JBR
My sis and I flew out from Perth with Garuda on the 6th January for 2.5 weeks staying at the Barong hotel.
THE HOTEL
On arrival we were upgraded to a family room, we couldn't believe our eyes as the room was so frigin huge! It had four single beds, a dressing table and mirror, a double wardrobe, tv, bar fridge, hairdyer and bathroom with a shower, bath and toilet. The hotel was great we loved it. The staff were friendly, the food was nice, pool beautiful and we met some of the best people staying there also. The exchange rate at the hotel was between 6900 and 7000 rupiah.
The hotel has a party night which is a set price including a buffet, all you can drink with dancers and a juggling barman. We joined our table up with people who were around us. After one too many drinks had by all we were doing lip,sip,suck off of each others bodies. Then when the party finished at 10pm, we along with the people we had met there went up to our Massive room for a few more drinks. There were about 15 of us and it was so much fun, an American doctor and his hot spanish wife( whom all the boys in the hotel would gawk at everyday by the pool) joined the group and brought a mini stereo and 'she shar'?????mmmm not sure if that is right but it looked like a snake charmer thing that you smoked tobacco out off.
About 11.30 we all headed to the bounty for some dancing and yep ..more drinking. I headed home around 3ish with one of the girls from our hotel and the rest stayed on. They ended up heading home at sunrise to stop at mcwilliams for breakfast and organized a bike race around Kuta. About 12 of them hired drivers to race from poppies down legian to the beach and back twice with the winner getting some cash. Little did everyone else know but my little sis went around and payed all the other drivers to go slower haha so she ended up winning it. One of the guys got it all on his video cam from the back of one of the bikes and it was so funny to watch.
TIANYAR
Visited a lot of friends who live over there, one of my friends cousin had to be taken to hospital because he had a huge ball?? Ended up being that he had a hernia for so long it had dropped so it lodged downstairs....didnt know that was even possible. So many days were spent at the hospital he was supposed to be in and out the same arvo but had some complications and was in for 2 days. Then had to go back for 3 more check ups and get his teeth cleaned. So after he was all sorted out we packed up the car with a new bed on the roof and 6 relatives in the back and left at about 11pm to head back to tianyar to take the boy home to his village.....i was a little worried driving at night as I thought it might be more dangerous but they insisted they didn't want to drive in the heat. About 15 minutes into the drive I noticed the speedo and fuel gauge didn't work but was told na the petrol gauge is fine just the speedo is broken, oh well I thought then another 15 minutes later the speed was still on 0 and the fuel below red so I pointed it out again....do you know we have no fuel, na I was told we have half a tank....oh ok I said thinking he must have just filled it and the gauge was broken, then after another 10 minutes my friend was bragging how this was the first time he had hired a car that came with half a tank fuel so I asked him if the gauge was broken how did he know it had half a tank in it? He looked at me and said gauge not broken look HALF a tank of Petrol like I was some stupid kid.......hahaha I cracked up laughing and said you idiot you have been looking at the temperature for the past half an hour and we really didn't have any fuel. So luckily we were too far and stopped for some fuel, then the little light came on for the radiator and no one knew what it meant, I asked if he checked it had water before we left? What? No one knew cars needed water they just hired them so we waited for the car to cool down at a little warung for 30 minutes were I then had to check the water and oil which was fine, my friend then decided he had found the problem no water here he said......it was the windscreen wipers....i told him that that was fine that wouldn't affect the light but he wouldn't listen so we filled up the windscreen wipers with water and left for the rest of the 3 hour drive to tianyar with the light still on the dash.
When I woke up in the morning I found out 3 local kids were dead and 2 missing as the rains came down really heavy the afternoon before and they were playing in the mountain and got swept away....so sad and horrible to hear.
Time for a shower I thought so asked to use the shower........only to find out the shower is in the middle of the village with no walls, people were just getting naked and soaping up in front of anyone??? No one was gonna see my big white butt I tell ya.....a circle of curious little kids had already gathered to watch the bule shower so I was then taken to a toilet where a hose was pushed in through a window for me.
THE BRITISH BOYS
One afternoon hanging by the pool we met a bunch of boys from England who just came to use the pool as they were staying in a loseman. They were such a funny bunch and when they found out we had a huge room had insisted they stay with us in four days when they returned from the gilli trawangan. No way we told them.
Four days later we saw them again in the pool bar and they had paid for a local boy from the gillis to come and saty in Bali with them as he had never left his home. They were a real rowdy bunch but sweet. On there last arvo one of the boys begged to use our bath so he could have his first hot shower in the past two months. We said no worries. So about 6 he told me to head up and run a bath for him....with bubbles haha and he would be up in 10. Cheeky bugger. He came up and stayed in the bath for 10 minutes with his bubbles and candles while drinking his bintang....then there was a knock on the door. It was his friend looking for him. He then asked if he could have a bath as it looked so good.....cut the story short the same thing happened 4 times over with each boy coming in draining the bath then refilling it with bubbles. We ended up going and having tea with them before they headed to the airport for their flight to Australia.
THE TOURS
Did a couple of day tours over there, we went to the volcanoe and wanted to head to the place across the lake were they lay there dead on the ground and there is no smell because of some special tree...we'd heard a lot of stories of people getting robbed etc but my local friend said it would be fine as we were with him and his cousin. As we got real close we were stopped by security who told my mate not to take us there....he said the people are so bad that he has seen grown men come back crying form the hassle of the people over there and strongly recommended not to go. So we changed our plans and headed off. We also visited git git waterfall which was so beautiful but the frigin stairs nearly killed me. We saw lake batur and the temple, we stopped off at crackers bar and grill and had a look through the markets there and got some rambutan my favourite fruit.
We also went to dreamland beach, GWK which I personally found boring, checked out a barong dance, silver getting made and batik getting made. Tanah lot was beautiful ive been there many times and had a sunset drink or two but this time we went right down to the water. There was a huge python I am so scared of snakes I stayed well and truly clear of it. Then as we headed down to the beach to take some photos I saw a little cave with 'ular suci' on it. Damn that heading into a cave with holy snakes but as I passed it an old Balinese man grabbed my hand and pulled me closer, the sweat from nerves was falling off me but I kept going with him. Once inside the small cave there was a hole in the sand where you see heaps of ringed smaller snakes in it. He kept telling me to put my hand in on top of the snakes and make a wish? HUH? No frigin way......but as I sat there longer I felt the urge to do it....i don't know why....my legs were trembling so bad and I couldn't stop my hand from shaking....i was worried I would touch their head and they'd bite me beacause the hole is so small you cant see them properly just all these bodies. They old man assured me I'd be fine, on the other hand I wasn't so sure. I moved my hand close to the enterance and nearly passed out then the old man held me hand and put it inside the snake hole.....i touched them and had to squeeze my legs together so bad so I didn't bloody pee myself. Happy with myself for facing my fear I was about to leave when the old man said 'you not make wish' CRAP I was so scared I forgot. So round two wasn't so bad I put my hand in again made my wish and left. Next was to walk across the ocean to tanah lot to be blessed. The current was so strong and the ocean floor was would drop all of a sudden you had to be careful with every step. Once there I was blessed had the rice put on my head and then you have to drink water coming from a tap within the cave. No one in group would do it. There was no way they were drinking that water. I though what the hell ive just touched snakes and im still here so this couldn't be worse. I drank the water which I dunno where it came from as it was so fresh not salty and washed my face and we headed home. Still not sure if my wish has come true yet?
SICK
Half way through the holiday I was sitting by the pool and didn't feel well so headed back up to the room. Within half an hour I had a hight temp, was sweating but freezing, headaches,body aches, coughing I felt like I was going to die. I stayed in bed for 3 days straight unable to move. People told us it was probably the air con so we turned it off. As I started to get better my sis then got it and she still hasn't got rid of her cough. Since being home but a lot of friends that have been to bali have had the same thing also so must just be a bug going around.
NOT FOR THE FAINT
One night we were eating dinner in legian, after we had finished we grabbed a taxi to head back to the Barong....we were near the legian paradise and traffic was jammed....all of a sudden my stomach dropped....im sure you guys all know that felling when you know you cant wait for a toilet so I yelled at my sis to pay the driver and I started running down legian st towards poppies with my sis in tow wondering what was going on.....as I was telling her she was cracking up laughing so bad and I had to tell her to stop as I couldnt waste any of my muscles laughing I neede to use them all to keep my butt together. I rekon that night I could have taken on cathy freeman....i made it in record time up to the room slammed open the door and crashed on the toilet seat for the next 15 minutes. I felt so relieved and came out and plopped myself on the bed. Not even 5 minutes later my sis felt that dreaded drop in her stomach and ran to the toilet.....now I was laughing.....but she didn't even get to sit down before she ran back out....whats wrong I asked and she started being sick in the sink, she didn't stop and the noise was so bad and I am a queasy person it made me start being sick, I ran to the toilet and was there for another 5 minutes. We were both laughing but in pain...once we settled down I asked what the hell just happened? Apparently when she went to the toilet the small was so bad it made her sick and then because I cant stand seeing someone be sick it made me sick.....so groose and only in Bali I rekon.
THE MOST EXPENSIVE DRINK IN BALI
We were asked by friend to go to out to the hard rock for a few drinks, we orderd 2 wines and it came to $40, bugger that I wasn't staying for a second so we headed off to Musros. You have to order your drinks out the front then enter so another 2 wines and another $35 later we entered only to find we were the only people in there! Apparently they have floor shows and stuff there but I wouldn't go back.Anyone been there that could recommend the floor shows?
Mmmmm that's about it for now so much happened I'm sure I'll think of more in the next couple of days. Had a great time as usual and cant wait to get back. I need to plan my next trip to get over these bali blues........Have been burning my incense, wearing my sarongs and listening to my Indonesian music. It is getting worse each time I return.
XXXXX Narelle
Have some photos on web shots if you are interested just type in the username bojogputih