Todd and Lisa's RTW trip

Yes we have been in Bali now for one week and we have not written anything. Probably the opposite of what you guys thinking… we have been waiting for something that we actually enjoyed before we wrote!! Our initial impression of Bali was not at all what we expected. As weary travellers we expected (and hoped) to show up at a beautiful little island with gorgeous beaches that we could CHILL on. What we got was a beautiful little island full of garbage!!!

Our flight arrived at night so we just went to the closest town for the first few days. Kuta is also the tourist center (where the bombings were). We figured it would be touristy but a beach is a beach. You couldn’t believe how disgusting the beach was. Not just some rubbish here and there…. it was everywhere. It is also the off- season here, which means rainy season, so the water was all turned up. We stayed in Kuta 1 1/2 days and never got in the ocean. As a matter of fact we barely left our hotel. Because the beach was so nasty, and its off-season, we got a great deal at a nice resort. We stayed in the pool (and at the swim up bar) for our whole time there. Totally out of character for us.

We decided quickly to head to a town called Ubud, an art town upcountry. We contimplated renting a car to drive around the island but we don’t have an international drivers license. All of the rental places told us “no problem, if you get stopped you just give the police a little money”. We know how that shit goes, so we opted to take the bus instead!! Anyways, Ubud was a beautiful town upcountry full of traditional culture. There are old temples all over the place. Unlike the rest of the gazillion temples we have seen before, these temples are super cool because they are covered in crazy indonesion stone carvings spiritual creatures. The fronts always have these massive gate-like doors with beautiful intricate carvings on them. Many of them are also parts of houses and little garden complexes that have been turned into homestays. We walked around peeking our heads and our cameras into peoples front yards. They are just spectacular. Ubud also had a forest that is full of monkeys that have the funniest looking mohawks. Although we liked Ubud it was so hot and humid it was unbearable. We do not exaggerate when we say, we would walk for 30 min and then have to sit and have a cold drink for a hour all day long. We think we stopped at least 8 times throughout the day. Plus, Lisa couldn’t stop to shop at all the cute stores because sweat was pouring down. We musta’ dropped 4 lbs!!

Ubud was to hot so we headed to a town on the North shore called Lovina. Lovina was a nice little town with what they call a black sand beach. We called it a beach full of plastic, and perhaps there is some sand underneath. We even saw a dead dog on the beach. Todd told the guy selling sarangs that he should quit selling shit and clean up the dead dog… the guy didn’t find it as funny as Lisa! At this point we have been in Bali for 5 days and still had not jumped into the ocean. We were pretty much ready to say F-this place.

Until we got to Amed!!! Amed is a sleepy little fishing village on the east side of Bali. It is pretty much like Hana….. heavenly. We got a bamboo bungalow on the beach and finally were happy. Although the beach is rocky black sand, it was clean!!! The village has got nothing we just walked around saying Hi to everyone who just sits around doing nothing, because nothing is the only thing to do!! Except diving. We went on 4 (2days) great dives. The first two were to the US liberty, a 140 meter long ship that was shot by the japanese. It was really cool to dive it. We got to swim through the engine rooms and stuff. We loved Amed but left today because we LONG for a white sandy beach!!! We believe we will have to search elsewhere, so in the next day or 2 we are heading east to the island of flores….. we are crossing our fingers!!!

Although we bitch about Bali so far, the truth is the people here are wonderful. Kind, easy going, friendly people…. island style. The land (that is not covered with trash) is also incredible. Probably partly due to the fact it is rainy season, the land is Bright bright green!! (greener than Kipahulu). We also feel a little bad bad-mouthing it because all of the locals say that it is to slow since the bombing. They really need all the Australians to start coming back. It sounds similiar to lower manhatten after 9-11. So to leave this blog on a good note… The sandwich maker still lives here. We couldn’t figure out what a “Jaffle” on the menu was, so we ordered an egg jaffle. And low and behold they brought out an egg hot pocket. We love this thing… we’re gonna introduce the “pizza Jaffle”!!!

(sorry no pics…. we are using dial up)

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 4th, 2006 at 6:22 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.