Day 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78 & 79 (Bali)

Where to start with Bali..where to start?

Six of us flew down a couple of days early to get a bit of R&R in before we moved on to Australia and the final portion of our big adventure. In doing this we missed out on seeing Mt. Bromo which was a bummer for me, but something I was willing to do to get an extended period in one place (albeit in two different hotels). And of course I would miss out on the experience but not the photos as Una stuck with the group and went to Bromo so I have hers to steal. So off we went to Bali arriving late at night to find that the hotel we'd booked into had given our rooms away so we were in effect homeless for the night unless we could sort something out. Thankfully we found out about this while still at the airport so we were able to get a travel desk there to sort us out – they found us a 3 bed apartment in the Jayakarta Resort for 2 of the 3 nights that we needed a place to crash. A shortish taxi ride later we got to our resort and were very, very pleasantly surprised by the place – it was F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S. We pledged there and then to make it our mission to get them to let us stay for the 3rd night :) Once our rooms were sorted out we headed in search of the pool shortly before 1am for a moonlight dip..the water was still pretty warm, nice!

Our first day in Bali was busy enough with lots of sunbathing and swimming by the hotel pool. We didn't manage to get loungers but did get a nice area to lay down and dry off before heading into town in the early evening to grab a bite to eat. We found a pretty ace restaurant by the sea that was a bit outside of our budget but we decided to splash out. I had the 2nd nicest tuna steak I've ever had there along with a lovely bacardi cocktail – what a way to spend the day :) We stocked up on pot noodle from the supermarket for the next few days and headed back to the hotel where I had an early night and the party animals got ready for a mad night out (they arrived home after 5am knocking on the door having been unable to wake up the night porter and unable to locate our key themselves – I crawled out of bed semiconscious to let them in).

I had every intention of being up early doors to get down to pool side to reserve us some primo loungers but after the abrupt wake up call I'd had I wasn't able to move until it was too late and the loungers were all taken. We eventually got out of bed and rolled down to the pool where we took advantage of the happy hour 2 for 1 special on Bali Hai beer – happy hour was indeed very happy, but not an hour. The danger was there from 11am to 6pm...that's a heck of a long happy hour! We sat by the pool bar sipping our frosty beers and took a moment to toast our buddies who had been up at 4am to climb Mt. Bromo. Later that night we headed out and I got my first taste of Bali night life – I reckon it's like the Aussie equivalent of Ibiza, there were some seriously crazy people out. A guy with his face painted like the Joker from Batman and his mate with sequence stuck to his face making him look like a sparkly pirate (another night there was a guy in a full clown costume..including the funny shoes?!). More happy hours in the pubs but they were the more dangerous kind with 2 for 1 on cocktails called the Bomba. We danced the night away and crawled home around 4am before going for a late night swim.

The group were due into Bali around 6.30pm and we had to move on to meet them at the Simpang Inn leaving behind our lovely apartment. To ease the pain we stayed at the Jayakarta until the last possible minute to make the most of their pool and the uncrowded beach in front of it. It was a glorious day. When we eventually got to the Simpang Inn and got checked in we realised how spoiled we'd been for the previous 3 days. It had cost us a bit, but the hotels couldn't be compared in any way...my room in the Simpang Inn was hot and stuff with a fan that moved the hot air around and sounded like it was going to fall off the roof, the bathroom was filthy and was back to the standard wet room setup without a proper bath or shower. I wanted to go back to Jayakarta and seriously considered it, but I'd missed some of the crew and wanted to catch up with them. So...off we went out again! Another late night filled with happy hour cocktails and crazy dancing (we even met a girl from Perth who wants us to go to her 21st birthday party and is planning on arranging it for the single night that we're in Perth..how random?!).

The first full day with the whole crew in town is a blur of hangover induced sleep – most of us stayed in bed for most of the day. The next day when the hangover haze had cleared I headed back to Jayakarta with Mel & Michelle to cheekily use their pool because we missed it so much. It was bliss :)

Our final day in Bali was a rush of trying to find a camera shop to repair mine and getting some last minute shopping and sunbathing in. There was no repair shop around and the guy in the solitary camera shop I found said the only place I'd find one in Indonesia was in Jakarta! We left for the airport at 8pm that evening with an estimated time of arrival in Darwin at around 3am...man alive..soooo late!