfish and larger fish lurking in the

shadows. Just behind the main bulk of the ship the sea bed suddenly got

a lot deeper. There was little coral from this point and the water seemed

a lot cloudier. I was too scared to venture beyond this point, my

imagination going in to over drive!

Afterwards we went for lunch a short walk in to a resort up a hill with

great views overlooking the bay, before we had to nip back for a taxi to

take us to Kuta.

On the 3 hour drive back to Kuta, we passed Tirta Ganga again and the

beautiful views of the rice terraces in the valley below. Our driver

kindly stopped for me to take snaps. The journey was relatively swift

all the way to Sanur, as there is a dual carriage way that is partly

open. Then at Sanur you hit traffic and Kuta is a maze of one way

systems with hundreds of taxis sat at a stand still.

Our driver 'missed' the turning for the one way road we needed to get to so

dropped us off in Poppies II and we began the arduous prcess of room hunting

in our budget. We ended up choosing somewhere slightly over our budget

because it was just so much nicer and cleaner than the places we had

found at the top end of our budget, which were just really grotty!

To be honest neither Martin nor I had been looking forward to coming to

Kuta, with it's reputation for being the 'party capital' of Kuta but

we thought we should probably do some partying at some point on our

travels. I particularly had to coax Martin in to coming somewhere

where the main purpose was to go out for beer!!

Anyway on first impressions, Kuta lived up to our expectations. Poppies

I and II are full off tacky souvenir stalls and trinket shops interspersed

with cafes and bars. The place is full of skimpily dressed Aussies/Brits in

obscene T-shirts! But we found a a warong that was in lonely planet that

had a huge menu of Indonesian food and for really cheap.

Finally in Lombok!

26.10.11

We slept well last night and it was so hard to get up. But we had to get up

early again to be in Kuta, Bali for 5.30am for our final day of travel to Lombok.

It only took 15 minutes by taxi to get to Kuta, to the Perama office where

we had booked a shuttle to Kuta, Lombok.

So once again we got on a minibus! 2 hours later we were in Padang Bai, sat at

a little cafe, waiting to get on the ferry. This ferry was much bigger, another

car ferry. There were 2 upper decks on this boat. The middle deck had a lounge

area, where people wre sat in the dark watching the tv. There was also a little

tabled area, again with a tv and a small shop/snack bar. Then up on to the upper

deck, it was completely open with a few solid fixed benches and tables along the

sides and very little shade.

We spent the 5 hour journey dozing on our backpacks, following the shade around

and standing at the helm of the boat making the most of the sea breeze. For a

little while we were being accompanied by several dolphins, including a mother

and child. They kept darting across the front of the boat and then circling round

and leaping in and out of the wash of the ferry.

When we got off the ferry there was a Perama staff member there waiting for us and

he directed us to yet another mini bus! On this mini bus were a French couple who

were 7 months in to a 12 month trip. Before they left they had both been accountants

in Madrid. Exciting lives! We were expecting a 3 hour drive to Kuta and were busy

chatting. We were just explaining where we were staying when the driver asked

where we were staying. When we told him he told us we were there and stopped the

car!

We were finally home! We had read great reviews about this homestay, Mimpi Manis,

and we would not be disappointed! We were greeted warmly by Ilu who showed us our

rooms and made us a fruity drink. We had 1 of 2 rooms in a separate block adjacent to

the main house,each with their own terrace. There is also a little 2 storey

house for a family to rent and a small restaurant area to eat.

As soon as we'd had our welcome drinks Martin raided the owners vast collection

of DVDs they have for guests to borrow. A.s.a.p. we headed to our room for a cool

shower and bed, after 3 days of travel.

A few hours later Gemma, who owns Mimpi Manis, along with her husband Made, came to

introduce herself and to arrange our free Orientation tour for the next day. She

then offered us either a lift in to Kuta town or dinner from their menu so we

decided to have dinner here and an early night. The food was really good. We

tried a Nasi Campur for the first time which includes boiled rice and side

dishes of vegetables in a a tasty sauce, tempe and fried tofu. As we

were eating we had our first experience of the Prayer Call from the nearby mosque,

which is in the practise of letting children have a go! Their parents must be very

proud but to us all you can hear is wailing, shrieking children so loud that you

can't always concentrate on the conversation you are having. This takes place

twice in the early evening. But Lombok is a Muslim country and we had begun to get

used to hearing this in Java.After dinner it was time to fall asleep to a film or two.