The rule of the road in Bali seems to be that you can do whatever you like, and no-one can get annoyed or angry with you for doing it. If you need to pull out on to a main road, don't bother waiting for a gap in the traffic, you just pull out and expect everyone else to get out of your way, which they do. In the end i came to the conclusion that it's actually pretty effective and it keeps the traffic moving on all the roads. This approach applies to both cars and motorbikes alike.........
Motorbikes (or mopeds mostly) are everywhere and usually not where you expect them to be. I'm sure the Balinese moped rider has developed a riding technique that actually defies the laws of physics, they can fit a moped through gap that is actually smaller than the moped itself and can do this whilst travelling at 50mph and with up to 5 (yes five) people on board. The standard, no door family moped in Bali has a seating configuration of mother on the back holding a baby, father driving and up to two small children standing in the footwell between fathers legs, one of them can even be asleep on handlebars!. No crash helmets required. Mental.
We got to our hotel in Sanur on the west coast of Bali at about 3pm and met up with J&D again. The hotel had screwed up their booking slightly and had given them a twin room instead of a double, not ideal considering this holiday was effectively their honeymoon......
In case you didn't know, because of it's location Bali is the Aussie equivalent of Spain and therefore the vast majority of tourist are from Australia. Sanur is smaller and quieter than Kuta (the main tourist resort) and therefore has far less Aussie's and therefore hardly any 'Bogans'. A Bogan is pretty much an Aussie chav and they can be spotted easily enough by their holiday attire which pretty much consists exclusively of a Bintang (The local Bali lager) vest or 'wife-beater'.
For the six days we were in Sanur we relaxed at the hotel, soaked up the sun, had massages and went out for a few meals. Mel's boyfriend, Jasper, manages a bar in Seminyak on the opposite side of Bali (just above Kuta) called Ku De Ta which is seriously cool so we went there a couple of times. Alcohol in Bali has had a huge rise in tax recently and now attracts about 4-500% in duty meaning it's damn expensive to go out for a night in bars and restaurants - travel budget firmly lobbed out of the window.......
After J&D left to go back to HK we moved over to Seminyak to sample a few other areas of Bali. We hired a moped from Mel and Jasper's neighbours. I say 'hired', it was more like we borrowed it for a few days. No forms to sign, no driving license shown, just a few notes handed over in exchange for the keys and a couple of lose fitting helmets. Having experienced the Bali roads only in a 'Taksi' up to that point, it took a couple of runs to get fully comfortable but we were soon getting around easily enough and it was actually great fun.
A big thing in Bali is going for cocktails/drinks to watch the sunset on the west coast. After walking Mel's dog, London - a lab/rottweiler cross, along the beach for half an hour or so we stopped at a little beach shack bar. The bar itself was actually a trailer that arrives and leaves each day and sits next to a wooden frame under which the tables and chairs are set-up. A couple of beers and cocktails later and we were treated to a great sunset over the waves.
We hired a chap with a car the next day and did a quick tour of some inland areas: the Water Temple, Ubud, views of Mt Agung and Lake Batur, Monkey Forest (more of a Monkey Footpath in truth) and some rice paddies.
The Water Temple had some interesting 'fertility' souvenirs on the way out.......
The rice paddies were pretty spectacular, we didn't see them in full wet season but they were still an awesome sight. We sat at a little bar on the hill and had a bintang each taking in the view......
We left for Oz on Wed 24th and that's where we are now.........
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