Bali Part I
We started our trip by taking the train to Amsterdam, where we spent a few days, before taking a plane to Bali via Xiamen. The flight to Xiamen took about 10.5 hours and we dreaded the 12 hour stay there, expecting not the be able to leave the airport without a visa. Not only were we able to get a 72h transit-visa, so we could leave the airport, we were also given a free hotel room by our airline, since we had to spend more than six hours in Xiamen.
After a much needed shower, a breakfast and a two-hour nap we wondered around Xiamen until we had to take a cap back to the airport. We had some problems navigating through the city, since Google is blocked in China, so you also can’t use Google maps.
When we arrived in Bali and left the airport at 1am, we were swarmed by cab-drivers and ended up paying way to much for the ride, even though we shared it with a couple we met on the airport.
The first day Bali was pretty clouded, so we didn’t bother using sunlotion until the sun came out. Well, we both got sunburned through the clouds, Basti is still recovering. So remember kids, always put on sunscreen.
After the beach I got a massage, where - I think - my creditcard was stolen. Luckly I’m not traveling alone and there were no fraudulent charges on my CC before I locked it, so it isn’t that much of a problem. In the evening we went to the nightlife centrum of Kuta and had a few drinks.
The first half of our second day was also spent on the beach, until around 4pm, when we got a driver to visit a Kopi Luwak farm. We tried a variety of local teas and of course Kopi Luwak, the coffee made from coffee-beans digested by the asian palm civet.
After visiting the farm, we got to the Tanah Lot temple, right in the for the sunset. Sadly the weather wasn’t on our side, so no real sunset for us. But the temple was still really nice and there was a big ceremony going on.
Our next two day were pretty similar - we relaxed at the beach and tried ourselves at some surfing. Since we watched the surfing schools the days before and it seemed easy enough we just rented the boards and didn’t take lessons. The first day went surprisingly well, we even rode some waves all the way to the beach. Our second day didn’t go all that well, because the waves were much harder and the water seemed deeper. We had problems even getting far enough into the water, which was really frustrating.
On our last day in Kuta we visited the Potato Beach Club, following a recommendation we got. We were greeted by a handful of securities and two police-men with machine guns, who controlled us with metal-detectors and checked our bags. We walked around the area a bit, but couldn’t find a place to sit so we went for a swim in the pool first. We kind of felt out-of-place in the (pseudo-?)high-society beach club, which felt like a gated community. We just spent a few hours there and had a coffee and then headed to Double-6 Beach where we had dinner.
Which brings us to today. After checking out of our hotel in Kuta, we got a ride to our hotel in Ubud. We went for a quick swim in one of the three pools of our hotel and then took a shuttle to the center of Ubud. There we had some food and rented a scooter for the next two days. From the rental we drove directly to the Ubud Monkey Forest. It’s nature reserve with hindu temples inhibited by about 600 crab-eating macaques.
