Larkabout 2009 The Larkin's World "Tantrum" tour 2008/2009.

The crew at Ashmore were not only friendly and professional, but useful –Cameron (Customs) had passed on to us a phone number for a friend of his (Mickey) in Bali that might prove handy, and boy did he.
We left for Bali Monday evening and arrived early Friday morning at Benoa harbor. Ah ha finally our first foreign port . Just the usual plastic bags. We hoped to catch up with old acquaintance of Bruce’s who he had last seen about 18 years previously.
Kim was one of the first Aussies to surf and conquer Bali back in the day, and even now was known as a “Legend” i.e one of the founding fathers of the Kuta scene, with complementary Balinese businessperson wife, bar etc. His phone didn’t work.
We were concerned about getting out and about while we were there and packing in as much Bintang beer, satay and Nasi Goreng as we could so after the very relaxed organized clearing-in activity at the yacht club and a night in Kuta and a bit of a look around by taxi on Friday night, we had a discussion and called Mickey who instantly whisked us off for la tour de la tour, incorporating the unexpectedly expensive but groovy Bali Zoo, and the Monkey Sanctuary at the Temple at Ubud which is where we spent the next two days. No, silly, not at the Temple but at a nice hotel with a shower and beds and no monkeys and everything. The Nasi Goreng was a bit more expensive up the hill there, but by golly we found one of those amazing places that one sees in the weekend newspaper travel section and were very impressed. The following day we spent driving up to the north to Lovina Beach (give it the big miss, was the general impression) and then back to the boat via, you guessed it, Kim’s place. Yes, The Legend was finally returning his calls.
The Legend was also, as it would happen, in slightly different circumstances than when Bruce had last seen him –  smaller house, new wife, more bintang. Glorious new son of around 14months called Genghis (yesss) an immodest fixation on Samurai and well quite a lot of bintang really. We had a really invigorating visit and stay with Kim and Fida overnight and were quietly pleased that we had not been there for 4 days.
 Jack and I were pretty much the only people who live in Australia left on the planet who hadn’t been to Bali. I had no idea (I assumed it was more on the scale of Pacific destinations) that it was so big and busy I mean two million people live there. We went down the street where the bombs were detonated in 02 and the street is like this wide (I am stretching my arms). It is so much easier to understand the terrible carnage once one has seen the venue.
When we left Bali we spent two days just across the pond at Lembongan, which is where Mickey our guide was from at his invitation. We met various uncles and cousins and had fresh box fish and rice for lunch. The rice was great (seriously, very nice varieties of rice in Indonesia) but I still can’t recommend  box fish. Mickey took us for a tutu around the Island and found us the best – you guessed it – nasi goreng – and the obligatory overpriced but excellent massage. Jack  became addicted to the fresh juices served there and a local cold tea drink called Tebotel in a charming self-explanatory way. I hasten to add that we did eat other food but I wasn’t that keen on the gado gado. Lembongan is a day trip Island from Bali so each day that we were there the big charter boats would wobble over around 10ish and disgorge their punters onto the pontoons moored in the bay. Cool set up along the lines of those on the barrier reef, but they had water slides. Mickey got his mates to take Jack and I up on the parachute towing thingo for a discount. The other activity they do there is farm seaweed for cosmetics and medicine which is exported to the Philippines, I believe, where it is processed. The whole bay is divided into small smallholdings and looks just like paddocks when one overlooks the bay.  We left Lembongan on Sunday morning 23 November.
Postscript. Bali was a lot more expensive than we had hoped with the exception of a couple of meals in Kuta and naturally, the scores of one dollar DVDs we shoveled on to the boat. At this rate we will be home for Christmas.