Well this has probably been my favourite holiday ever!
The first day will go down in my personal history as the greatest night out ever!
We fly out of Sydney and headed to Melbourne (for some reason our flight went via there??) at 9am I bought the first of what would become MANY rounds. He hopped back on the plane bound for Denpasar. There was many beverages consumed on the course of the 6 hour flight. So many in fact that they even refused Adam a scotch... for a while. After we land we were keen to get in amongst the Bali action. After being dropped off at our hotel, The Barong, Kuta, we headed straight across the road to a restaurant and got 2 large bottles of BINTANG!! (Gotta love that BEER) we had a few there. There was a couple having lunch next to us that we got talking to. The man tells us how he can just keep guzzling down this Bintang and it never gets him drunk. A theory we would put to the test later.
After lunch we went to the Bali equivalent of a corner store. We bought a few more Bintangs and one of the best things about Bali is you can just walk down the street with alcohol in hand. (In Bali you can not only do a pub crawl, you can do a corner shop crawl) So we walked down Poppies Lane towards Kuta Beach, checking out a few of the shops with people trying to drag us into thier shops. We got to one shirt shop and we ran out of our beers. The lady asked for the bottles (It is a good idea to give it to them, because not only does it get rid of it from your hands, but they can collect money from recylcing it. So everybody wins) We said to ourselves "we need more beer" the lady said "yes Bintang you want?" she shows us a little fridge she has out back full of Bintang. We bargined a price and settled on about 5000 rupiah each (about .80 cents) and we kept walking. Me as a bar tender in Australia that has to deal with some of the strictest alcohol laws in the world, was amazed that people can just do this without a liquor licence. (I had never been to a place like this before, so it was all very new to me)
Once at the beach we looked around. Unfortunately there had been a big festival on the beach the night before so it was covered in rubbish. As we stood there we finnished our beers. (In the heat the beer goes down like milk) no sooner had we finnished before someone came up asked for our bottles and was offering more Bintang. Absolutely, we thought. So he goes up to his little esky. This being the beach, they were a little more expensive. 6500 rupiah. (about 1 dollar). As the day (and the drinking) carried on we finally made our way to have our first dinner (we ended up having about 4 - 6 meals a day. I got hooked on Mi Goreng (fried noodles) so 1 breakfast 2 lunchs and 3 dinners. The meal is just enough to keep you going so you need that many. 6 squares a day of Mi Goreng.. I love it)
During dinner we met a couple from Norway, Chris and Tina. We had a few drinks and got talking. We started to move to a few more places and the night really got going. Before we knew it we were putting rest to the theory that you can't get drunk off Bintang. We went into a little Reggae Bar where we started the shots! The best thing about that bar is we got up on stage and started to sing along with Bob Marley. After that we headed into the Bounty Ship. A huge ship that is up in a tree and has 2 nightclubs in it. But not before a bit of arm wrestling ??? seemed like a good idea at the time. Anyway thats where the night kicked on for many more hours and I seemed to loose everyone. I met a nice little girl from Java called Rini (No, she wasn't a prostitute as everyone thought) This was about 4 am. So calculating the hours and the time zone difference I worked out that we drunk pretty solidly for about 22 hours!
The next day (feeling rather groggy) we met up with Chris and Tina (as we had planned earlier the night before) And went to have a look at the site where the bombs went off in 2002. It was just up from where we were staying so we walked past it many times. There is a large monument with all the victims names on it. A big blank block where the Sari Club was plus a blank block were the old Paddys use to be. There was flowers and little personal memorials hung up on the fence. It was a sad sight.
We then decided we should do some activities so we booked white water rafting for the following day.
The bus picks us up from our hotel the next day and heads to Chris and Tina's hotel. Tina was sick and couldn't go so Chris stayed with her. Unfortunately we never saw them again. But rafting was great. Our guide, Ali, took us the long way down to the rafting area. We stopped off half way through the rafting to go for a bit of a swim. There was a spot where you could get under one of the water falls with the water rushing over you. So it was a lot of fun.
Over the next 2 weeks we took part in many activities like Jet skiing, Parasailing, Banana Boating and we attempted surfing. Adam managed to cut his foot open while surfing after 5 minutes. So he had to go to the Hospital.
Later on we planned to go and have first dinner at Jimbaran Bay. It apparently has some spectacular sunsets. On the way we got thirsty, so rohan jumped out of the bus (while it was still moving) ran into a shop, got 3 Bintangs and rushed back out to the bus and dived back in all while we kept moving. (the traffic in and around Kuta is horrendous so we weren't moving very fast)
Once at Jimbaran Bay, we got to our seat on the beach (and I mean literally, our chairs were sinking into the sand) The sun went down and it was a gorgeous sunset. We started to really get stuck into the Bintang. By the time we were ready to leave, we were pretty convivial (note the euphemisim) We were hanging out of the bus on the way back making complete idiots of ourselves.
The next day as we were walking to first lunch... or second lunch... or breakfast (I dunno, lost track after a while) we nearly got run over. The thing is around Kuta, that isn't unusual. For starters the road is constantly torn up for repairs so there is very little footpath. When you do find footpath, it seems to be the unofficial lane for motos. The Balinese attitude to driving is, the road and it surrounding areas are for driving or riding so if pedestrians get in the way... oh well. Pedestrian crossings mean nothing, stop signs are optional and there are varying degrees of red at traffic lights. Usually depends on the drivers mood at the time. So as a pedestrian, you have to develop a skill of walking by the road. It usually is a combination of walking half on the road, the footpath and through shops. If you can avoid the cars, the motos carrying 2 adults, 3 children and a TV, the other pedestrians and the massive random holes in the ground and come out unscathed, your doing well.
One random night I was at the Bounty Ship with Rini. I read the list of some of the cocktails called the get loaded drinks. I saw an older couple with thier child who couldn't have been more than 13 in this night club. Just then, a fight breaks out. Because there is no security, all the male staff had to force them out of the place. Just after everything had settled down the announced the impending DRINKING COMPETITION!! I was in complete shock as the the lack of RSA (responsible service of alcohol) in Bali. It simply didn't exist. IT WAS GREAT!!! I also bought a shirt advertising the Rabbit's Joint where the motto is " I drink, I get drunk, I fall down... No problem"
We did a bit of shopping and bought heaps of tourist stuff. When I was trying to buy one gift, I thought I'd use a bit of Indonesian (spending nearly two weeks with an Indonesian girl and surrounded in the culture, makes it rather easy to pick up this relatively easy language) so I asked the woman "Berapa harganya ini?" which means how much is this? she asumed I could speak Indonesian and so naturally replied in Indonesian. I hadn't mastered the numbers yet so I had no idea what she said. So I had to ask again (with my tail between my legs) "so how much?" then she relpied in english. One of my favourite things while travelling is speaking other languages, even if only a few words. (After I got home, I was that used to speaking Indonesian that when we stopped to get food on the way home, I said "Terima Kasih" when they gave me food and went to pay with rupiah. Force of habit is a pain)
One night after big drinking in, who knows where, we stumbled across the Bali Slingshot. A capsule attached to to huge rubber bands the flings you up in the air. We were pretty drunk and so the prospect of the fact that a belly full of Bintang + high G forces = not a good feeling, didn't really cross our minds at the time. So we did it. It was awsome. So good that Rohan did it twice.
On the last day, we all went with Kim (a girl Rohan met from Perth) to Waterbom. A great waterslide park. Because Adam had stuffed his foot he couldn't go on the big rides like The Smash Down. A 60 degree angle slide with speeds up to 70km/h. We did that one a few times.
On our way back home. We get picked up at our hotel and make our way to the airport in Denpasar. On the way we pick up a couple, John and Bev, also heading home. I think they were a little scared at the idea of sharing a plane with rowdy drunk kids. We got to the airport at 9pm and the flight didn't leave untill 11:30pm so we had plenty of time. With all that time we stopped in a little cafe and had some more Bintangs. It turns out that the same cafe, John and Bev were also there so they left soon after. We hung around having round after round. We did notice that the time was 10:50 and thought "yeah we got plenty of time" But it was about that time that we realised that boarding time is 22:45. So here we are, a bunch drunk idiots who had been kicking back relaxing for the last couple of hours, are now in a desperate rush to make the plane. We made it and it was all good. Guess who we were sitting next to on the plane? John and Bev.
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