Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Friday 23 May 2008

We landed safely in Bali on Tuesday 20 May around 19:30 from (KL) Kuala Lumpa, Malaysia. We flew with Air-Asia and it was as pleasant as flying can be.

Tehya said on take off 'This is good fun' then fell asleep for two and a half hours and woke up 20 minutes before we landed to say 'wow' as we landed. She travels so well, shame the same can't be said about me and Hanna but hey good to know that Tehya has no stresses thus nothing to worry about.

A surfer watches the waves

At Bali airport (Denpasar) we went straight to Visa control who stamped our 60 day visa and one of the guys asked if we where considering staying longer than 60 Days? I said we would love too but thought that we had to fly out of the country to get another 60 day visa? He said that it was possible to get an Indonesian to sponsor you and it would then be possible to stay in the country for up to six months. We took his business card and will phone him at least one week before our visa runs out. It will certainly save flying back to KL as I'm sure Hanna will agree.

We hadn't arranged any accommodation (as usual) before landing in Bali but it wasn't a problem. We found a Hotel/Accommodation guide in the airport (just near the customs control) who had plenty of leaflets with hotel accommodation. They tend to push the hotels that they get the most amount of commission from, but we decided not to book it through them as it is always worth seeing the rooms before parting with any money (lesson learnt the hard way several times before).

We walked outside the airport to be pounced upon by several taxi men trying to grab my surf board and take us to our destination for 150,000 Indonesian Rupiahs IDR (about Β£8). We already knew it should only be about 40,000 to 50,000 to our destination as there is a Taxi price display to the right as you come out of the main airport doors, so we stood firm for a few minutes until a local lad decided that he would take us for 60,000 - as we had surf boards (you find the price always amazingly increases if you have a surfboard when travelling).

Fishing in Bali

We arrived at our Hotel - 'The Sari Segara Resort' in the Jimbaran area about 20 minutes south of Kuta and were more than pleasantly surprised at the hotel and its swimming pools. We asked for a price list and were greeted with a list that didn't make good reading.

As we have stayed at a few hotels/guest houses you can always guarantee that the first list that is shown is the - 'let's try it on' list. But thankfully I decided to ask if there was a special deal as it was low season and the room went down from $130 to $70 instantly. We asked to look at a few rooms and we were not very happy with any of them as they all smelt (musty - moldy and damp).

I explained that I suffered with asthma and that the rooms where no good. We at least learnt a new word in Indonesia - Bau (pronounced bough) it means smelly. We went back to reception and the man in charge for the night suggested that we take a look at the Deluxe suite (with jumbo bath tub) as that didn't smell. The room was amazing, we took the room for $80, the normal rate is $265.

Waves in the Balian sea

We relaxed at the Sari Segara for three days but today (23-5-08) have decided to get a little closer to the action and have moved over to Kuta to more affordable accommodation, it has a small swimming pool and the room is very pleasant and only $30. Still a little higher than our budget is setup for but we will probably hire a motorbike tomorrow and go and take a look at Medewi or Dreamland as I haven't been surfing for almost two years (very slack but hopefully will make up for it soon) and need to get some training in before attempting harsher waves?

Ideally I would like to find a break or two that doesn't have more than 500 other surfers on but from what I've seen so far that isn't going to happen. It certainly won't be the same experience of eight years ago in Simeulue where I had the breaks all to myself for three months...