Bali
My first day was nice and relaxed. We had a wander around the market, sat by the pool and wandered down to the beach. A long strip of white sand dotted with sun umbrellas and surfers. We couldn’t walk very far without being pestered by the locals desperate to sell anything from ice cream to silver.
Day two James and I left the group and set off on a trip to Lovina in the north of the island. We stopped in several places on the way including a place where coffee was produced and a Buddhist temple. It’s there I discovered pineapples grow in shrubs. Don’t know why I always thought they grew on trees. We also stopped by the road side to see one of the volcanoes on the island.
We arrived in Lovina by mid-afternoon and booked into a hotel. It was lovely, a lot of the places in Bali seem to have little individual buildings that have a bedroom and bathroom plus the all important air conditioning. Whilst in Lovina we had a walk along their black volcanic sandy beach and ate some sea food at the local restaurants. It’s only a small place so there wasn’t a huge amount to do but we did wake bright and early the following morning to go and see the dolphins. Lots of people were doing the same. We got in a boat and motored out into the harbour. Eventually someone caught sight of the dolphins and all the boats motored off in that direction. There were lots of them including some babies but they were very quick and difficult to take photos of.
On the way back to Kuta we stopped in several places, a Buddhist temple on a lake which was pretty. I got stopped by some Malaysian tourists who wanted to take a picture of me because I was so pale and blond. We stopped at the tallest waterfall in Bali but had to go and see it with an umbrella because it was raining so hard. We also fed monkeys strawberries at the side of a road.
The next day in Kuta James, Stuart and I started our diving courses. We did a morning in the class room learning about safety and the equipment. We then spent the afternoon in the swimming pool. I was funny because the pool was at a posh hotel so all the richer tourists spend their afternoon watching us look silly in out scuba gear floating around in their pool.
The next day we made our way to Tulambon on the East coast. Our hotel backed onto the beach and in two days we did four dives from the beach. James did all of his around a ship wreck. Stuart and I did different ones. The first was directly in front of the hotel on a coral reef. The first dive was amazing. I didn’t have any difficulty equalizing my ears and breathing was easy. The coral was beautiful and there were so many bright fish to look at. The second and third dives about 50m left of the hotel and were around the wreck James was diving on. Once we saw him navigating down a rope into the wreck. The coral and fish had completely taken over the wreck so it was really interesting to look at. Our fourth dive was about 50m to the right of the hotel and was off an undersea wall. It was where the land falls away under water. It was a real test to get our buoyancy correct so we didn’t sink or float. Our instructor was very thorough. He kept making us practise clearing our masks, sharing our oxygen and emergency assents. He did look a little silly though wearing his Mickey Mouse ears and bow tie. At least we weren’t going to lose him.
From Tulambon we were dropped off in Ubud inland were we met up with the rest of the group. In Ubud we went to the monkey forest where a monkey decided to sit on my lap so it was easier to pick the beads off my bag. It was much cooler here and seemed to be a much area. There were lots of posh restaurants and bars to try.
From here we made our way to the most southern part of Bali and stopped in Uluwatu. It is where all the surfers go for the best waves. We stayed in a hotel with a beautiful infinity pool with a view of the sea and the lights of Kuta in the distance. We watched the sunset from a wooden platform off the edge of a cliff then went swimming in the pool in the dark because it was so hot. The next day we made for the beach at Padang Padang. Our last proper beach day as a group. It was a beautiful beach with white sand. I shade bathed the whole day as it was so hot but still managed to burn my ankles.
The next morning it was time to make a move back to Kuta. Stuart had decided to come home a day early and Amy was due to leave again for Australia so four of us made our way back. We had time for a day of shopping and a giant prawn dinner before catching a flight for the 21 hour trip home. We had flown from 38 degrees to 5 degrees in temperature and really noticed it.


