So this trip was defiantly a spontaneous decision, I remember 4 weeks earlier looking at the Jetstar sale flights and noticing super cheap flights to Bali. I made a comment to my friend that we should just go, and she rang me the next day to tell me she had booked it and that I was coming!! The only down side to these cheap flights where that they where connecting flights from Brisbane to Darwin, then Denpasar. Let me just say I will NEVER do that again, I think I would rather just pay the extra money and go direct, what would have been a 6hr flight turned into 8hrs of flight and 4hrs of just ‘hanging' in Darwin Airport. Anywho.. we arrived in Denpasar at about 9pm, the visa line ran pretty smoothly and we were greeted by our Driver from Satryia Cottages, who was lovely. As we where checking in I was crash tackled by my friend Benny and his missus, which was a total surpise as we had planned to meet them at some point of our trip and it was just as we got there that they decided to leave a message at reception, good timing! SO we freshened up and dropped off our bags and headed to the 'Beach Shack' for a bit of drag entertainment. It was Bens first time to a venue like that and the look on his face was priceless.. But we all had a great laugh, a few binnies and decided to hit they hay so we could have an early morning the next day.
As it was my friends first time to Bali I took her to Kuta square for some breaky at Cafe Dulung and do a round of shopping and exchange some money, which was about 9.2 at most places. I did see a couple up to 9.8 but usually when its that high, I am convinced they are dodge or take commission. We went and grabbed lunch afterwards and get a massage at PIP's, I LOVE that place, a bit more expensive but service is awesome and you get to choose which oil you get massaged with. After a super relaxing massage we were wiped!! So we retreated back to Satryia for a swim and laze around the pool. Satryia was nice, its on Poppies 2, great gardens and decent rooms BUT the bathrooms need a SERIOUS revamp. So we caught up with Benny and his Missus again and headed to Pepenero in Jimbaran Bay (Italian) and had some super yummy food. After they left, me and my mate went for a stroll down JL Legian looking for a place to have a beer. I have been to Bali many times, but never really drank in that strip, but cause it was a girls trip I thought 'hey.. When in Rome..' so we pulled up a seat at Apache reggae bar and got our Shisha on!! The music was great, I love reggae so must have looked like the biggest goose singing along at the top of my lungs to almost every song, while puffing on my double apple Shisha, a beer in each hand (Happy hour 2 for 1 drinks... quick scull scull you don't want your beers to get warm!!). We noticed a girl sitting on her own so we thought we'd go over and see if she would care to join us. She was a solo traveller form Canada and was super lovely.
An older couple who were clearly in the party spirit couldn't take their eyes off our Shisha, they were in amazement of what the heck we were actually doing, so the guy walks over and asked what the bahgibaz was this contraption and if he could try. Reluctantly we let him have a go, and I must say I have NEVER seen anyone take in as much smoke in my life! To this day I wonder if at first he thought it was the ganga and was making the most out of the free offering. He then skipped back to his wife and you could over hear him convincing her that they MUST GET ONE!!! 5 minutes later a staff member returns with a Shisha for them, and the gentlemen comes trotting back and asking if we wanted to try his Shisha, Chocolate. This must have set off a chain reaction cause throughout the night people kept coming up to ask asking 'hey you wana try mine and I try yours?!'.. Usually I am a bit of a germaphobe but after numerous Bintangs it was a Shisha party!!!
When I could no longer see clearly without squinting one eye to diminish my double vision we jumped on a scooter back to our hotel for a long sleep.. (or was that, pass out?!)
The next day we decided we better do something productive so we hired a driver for the day to take us to Tanah Lot and Uluwattu. Ive seen it all before but I thought my mate would enjoy the monkey castle and the sights of the temples. We didn't stay long at Tanah lot, cause let's face it, there really isn't that much to do. So we headed over to the monkey temple I gave our driver some money to grab some lunch while he waited and I must admit that it was much more entertaining than the last time we went, I think it had something to do with the hilarious sighting of a Japanese couple screaming franticly as a monkey ripped off her glasses and proceeded to sit up in a tree, looking down at the couple as the local men threw fruit at him to get him to drop them, and the pack of school boys from Jakarta that raced over to us, led by one extremely cheeky ring leader who was probably the only one who could speak English, and proceed to follow us and at one point line up to shake our hands and meet us, all while they were giggling at each other, I can only imagine what they were saying to one another. Our driver then took us to Uluwattu where we sat at single fin for some yummy pizzas and more Bintang. After another long day we arrived back just in time to head over to Jimbaran Bay again, this time for sunset seafood at Dewa Cafe (Super yummy and fresh, you get to pick your food BUT $$$) and listen to their band play Coldplay, Bruno Mars ect, and after a failed attempt to join the band in some bongo riffs we decided to keep it relatively early because tomorrow was... MY 26TH BIRTHDAY!!!!!