Second visit to Kuta and I knew what to expect this time. We checked into our new room and headed straight for the sea, although we did get a tad sidetracked along the way and did the unspeakable; we went to McDonalds. Bry and I had been speaking of the Golden Arches since we suddenly both craved it one morning on the Gili islands. Chips dipped in a Strawberry milkshake, oh amazing. Sadly, much to my disappointment, milk shakes weren't on the menu, for some deluded reason they don't sell them so I had to settle for McFlurry and chips instead. It was not the same and didn't fulfil my craving so we all know the first thing I'll be doing in Heathrow airport!! After 7 months on the road, it's these stupid and yes probably disgusting things that I now miss - as pathetic as it may sound. We spent the afternoon reading our books in the sun before heading back to get ready for our night out in Kuta. On our way out we munched a Greek salad at our favourite Greek place and braved Sky Gardens 9pm - 10pm free drinks deal - although maybe pounding that many drinks after just having a salad for dinner wasn't a good idea. The short version of the short story is, we drank, we danced, we ran away from a group of 18 year old Ozzie boys who were trying to chat us up - they were basically a mix of McLovin from Superbad and the Inbetweeners guys, we then grabbed a slice of pizza and was in bed by 11.15pm. A new record.

The next day we woke around 9am and couldn't sleep but didn't know why. Something to do with the fact we had just had 11 hours sleep!!!! Embarrassed of ourselves, we sat and ate our (disappointingly tasteless) complimentary breakfast and walked to the beach and plonked ourselves down for the next 5 hours. Met some new locals, Danny and Danny who rented out surf boards and were a little crazy. Main topic of conversation was about the amount of young western women that are hooking up with local Indonesian men. I've lost count of the amount of couples I've seen. There was a group of girls staying in our hotel who were all with a local Indonesian man. It's like role reversal of old men and Thai women in Thailand. Bry and I just couldn't get our heads around it. Danny said the under 25s are more keen but there was a lady in our hotel that was late 30's/early 40's with an Indo guy who was at the maximum age of 21/22. Shocking. We fancied a quieter night that night so went to a restaurant called Tubes for another salad and played a game of snooker, which Bry said she was awful at but still managed to win. Doesn't say much for my skill. We went to a bar on the main road and had a Bintang, it was a bit of a sketchy place. People on the street were trying to sell us some sort of drug and there was a full on pimp man walking around. He came over to speak to us for a bit, after five minutes he randomly admitted to us that he had slept with two ladyboys before...what the hell?? Why do you tell people those things?? Strange man standing there dressed in a big fur jacket (in 30 degree heat) wearing a bandana and a trilby hat. We saw people drinking these big beakers, we asked the waiter what they were and turned out they were buy one get one free so we thought we better try on. It wasn't necessarily strong just had a bucket load of Redbull in it which made us wanna move bars, best option was Sky Garden because it has 8 floors of different bars and music. Luckily it was past 10pm so the free drinks deal had stopped, meaning we weren't going to get ourselves into the same mess as the day before. We met some guys from Mauritius and was hanging out with them for a while. The music was really good and we danced and danced and danced, finishing at an exhausting 4am finish.

The alarm started ringing out at 9am, not what we wanted to hear after just over 4 hours sleep but we had to get up because we were going to Uluwatu that day. Uluwatu is home to surfers holidaying from all from the world, it also has a temple on a cliff edge which we went to visit first. We had to cover our knees because we was going into a holy place so we wrapped our sarongs around our already sweaty legs and started to tackle to stairs that lead to the temple. The view was incredible, we stood right on the edge and watched the waves crash into the rocks and coral below us, the water was so turquoise but also carried a white foam from the force of hitting the land. We stared into the distance and couldn't see anything but pure blue seas and a few dotted boats on the horizon. We just thought we was going to see another temple, we didn't expect that beauty at all. Once we had exhausted our cameras from taking so many pictures we headed back to the car, dodging all the pesky monkeys leaping from tree to tree. Next stop was Padang Padang beach, a famous surf location, we was obviously only going for the views of the surfers rather then actually taking part ourselves. It was a little coved beach, where we had to walk down about 50 steps winding between the cliff edge and a huge boulder rock, it was damp and dark and I definitely didn't expect it to open out at such a beautiful beach. We laid our sarongs out in the shade because we couldn't hack direct sunlight just yet. I had a dip in the sea and then had some fried rice for lunch. Bry was soon comatose and I sat there listening to Livy's cheese pod that she left me. I stupidly got myself all emotional that Bry was leaving for Malaysia the next day, that my trip was ending and that I was hungover which resulted in me having a little cry behind my sunglasses. I went on a wonder around the beach afterwards to cheer myself up why Bry was still being a sleepy bum. Finally she woke up and we spent the rest of the afternoon playing UNO, watching the surfers and a group volleyball match that was pitched up right next to us. Really good fun. Unfortunately it was a little cloudy for a picturesque sunset but still lovely colours in the sky. We headed to a bar called Single Fin that's set on the edge of a cliff that both Nelen and Christa had recommended us to go, it was a cool looking place, very surf inspired and we could hear the waves lapping into shore below us. We met up with the guys from Mauritius that we had met in Kuta the night before, had a few beers with them and then jumped in a taxi home.

Bry and I both woke up really quiet the next morning, we both knew what day it was, the day we both parted ways and Bry flew to KL to carry on her travels. We spent the morning pottering around sorts final bits so she was ready for her departure. As we was walking back to our homestay, someone grabbed me from behind and tickled my hips, obviously I screamed and turned around, turned out to be Kate!! Kate and Ed had just arrived from Ubud, we wanted to squeeze in a quick beverage before Bry had to leave so we grabbed her bags and went to meet them for a few Bintangs. It was nice having the four of us together even though it was brief, gave us a chance to relive all the memories we've made over the last three weeks. Made some brilliant friends and some brilliant memories. The time had come for me to walk Bry to her taxi and wave her off to the airport. It was really sad but also really nice because it showed us both how much we enjoyed each others company. A friend for life, can't wait to hang out with her back at home. Cobble watch in the UK. Bry had hidden a little note in the room for me, it brought on the tears and made me realise how much I'm really going to miss her on my last week. After I pulled myself together, I met Kate and Ed to go to the beach and ended up crashing out for an hour, must've been exhausted from an emotional morning. I treated myself to an early evening pedicure which was so relaxing, I was literally melting into the chair but not from the heat for once because I was so chilled leaning back in a big cushioned chair with the air con blasting above me. Following a quick shower, I met back up with Kate and Ed for dinner. I had a gorgeous vegetable kebab and mash potato. Mmm, I forgot how nice mash potato was, although they don't st the lumps out like mum does. I was shattered afterwards so headed back home for an early night but unfortunately I couldn't sleep for ages because the room next door was having some sort of porch party with Indo guys and western girls. They invited me to join but I politely declined because I wasn't sure exactly what I would be agreeing to join, if you catch my drift...

The next day I had decided to leave Kuta and go back down to Southern Bali and meet up with the Mauritius crowd in Uluwatu. I packed up my stuff and just took a few bits with me for a few days and left my big rucksack in the homestay because I would be returning there. I popped in a few shops and bought two new tops for home before saying my final goodbye to Kate and Ed. They will be gone by the time I arrive back in Kuta. I jumped in a cab and started my journey to my next adventure.