Starbucks anyone?

6th March

Leaving Melbourne was somewhat traumatic and for the last few weeks people have been asking me if I'm excited about going to Indonesia and - let's be honest - I really wasn't

but after a slightly tearful taxi journey and a stressful panic to buy travel insurance at the airport it finally started to hit me that I was heading back to asia, and not just any old asia but new undiscovered (for me anyway!) asia!

denpasar airport was small and hectic, people were trying to get us to go in their cabs, it was hot and sticky and our airport transfer didn't turn up - I immediately felt at home

we sorted out a cab and headed to kuta beach, the first thing i noticed was the smell, incense, jasmine but most importantly rice and yummy food smells

then we spent 10 minutes passing macdonalds, starbucks, ripcurl and Marks & Spencer!!!!!!

only to be expected but always depressing

our hotel is fab though and we got a great deal by booking on line - lovely room with air con (of course) a nice balcony to sit and watch the rain, and a lovely pool

all the buildings are gorgeous with lots of little ornate gardens and ponds and elaborate hotel entrances, it's probably easier to get chicken and chips than an authentic balinese dish but if you look you can find some good places - already been to Kopi Pot leeanne, thanks for the tip the food was wonderful!

the beach here is seriously naff - cigarette butts and posers everywhere but great to watch the locals showing off their awesome surfing skills

we were planning on leaving tomorrow but it turns out that tonight - 6th March - in Nyepi which is hindu new year, so tonight there are big celebrations and tomorrow everything is closed!  and we can't even leave on saturday as the road to the pier is still closed!

so we have a little more time to explore kuta which is cool as for super touristy spots it's incredibly laid back and we're easing ourselves back into this travelling malarky so we're happy to enjoy tonight's festivities then head to the Gili Islands on sunday - just hoping the travel agency opens again at some point some can buy tickets, gotta love siesta!

8th March

It turned out it wasn't siesta but in fact early closing!  But we're all sorted now and have our tickets for tomorrow's trip to Gili Air.

Nyepi was pretty cool - people make these big effigies that represent evil and they carry them on bamboo platforms in a procession and thy have kids playing music and carrying lit torches - the downside was that we waited around for 2 hours thinking i would all kick off at any moment and then when it finally seemed about to start they slowly moved the procession round the corner so it could all start just out of our sight!  we'd had enough by then and went to have some food and watch and Indonesian bongo band playing drifters hits, much more entertaining!!

the day after (Nyepi Day) everything was closed and you're not supposed to make any noise or have any fun and you aren't allowed lights on in the evening, we spent a lazy day watching movies and lazing by the pool and in the evening when it was dark we just hanging out by the pool chatting with a canadian couple and these security guards arrived as they could see a light coming from one of the hotel rooms - it turned out to the be the canadian couple's bathroom and they got marched up to their room to make sure they turned it off!

that's all from kuta for now - we've been totally lazy since we've been here so there's not much else to report although we do seem to have both spent an inordinate amount of time on the internet and phone with our various banks and my visa card was refused and ben's been hunted down by student loans!

next stop gili islands - tomorrow's journey is going to take 9 hours although i fear the majority of that is going to be spent waiting in different bus stations and piers, what fun!!