Indo Holiday 2 - Day Two

Our day began nice and early at 7am! Keen for some Club Med style buffet breakfast we filled ourselves up with eggs and bacon and toast and fruit and potato gems till we couldn't eat any more!

The plan for today was 1) get Ma'arif a haircut 2) exchange money and 3) take a long drive up to Ubud with friends.

We made our way to Kuta at about 10am, our taxi driver dropped us off on some random street and we walked and walked and walked, checking every money changer we saw for the best rate. After nearly resigning to a 9150Rp/$1 exchange rate, we spotted a sign for 9799Rp/$1, the teller typed in 9790 into the calculator which I questioned, after he checked the sign to confirm the number he offered me a rate of 9998 if I exchanged $400, I couldn't pass up the deal so I agreed, he didn't have any small denominations and neither did I so he ended up giving me the full 4mill Rupiah making the rate 10000Rp/$1!! Needless to say I was pretty stoked!

We kept walking and found a beauty salon which offered hair cuts. I had to have a bit of a chuckle when a very effeminate man named Lady began to start work on my boyfriend's hair. My boyfriend has a mild, irrational fear of gay hairdressers hahaha

Once his "traumatic" experience was over we walked around the corner to meet up with our friends. Their driver friend took us all for a very beautiful drive up to Ubud so that we could take Tennille and her boyfiend Didik to their new accommodation, a bungalow in the middle of a rice field. The location was beautiful but getting there was a near disaster! The road up to the bungalow wasn't signed as bike only access so we drove our merry way up and up and up and stop...

We ended up stuck on the middle of a tiny dirt road with mud and channels of water hugging both sides..! A little bit of faith and a lot of perseverance later we were on our way back down the hill, minus Tennille and Didik.

We were both hungry so we went to a nice open restaurant overlooking a rice field for lunch, it was very yummy! But the rats running along the roof above our heads was a bit off-putting :S

After lunch we wanted to go see the famous rice terraces, so off we drove the 30 min drive up the mountain again. About two minutes from getting there it started raining...and raining and raining and raining!
This is the view we ended up with...

 Not much of a view huh...so we turned around and drove the two hours back to the resort.

The night went much better than the day, we had a nice dinner and I fell in love with Coconut Liqueur, the evening entertainment was a variation on Beetle Juice, with some very risque costumes on the women and adult themed dance moves at various points of the show...it was very entertaining as always though! Followed up with a wonderful white party, with bubbles and blue fairy lights and costumes and everyone decked out in white.

After that we headed over to the bar and danced the night away to the beautiful tones of Club Med Euro-Pop ;P 

Then off to bed at midnight :D

Indo Holiday 2 - Day One

So I'm back...back in Indonesia, this time I'm here for 29 days! I will be spending one week in Club Med Bali, and three weeks in Jakarta with my lovely boyfriend :D

I arrived on the 23rd of June, at 11:00am at Denpasar Airport, I made it very quickly though the airport with no hassles, I was met by my driver who would take my partner and I to the resort. The driver and I walked to the domestic arrivals waiting area to collect Ma'arif, who was supposed to arrive at 11:30am. I was waiting and waiting and waiting, and getting worried he wasn't going to turn up, but lucky for both of us he eventually appeared.

We were greeted at the resort by the Chief de Village, JB, a charismatic, tall, blonde, Belgium man. After the usual tea and cold towel refreshments we were guided to our room. I was getting worried that I may be walking back to Australia at the distance we were having to walk, 5km and 2 flights of stairs later we were in our room...minus our bags...there was a mix up with the bags but we got ours eventually :D

As I had only had about 3 hours sleep since 7am on Saturday morning I was feeling pretty tired, so we both had a much needed granny nap before dinner.

At 6pm my uni friend and her Indonesian boyfriend dropped by the resort for dinner as they are also staying in Bali but arrived a week earlier. We sipped cocktails and ate till we were balloons, chatted and waited for the evening entertainment, cabaret. The show had us in fits of laughter, as male members of the audience were selected to participate in a highly entertaining drag performance. An bald, 60 something Chinese man provided the most entertainment with his overly enthusiastic contribution!

Following the show, we all relaxed, chatted and sipped more cocktails, took a stroll of the grounds and watched a flying trapeze show put on by the circus school and a hand full of talented guests.

Then it was off to bed for us at 11:30pm.