Monday 7 March 2011

"I love a good medley" and the Gilli Saga.

Right now, I am one worn out, super tired, but happy lady. I have just spent the week with Jess and Joe, who flew down to Bali for a lil reunion and it ended up being quite an interesting, eventful, unpredictable but amazing week.

Let me set the scene. It all begins with a very excited Heather, meeting a lil Jessica at Kuta Aiport, Bali. I stood there, amongst a sea of people at the international arrivals gate, waiting a lil nervously as I haven't seen her, or anyone I actually know from home for nearly 6 months. I see her walk through the doors, a lil bewlidered, as its dark, humid and a million people with signs. So I shouted, "Jeeeessssss!!!", to get her attention.

We had a few "quiet" drinks at the Skygarden, Kutas biggest and loudest club - not ideal for a travel itinary talk/general catch up, so we quickly moved to a reggae bar - where a large drunk man fell over and tried to take us all out. Naturally, Joe being the man, was in the toilet at the time and did not save us. That was an occuring theme throughout the week.

We spent the next day in Ubud - and had the most amazing massage ever. It was my first massage ever, but the others confirmed this belief for me. An hours full body Balinese massage, followed by a herbal body scrub, being smothered in moisteriser and then having a herbal and floral bath, with a cup of giner tea and some biscuits. Our individual rooms had open views to the lush green garden, with running water. Beautiful. Couldn't have asked for a better massage.

We left feeling relaxed and enlightened, like the weight of the world had been lifted off our shoulders...until we visited the Monkey Forest Sanctuary. You'd think visiting a foresty area with temples and lots of monkies would be awesome and super cute. But they are on a mission.

Example 1.
I was sitting next to a monkey for a classic, 'we're in the monkey forest sanctuary' photo, when a sneaky other monkey creeps up to me, steals my bottle of water, unscrews the lid, licks it so i dont want it back and tried to drink from the bottle. I take it back off him, thining that plastic is bad for him, but no, we starts to come and get me. So obviously i scream like a girl and through it back to him. I haven't had a rabies shot. It cost 150 quid.

Example 2.
We walk past these group of monkies, when one bares his razor sharp teeth to Joe and runs at him, trying to scratch and grab him

Example 3.
An older English man tries to discipline a 'very naughty monkey' as he is stealing things from his bag. Telling him off in a very posh english way, doesn work. They are monkies.

After this slightly stressful situation we got in a taxi to padangbai - in order to get a boat to the gilli islands the next day. We spend the evening drinking all the newly made crazy cocktails at Alola Cafe, with Marco reading our palms well into the night. Apparently I am very laid back, but contradictory but have problems with love. Inciteful stuff.

In the morning we left our beautiful bungalow to get the boat to Gilli T, where we spent the day on the beautiful beaches, covered in dead razor sharp coral. The sea is turquoise, clear with lots of coral and fishes. Snorkling here is excellent. Then in the evening, Wednesday night is The Night so we hit the Irish bar, needless to say it got messy. Joe getting a lot of man love from practically everyman there, him dropping me on the floor after insisting that he could carry me off the stage me and Jess were dancing on..another example of Joe not saving us.
As the night draws to a close, Joe heads back to our room and me and Jess get into the pool-hopping. Basically, the island is v v small (you can walk around it in an hour) and everything is on the same street...including a lot of nice bungalows with swimming pools (at least 10). Of course ours doesnt have one, and we are sweating with the heat, the drink and the dancing, so jump into 6 of them fully clothed. Refreshing.

We get back to our room, to tell Joe all about our night and he looks disturbed andvery confused. Turns out, he fell asleep to wake up with an indonesian man kneeling on his bed trying to give him a blow job. Funniest thing ever. If me and Jess had walked in 2 minutes earlier, Joe would not have been able to explain his actions and I'm sure the whole office would see documentary evidence of the nights events...

moving on...

the next day was a natural hang over day. we spent it eating and sleeping at the beach cafe called mozarts. rubbish food, great beach huts and sun loungers. when we could manage it, we got up - i did a bit of snorkling, amazing as ever - beautifully coloured fishes and all that. Then we hired bikes and cycled around the island. this would have been even more amazing if we didnt have to cycle through sand. the gilli islands dont have cars or roads. its all sand, bike, horses and carts. pretty old school.

but an amazing lil island. we had a well deserved drink on a lil remote beach bar we found, blaring out classic dance hits. a romantic dinner for three then followed, with an early morning rise to get the boat back to bali. we wanted to stay longer, but saturday was the quiet day.

Hindu New Year and the Quiet Day:

again, not my talents but you get the idea.
so basically, saturday was the hindu new year. we saw amazing, gravity defying papier mache statues carried through the street, all menacing and brightly coloured, making lots of noise to scare the bad spirits away. amazing to watch and experience, but it means that the next day - or even from the friday night - 

"bali is closed".

this means you can not be on the streets, all the shops, hotels, restaurants are shut. no taxis, no airplanes, no atms working. you get fined around 350 quid if you are on the street, so you just have to stay in your hotel all day, and hope that they do food. otherwise you'll go hungry. and in the evening theres no electicity. total darkness. 

now Kuta is such a crazy place that it seems unbelievable that they can do such a thing. but they can and they do. incredible. we were lucky enough to find a hotel with a nice pool and did food - accompanied with a bunch of people from all over the world who were really cool and fun to hang out with. it meant that the next couple of days were spent drinking all the hotels beer, in the pool. not bad eh?

so thats pretty much been it, now im back on my own - or at least with the guys at the hotel - ready to leave Bali to start my new adventure in thailand for sarah and maccas wedding. im expecting it to be pretty messy! but incredible. married in krabi, hen do on phi phi, beautiful. and to catch up with these guys after months of not seeing them since south america, alot to catchup on!

and i know that Jess is probably reading this at work with the holiday blues, but dont. we had such an awesome time together - despite our silly (and i think funny!) bickering. I absolutely love you and are over the moon that you came to visit me here. can't wait for our bagel and sushi lunch dates again! <3

so now its the countdown till the wedding and till Dave joins me in Asia. 10 more sleeps. cant wait. super super excited! what a journey.

also tres excited that natalie portman got the oscar along with colin firth - sad i couldnt see it, but so happy. she truely deserves it. amazing performance.

and loving the book "one day" - check it out.

muchos love everyone! xxxx

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