Well folks, our time in Bali is coming to an end, sadly. We hate to say goodbye to the cheap, colorful, humid paradise!! I will miss the delicious $2 meals and the beautiful sunsets. Also $2 banana splits!! Ryan you would be very happy here, fried bananas and banana crepes for dessert at every restaurant. The money conversion still gets us sometimes, mom i think you would have a tough time here! We might not miss the people calling us into every store or every taxi honking at us, but we will miss haggling. We have become master hagglers!! It's a much better way to pay for things! We are leaving with an extra bag full of goodies that we really didn't pay much for! We probably ended up paying what these things are actually worth vs the markup in stores back home and Australia.... Anyway it was fun and it's so satisfying to name a price, have them say no, walk away and hear "well ok!" :)
We tried hanging by the pool this week but it really is just too hot. Never thought is say that... But I didn't want to swim because the pool water heats up a lot in the sun! We did make friends there which was great. We went with these friends to some really cool restaurants. There is a surprisingly good Mexican restaurant here called TJs. We ate at jimbalan bay for another sunset. It is a beach with a string of restaurants right on the sand. Alexa had fresh calamari and oysters for $10. We were the only people eating at our particular restaurant and so when the band came around they basically serenaded us. They played hotel California and californication. Then they assumed we were Australian and played I come from a land down under for us hah. After the music some girls came out and did a few songs of Balinese dance! Very cool! Can't beat the entertainment, location or price!!
We also went to potato head bar. What a ridiculous name for a really nice bar and restaurant. We sat in a big Lounge cushion on the beach and watched the most beautiful sunset.
We did have a night out in kuta which involved bar hopping to get free drinks. Depending on the time, different bars offer free drinks to foreigners and ladies. The drinks were mostly juice but why not! It was a lot of fun and we did a lot of dancing. I made an ingenious belt finally (never got around to buying one) out of the string on my VIP pass haha. It was one of my best ideas yet! Worked like a charm! I might still be using it as a belt now...
The clubs here are all at least 3 levels it's really cool to go to the top and get a view of all of kuta. So many drunk Australians... We ended up babysitting one of our own that night! There was a girl in the bathroom who was sitting on the floor and not talking to anyone. Her friends seemed to have left her and the staff wanted her to leave (she was clearly in no state to find her way home, she couldn't tell us where she was staying) we walked out with her and these other girls trying to help. The other girls somehow disappeared so it was just us and we had to decide to leave her wandering down the crowded street or take her with us. So in the end Alexa and I snuggled that night. Drunk girl was very appreciative in the morning and said we were the nicest people she ever met! It made up for her accidentally breaking my sunglasses... I hope this earned us some good karma. Now if Alexa ever abandons me in a foreign country i should be ok.... Just kidding parents!!
We hired a transporter, our new friend katut who "is a doctor", to take us on a day trip around Bali. We went with 2 of our friends and paid ten dollars each. We drove to the other side of the island to see a village overlooking an active volcano. On the way we stopped at a coffee, tea and cocoa farm. We were able to see where they grow it and how they make it and had lots of samples :) we learned about some kind of coffee made by an animal eating the beans and then they find the animals "poo poo" and get the bean out and it makes great coffee supposedly. We didn't try that kind so I don't know! Then we had lunch by the volcano as storm clouds rolled in. We drove to a hindu temple and managed to tour it before it started pouring! The temple was beautiful, we had to wear sarongs to cover our legs before entering.
Another highlight of the week was our spa treatments :) heaven! I want a massage every day. They are the best things ever. We did one package for $12 that was a hot stone massage a body scrub and a facial. The massage was 90 minutes and ended with the hot stones. They heat them up in a rice cooker! They really were hot! Like way hot... I don't know how those girls hold them but they are strong! It was amazing and right after was facial time. I didn't get one because my face was sunburned so I just had them wax my eyebrows instead. They wanted me to go next door right away but Alexa and I agreed that it didn't seem appropriate to show up for an eyebrow wax without clothes on so I asked for a minute. Luckily they obliged me and waited but they seemed to think it was weird haha. Alexa said the facial was also amazing, not surprisingly!
So we are now stress free, happily well fed and ready to return to Australia! Can't believe its almost march... Our trip is about half way completed!!
Happy birthday to Ben, who I don't think reads this blog but that's ok! Welcome to 25!! Woohoo! I don't know what it's like but ask Ryan, he's old!
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