Bali

We spent our time in Bali staying in Kuta. Our hotel was only a five minute walk from the beach and it was ace. We could go in much further in this water than we could in Phuket. Stuart even took me out to where there were some waves that were taller than me. I loved it! Whilst in Bali we had a car for 3 days so we could explore the Island. We saw some fantastic scenery and some amazing temples. The first was Pura Besakih, the largest and holiest Hindu temple in Bali. It was raining when we arrived and the temple was surrounded by fog which made it look mystical. Stuart had to hire a sarong to wear to go into the temple which we all found very funny, except for him, especially because he was wearing it with his gortex jacket. On the second day we set off to explore the Bukit Peninsula. The first temple we found was inside a cave on a beach that was practically deserted. The roof of the cave was covered with bats. We visited a couple of other small temples nearby and stopped off at a little hut by the ocean for some noodles, then headed for Uluwatu. The temple itself is small and we had seen better, but it sits on the edge of a high white cliff by the ocean and the view was stunning. There were some very funny monkeys running free around the temple, one baby one had a baseball cap and another monkey was chewing on someone’s glasses. On our last day with the car we went straight to a beach Mum and Stuart had found the day before, Gegger Beach. The water was so calm and crystal clear, it was gorgeous. We hired a snorkel and it was amazing. We saw all sorts of tropical fish that were all different colours as well as an enormous crab.

Whilst in Bali poor Jack got hurt again. He fell in the hotel room and hit the corner of a bed which cut open his forhead. It was very scary. He had to have stitches in it and couldn’t go in the water again for over a week. :(

Note from Mum

Bali is a beautiful island; the beaches are some of the best I have ever seen, particularly Gegger Beach as I have never been to a beach with such calm and clear water before. The countryside is stunning, as are many of the religious sites, and some of the views Bali offers are breathtaking. However, for me, Bali was tainted. As a tourist in places like Indonesia you expect to pay more than the locals for some things, but in Bali it goes so much further than that. Everything in Bali costs much more than in Java anyway and then for tourists they add ridiculous taxes on too. For example when looking at booking a hotel room 8% is added for government tax, then a further 40% tax is added on if you are a tourist. The biggest problem with Bali though is the people. Everyone is out to scam tourists, and when you don’t fall for it they just laugh and talk about you in their language. Not once were we given a reasonable price for anything and the attempts to rip us off were constant throughout our time there which got extremely annoying and exhausting. Even at Besakih, a religious site, there were some men stood at the main gates of the temple, who were nothing to do with it, telling us we couldn’t go in unless we paid for a guide or ‘gave an offering’. We refused and they accused us of disrespecting their religion, which they were blatantly exploiting in their attempt to scam us. As we walked away they stood laughing, until they saw we had found another way in for free. The island of Bali itself cannot be faulted and we did have an amazing time there, but I was glad when it was time to leave.