After a fun-filled weekend in the Gold Coast, which I would describe as a prettier Orlando, FL with outstanding beaches, I was dropped off at the Brisbane airport by the lovely Nicole Green to meet up with Tiffani and depart on a truly unplanned journey to Bali, Indonesia. We purchased our tickets on Easter Sunday and since that time I had been plagued with worry and feared I would never be able to convince my travel partner that we should take the easy way out and book an all-inclusive tour. I didn't want to risk things and end up failing. I was worried, mostly just wishing I had a good guide to set me straight and tell me if anyone was about to rob my blind (flashback to Madrid on my Europe trip 2006). But, of course, Tiffani is stubborn and truly had her heart set on us doing this solo. And so we did.
The flight was made better, ok, enhanced, by tremendous amounts of alcohol and a very interesting flight attendant who was a budding author. We read one of his short stories from his own personal laptop and together, reading paragraph by paragraph, Tiffani, our new friend Kane and I started a booze driven bond that would conveniently last the duration of the flight to Denpasar airport. About 5 hours of drinking really makes time fly and we got to know Kane and our flight attendant pretty well. Kane was there for the surf and his brother owned a hotel somewhere on the island. We never quite made it to contacting either of them again, but we did have our good intentions. The airport in Denpasar was stuffy and the signs proudly displayed in broken English made us laugh as we waited to pay for our visas and pass through customs. Most people came with surfboards and a few others were there to party. Many families, mostly Japanese and Australian were also in tow. We got through and were immediately hit with a wave of extreme heat, the calls of money changers, and a crowd of men in blue taxi driver suits as far as the eye could see. Haggling was in store for us, but remember we were a bit buzzed and very tired and quite overwhelmed. This was my first real experience in Asia.
The cab drive into Kuta left me stunned. I must say I wasn't as much surprised by the dirt, poverty, or clear inequalities I saw, but rather in huge juxtaposition of beautiful Hindu sculpture and a HardRock Cafe and a Starbucks. It sorta made me sick. Motorbikes are like a heavy cloud of flies darting next to our car and all the while Tiffani is chatting up our cabbie and getting the hang of some key phrases in Indonesian. I can't even think about that right now, I am too drawn to the vista outside my window. The beach looks grimy and here we are in Kuta. I was not sure if I would enjoy this place, it certainty wasn't the pristine beaches and jungles I had imagined. Or had I even imagined much at this point? I mean sure I had googled a few spots in Bali, but my main introduction to this country was from Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Eat, Pray, Love" and I don't think she ventured into the tourist shit-hole that is Kuta.
I definitely didn't nor haven't since wrote off this city. It has it's purpose and it's fun to be had. We found Wes, Tiffani's friend from OZ at the hotel down some alleyway and he hastily showed us our room before he ran off to some spa, never to be seen again. Well sorta, at least until the next day. Without knowing what to do, we grabbed some Bintang, the one and only beer served in Indonesia, and jumped into the pool. Why not? It was filled with about 7 dudes and no girls. We were still buzzed from the plane and I was on the verge of a breakdown when I saw we had no towels or real sheets in our hotel room (my bed affectionately had what I call the blood stain) and we had to pay for our own toilet paper. Sounds rough, but it was really a nicer version of a camp cabin. Plus we got mosquito netting on the windows, Score! In the pool we made some friends, or should I say Tiffani made the friends. I am not as good at striking up conversations as she is and luckily met many people because of her initial eagerness to learn as much as possible from fellow travelers. The boys from the pool, agreed to show us a good spot to eat, and before we had been in the pool for long it began pouring rain. The rainy season was not soon ending. We chilled out in the pool for a bit knowing we only had a cold shower to go back to in the room and then attempted to clean up a bit for dinner. I never really considered myself "clean" for the entire duration of the trip by the way
So within a few hours of leaving Australia, I had basically done just as my mother had warned me I would do. I drank profusely, had no real guide in Tiffani's friend Wes, and has jumped three deep on the back of a motorbike with a British dude who had never been to an orthodontist to arrive shakily at some random restaurant from which I definitely could not have walked back to the hotel despite the close proximity. Oh yeah, in the rain. Adventure here I come. I decided to embrace it all, even the strange chicken curry with bits of meat that were for all intents and purposes shady at best. Oh well. These boys were really nice, not at all threatening, and offering to show us a good time in this hole they had been living in for months. They were prisoners here, not able to get a flight back to England with the volcanic ash flooding the skies, but happy captives for sure. Surf, motorbike, eat, sleep, party and do it all for cheap. Indonesia was looking up.
The quote in the title comes from a quote written in our dresser in the hotel. "The life is best, We got it! Just an advice, don't put life ... "and something about living in the present. All by a dude named Stampy. AMAZING in the since that this guy was probably in a state of euphoria and his english suffered. It was amusing and more positive than the anonymous quote "get out of Kuta now, this place is shit" an opinion I really didn't understand until I saw more of the country.
More to come...
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