A little bit of everything
Trip Start
Nov 05, 2002
1
28
69
Trip End
Aug 13, 2003
Bali,
Indonesia
Saturday, March 22, 2003
6 countries down, 5 to go!
After Singapore it was onto Bali for 9 days. On the first night there we stayed in Kuta town and walked past the sight of last Octobers bombings. Very sad sight. Kuta, and the island of Bali as a whole, is suffering badly from the bomb. Not a lot of people around. You could see what the lack of tourists was doing to the people who rely on them for a living. As I said sad. We hired a jeep and spent 5 days touring the island. We headed north from Kuta through the lush centre of the island, which involved driving around an active volcano in torrential rain, and arrived in the coastal town of Lovina, with it's black sand beaches. After a stop off in a local hot spa we drove east along the north coast eventually stopping off in Tulamben where I snorkelled to the offshore wreck of a WWII boat. Amazing! We then continued east and saw evidence of recent lava flows, including one right from a large volcano to the sea, and then headed inland to visit the Pura Besakih temple. It was then onto Ubud in central Bali to see the monkey forest and the Balinese cultural shops Ubud is famous for. Then it was back to Kuta. Our last few nights in Kuta marked our last nights in Asia so we decided to splash out on nice accommodation and did so by staying in a beautiful cottage near the beach. At €30 for 2 nights it doesn't sound expensive but for us it was a splurge well worth making.
Bali is a beautiful place. We saw some lovely sights, stayed in beautiful accommodation and best off all met some lovely locals, all falling over each other making sure we had the best time possible. Bali was a highlight, no doubt.
