The Oasis Kuta

... standard luxury hotel to the ridiculously extravagant with every whim catered to. We unfortunately were not in the latter, however we did manage to find a really nice hotel on the internet with a special offer. Little did we know that this special offer was due to the fact that the hotel had no other guests and many of the facilties were not available. However, being use to keeping our fingers crossed for a clean sheet, the room we had on arriving at the hotel was ...

... I collapsed back onto the beach and stayed there for quite some time whilst Stephen found more success body surfing. A fun but utterly exhausting experience all in all. Found a few more bruises later too.<br> Time for a spot of relaxation again! Tried out a bit of reflexology this time which was not as good as the pummelling I had got the day before as a tiny Balinese girl who straddled me and asserted all her strength into a sort of relaxing torture as only a Balinese/Thai ...

The bus from Probolinggo was comfortable(ish) and brought me into Denpasar at 2am without a hotel booked in one of the busy weeks of the entire year. I got a cab into Kuta and wandered round being turned away from guesthouses and hotels for around an hour. At some point or another, a cab driver offered to find me a hotel for 100k or nothing if he failed. It took a while, but eventually he found me a place: Business suite 1m rupiah, needless to say, out ...

Kuta was not what I expected. I was ready for the usual busy beach life, with plenty of hawkers and I was prepared for the beer drinking crowds but I thought that the compensation would be some nice beaches to ...

... we had Kelid. He seems to know everyone on the island of 2.5 million people. We stopped at his first recommendation and found it a bit dumpy for New Year's accomo, so we went to the next. For ten dollars more than the first place, we got a major upgrade- roughly two stars to four. This place was awesome. The room was huge, with walls full of windows (sliding glass doors) that looked out on the ocean. The restaurant looked over a ...

... search of a good trail. A rice paddie walk was listed in the book as leisurely, not too difficult, a two hour walk; it sounds like the perfect pace for us today. It was fantastic, we started just under the suspension bridge and headed west on the trail which had great views as you stroll on the ridge above the River. We walk along tall grasses, traditional rice fields, coco trees, papaya trees and some high end places to stay. It was a ...

... In bare feet. Whenever he kicked the husks, burning fibers would rise in a shower of glittering sparks. It was pretty magical looking. And it was fun to watch the people in the front row flinch whenever he aimed a flaming coconut in their direction. They were apparently in a trance, these last two performances. The next morning it was raining again. I was not very happy with the weather, since it wouldn't let me wander around randomly like ...

... spent Nyepi being a house guest and us girls spent the entire day lazing by the pool, fixing ourselves cocktails and food, reading and we even sneaked in one movie! On Sat we visited an art and craft village ...which had endless choices in home decoration items (read that as really pretty junk) at the most amazing prices! I have my heart set on this amazing antique bookshelf which is made from old Balinese boats.. I've decided that when I do finally buy my own home I ...