On the Friday we gave ourselves a lie in and left the hostel in search for some brunch. We didn't really know where we were headed so we just wandered and eventually found quite a nice little cafe. Amy and I had an avocado melt (basically avocado and melted plastic cheese on toast), Kate had peanut butter on toast and Becki had banana pancakes. I also got to have another type of poo coffee, this time Kopi Luwak. The most expensive coffee in the world and has been predigested by a weasel type animal called a Luwak. I love it. Its just so funny that someone fed the luwak some coffee and then roasted its poo. So ridiculous. It was good coffee though to be fair.
We then took a wander back to the hostel and along the road to the beach, stopping at a few shops. The beach here isn't particularly nice. It wasn't bad either but the worst thing is the hawkers. Every 30 seconds you have another person trying to sell you something else and they don't take no very lightly as they just hover for a while after. It gets a bit annoying. Its also so hot here. The actual temperature isn't so bad (its only around 32 whereas in Ho Chi Minh city it got to 39 at one point) but it is just so humid it gets unbearable an very sweaty very quickly. After the beach ( we couldn't stand the heat for too long) we walked back along the shops (Becki and I bought tops for £2 each and Kate bought a playsuit for £4) and back to the hostel. 20,000 rupiah is roughly £1 ish (well 18,700 is £1) so the money here is slightly confusing again but its not too confusing if you think in terms of thousands.
We went to an all you can eat and drink restaurant for dinner called Skybar. You get a ticket for 100,000 rupiah each and you get entry and unlimited food and drinks for a set time. Our entry was at 5 so we had until 9. If you come in later you get the 9-11 slot. Because it was Friday the buffet theme was BBQ and it was fantastic. I ate so much.
The next day we had a lazy day, wandering around town, eating pancakes (the hostel offer free pancakes all day, you just need to buy a topping) and lounging by the pool.
The next day it was time to pick up Kim and Annabel from the airport! We spent the morning and early afternoon packing, planning and making our sign at a cafe nearby (I had an avocado coffee that was delicious) and then got a taxi over to the AirPort at about 5 to wait for them at arrivals. The taxi took about 15/20 minutes and cost us 100,000 rupiah altogether which was a bit of a bargain.
We all gathered around holding our sign up for the arrivals and it was very exciting watching everyone coming in and waiting for them. Once we'd found them we found our driver Wyan who was arranged for us by the villa and headed off to our swanky, luxury house for the next few days, stopping for some food shopping. The supermarket he took us to is genuinely the first proper supermarket we've seen since we arrived and that evening is the first (and probably only) time we have cooked dinner for ourselves since we've been away. We've barely even stretched to making ourselves sandwiches to be honest. Most hostels don't have any cooking facilities, we can never find any supermarkets and even if we could food isn't much more expensive in restaurants. For our pasta and tomato sauce dish it ended up costing 40,000 each and you could definitely find a meal at a restaurant for that.
After dinner we all took a little evening dip in our pool because it was still so hot and then watched a film. The villa was absolutely beautiful and I will tell you all about it in my next post! Lots of love, Martha
