Back in Bali

After 5 days of, mostly, sunshine drenched beaches in Lombok we were ready to head inland again and to the treat of our trip. Vicky and Space bought as a night in a lovely hotel in Ubud for my 30^th. Ubud is the cultural capital of Bali. When Islam swept through Indonesia parts of the royal family and their courts of artists and musicians fled to Bali and set up shop in Ubud as a consequence its got a lot of culture. It also features heavily in that new Julia Roberts film 'Eat, Pray, Love' so there were a lot of Americans who'd come to find themselves. We left them to it.

Our room was amazing. A teak cabin on stilts overlooking the rice fields. Amazing. We had a wonderful day lazing on our balcony watching the ducks in the rice fields and drinking beer before heading out for a world class meal. Then at 2am Chris decided that we really hadn't made enough use of our lovely teak bathroom and spent the rest of our stay clutching the toilet bowl.

After living up with the spiritual Yanks in Ubud it was time to finally embrace the place which Bali is renowned for. Kuta Beach. If you want to know what Kuta is like imagine an Asian Costa del Sol and you'll be about there. Still it is Kuta where Bali tourism started and Kuta which remains a significant driver of the local economy and even if our mate Geoff hadn't flown out from Sydney to meet us there I suppose we'd have had to go and have a look.

I don't know what there is to say about Kuta really. Lots of booze and hangover killing swims are really the only way to go. Though the joy of Bali is its tiny so we didn't have to stop exploring the Island. One evening we went to Jimbaran a little enclave further down the coast which is reputed for its beachside BBQs. We ate so much seafood we felt sick. We had a whole lobster, calamari, prawns, fish, clams it just kept coming. Finally the tide came in and we had to flee our seats.

Another day the four of us (Geoff had bought out his friend Julia) went on a bike tour. The company drive you to the top of the volcano and then you cycle down stopping en route to see local Bali life. We stopped in at a family compound where they were preparing for the teeth filing ceremony which every Bali teen undergoes when they come of age. We saw people harvesting rice and preparing it for the mill. It was all interesting, but it was not all downhill. Our charming guide would periodically pause and say 'the next bit is downhill, downhill and then a little bit of exercise...' Any kind of uphill in over 30c heat and god knows what humidity can only be euphemistically called exercise.

At the end of our bike ride we were treated to a 9 course meal in the owners family compound an orgy of yummy Indonesian food. We went home full and happy.