we hit the town last night....in a quiet kind of way really in bali terms....but i wanted to check out at least one of the cocktail bars in kuta so off we toddled to dine in a Mediterranean restaurant (when one is travelling in asia for 3 months one doesn't feel the need for EVERY meal to be rice based...) followed by a bali long island in 'maccaroni'...featured in my lonely planet guide this bar is everything you might find in london's west end....with prices to match....but we felt right at home as the DJ spun his stuff and we people watched to our hearts content....
...stumbling back to our hotel we passed a teeny tiny reggae bar off the beaten track....cannabiez (sound it out...there you go!) featured a dreadlocked band pounding out marley hits with fervor so we stopped for a beer and a listen...'hello my brother, my sister' welcomed the frontman when the song was finished and when his set was done he sought us out and joined us for a drink....telling us that we should be 'shhhh' if smoking marijuana in bali (um thanks....we would prefer to go without the death sentence so might steer clear) and warning us about the 'bloody cheeky monkeys' that we would be seeing on our day trip around the island today. apparently the little rotters like to steal children's glasses and break them....nice....
but today was everything i'd been hoping for out of bali....hiring a guide and his car off the streets of kuta we arranged for him to take us around the island. unfortunately it was raining but thankfully that didn't dampen our spirits too much as we visited the sacred monkey forest with no adverse affects from those 'bloody cheeky monkeys'...in fact they were very cute. we saw wood carvers at work, silver and gold manufacturers and drank real balinese coffee....we donned a sarong and wandered around a temple with its 'magic' spring waters and viewed a smoking volcano from a restaurant with a birds eye view.
today changed my opinion of bali. if you get out of the touristy areas full of hawkers and aussies (!) you see a different island. a beautiful one....
we have one more day here before we head to thailand...
stay tuned. xxxxx
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