Friday 11th January 2008

I can't believe it, today was our last day in Australia... for this trip anyway. We set the alarm a little earlier than normal and then had showers, had a cuppa and did all of our washing. Afterwards we went out to the shops so that Nikki could spend her $20 Just Jeans voucher. After looking in two different stores which, believe it or not, sold EXACTLY the same gear she finally settled on some skinny jeans which, I must admit, look really good on her.

We came back to the hostel this afternoon and Nikki made us a huge Spanish omelette to share, using the last of our food. Afterwards, I stayed at the hostel to update the blog whilst Nikki went into town to ask at the chemist about Malaria tablets. In typical Ben and Nikki fashion, Malaria tablets can't be sold over the counter without a prescription - and seeing as it was almost 4pm, there was no way we were going to be getting one of them... d'oh! Hopefully we'll find some in Bali before the mosquitos find us!

Our shuttle picked us up at 5pm this evening and took us on the longest, most painful drive EVER. The driver was hopeless! At one point, he was sat at some traffic lights and somehow managed to put the van into reverse instead of first. When the lights changed and we shot backwards, he was disappointed that there was nobody behind that he could've scared... prat! Eventually we got to the airport and our time passed really quickly before we were called to board the plane. Whilst we were waiting, I finally got to try some food from Red Rooster too!

The flight to Bali only took about three hours and we were soon leaving the plane and filling out our immigration cards. You have to buy your Visas upon entering the country for US$50, but we didn't have any money... of any kind, so they let us walk right through Customs to the outer part of the airport so that we could use a cash point. We were told we needed to pay Rp500,000 - but we didn't mind, we were millionaires: when we checked our balance we had over 16,000,000 in the bank - I guess the interest on a Nationwide account is a lot better than I imagined!

With everything sorted we collected our bags and left Denpasar airport. Waiting for us outside was a man waiting to take us to our hotel - complete with board saying 'TENNEAR'. It was nothing like when we met Emma at Perth airport though, there were no cuddles, tears or anything. It was about midnight now and the short drive back to the hotel was unbelievable. It was every-man for themselves on the small roads. I'm just glad we were in a big land-rover, so we were one of the bigger cars on the road. The people on motorbikes must be terrified! We were overtaking when there was traffic coming, we were driving way too close to the people in front (i'm sure we nudged someone at one point) and we didn't stop round corners... worst of all, we didn't have seat-belts. The Hotel Sorga is at the end of a small lane and as we turned in, some poor guy had to jump over a wall to avoid getting squashed. I'm surprised the driver didn't turn the lights off - just to make the journey a little more exciting.

Thankfully though, we made it safely to the hotel and checked into our room, which looks really nice and has a great big bed. We were so tired, we just collapsed on it and fell asleep.

Goodbye Australia... Hello Bali!