Bali - street sellers, monkeys, temples, rice and volcanoes

I felt very rich arriving in Bali, I changed some money at Singapore airport and had over 500,000 spondoolies in my wallet when I arrived at Denpasar. I splurged on a taxi to my hotel (the words hotel and taxi have not been part of my lexicon so far). The first morning I splashed out on a Gucci designer watch to replace my lost one, and wandered into town, having spent less than 10 pounds in total so far.

The Balinese in Kuta are probably the best salesmen in the world. They are all very charming, and its hard not to fall for their big cheesy smiles, cute accents and gorgeous chocolate brown skin. I went to the tourist 'office' (a hut in the street), got plied with drinks (water, too early for Bintang beer), and had 3 gorgeous men fighting for my attention. Obviously all they wanted was to sell me a tour, and I felt like after all the attention I had to buy something.

Everyone in Bali wanted to sell me something, and it got a bit tiresome after a while. The constant shouts of "Hello, you look my shop" and the "You want Transport?" is everywhere. That isn't too bad, some people are more aggressive. Absolutely everything can be bargained for, I'm getting used to bargaining, but its hard as a few thousand Rps means a lot more to them than to me, at the end of the day I was usually arguing over 30p or less. If you don't bargain though, it feels like you are getting ripped off.

My first night in Kuta, I didn't really want to go out to dinner on my own (I wasn't used to sitting in restaurants on my own at that point), so I spotted a group of people by the hotel pool and went up to them and said, "Hello, can I talk to you? I don't know anyone here" in a slightly desperate fashion. They turned out to be a group of English friends, and my plan worked as they invited me to dinner. They were a nice bunch, including a professional rugby player (mmm), a bloke who lived in Jakarta, a couple of travellers and a bloke with blue stuff on his face. They were all obsessed with surfing though, but they weren't too bad and I went out with them for two nights.

For my second day, I went on a sailing boat to Nusa Lembongan, an island just south-east of Bali. It was a bit touristy, but I met some more nice people, including a fascinating woman who told me of how she was kidnapped (twice) in South Africa, and a lovely Italian guy who decided to 'adopt me' (this happens a lot to me) and look after me the whole day. On the island I went snorkeling, and saw some impressive coral and a great school of fish. I think its amazing being in the middle of school of fish, as they all swim about an inch away from every part of me, but its impossible to touch them because if I reach out they move as quick as a flash, always swimming the same distance away. Its amazing that fish know not to be afraid of a big human being, they just act like you are another harmless fish.

In the afternoon on the island we went to see some mangroves - basically trees that were sprouting in the river, which were lovely. We also saw some seaweed farming, the locals drag it out of the sea and then sell it to places like Japan and the USA.

I got sick of Kuta very quickly, with its manic traffic, garish shops, street hawkers and McDonalds (who in their right mind let a McDs be built on a lovely stretch of beach), so I travelled to Ubud. Ubud is also too touristy, as in 99% of shops sell souveniers, but the town has a certain charm about it. My bus driver (I was the only one on the bus) did the classic, "I have friend, you stay with him yes?" and I was a bit skeptical, but it turned out to be the nicest and cheapest hotel yet (double bed, breakfast, and own bathroom with hot water for 2 pounds 60 p a night).

Ubud has a monkey sanctuary, which doubles up as a temple where the Balinese go to worship the animals. Seeing some monkeys was one of the aims of my travels, so I had to go. The monkeys were great, I bought a bunch of bananas to feed them with. They lasted about 5 seconds as a monkey jumped on me and grabbed them. I can see why they are called cheeky monkeys now.

The monkeys (long tailed macaques) were small, grey, and had weird facial hair (beards for the females, 'taches for the males). They had unbeliveably cute babies, which clung to their mother's bellies as they walked around. They provide lots of entertainment, stealing anything they can from the tourists. One tried to steal my bag, but luckily it was too heavy for the small creature. They showed their strong teeth, ripping a coconut to shreds, something that if we tried to do we'd break our teeth. In the sanctuary, I got talking to a ranger for ages, mainly because it was nice to talk to a Balinese person who didn't want to sell me something. The monkeys were like his pets, and they recognised him and responded to him when he told them off for jumping on people.

I went to a Balinese dancing show that night, because the hotel owner made me buy a ticket, but also because he was singing in the choir, so I couldn't really say no. The performance was a bit strange, I found it hard to follow the storyline, and the dancing consisted of lots of finger-pointing and eye movement. The costumes were very elaborate, they reminded me of some over-the-top pantomime costumes, with gold everywhere and strange hats. The one amazing bit about the performance was at the end, when a man kicked over a bonfire of burning coconut shells and proceeded to walk over the red hot ashes - a bit like walking over hot coals, something I've always wanted to see. The coconuts were like minature fireworks.

In Bali, there are so many temples that you are never more than about 5ft away from them. Apparently every family has its own private temple, then there are temples for the village, and bigger ones for the whole area. The stonework in the temples is very intricate, the Balinese are great stone carvers. The more impressive temples were ones that were thousands of years old. I did a tour round some of these, and also saw the rice fields, and met a really nice rice farmer. Bali's landscape has been sculpted over the years into lots of rice terraces, and actually looks better for it. On this particular tour, we stopped for lunch at a not very nice restaurant, but which had an incredible view, of the 3 main volcanoes in Bali, and also a lake. I still think volcanoes are one of the most beautiful things.

In the afternoon we stopped at a farm to see such plants as; coffee, cocoa beans, vanilla pods, ginger, bananas and papayas. I haven't seen any of these plants before, so I was fascinated.

From Ubud, I caught a crowded bus to Lovina, and met Darren. Darren was great fun, we talked non-stop throughout the very hot and sweaty journey. We decided to spend a couple of days together, mainly because we were about the only white people in Lovina, except for a few Germans. The only problem with Darren is that he had a natural ability to attract the most agressive street sellers, so we were constantly harrased. Poor guy, he was having a really bad time in Bali, and was annoyed when I said no one bothered me too much.

Darren and I decided to try out the local public transport - the Bemos and Ojaks. Our destination was a Buddisht monsastry and some hot springs. The Bemo that we caught was a great experience - they are basically small vans, converted to have some seats in the back. We paid 3,000 Rp to get to the monastry (the locals pay around 300), but as its only 17p we didn't mind too much. The Bemo had music blaring extremely loud (this was 10am), and the music had a very very fast beat, which reflected the speed of the bemo. We arrived safely though, and then had to catch an Ojak. An Ojak is a guy with a motorbike. I was quite scared of motorbikes, having not been on one for years, and we had no helmets and wore nothing but sarongs and sandals! We had a bike each, and they decided to race each other a bit. I admit it was quite exciting, and again we arrived safely.

The monastry was a bit weird, a sort of mix of Buddism and Hindu. Darren had just come from Thailand, and could explain what all of the symbols meant. After the monastry we went to the hot springs nearby. We didn't stay here too long, partly because we objected to the monkeys that were tied up (they didn't look half as healthy as the ones in the monkey temple), but mainly because the springs made our skin and clothes go a yucky green colour.

As we were walking back, I saw what is probably the best ice-cream van in the world. Well it wasn't a van, more of a brightly coloured bicycle with a box on the back, but as the guy peddled away, the motion would cause music to be played. The faster he went, the faster the music. I had a lovely chocolate ice-cream.

The bemo we caught on the way back was even funnier than the first one, it was crammed full with 9 adults and 5 kids, we were the only white people on it and the kids stared at us the whole time. When it was clear that one of the kids had to sit on my knee (there was no more room, not even on the floor), the poor thing looked horrified. I kept smiling though, as I thought it was funny. Darren didn't think it was quite so funny, especially after the woman he was squashed next to started breastfeeding her baby.

The next day I was supposed to catch a bus to Amed, but even the efforts of the 3 men who worked in the hotel couldn't get one to stop for me. Wei, a local guy turned up on his motorbike and offered to take me there himself. I think he had nothing to do, as he gave me an extremely cheap price, so I took him up on his offer. This time I got a helmet, which was good as the motorbike was faster this time and had not only me and Wei on it, but also all of my stuff. He was a lovely guy, and we talked a lot. I mentioned that I wanted to do some scuba diving, so he insisted on taking me to Tulamben, and he waited with my stuff whilst I did a two-tank dive. I'm glad he made me dive here, as it was the best dive I have done so far. At Tulamben is an old shipwreck, but its hard to tell its a shipwreck as it is completely covered in coral reef. Only the odd straight line or perfect circle gives away what is hiding underneath.

The coral was a rainbow of colours and small fish darted everywhere. The second dive was called the 'coral wall', and had just as many beautiful colours and even more impressive fish. I saw some more Lion fish (fish with a mane like a lion), a potato grouper which was similar to the potato cod I had seen in Australia, and some lovely starfish. The only bit I didn't like about the dives was that I got stung loads by plankton - at first I thought it was jellyfish, and was trying to tell my dive buddy that I had been stung (pretty difficult when you can't speak), he didn't seem that bothered. The stinging was just like hundreds of pinpricks, but after I got out I put on some of my magic Tiger Balm and the stinging went away after an hour or so.

Amed was a bit boring, there was nothing there except a few empty hotels and restaurants. Overlooking the town however is a very impressive volcano, and I worked out that if I climbed up the hill I would be facing directly west towards the volcano, a great view for a sunset.

From Amed I caught another motorbike to Candidsa, which was more of the same - empty hotels and restaurants. I was getting a bit fed up of having no one to talk to except Balis and Germans (the Germans get everywhere), so I went to Sanur. Totally bored, I booked myself on a white-water rafting trip for something to do. The river was only a grade 2, but that suited me fine as its the first time I've been rafting and didn't want anything too scary. I did the trip with a lovely Australian family, 3 adults and 3 kids. The kids were great, and their enthusiasm rubbed off on the rest of us and we all got excited about the trip. The river was very tame, lots of rapids, but about the height that you get at the rapids ride at Alton Towers. The scenery was stunning though, tropical forests and rice fields, and lots of locals washing their clothes and themselves in the river. The trip was good fun, and afterwards the Australian family invited me to spend the afternoon with them at their hotel. They had a really nice apartment, and they made me a cup of English tea (missing that a lot, as the Bali tea is nice but not the same). The swimming pool at the hotel was great, and I spent most of the afternoon playing games with the kids. In the evening, three of us (the kids went to bed early), went to an amazing restaurant, right on the beach. I mean literally on the beach, with sand under the tables and our feet. The restaurant had several tanks full of live seafood, and (something else I've always wanted to do), I picked one out to eat. I decided on a crab, which wasn't the best of ideas as it came out whole, completely smothered in sweet chilli sauce, which meant that I got the sauce all over me as I attempted to eat it. It was extremely hard getting the crab meat out of its shell, as it kept slipping out of my fingers and shooting accross the table. It was good fun though.

I'm ready to leave Bali now. Bali has lots of good points, but also as many bad points. The food is generally amazing (except for one memorable meal which looked exactly like a plate of mud), the beer is great, everything is cheap and some of the scenery is stunning. On the other hand though, tourism has spoilt a beautiful island, and the constant selling of things gets pretty annoying. The empty hotels and restaurants were also a bit spooky, Bali has been hit hard recently because of the bomb, the tsunami and the recent drugs scandals, and you can see a big effect on some of the empty towns. I'd like to explore the rest of Indonesia, but I don't think I'll be back here in a hurry.