Bali for Xmas

Trip Start Sep 13, 2006

178

Trip End May 08, 2008

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Flag of Indonesia Bali, Indonesia
Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Well i wasnt overly sad to be leaving Jakarta and was looking forward to hittin Bali and the beach for xmas. Flight was grand all the way to Denpasar which is the main city on the island of Bali.. Got me bag and took a taxi then into Kuta beach which is the main area to stay. Got into Kuta pushing midnite so found meslf a hotel no worries...Pool and all so happy days. I had arrived in Bali on the 21st and had no real set plan how long to stay but i wanted to do xmas here anyway and see how things go. Id been doing quite a bit of moving and traveling about the last few weeks so was quite happy to relax. I stayed in the hotel i had booked into for 2 nites as it was a little over priced and moved into a better place after that. There were plenty of tourists about in Bali but it still wasnt overly busy. Appearantly tourism here has been real quite since the bombings 4 years ago and the visa entry to get into Indonesia dont help either. Its Mostly Australians who are on holiday in Bali for xmas

Bali bombing memorial

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Anyway i spent my days on the beach doing a load of buggie boarding and surfing.. im still crap at the surfing but its great fun. Waves here are pretty big so it can take ages to paddle out through them. The beaches are pretty packed with surfers. One of the days i went on a white water rafting trip which was cool. it was on some river a few hours away from where i was staying. The raft i was in was in bits and the air was pissing out of it so the guide had to bring a spare pump along in the raft..(filled everyone with confidence). The river was quite rough and there were lots of waterfalls and jumps u went over in the raft so really enjoyed all that. Had met up with some Australians and hit the Bali club scene with them most nites.
Honestly you would not have a clue that it is xmas here.. the Indonesians dont celebrate xmas at all so all the shops & bars are open and even the construction workers were all working away not a bother
ive seen the odd xmas decoration and heard maybe 3 xmas songs so far (but thats a good thing) so when xmas day came i decided i wanted the old turkey dinner which i got and it was okay but the portion was fuckin measley so i still had to have a chicken satay after it to full me up. I know at home its my favourite dinner of the year simply cos all the food is so good and i can stuff myself stupid that day...no chance of that this year. Definitly a novelty for xmas between the weather, beach and atmosphere here.
So went clubbing then with the australian lads xmas nite. One thing that is funny about the clubs here.. is that most of them are free in and give you a free drink as you go in... but locals have to pay in and get no free drink.. thats completely alien from other asian places ive been where westerners are charged a lot more than locals for entrance.
Stephen's day i hit the beach and surfing again and started sorting out my onward journey to Lombnok for the next few days and the new year.

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