Tuban, Indonesia, Asia

I got up today hoping to have breakfast at my hotel, like they said I would last night, but they never came. That was a disappointing start to the day, but hey ho. I set off into Kuta to explore and it turns out my hotel is not that far from there at all. I am only a 10-15 minute walk to Kuta beach, but I’m far enough away that it’s fairly quiet. The only thing that woke me up last night was the air freshener that’s in my room that goes off every five minutes. It’s not just the sound, but the scent it expels is so strong I can actually taste it, not good. I’ll be covering that thing up tonight!

Kuta is not really what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a beautifully stunning beach, but it really wasn’t. It wouldn’t even rank in my top ten beaches I’ve seen, and I thought it was going to be right up there. There were loads of peddlers trying to sell you all kinds of crap, and others trying to rent you a chair, umbrella or surf board for the day. Since I already got my inevitable sunburn in the Perhentians, I didn’t see any point in sitting on the beach. I walked down most of the beach into Seminyak and then walked back on the road to check out that scene.

It was basically loads of little stalls selling more crap. I stopped for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe for a predictably excellent lunch. You really can’t beat their chicken fajitas, and this might be the last time I have a chance at Mexican food for a while! And although Nikki, Mom and I have stopped buying pilsner glasses at every one we go to, I still like to get to as many as I can. I should start ticking those off my list too…

After lunch I went through a couple of markets but didn’t find anything to my liking. I did spot a white Celtics jersey, so I might go back and pick that up in the next couple of days. I’m sure I’ll get a good deal on that, like I did with my Liverpool jersey in KL. The only thing I did accomplish was I booked a scuba diving trip for tomorrow. It’s supposed to be some awesome diving around here, so I’m looking forward to that!

I came back to the hostel and took a little break before heading back to Kuta for dinner. I found a beer garden that was serving dinner and had an awesome vegetable curry with a Bintang beer. I was wearing my Liverpool jersey and my waiter (Eka) was a huge Liverpool fan. I told him that I got to see Liverpool play last week in KL, and he was very jealous lol. I headed back to the hotel and now I’m getting ready for bed. I have an early wake up tomorrow for the diving trip. Hopefully it’s worth it!