Okay - Take 4! Hopefully I will get this down and saved this time! If not I won;t be held responsible for my actions.
Well first off I'm in Bali. I'll fill you in on the bits in between in a sec but I'll do the current stuff first in case you can't be bothered or don;t have time to read on coz it could get a bit lengthy ... well I never was one to be brief was I?! :o)
I arrived on Bali last Wednesday (I think). Managed to pick a really crumby place to stay but having not got there until 8:30pm I was too tired and too daunted to try and find anything better. In fact it was not that bad though certainly not great either. The thing that made it crumby was the price (compared to what I have been paying) and the fact they told me it was deluxe (because that was all they had left) when it turned out to be a dingey, dank, slightly grubby around the edges little cave of a room. I'll put some photos up when I install the next batch but that wont be right now because it takes a while and I want to be out of here in the next 10 to 20 minutes! Anyway having got off to a bit of a bad start with the room and realising the town it was located in,Kuta, was basically a nightmare of the sort of thing I was hoping to escape to Bali to avoid (more of that later)I stomped off to find the nearest bookshop so that I could grab myself a copy of the trusty Bali, Lombok Lonely Planet Guide in order to plan my next move! LP (we feel like old friends now I've relied on them so much this wast 6 or 7 weeks don't always get it right, bless em, but they didn't let me down this time!
I've happened upon a perfect (for me) little place called Ubud, apparently the cultural centre of Bali and it's just fab. Loads of nice places to stay (fairly cheap)not too much hassle from hawkers and taxi drivers and lots of nice little shops, art galleries, cafes and restaurants.
I'm staying in a cute place just outside of the main town at the mo, but I'm moving to another cute place nearer the centre tomorrow. Something funny happened at breakfast today. There was couple sat near me and it turned out they were playing my fav game of people watching. We got chatting and the opener was to guess what nationality we each were. They had got me spot on but I thought they were French and they turned out to be Greek. Anyhoooo the funny bit was they had my down as an English actress, like you would find in an Agatha Christie movie!!! I'm seriously hoping they weren't thinking of Miss Marple! I've been quite careful not to overdo the sunbathing so I don;t think I've aged quite that much since I've been away. anyway it did make me chuckle and we had a nice little chat. So apart from managing to get 40 (yes I counted every last one of itchy little bastards)mosquito bites yesterday and almost vomiting in a public place this afternoon coz of taking my doxycycline on an empty stomach, all is well with the world!
I've been able to hire a bike again, which I love because it gives me the freedom to explore the area. Venture just off the main town and you find yourself surrounded by magical little villages, stepped paddy fields and palm trees. It's just greeaat! I arrived on Thursday and plan to stay until Wednesday. I'm then heading off to the beach to top up the tan and do a bit of snorkeling. I think the place is called Padangbai. Another quiet little resort, with just enough going on to keep me happy. I will probably stay there until next weekend then head to Lombok and the Gili islands for some more beach type activities.
In the meantime I plan to do some more pootling around Ubud and I've got a silver smithing course booked in for Tuesday and a cooking course on Monday morning. Balinese food is the best I've tasted so far, so I'm really looking forward to learning a few dishes to add to my repertoire! .
So that brings you up to date with now. I'm going to start a seperate story to whizz through what happened between Pai and Bali!
TTFN
Nx
