I'd had enough of rushing around and sightseeing so my last few days in Asia were spent chilling out in Kuta with Sunshine ("fiasco!"), who I'd previously travelled with in Vietnam/Laos. We took a trip to the beautiful Geger beach in Nusa Dua - a pleasant alternative to Kuta beach, no hawkers/surfers/construction work. In the evenings we checked out Kuta's many bars and clubs and met lots of weird and wonderful people along the way (including half the Melbourne Aussie Rules team!).

Kuta is to the Aussies what Ibiza is to the Brits, only with a million surfboards thrown in. They even have special attachments on the motorbikes here to carry surfboards! Most of the tourist spots are crowded into a few narrow streets that are a nightmare to walk along - only a few feet wide and crammed with people and motorbikes trying to whizz past all the time. This is also where the Bali bombings took place in 2002 and 2005 (they targeted tourist hotspots) - there's a nice monument erected at the site with the names of those that died.

It was definitely fun for a few days but I don't understand how so many people go back there year after year for weeks at a time.