Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Bali, Indonesia - Hinduism with a difference

Our arrival at Dempasar, Bali was far from spectacular. The train reached this small station of Banyunwangi at around 5am. This is the train we took from Surabaya. A bus owned and run by the railways was waiting for us outside the station. The bus went to the ferry station. t this point I thought we would have to get down - but no, the bus just got onto the ferry with all of us on it. The ferry ride is just about 20 minutes to half an hour. You can get of the bus in the ferry and sit upstairs and sip on a coffee. The bus gets of the ferry in Bali and it took us a good 5 hours to get to Dempasar. By this time, we were so exhausted!

We tried to figure out which hotel we could get to or which area. Options are wide and plenty in Bali. Called my friend whose already here and he said the beaches here are nothing great. They're all mostly dirty and filthy! Anyhow we were deciding whether to stay in Kuta or any other place nearby. We got into a cab and kept calling different hotels on the way. Most were full or had a room available for only one night.

We decided to go to Sanur as we read that te beach in this area was better than the one at Kuta. Wr got stuck in a huge traffic jam and I'm sure the cabbie conned us even more. We went from hotel to hotel looking for a room. We finally found one with rooms available at our price range! We found a room for all of is to stay for 40USD. The hotel's name is Puri Mango and most people know about it. Very strongly recommended value for money hotel! Has a very cosy atmosphere and friendly service.

Later in the evening, we rented cycles to rude around the area. We got cycles for around 1.5 dollars per cycle for around 5 hours. It was a whole lot of fun since we got to roam around the entire Sanur beach area.

We also met a guy to finalize our day trip for the next day. A car with driver in Bali costs around 30- 40 USD for about 10 to 12 hours. Worth it so that you can plan your own program.

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