Saturday 12th January 2008

We woke up this morning in our new bed, in our new hotel, in a new country - and it honestly felt like we were on holiday! We got up, got dressed and then went downstairs for the complementary breakfast. Afterwards, we locked our valuables away and went out to explore the city of Kuta.

Everyone who we've told we were coming to Bali had warned us about the people - saying they do nothing but hassle you, but we didn't find it too bad. We thought everyone was really nice - as long as you were firm, but still polite - then they were happy to leave you alone. We walked along the beach and found the main shopping area, which was packed with shops and people. We had a look around a big shopping centre and couldn't believe how cheap some things were. We managed to find some insect repellant and when we went to pay, we noticed that they hadn't given us the correct change. Instead, they got as close as they could with larger currency and then gave us a couple of... sweets (ie. instead of giving us Rp4,750, we were given Rp4,500 and some mango chews)! Now, I love sweets but this was crazy. When we thought about it, it didn't really matter - it was only about 3 pence!

We looked round the shops for a few hours, and in one of the larger shops, Nikki had her nails painted by two women. They worked really quickly and Nikki's nails looked fab... plus she only paid about £5. We also looked in all the restaurants at the cheap food (salads are about £2, steaks are about £4 and beer is about £1) and when we got a little hungry we did go in one - but instead of one that sold traditional food, we went into the Hard Rock Café (ha ha). The food was awesome though!

Late this afternoon we came back to the hotel and chilled out by the big pool. The hotel is really nice and we're only paying about £11 for our room. This evening, when it was finally dark, we moved from the pool and had showers in our room before going down to the restaurant for a snack (we shared some pork fried rice). Afterwards we just chilled out in our room and watched a film on the laptop.

We weren't brave enough to venture out in the dark tonight - but we will tomorrow!