Beachbound in Bali

We are in Bali!  The flight here was uneventful and we had a good view of the island on our approach to the airport, which is on the southern end of the island.  Bali is a beautiful volcanic island with one large volcano and several smaller volcanoes.  The first day, we wanted to get situated, so we headed to the main part of the island, which was only about 10k from the airport.  The main tourist area, Kuta, is a bit like Miami Beach with tons of very tan people, surfing, stores, hotels and restaurants.  There is a Hard Rock Cafe and many other international chains as well. Our first afternoon, we went swimming in the ocean, walked around Kuta, and had a nice dinner. 

The next day, we decided that we wanted to rent transportation.  The public transportation system here is abysmal and very expensive compared to renting transportation.  We'd read that you are supposed to have an international or Indonesian drivers license to rent a car.  Most people we talked to said that not having this was not a problem and that if you got stopped, you paid a bribe to the 'mosquitoes' (aka corrupt police) and are done with it.  I was on the fence about doing this, but the clincher was that your insurance would be invalidated if there were any 'issues'. So, in the end, I decided to get an Indonesian motorcycle license.   What an experience it was at the DMV!  There were long lines and a test in Indonesian.  Fortunately, the answers were also provided to the test and foreigners who pay the foreigner rate are ushered to the front of some of the lines.  After two hours are the DMV, I am now licensed here in Indonesia to drive a motorcycle.... 

So, we went back to Kuta and rented a moped.  The moped is loaded down with a duffel bag between us and a shoulder bag on Sou's back.  Getting out of Kuta and Denpasar, the capital, was a challenge all it's own.  Sou and I tried to follow signs to Sanur, another beach town 15k away.  The lack of signage allowed us to see a fair amount of the capital, like it or not.  We finally made it to Sanur; it took us an hour and a half to go 15k.  Fortunately, we found a hotel just off the beach on the leafy grounds of a museum.  We strolled the beachside walkway, read and lounged on the beach, and had a candle lit dinner overlooking the water while listening to Bob Marley.

The following day, we followed the coast road around the island about 70k.  We diverged from the main road and traffic got much lighter.  We took a non-direct route and followed the coastline around one of the smaller  volcanoes.  The coast went from lush forest with stands of bamboo, coconut palms, banana trees, and rice paddies to a semi-arid landscape of rock and brush.  In Ahmed, a town known for its snorkeling and diving, we found our hotel from a friendly guy by the side of the road (who owned a restaurant next door).  The room was really nice with an outdoor bathroom.  We rented snorkel gear and swam just off-shore to the reef.  The reef was in about 2 meters of water and was teeming with aquatic life.  We saw a wide variety of fish that reminded Sou of "Finding Nemo".  Yesterday, Sou was excited to find a free copy of the last book in the "Twilight" series and spent the day reading with pauses to swim in the pool and snorkel.