Yes I finally figured out how to add!

20/06/2012

Well...umm.... hello. I'm not sure exactly how this thingy works, so I'll just write, or type, or whatever:

Bali in one word: Impossible

See, there is one word!

Therefore it is possible, but what I'm really trying to say is that describing Bali in one word is impossible.

So we got here (via airplane, if that wasn't obvious), first thing that happens: two guys holding our suitcases. Dad's reaction: what the hell are you doing with our suitcases?! But they just ignore him and start walking. We, totally weirded out and not knowing what to do, helplessly followed them. Turns out their job was to get people through the line faster! After we took back our suitcases they just stood there. Oh right, they wanted money.

As soon as we got out of the airport doors towards the taxi sign, we were bombarded with at least 5 taxi drivers. We chose the one that was standing closest to us (wow, seems amazing right? To take the one closest to us?) He said '500,000 rupiah'. What the hell? 500,000? Turns out that that's $50. For the 30 min it was to take, waaay to expensive. But apperently you were supposed to 'bargain with them'. Dad ended up gettting it down to 250,000 rupiah, which was $25. Whilest  driving through the streets I realized that Bali is not all they say it's cut out to be. Not the things you see on the ads, with huge luxurious mansions and hotels. No, there was rubbish everywhere, and they have absolutely no traffic control. What is supposed to be a two lane road turns out to be 4 lanes, with motorcyles everywhere. It's a mix between a first and third world country (Is that a second world? Wait, is that even possible?) Either way, people were much more poor then we thought they would be (what I thought they would be, anyway).

But we eventually (after 40 min, which would have taken 10 on Australian roads) got to our hotel. Now that was a mansion. So freaking amazing. But to get to that, we had to get through the gates. Two policemen were standing there. One took a beepy thingy and checked under our car, the other one opened the front of the car near the engine, and the back of the car near the boot. Apperently there had been a terrorist attack recently, which had put everyone on edge. It didn't actually come from the Balinese themselves though, who were Hindu Dharma, which is a mix of hindu, buddhism, and some native religion. Overall that meant they believed violence was a sin. No, the attack came from a big muslim community over in Java. Anyway, having arrived in the hotel, a man opened our door, and for ladies were waiting, two on either side, one with a basket full of frangipanies to put in our hair! There was another man standing next to a gong, which he sounded as we walked past. As we got to the reception area (once again: huge) a lady offers us free drinks! Awesome-ness.....

This is part of what it looks like:

There were squirrels in the trees (palm trees? No, I didn't think that was possible either), and the weather: amazing. The whole time the temp has been between 25 degrees (night) to 30-33 degrees (day). And one last thing for that day: the music at the hotel's beach bar (OMG yes, they had a beach bar). Beautiful intelligent words like 'I wanna have sex on the beach' and 'lets do last night over again' reached our virgin ears as we sat down. (sarcasm for those that didn't realize in their dilusioned [is that a word?] minds). So that was the first day! (Holy crap, just realized how much I wrote...mmmm.... )