But first things first - international adventures :)
Bali was amazing! We drove to Radelaide on the 24th, to stay overnight at my Aunt's house, before rising early and catching our flight. Surprisingly departing from Adelaide was more convenient than expected as we were able to suss out potential places for me to live whilst at uni, because I still hadn't organised accommodation for the year... haa. But we didn't decide anything straight away and before we knew it Mum and I were strapped into our seats and flying over land and water to Denpasar, Indonesia. We arrived a bit before lunch and caught a 'TAKSI' to Sanur, where we would be staying with Ginny, a couch surfer originally from England. We had a huge lunch, a tasting plate with loads on it, then ditched our one backpack of luggage we brought at the surfers place, and did a small explore of Sanur. Later we went to the markets for tea. Gawdayum is it cheap! Like 50 cents for a full meal, crazy crazy.
The next day, AUSTRALIA DAY, we decided to hit up Kuta where all the Aussies spend their holidays. But before we journeyed over we went to a Cafe on Sanur beach and I had an American breakfast - utterly and completely for the lols. We went to Legian/Kuta beach pretty early, so there were only a couple of orange bogans in their Aus Flags and matching bucket hats. The beach itself was closed cause of intense swell, we were told specifically by the lifeguard to pretty much leave so we found this bloke who was handing out gamecards. We decided to play and it turns out we both could match three little pictures on our cards and had won prizes. In order to collect them we had to get in a Taxi and go to a diff town, sit through a presentation and whatnot. Suss sounding yeah? We decided to do it anyway, so were voluntarily kidnapped to Nusa Dua. We arrived at a five star resort and basically what happened was they were trying to sell us a timeshare. We listened to the bloke talk a bit about them, but it was good cause he mostly just talked about his life in Bali, over lunch. In the end we walked away with lunch, two tshirts and a book of discount vouchers (mum and my prizes from the gamecards) and two taxi rides to the resort and to our place back in Sanur, ALL FOR FREE! Not your typical aus day, but was interesting.
The next morning we had bfast then got onto a public boat to Nusa Lombongan - my favourite place of the trip. The boat was hilarious even before we took off because in order to get on you had to walk into the beach water and climb over the motors and into the seating bit. I drew a picture to hopefully make it easier to understand:
So climbing onto it was quite a challenge, but even more so for mum as when it was her turn an unforeseen patch of waves rolled in, which rocked the boat and left her drenched to the armpits - good times! But even the annoyance of being damp was forgotten as we rolled up to the Lembongan beach. I don't know how to put enough emphasis into this statement so that you'll understand but the water was stuffin incredulous!! Clear blue, a few metres deep but you could see right to the bottom, and the temp was like stepping into a solar heated pool - SO GOOD ZOMG! We strolled up the street and booked into the coolest hut thing! We were chillin' out the front by the pool when I looked over to the shop next door and a man was up in the palm tree cutting out the coconuts and having people collect them. I went over to take photos and he climbed down and cut one open for me to drink. Tasted very average, but then they cut it right open so I could eat it - very cooool. For the rest of the arvo we just chilled in the pool, met a hungarian dude, and watched the sun set over the beach. Spillion dollar view for $15 a night >:]
The next day we went snorkelling, and it was probably one of the most amazing experiences of my life. You see underwater images on tv or wherever but nothing compares to seeing it yourself. Putting your head underwater is, well, just overwhelming, I highly recommend it. I cut myself on coral getting onto the boat, but other than that was good. After that we hired a motorbike and drove around the island. The day after we went diving. A similar experience, but it feels good to be able to swim along the floor :) It took a while to get used to breathing, but I saw little Nemo's going in and around their anemone, coolest. Then after the dive we got dropped off at Nusa Penida, another island where not many tourists go. I had a nap, then we each got on the back of an Indonesian mans bike and rode around the island. I felt like a celebrity with all the muscley dudes that waved at me as I drove past hehehe. We rode to this place known as the waterfall, but in order to get to the actual waterfall we had to do a 600m climb pretty much straight down. So we did, took forever, and when we arrived the 'waterfall' was like a trickle of fresh water into a cement structure. The view was fantastic, but I wanted to cry at how many steps we had to walk back up :| That night we had street food for dinner, and the best juices from this lady next to our hotelly place and watched Indonesian Spongebob.
The next day we caught another public boat, this time to Padangbai. We ditched our stuff at a place then got 'foot reflexology' from this old guy who told us not to buy anything from anyone cause they were dodgy. We explored a little bit and ended up meeting up with some ex-pats. It was good to get a bit exposed to the culture from at least one side. It was funny when one of them was explaining how he had rented a motorbike and somehow ended up with a bright pink one, which he is hesitant in driving home as the truckies make suggestive movements as he goes past ;)
Then we went to Amlapura on a Bemo - a mini mini-van with its doors left open and then to Tirta Ganga and ran up 300m worth of stairs in the pouring rain to a home stay. Most incredible view; patti feilds and volcanoes! In the morning we went to the water palace which was loverlyyyy. It was also the big Balinese holiday Gulingan, so getting transport was difficult. But eventually we got a bemo to Singaraja. It was still rainy so we wandered around but then caught another bemo to Lovina and found a place for the next two nights. We had a little explore, saw some people gambling on a black sand beach, swam a bit, did a cooking class, and rode around again on bikes with some randoms.
Then we legged it to Ubud, AND SAW THE MONKEYSSSSS!!! The Mnkey Forest in the main bit of town is home to over 600 monkeys, they were so cute I couldn't handle it. And so people accustomed so they were just everywhere - footpaths and all. They were so people friendly that two jumped on me. One going for my water bottle and the other when I was sitting down just crawled across my lap. I was okay with the furry little thing just chillin' on me, until it moved on to my arm and started to bite me.... So I stood up and shook the cheeky thing off before it gave me rabies :|
The day after we had a five hour spa visit, with everything from massages, to hot baths, to mani/pedi's. It was a bit awkward at first when they handed me a black cloth and said 'here are your underwear' which is when I realised that a full body massage really meant a full body massage :/
After the Ubud adventure it was travelling back to Sanur in hectic floods, to see Ginny again before we got off the plane and legged it back to rads. So that ends our intense 10 days in Bali; 6 locations and so many activities!! Not bad not bad.
Domestic events.
Got back to Adelaide and sussed out a few more potential places to live, but we were pretty much decided and the day we travelled back to BH we confirmed accommodation for the year. So finally I have somewhere to stay :D And it's with a lovely family so the transition will be much easier! Then we drove back home and it was so gooood to see the dogs! Oh and meg/dad too ;P
Pretty much since then it's been loads of packing up my room, ready for uni. There are suitcases and crap everywhere, saying it's a war zone is a polite description.
I have caught up with a few friends but only very briefly, keen to see more of them before I move - IN ONE WEEKS TIME :O
But yes, that's about it. There's plenty more I could say but then this post would be huuuuuge! The next one will quite possibly be from my new rezzy in Adelaide, scary stuff!
Until then,
- Brim
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