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.