The Replica Suite Kuta

... even had a personal driver service, which is apparently quite common in the resort area, who would take us any where we wanted and wait for us for however long. The restaurants were very nice in this area as well as the bars. One night we spent the evening in a lovely bar and were challenged to a game of pool by a group of confident Australians. Both being up for a bit of friendly competition, we agreed, and through sheer fluke and a couple of drinks, we managed to ...

... can and you feel it has to be good on some level! We then went and found some awesome food markets which we frequented often after.
It was then suddenly Monday and Miriam was arriving at 2pm. So we all decided to hire scooters or scooterbikes as I like to call them and we set off on a little adventure to the very south of the island. It was an interesting start to the beginning of my scootering career. Mixed one might say. One minute I’m flying along, overtaking left ...

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 ...

... place is literally teeming with thousands of young people just looking to get loaded and have intercourse. It's like Th Kho San times 50... on the beach. It is the Britney Spears to the Philippines' Celine Dion. All the stereotypes of this place are true - Its BIG, its LOUD, and its CROWDED - but the beach is simply perfect (if you can make it out through the hundreds of touts and surfers).... certainly a nice change of pace. I think we'll hang here for a week ...

... 10minutes or so waiting to see if they were actually going to bring cattle onto the beach. Unfortunately the experience we were hoping for never happened, there were no cows on the beach.

Andy and I walked back a little disappointed to our rooms, where we collected the others and continued our usual routine; the same restaurant (again!), followed by beer, whiskey and cards back at the rooms. During our meal there was a power cut (typical for an island). Tom was still ...

... Allison, officially welcoming me to the family. The joy of being engaged to Mary sank in further as I realized I was now joining another family as well as my own. The next morning, I hopped into a taxi to Ubung bus terminal in Bali to catch my 20 hour bus to Yogyakarta, in the middle of Java. My cab driver was a nice Balinese Hindu, working hard to support his family despite marital problems and adamantly ...

... Dutch polotics and the international economic climate increased 100 fold. I asked her her name. She put out her soft hand and said 'Ruth', except she pronounced it 'Huth.' I've have never really had a thing for Spainish people as most of them seem greasey and a little awkward, but when Ruth, or Huth, said her name it was like chocolate melting. This clever, quite funny, tanned blonde with the melting name seemed like a good person to land up next to. We chatted for 3 ...

Bali the last couple of days has been a welcome and peaceful respite after the previous week's peripatetic wanderings. I finally met a local driver who knows the surf breaks in Bali, and even though he ran out of gas on the way from the airport to my hotel the other night, he's someone I'll use again if I come back here. And today I put Ulu Watu on the surf resume ... the cave is amazing, but the ...

on the way to bali my flight was delayed 8 hours and my luggage was lost on arrival. the domestic terminal is the biggest piece of **** i have ever seen. despite all the no smoking signs in the terminal, EVERYONE is smoking inside. the departure screen conflicts with everything else and i end up befriending every foreign looking person i can find. a group of malaysians seem to take interest in me - but i bond ...

... any of my stuff. Here, I feel like I could leave my door unlocked all day and nothing would happen. (Don't worry, I don't -- no need to tempt fate!) My most pleasant surprise, though, has been the way in which so many Balinese have been helpful and kind without asking anything in return. At the airport, I needed to make a local phone call; a man offered me the use of his and refused any money in compensation. In contrast, when I'd needed the ...