Sunshine and Beer in Bali!! (Sian)

We check in to the cheapest hotel around, which is fine and strangely much cleaner than some of the more expensive places we have stayed in India.

Dripping with sweat from the humidity we head to the local beach which is just 5 minutes walk away. We stand and watch the sea for hours in awe at the huge waves and the Surfers riding them. The beach seems to be the coolest place by far around here so guess we'll be spending a lot of time there. We have a few beers in the evening which are lovely!!! I suddenly realize how much I have been missing freezing cold beer, even though I don't drink much of it at home.

Yesterday we chilled by a pool all day, it was great we had the pool all to ourselves all day. In the evening we ate Sushi and Sashimi... Think I'll be eating may way around Asia if the food we've tasted so far is anything to go by!

When we were on the beach it reminded me of Ibiza which is young, lively and vibrant. In the evenings in Bali though It's like a ghost town, there are loads of restaurants which only have 1 or 2 customers. A guy we were chatting to last night said it has been like this since the bombing in October 2002 at the Sari club and Paddy's Bar. It is really sad because Bali relies on tourism for it's main source of income. Today we went to the bomb site. They have resurrected a memorial monument which has the names of all those that died, it is really sad. On the other side of the road they have left the site empty and it now has flowers and posters, and lots of huge banners with messages written on them, some very poigiant and quite moving.

But you cant dwell on these things so, in the way the Aussies have here, we found a fab shop with punky clothes and a rock bar attatched to it, think we will head back for some more delicious Indonesian beer in a few minutes... and its open till 4am!!!Nice.