Friday - 25th February

How does one begin to describe the differences between the life and culture of Ubud and the hustle and bustle of Kuta?


The true identity of Balinese culture is revealed here in Ubud, not in the 'westernised' streets of Kuta. I don't know how it happened, but I somehow spent 1,000,000 Rupiah in Kuta last night, hangin' with Kate, Thomas and Sadam. It turned out to be a big night in only a small amount of time from 9pm till 2:30am. Intensely paced drinking, I don't recommend it.

Anywho, we will get to that later. Thursday was the day that I spent alone for the majority of the time as Kate was busy busy busy at Starfish for most of the day. So I took the liberty of doing a little shopping whilst I was here in Ubud. Strolling around the Ubud markets on your own might sound intimidating at first, but it's great fun if you bring along a positive attitude to the stall owners. I figured that because I had no idea what the time was all day, I might as well buy a 'genuine Rolex' for 'cheap price'. I spoke to 2 shop owners and they showed me a bunch of watches and some Ray Ban sunglasses. I wanted 1 Rolex and 2 pairs of Ray Ban sunglasses, so let the bartering games begin ladies and gentlemen. Here is the run down of what happened:

1st Offer: 75,000 Rp
Retort: 600,000 Rp


2nd Offer: 125,000 Rp
Retort: 500,000 Rp


3rd Offer: 200,000 Rp

Retort: 450,000 Rp

The final settlement: 400,000 Rp

As the humble reader of this wonderfully insightful Bali blog, I will leave it up to you to judge whether I got a sweet deal or just simply got ripped off. Paul Guy might say I did (hehe), but either way the storemen were nice to me and I had a great chat with them. I was their only customer for the day so far, so I didn't mind the bartering price, they can buy themselves an extra pair of shoes now.

So following that, Kate needed to be picked up and she had finished her day a little earlier than expected, so I hopped on the bike and went to go pick her up out the front of CP. Goddamn I love riding scooters in Ubud. The traffic all works like a messily spun spider web, and it is a great way to become apart of the community here. Kate hops on the back of my bike  (and holds on for dear life because she clearly doesn't trust my riding skills) and we head back to the villa for a little nanna nap before the events of the night unfold.

It was also Ina's last day here in Bali after spending 5 months in Indonesia. Ina, Kate, Thomas, Blue, and myself hired a driver and went to the airport to see Ina off for her flight home. Now I've only been here for a week and have missed the developments of Ina and Kate's relationship in the beginning, but I have never seen Kate so sad to see somebody leave. She was genuinely upset that she was going home. I think Kate will definitely be keeping in contact with Ina in the future.

So we left the airport and Ina's boyfriend, Blue, was feeling rather heartbroken to see Ina leave. Thomas was consoling him and offering some world class advice on how it's better to have loved and lost than to have never lost at all. The poor bloke, I hope he's alright. Anyhow, the driver dropped us off at Kuta on the main road, Jalan Legian. Let the club drinking festivities begin... urgh.

Skygarden and Bounty were the 2 places that we attended. It was great to be back at Bounty once again, I had previously been there once before with Kate, Emily and Jess Mudge. I was so upset to find out that they don't serve their alcohol in fishbowls anymore!! They now mixed the drinks and put them in a sports drink bottle. How upsettingly Australian is that? *sigh*

So, long story short, we drank a fair shitload and ended up staying in a homestay house for 160,000 Rp for the night. Good times.

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Today, Kate taught her last class to all her little cherubs for an hour from 3pm till 4pm. As an outsider that was there purely to take photos of the class, it was amazing to see how autonomous the children's actions were. There were twelve students there that ranged from ages 5 to 10, and they were writing exceptionally legibly, and spoke English better than some of my Aboriginal Australian year 12 students back home. They were using pens and correction fluids, one student even got out of his chair to help Kate give some class handouts to everybody in the room without even being asked to. It was so amazingly inspiring to see Kate teaching these adorable kids, I took a tonne of photos and some great video of kate singing and dancing the Hokey Pokey with her kids. We will be uploading them when we get home of course.

We have 2 more nights left in Bali, so I think last night was the perfect opportunity to check out Kuta while we were here. Now that we are back in Ubud, can you guess where we will end up going to tonight? Hmmm... I don't even think I have to say it.

;)