Kop en Krap

We ended our first part of this amazing adventure by getting onto a plane in Bali Airport. The next part was delayed about an hour and a half as we were grounded on the runway. We also had hands down the most uncomfortable seats of all time, with upright position being so upright, we were almost leaning slightly forward. We also had to buy our own food on the plane. This proved to be disastrous when Lindsay and myself could not bear the thought of ordering 2 minute noodles, unlike Sam, and insisted on trying something else on the menu. They did not have our first choice available, or our second or third. Lets just say we only had two options in the end. A very safe and predictable tuna wrap or something a bit more adventurous, a precooked in-flight meal, which did not look too horrible in the picture. We chose the second option and let me just say it was the wrong choice. I can say it was very gross as I at least tried to eat a bit of it after I scraped the dried fish off the top, which at first glance looked a lot like maggots. Mmmm yummy. Needless to say, we did not eat it. Asia Air voted the best low cost airline 2009, 2010, 2011. We beg to differ.

We were greeted in Thailand by a large welcoming party consisting of highly enthusiastic girls who were all to eager to teach us Thai words and bombard us with information. This was really overwhelming, as we were just trying to catch our breaths and get our heads straight. Also try catch a view of the city before we were whisked away to our new home.

What we saw of Thailand on the bus ride to Rangsit reminded us a lot of home, but as Lindsay pointed out that most cities in third world countries probably look a lot a like. The area we live in is a mixed between two worlds, there are huge houses behind tall gates, with the streets running infront of them littered with stray dogs, which love to howl and make extreme amounts of noise.

Sita Villa will be our home for the upcoming weeks, unfortunately we feel more like prisoners than guests here, with cameras conveniently situated just outside both of our rooms and a guard that needs you to state your room number every time you leave and return to the res. We were also told that “Big Brother always has an eye on us”, which was confirmed when some other students were asked how their nights were after returning home in the early hours of the morning. We will have to hide our faces when coming home from a bender.

We were seriously spoilt in Bali, with getting fresh towels and sheets every day. This place is completely different. The bedding does not match, in fact myself and Melvin have cows and other forest creatures on our bed sheets. We also have small baby blankets as duvets, his with pink flowers and mine with multi colored sheep. Melvin is a giant and can barely cover his legs with his blanket. Tom on the other hand has a sleeping bag. Que scratchy noise every time he moves. Enjoy that Melvin. Despite this fact, their room has once again become the designated clubhouse. Sam and Lindsay have a fridge in their room that is big enough to hide several dead bodies in. Finally no one will be able to steal our yoghurt, we are sure of this fact as we also have to pay for our rooms to get cleaned.  No towels or toilet paper is provided. Sam and Lindsay live in the newer of the two buildings, which is nice because it doesn’t smell of mould however they do live on the 4^th floor and exactly opposite the lady that owns the place, not ideal when coming home at early hours of the morning after a night on the town. My room is on the 2^nd floor of the old building and my aircon is so loud that every time it is turned on it sounds as if my room might take off. Regardless of the Krusty nature of our accommodation we are all very happy to be in Thailand and know we will have an amazing time here.

On our first night here we couldn’t resist a sneaky bender to Bangkok, which is a 45 minute taxi drive away, but fortunately quite cheap and this doesn't dig into our drinking savings too much. We took 3 separate taxis and met in Pat Pong, we were in the first taxi and an hour after we arrived the entire group had found each other. Bangkok is completely different to Bali. There are less Australians, which I think we are all grateful for, but there are a lot more dodgy people trying to lure you into bars and sell you things you just don’t want. We went to a bar for a drink, which was like a Go Go Bar, where we were exposed to girls dancing on the bar in bikinis with numbers around their necks. This foreign phenomenon is something we are going to have to get used too. The next place we went to was a beer garden and a lot more chilled, we all just sat and tried to soak it all in. But it was all a little too much for the first night. We ended up leaving early, but not before Julian stopped for some food at some place on the side of the road, Michel was chewing on a twig he found on the table before getting bored and started convincing Julian he needed to add crazy amounts of dry and fresh chilli to his food. Julian did and proceeded to eat his late night snack with extreme difficulty and by the end of it his eyes were watering. There was also a rat the size of a maltese poodle who enjoyed this show. We jumped in a taxi and Michel almost immediately fell asleep on Lindsays shoulder and managed to push all three of us girls into the one corner of the backseat during his nap. Julian became so obsessed with knowing where the best clubs were as well as learning a few thai words that our taxi driver almost forgot that he was meant to be taking us home to Sita Villa resulting in him missing the turn off completely.

First night out. Us with Michelle.

On Sunday the school organized a trip to The Future Mall for all the new students. As I walked outside I felt instantly ill as the heat was just too unbearable. Sammy and Lindsay however had a great time and the boys and myself are already planning when we can go. You know because we need towels and toilet paper. Patrick arrived on Sunday afternoon and the boys celebrated this fact by drinking an entire bottle of Absolut Vodka.

Monday was a full school day and we all actually enjoyed it. The university campus is huge and it is the first time we will be at a mainstream Uni, we are all very excited about this fact because it is so completely different to Stenden SA and Stenden Bali. We had introduction lectures to Thailand, Thai culture and then finally to Events Module 2. This is going to be a tough module as we already have our first presentation on Tuesday. Tom has a swollen ankle and none of us know what it is from, our thoughts were that it was a spider bite but after spending almost the entire afternoon at the hospital it seems to just be some dirt that got into a small wound that became infected. When we asked him what he would do if it got so bad that he would need to go home he responded by saying, “I wont go home, I would rather cut it off. I don’t really need it anyway”. Luckiliy it isn’t that bad and he can stay in Thailand… For now.

First day at Uni. 

Today we had bid presentations, where we had to present our ideas for various events. It was quite interesting to see all the new group dynamics of the various teams. We are waiting on the results of weather we got our bid or not. Fingers crossed. 

Tata bali xx

We have been disgusting with regards to updating the blog. We are currently sitting on the floor in Bali airport just chilling, you know, in true African style. Myself and Lindsay are now officially the biggest freaks in the place because we have not only set up camp outside a duty free shop where there is a hamster offering massages to every passer by but we are now the proud owners of neck pillows. I think mine will get used more as an accessory than for its actual purpose. I am not joking, an Australian just came past with a small suitcase attached to a leash, and his son was riding on it. They never fail to entertain.

Now lets rewind to Gili Air. The most amazing place in the world, Linds and myself are seriously considering running away, buying a plot of land and opening a little bar on the beachfront. Our time on the island was spent lounging about on the beach, riding bicycles and soaking up all the sunshine. We also went diving, definitely a highlight for all of us. Lindsay’s friend Nick is a diving instructor working on the island and he took us. Had such a great time hanging out with him and hearing all his stories about the Island and diving in general. So we went for our intro dive, we watched 2 videos that we are pretty sure scares people into never wanting to go ankle deep into the sea, let alone go for a dive. We then had some paper work to fill out and after that the fun began. In between Brandon not fitting his bintang beer boep into his wetsuit and Stephan putting his on the wrong way round TWICE we were kept entertained. We were taught how to flush our masks, how to adjust our buoyancy and what to do incase our regulator came out. After lunch our new skills were put to the test. I was extremely nervous and Nicks friend who came with to assist him on the dive needed to calm me down and help me slow my breathing. After getting over the claustrophobic feeling of the tank being strapped to my back, I had time to just take in everything I was seeing. It was such an amazing sight and we were all extremely chuffed when we saw 3 massive turtles sleeping on a reef. We were able to get so close to the fish and coral reefs, It was just breathtaking. We also saw lion fish and all sorts of other things down there. The boys ran out of oxygen before us so we got a little more dive time than they did.

Linds and Nick before the dive

Our last full day on the island was such a typical holiday sun, sand and a lot of laughs. We also managed to ride our bikes around the island, it sounds very chilled and laid back, but hiring them was actually very difficult, we all had to hire bikes from different places as the island was very busy. Lindsay definitely had the coolest bike, baby seat on the back included. Unfortunately there were no small children wondering the streets for us to “surprise babysit” so Lindsays bag got shotgun instead.

Linds and Sam 

After our little bike ride round the island we found an awesome restaurant on the beach where we just chilled out and enjoyed each other’s company. One thing we found extremely entertaining throughout the duration of our stay on both Islands was watching real chinas snorkeling in the shallows with lifejackets, you know, incase they drown in the 30cm water without any waves, but im pretty sure I got more laughs from the others when I decided to rent a mask and snorkel and go on my own underwater adventure. I was overjoyed when Linds decided to join me after I kept saying how many fish there were. We actually had such a stunning time and even saw our first stingray. During all the excitement we managed to develop our own language by speaking and screaming into the snorkel. This language was accompanied by violent pointing and splashing, as our new language was not effective at all.

After this we went to find Legend Bar, as we were told it was the best place to see the sunset from. We found it and quickly got onto the beach and in the water to take pictures and drink our bintangs. We decided we were going to go back to our room, which all 5 of us were living in, to get ready, go out for dinner and then return for a little bit of a party. After dinner we were all just so buggered that we called it a night, Stephan had other ideas and ended up storming into the room at about 2:30 am. As we were all awake he told us about his night saying, “The music was shit, but it was cool because that guy was there, and the other guy, there was another guy there, a whole bunch of girls and some more guys”. After this extremely detailed description of his night out he went to bed, and so did we.

We woke up the following morning feeling as fresh as you can when you are sleeping on crappy mattresses in a room as hot as a fiery pit of doom, ready to scoff breakfast and rush to catch a boat to Lombok. Lindsay and Stephan left the hotel first as Linds wanted to say cheers to Nick, and Stephan needed to check us in. Brandon had his sights set on the many horse pulled carts that is used as a form of transportation on both of the islands we visited and decided he was not going to carry his bags all the way to the port. So Sammy and myself jumped onto the cart, Brandon unfortunately did not take his bike back and had hatched a plan to just leave it at the hotel, without taking it back. This plan was not executed successfully as the bartender that worked at the bar situated about 15 steps away from our front door, called him out and told him to take it back. He reluctantly took it back. It was only next-door so he still got a chance to get in the cart.

When we got to Lombok we got into a taxi that took us to go see the waterfalls. By far one of the most awesome things we have done during our time on Bali. The water was cold and very refreshing and we all had a great time standing under the waterfall admiring the beauty of the area we were so blessed to be in.

The trip back to Bali can be described the following word. Frustrating. We had booked an open return ticket with a company that we couldn’t find. Making it impossible for us to get back on a boat. We had to buy new tickets, which ended up making the trip flippen expensive, which put us in a testing situation. To make the vibe in the group worse, we all ended up becoming aggravated with each other and the boat drivers when we were originally told that the boat would be leaving in the next 15 minutes, when in reality it ended up being 2 hours later.

The boat trip back was quick but painfull as Linz almost got to experience what it is like to hootch over the side of a boat. The boat was a lot more stable than any boat we had previously been on, other than the ferry of course. We also met up with 7 or 8 other students who had been on the other island. A bus ride back to Seminyak was included in the price of our boat ticket. Thank goodness, because by the time we got to Bali none of us were in a state to organize a taxi. We were all a lot happier when we finally got back to Taman Rosani and were able to have hot showers and nice clean and comfy beds to sleep in.

The following weeks mainly consisted of a lot of school work with us being expected to hand in assignments, go to classes, write an exam and do our final defense. Speaking about this is boring. So we fill focus on the highlights of our last 2 weeks on Bali. First one being Sam Peckhams 21^st birthday.

We went out to Alleycats for dinner, which was really great. Sammys birthday falls on Halloween so there were plenty crazy Australians all dressed up. I kind of wish we had done something like that, but we didn’t have money for that so we just made it a typical 21^st, lots of drinking, laughing, dancing and club hopping. Oh and all the dutchies sang about 100 birthday songs to Sammy in Alleycats. Those buggers had gees for days. We ended up in good old SkyGarden, which would later be described as “Satans Palace” by the one and only Brandon Roux.

Next was my birthday, 4 days later. We were writing an exam the day after so we moved it forward a day to let us go out for the Saturday, I wasn’t complaining. We went for dinner, just us South Africans, which I really liked because it was one of the rare moments we had to just enjoy each others company. Not hating on anyone, so no bleak vibes please. I am sure everyone can guess we then went to Alleycats, where we met Stephan and his sister. Double doubles were bought, a deck of cards came out. I got on a bus. I had my third and final birthday party on Bali. And man it was a blowout of epic proportions.

Our final days on Bali were spent with all the people we had learnt to love while studying, jolling and living with them. We all had an amazing time and met so many awesome people. We experienced a completely different culture to our own and learnt that it is good to be in new environments. It is safe to say that we all fell in love with Bali and in the end did leave with mixed emotions as we were going to have to say goodbye to our home and family that had grown on us over the past few months, but at the same time we were looking forward to our next chapter in Thailand.

Thanks to everyone who made this rollercoaster ride an unforgettable experience, we will always have the memories.

Until next time. xx

Salt water showers

Typing this post from a very hot internet cafe to the sound of some traditional balinese music on a keyboard where some of the keys are pushed in, making typing slightly challenging.

This is the first entry from our week long holiday and so far quite a lot has happened. We left Seminyak at 7am and headed off to Padangbai with 5 of us in a taxi, the trip was longer than expected and after a while we all started to doze off, including our taxi driver but thankfully we got to te harbour safely, narrowly escaping death once again. We got on a ferry that would take us to Lombok, we knew the trip would take a few hours but it was painfully slow,adding up to 5 hours. with no comfortable places to sit we ended up sleeping on the floor using beach towels as matresses and our very full backpacks as pillows. There was also nothing to eat on the ferry. We did buy some snacks for the trip but our newest addition to the crew was not impressed at all and eventually decided that everything here tastes like dog, cat or ass. Slightly worried about how he knows what these things taste like.

After arriving in Lombok we got in a taxi that added an additional 2 hours to our journey. At this point we were all starving and very keen to just get to the islands, but we did enjoy the drive as we got to see some new scenery, we even got to stop to see some monkeys, not that we havnt seen them before, but these ones were surprisingly chilled, none of them tried to attack us or steal our food, but we were not willing to risk it and closed all the windows in the car. The driver then took us to a restaurant where we had the worst food ever, validating Brandons " shitty food" theory.

in the taxi on the way to the boat

Next was a fast boat to Gili Trawangan, the final stretch, at this point I started to feel sea sick, brandon and stefan found this hilarious and thought they would show their support by making throwing up sounds. This had a more serious effect on the boy sitting next to lindsay. We almost tipped the boat trying to get away from him after seeing the sweat dripping off of his ghostly white face. Luckily for us he didnt end up getting sick. and neither did I. Success. We all bolted off the boat as soon as we could trying to get away from the boy who we were sure couldnt hold it in anymore. Next order of business was to find accomodation, we ended up in 2 rooms.1 for the boys and 1 for us. The guy that hooked us up with the rooms developed man crushes on both stefan and brandon and insisted on always asking what their plans for the night were.

That night we ended up having dinner on the beach at a place called Scallywags, and after that proceeded to go to every bar with a hint of a vibe. It was the night before stefans 25th birthday and we were planning on going big. At one of the bars we had a drink at, a man hawking bottles of oil came to us and ended up giving Lindsay a free massage. Not too sure if he was desperate to make a sale or just liked the fact that Lindsay didnt tell him to stop rubbing her arms and shoulders but he enjoyed it more than her. Stefan and lindsay both bought a bottle of this oil. Stefans went into the pocket of his boardies and were forgotten about for the rest of the night, he woke up with a severe hangover and a broken bottle in his pants with no memory as to how it happened. Happy Birthday Bugger!!

us at a beach bar for Stefs birthday

Myself, Sam and Lindsay went to ly on the beach as the boys nursed their hangovers. Gili Trawangan is a really beautiful place with stunning beaches and toursits everywhere. That night we ate at the night market. We finally had prawns, and they were so delicious. We then did what we do best and club hopped until we found an Irish pub where we drank far too many half prices cocktails, made with alchohol that is probably brewed under a cocnut tree somewhere on the island. While having some very chilled drinks and just chatting about our plans we found 750 000 ruphiah. We spent it on drinks obviously. Later on in the night we realized that one of our cameras had gone missing. Karma is a bitch is all we were thinking. But before the dissapearance of the camera could dampen the mood, it was found, 2 of the waiters had it. If we were home it would have been gone. I am going to say it again, I love Indonesia.

We went to the next club where for some unkown reason they had a gutter running through the dancefloor, unaware we were all jamming and all of a sudden poor sami was on the floor. We all had a little chuckle and called it a night. The rest of the night was spent talking about how the money would help pay for our snorkeling trip the following day. Chuffed with life we went to bed. In the morning we all woke up unhappy and hungover.

The homestay man was borderline distraught when he found out that we would be leaving the Island to go to Gili Air. I think he would be less upset if he had known that one of the shower heads were broken after it fell off mid-shower on brandons head.

On our snorkeling trip we stopped at 3 different places, the first place would have been so awesome if the current wasnt so strong, it was almost impossible to see anything. We were extremely lucky when Stefan pointed out a big sea turtle at the bottom of the ocean, he then did what any naughty child with a huge lung capacity would do and swam to it and touched it. It was so cool to see one as we have all been dying to see one, it was even more cool when it came up for air and was so close we all could have touched it, but we didnt, we just took pictures instead.

On the way to the next stop the sea was really choppy and this was not helping with the severe hangover I was suffering from. Second stop was awesome and we saw some really beautiful things, the current wasnt strong making it so nice to just swim around and enjoy ourselves. The boat trip to the third spot pushed me to breaking point and I ended up throwing up over the edge of the boat, but not before everyone made the sounds and Stefan pulled out his camera and said "im ready when you are". It was all very funny, so funny infact that mid hooch i was laughing so much I peed down my leg. Anyone who watches Goerdie shore will know that it was a real Charlotte moment. This is probably one of the most embarresing moments of my life, but what can I do other than laugh it off. Because that is all that anyone else on the boat was doing. One thing that will be learnt from this experience is never stand downwind from someone vomiting, Sam got a little on her arm but brandon got some in his mouth. thats what he gets for laughing.



We got to Gili Air and followed the same routine as always, find food, find a bed and explore.

and then there were four.

On Thursday we had a school field trip to Uluwatu where we were going to watch fire dancers at sunset in a picture perfect venue. We were quite excited as it was going to be the most exciting trip were going to have other than the white river rafting.

However when we got there we were dropped off at the entrance where we waited for the other half of our group to join us, along with our lecturers. When this didn’t happen we all got over waiting and decided to go get ice cream. After returning to our drop off point, our one lecturer came to us saying that they had been waiting at the other entrance. Cool.

We received sarongs and sandwiches and headed inside, while walking to the area to watch the dance I spotted a monkey eyeing my sandwich out, refusing to be attacked like Lindsay in the monkey forest, I threw my roll into a bush and ran, at which point my flip flop broke.

So we found seats and got ready to watch fire dancers, but what we saw was not at all what we were expecting.  About 50 shirtless men came out and sat in a circle and started chanting and repeating what sounded like the words “check” and “tseck” the entire duration of the performance. There were also other dancers who told a story, luckily there was a program telling us what was happening, otherwise we would have no clue. It was interesting but it wasn’t a fire dance, in actual fact the only fire involved was the fire that was used to light us the stage area.

It was a nice experience and we all enjoyed the bit of Balinese culture we just saw but the highlight of the night for all of us was the 1hour and 45minute drive home. It was a truly unique experience as the driver insisted on driving in second gear the entire journey.

Friday was the 10 year anniversary of the Bali Bombings that happened in Kuta, where 202 people died. We decided to go check it out, which in retrospect we regret a bit as the street of Legian was like a ghost town as all the clubs had turned off the music for the duration of the memorial. There were such bleak vibes in the air and it definitely rubbed off on us.

Saturday was spent doing what we do best, vegging by the pool.

Sunday we woke up early and caught a taxi to Sanur, were we bought return boat tickets to Lembongan Island. We got there on a ferry the trip was bumpy but not as unpleasant as expected. We arrived in Lembongan and were bombarded with an offer to go snorkeling, the price was right so we accepted.

We got led down an alleyway away from the water. Slightly confusing. All of a sudden Balinese Rambo pulled up on a scooter that sounded as if it would break down any second, ripped camoflague cargo pants and mullet to boot.

Sami and Linds jumped on the back of a scooter with the guy that approached us first and I got on with Rambo. They took us through a very rural area until we eventually got to a beautiful white sand beach with crystal clear water. 

Rambo then grabbed his kid, gave us snorkeling gear and took us to his boat. We had a great time because we could get really close to the fish and coral reefs. Im not sure if we enjoyed snorkeling or taking pictures of ourselves more. Thank God for underwater cameras. Lucky for us Rambo let us do our own thing, unlike his son, Yogi, who wore a lifejacket and got tied to the boat with a piece of rope.

On our trip back to Sanur we caught a fast boat, the trip was short but extremely bumpy and unpleasant. Note to selves: take the slow boat and never drink the night before. We foresee disaster.

We got back to our hotel relatively early and seeing as we only had a fieldtrip the following morning, the party animal within convinced me to go to Alleycats with the boys. Needless to say, it wasn’t a great idea to play 1 for 1 with 5 dutch boys when drinking the infamous double doubles.

The following morning can only be described as living hell. Being stuck on another bus for a very long drive to Ubud to go visit a traditional Bali Village, to see how daily life is for the Balinese people although I am almost 100% sure that most people don’t plant rice and climb coconut trees all day. I must say that the highlight of the trip was watching a cock fight and of course seeing the reaction of some of our classmates when they saw a spider in a tree.

The rest of the week was spent working on assignments and sitting in classes. Boring. No need to elaborate on this point.

Brandon arrived in Bali yesterday and all three of us are so grateful to have a South African to hang out with and I absolutely love having my partner in crime at my side.

Gili Islands tomorrow and we are all crazy excited for this trip as we have been looking forward to it from day 1. 

Taman Rosani not Toman Rosani

Just a few highlights from our past week in Bali.

- The most exciting thing we did this week was go White Water River Rafting with everyone from varsity. This adventure was near Ubud with a company called Sobek and we really enjoyed it, besides the fact that anything outside is better than being stuck in an auditorium for hours on any day in Bali. Even though we all thought it could have been a bit more of an adrenaline rush, we took in the surroundings, quite amazed by the waterfalls and made up for the lack of excitement by screaming a bit too loudly while going through the rapids even though they werent very big. Being followed by a bunch of whooping men who thought it was too fun to splash us everytime they got close enough while singing "heyyyyy, sexy ladies, wop wop wop wop, Gangnam style", was not as entertaining as it might sound.


- Alleycats has really become our regular watering hole in Kuta where we always manage to drink too much in a short space of time before we head out to somewhere else for a party. We always manage to meet the most interesting people from all over the world and of course the "odd" australian never fails to entertain us. The latest freind we made had the words "dont judge me" tattooed on his bum, a sight we will be glad to never see again but we have a photo, so take a look!

- On Sunday we went to Uluwatu a little area with the most amazing little beach with the best waves which is lying down below and between cliff faces. To get to the beach you have to walk down what feels like a thousand stairs but its definitely worth it. Up amongst the rocks and cliffs are a whole lot of little bars and warungs where no matter where you sit, the view is breath taking. Sunday night is the night for a party in Uluwatu at Single Fin a surfers bar which overlooks the beach. We seemed to have chosen the best night to visit Single Fin as there was a surf competition being held that night with many, many people there to support it. The vibe was too amazing while we sat infront of Single Fin overlooking the break watching the boys surf by spotlight. We will definitely be visiting Uluwatu and Padang Padang again.

- Friday night got a bit more out of hand than anticipated (we blame the double doubles, that hit you hard and when you least expect it), with Bosman chipping a front tooth on a beer bottle. This is no surprise at all, its been a while coming and we are just grateful it isn't any worse than it is. As well as this incident we had a friend in a scooter accident, nothing too serious but just another reminder to us why we should not be on scooters at all!

- We visited a shopping centre today where almost anything could be bought, except cotton of course which we have been looking for for the past two weeks and we have still not found. They do sell fresh water turtles though for 60 bucks, which we think is a steal and we are seriously considering adding a new bugger to the group, dutch name and all. 'Stoffles' will live near the kikker fontijn.

The accents have become noticeably worse, krusty in fact, and when alcohol is consumed it just gets revolting.

We have to renew our social visas tomorrow, 450 000 rupee worth of social visa which we believe could be put to greater use in another form of socialising, something we are not happy about, but then again being deported wouldn't be to great either.

Ta Ta x

1 month in Bali

This blog post marks the end of our first month in Bali, an extremely scary feeling appears when we realise how fast time has passed and is going to carry on passing at this rapid rate. We will be back home in South Africa before we even know what has hit us, but until then...the party, and studying continues!

We had last Monday off from varsity, National Braai day for us Suid Afrikaaners, and we visited Sanur, a beach about 45 minutes away from where we live. The sand was the whitest we have seen and the water was clear, perfect for snorkelling. We met some of the other students there and we all had lunch and a Bintang together. I found a lightning fast worm in my prawn and avo salad, you dont get any fresher than that do you, im not complaining. Although all we could think about was how nice a chop on the braai and some potato bake would be throughout the entire day, it was a good day with being able to swim in the clear blue water and relaxing with friends.

Tuesday was full of Guest lectures again, by full of we mean two because they do take up most of our day. The one lecturer, John Daniels, a.k.a Jack Daniels, we enjoyed listening to very much. Who wouldnt like a man nicknamed Jack Daniels though? His advice to us as students studying Events Management, "A good Events Manager is someone who knows how to invite somebody to hell" or "Invite them to hell and make them enjoy the trip". A very interesting statement but so true at the same time.

We had our first ever "client meetings" on Wednesday with our project groups and our cbl tutor who acted as the client. A completely new experience for all three of us and although we had no idea what to expect going into it, we all survived and due to this we decided a good party was in order. This we have become very good at after scouting out the best places for the free and cheapest booze. Our newest dicovery, Green Box, which is literally just a small green box of a room with a bar counter, is our new favourite place.

We had the greatest time at the Green Box and we have already been inducted to the wall of fame based on our drinking antics that night.

Our weekend started on Wednesday, basically a little holiday and we have become very skilled at not doing much at all and as said before the time seems to fly making it seem like we never get anything done, ever. Thursday came and we made an irrational decision to rent scooters. I then decided it would probably be a good idea to try and actually ride a scooter before we get too ahead of ourselves. This ended really badly, so much so that I have many bruises and scrapes, some financial debt but no broken bones, luckily. What we learnt from this incident is, ALWAYS where a helmet or a fun time in Bali could be very short lived. As a result of my accident we have put the scooter renting on hold, something we are all bleak about but we like having no broken bones so it is probably a wise choice.

Thursday night came, along with a night at Eikon and all you can drink for 100,000 rupee or in rands, just less than a hundred bucks. Bintang and Purple Nurples (Balinese Wine mixed with we dont know what) were consumed at a speedy pace and before we knew what had hit us, it was nearly 3 in the morning and another mission to find a taxi where the driver would actually take us home without grumbling too much because he couldnt rip us off properly like all the other tourists hunting for a ride home. It can now be said that we are slowly losing our 'toursit' status in Bali.

Sami Bosman learnt to speak Dutch in a few hours and lost the ability to speak it within the hours after that. Most entertaining, along with our new dutch slogan "we spruiken af bij de kikkerfontein", tranlsation "meet me at the frog fountain". Code for see you in the swimming pool. 


 

Friday was spent indoors as we experienced our first rainy day of the rainy season. This 'rainy season' will not be enjoyed at all and it is hoped we wont experience too much of it while we are in Bali. A visit to Potato Head was paid where we bought tickets for Foster and the People on Saturday. Friday night was also spent indoors as we prepared ourselves for the debauchery which would ensue the next day at the last beach party before the rain comes for good.

 

Waking up on Saturday feeling as if  it wasnt even my birthday and we werent going to be watching Foster and the People live, was a feeling that was soon replaced by the feeling of absolute awe while we stood in the crowd at Potato Head and felt the amazing energy around us, a moment of crazy happiness. The most amazing firweorks display that all three of us have ever seen just topped the day off as well. Definitely something that will not be forgotten by choice.

 

It has been another week of injuries, fights and fun, and we cant wait to see what the next few weeks will bring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You slet. Saus Tomat.

So we hav'nt posted for a while...this we blame on the ridiculous amounts of work we have had to do, Stenden Bali does not live up to Stenden South Africa's work ethic.

We woke up on Monday morning not overly keen for our field trips as being outside in the sun in 32 degree heat in formal uniform is no ones idea of fun. We visited the Westin Hotel in Nusa Dua where the international convention centre is situated. The hotel was beautiful along with it's private, white sandy beach and we left with heavy hearts as we knew we would be needing to find rich men to marry to be able to visit again.

 The second stop was the Garuda Wisnu Kencana cultural park. It is a park where huge events are held, the outdoor amphitheatre that is enclosed by huge limestone walls where many music concerts have been held was quite a sight to see. Sammy Peckham and myself were blessed by having 'holy water' and rice put on our foreheads, an interesting experience as well. The views of Kuta and Sanur were amazing but we were very happy to leave and get back to the hotel to swim.

Monday was followed by guest lectures for five hours on Tuesday, something that we are not at all used to is sitting in a room having to sit still and listen for so long. We managed though, with the help of free coffee and food and one of the guest lecturers who was very entertaining despite the fact we could hardly understand what he was saying.

Monday and tuesday were both spent preparing for our event pitches on Wednesday. The word that could be used to describe these pitches would be a bloodbath, as unlike Stenden South Africa where we go into presentations with the mindset that we do unto others as you would like done unto you, or in other words we do not critisise eachother or question eachother, and it is the complete opposite here! Something that we will have to get used to, keeping in mind it will probably be better for us in the long run.

The rest of Wednesday was spent trying to finish our Initiative reports so we could hand them in on Thursday and have a long weekend, we all made it after working into the night, some of us just by the skin of our teeth! Our last management skills lecture with the best lecturer in the world, Yoke, was just as good as all our other lectures with her as she made us laugh continuously, falling asleep in her classes is just not an option.

Some of the students organised a pool party for everyone at the hotel and the hotel staff 'braaid' for us as well. A braai here constitutes of using a fan to start the fire and pre-cooking the meat before actually braaing it, something which we found hilarious. After the party everyone headed out to sky garden, where extreme hangovers are made and a lot of money is spent on we dont know what. The taxi ride there, just like all of them was another experience. The taxi shook violently from side to side the entire way, we expected one of the wheels to fall off  at any moment. Fortunately for us the driver did not drive more than 40kmh the whole way there. We are still getting used to peoples reactions when we tell them that we are from South Africa and that we are in Bali for two and a half months, its getting to the point where questions like, "Isnt it really dangerous to live there?" and "Do you live in a forest?" are just answered with completely sarcastic remarks.

 

The whole of Friday was spent recovering, and it literally did take the whole day. We decided to not go out on Friday night and save ourselves for Saturday which was a good idea consisdering the crazy jol we had last night. We discovered Alley Cats, a bar down one of the Poppies Gang alley's of Legian. Double Doubles, which is the drink everyone talks about from Alley Cats, is going to be the cause of much debauchery in the coming weeks.

 

Last night was by far the best jol we have had in Bali so far, along with our ride home which was one crazy adventure, one which none of us will ever forget, except for Melvin, who was asleep the entire way home, how, we do not know. Lets just say it was one of those, "If we die now, we die happy" moments, techno/electro music and all.



Our latest mission is to learn to ride scooters as having to pay for taxi's is starting to become a financial burden on our drinking benefits.

Bosman finally decided to get her white body into the sun today after our friend Stefan commented, "Even im browner than you and im a foken ginger!" She is now as red as a tomato but it had to be done.