Day 171 (Thursday 3rd) - Back to Bali, via 5 hours of Indo-Karaoke
Having been asleep since about half seven last night and having installed my own, far superior mosquito net over my bed, I was extremely well rested when my alarm went off at 7 - in fact, I was awoken by the first rays of dawn coming through gaps in the bamboo walls.It was a perfect cloudless morning as Marcus and I made our way to the Harbour to catch our boat, which was on time. On arrival at Bangsal there were the inevitable touts. One chap came up and asked if we were with Wannen Wisata travel, to which we replied yes. He told us the bus was just up the road, as the police had stopped all minibuses today. Despite the fact that I rang the Wannen before we left Meno, and was informed that the bus would be waiting - in fact it was already there - there were no other buses about, so we had to concede that this may well have been the truth so we hopped into his horse and cart for the 1km journey up the road, for a pre-agreed RP 20,000. We got to a roadside cafe where we stopped and got out. There were no buses about, but a guy from Wannen told us there would be one along at about half 9 - nearly an hour away. We paid the cart guy who charged us RP 25,000 for "not trusting him", despite the fact that he still hadn't told us the truth at all, other than telling us the bus wasn't there, which was obvious. When we objected he, of course, only had RP 25,000 change, so we had no choice, The git.
The bus journey across Lombok was far longer than we remembered, the boat was just as rusty and huge as on the way out, but this time there was no VIP bit showing Seinfeld. There was a reasonably comfortable, if cramped, general seating area, where we were waylaid by Hawkers trying to flog us all kinds of useless crap, before our 5 hour journey commenced - along with a 5 hour ordeal of non-stop Indonesian Karaoke tunes on the two TVs and incredibly loud speaker system at the front. I can't imagine that anyone genuinely enjoyed this, as everyone was either napping or gazing out of the window. I can only assume it was for the entertainment of the guys at the food stall, and them alone, as they were in control. At Padangbai we had a 2 hour bus ride to Kuta (in the company of 1 Swede, 2 Norwegians and a Finnish couple) which was bad enough in the heat of the afternoon, but then the bus in front of us broke down, and their cargo of 6 Italians was shifted into our bus. The second they got in they started drumming on the backs of the seats, playing with the radio without asking the driver, and eventually putting on a tape or CD of the crappiest Euro-dance garbage imaginable. For at least an hour - I had my iPod, but I felt really sorry for the hungover Marcus, and the two couples who had been happily dozing up until this point. On arrival in Kuta, we found that the place we had rung ahead and booked was already full, but we found another one pretty quickly and went for a pretty good pizza, although it was a little overdone and as a result sliced up my mouth and gums pretty badly - coupled with my sore throat and pesky cough (which began yesterday morning), my mouth is in a pretty bad state of repair. We got a bit lost around town and went for a much needed and wonderful massage, which all but erased the memory of those 5 cramped hours earlier. This took the very last of the money Marcus lent me, and as a result when our attractive swedish neighbours asked us to join them for drinks with some friends, we had to refuse. And I have a massive headache and have to scab money from Marcus for water. Bugger.
Day 172 (Friday 4th) - Surfing & Kecak
We were up early again, and I managed to actually get my free breakfast for the first time in months. I went and picked up the Western Union money, which took forever, then met Marcus for lunch and decided to go for a surfing lesson in the afternoon. It turned out that all the lessons started at half 12, which is when I arrived on the beach to arrange one, but the lovely people at Big Kahuna Surf School managed to arrange one for me anyway - just me and the instructor, which was cool. This instructor was a local guy called Damian, who started off in a reasonably professional manner before quickly becoming lecherous beyond belief - not towards me, but his muttered comments and raised eyebrows at every girl on the beach or in the water were amazing. He had something he wanted to see/squeeze/do to literally every one. The actual lesson was awesome, after a bumbling start (I have a goofy stance apparently, which means I had basically been trying to surf backwards. Normally one naturally finds one's stance, but being the malcoordinated fool I am, this was not the case). I could really feel myself improving all the time, and was up on my feet and even turning a bit by the end of the day. At one point I was so overcome with joy at my progress that when I emerged from falling off I exclaimed "Happy!" then realised what a moron I must have seemed and slunk off to try again. When we returned to the shop I checked out the pictures taken by their photographer, and I look like a proper fool in every single one, but I loved it anyway. I was hoping for a shower but there was none to be had, so I was hosed down and rushed off to the Perama office where I caught a bus to Ubud - on said bus I met a bloke called Julian who is from Ash, a village in Somerset, and had lived in London for the last few years, and had various other things in common with me. We traipsed around Ubud for ages looking for one particular place to stay, which turned out to be full, so we ended up in the place opposite & then went off to see a Kecak dance. I have seen one of these before, last time I was in Bali, but it was still baffling and awesome. After this we went for a good dinner and to Putra Bar for a beer or two - this was unremarkable, apart from what happened when we tried to pay the bill. We had had 4 beers total and were charged for 5 -understandably we weren't too keen on this, especially as the beers were overpriced anyway. We argued the point, in a calma nd measured way, with no less than 3 members of staff, all of whom just pointed at the bill and said "you had 5!" repeatedly. One even had the gaul to say "why so much fuss over one beer?" which was exactly what we were trying to say to them. We left our insufficient change on the bar and waited, until eventually the cashier grudgingly handed over he remaining cash. Julian tried to thank her for believing us, and was met with a glare, a raised middle finger, and a growled "fuck off" which somewhat soured the end of the evening.
Day 173 (Saturday 5th) - Paddy Fields and Goodbye Bali
Julian and I were up early again, and got a car out to Tellalang, where there are some amazing terraced paddy fields. I had become aware of the existence of these just after I left Bali before, and was determined to see them this time. They were awesome, exactly how I had pictured them and just what I wanted to see. After taking a few touristy pictures we went back to Ubud to the Monkey Forest, where there were, umm, loads of monkeys. I bought a bag of Bananas to feed them and within 100 metres of the entrance I became embroiled in a tug-o-war with a large male, who bared his teeth as he ripped the bag and ran off with 18 of my 20 bananas. The Monkey Forest is an amazing moss-covered monkey paradise - everywhere you look there a monkeys eating, swimming, shagging and sometimes all three - it's an odd place. I had a nap in the Perama office as I waited for my bus back to Kuta, and now I'm hangingout for 4 and a half hours until I can pick up my bag and head to Australia - I shall use the time to do some research about Perth, I suppose. They're playing the theme tune from game on in here, which is odd, but not as odd as the two old Aussie guys in vests entertaining four Indonesian girls a few table away. They all seem to be having a good time, so I won't judge.
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