(6 December)

Woke up pretty early as Nicole seems to wake up naturally at crazy o'clock every morning! It was nice though, pretty good to have the whole day.

We went for a wander to have a look around and get breakfast. It's very much a holiday resort, loads of touristy and surf shops! Prices for food etc seemed a little steep to me as well... I really don't know how I'm going to cope when it's actually expensive in Australia! They had breakfast in a bakery type place but it was a bit dear for me so I just grabbed a croissant from the minimart next door, which was good! I went to the beach while they went back to get their stuff and they met me there.

The locals here are a bit crazy! Everyone shouts things at you as you walk, even if they aren't selling stuff! Everyone comes up and shakes your hand and asks your name and where you come from and stuff as well...it's a bit bizarre after a while! Another weird one was when the 3 of us were walking, we got "Charlie's angels" shouted at us a lot...really random lol. I got used to it though, everyone seemed to just be friendly.

I was sitting on the beach having a look at the waves, they didn't seem very good for surfing and I was pretty sure I was going to give it a miss. A local guy came and sat beside me and wanted to sell me surfing lessons, then a board, then a day trip on his motorbike to a temple...I was like eh no thank you! Then a lady came selling scarves and I actually wanted one to sit on on the beach, but she was looking 150,000 for them! That's about a tenner, but sounds really drastic in rupiah haha! I was like eh, no chance, but ended up getting her down to 35,000 and bought it. It's crazy how much they jack up the prices, there must be some tourists who just pay the first price! Once I'd bought the scarf though, all the people selling stuff descended on me! One lady just grabbed my foot, and started putting stuff on it and taking the hard skin off. I was like, I'm not giving you any money so don't bother, and eventually she left! Another grabbed my other foot and started filing and painting one of my toenails, despite me saying a wasn't paying anything for a pedicure! When she left, another came offering a massage for 150,000! I wasn't fussed on paying that when you can get a cheaper one inside with aircon, but ended up getting one for 15 minutes for 15,000...it was pretty good like!

After all that I went to have a swim cos I was roasted, but the water was really disappointing, it was pretty dirty, and full of rubbish! I couldn't even swim in it, it was too gross! It was far too hot, especially if I wasn't swimming, so I went for a walk around town and arranged to meet the girls later on. Kuta is so touristy, there wasn't really a lot to see apart from generic tourist shops and overpriced restaurants! There was loads of australians as well, I felt like I was in Australia already! So weird! I got seriously sick of being shouted after by the locals too, and soon gave up and went back to chill in the pool. The girls got back really soon after me with some beers to start celebrating Nicole's birthday and we just chilled out in the pool for a while. We met an Australian guy there called Justin who was just on a 2 week holiday on his own (surprise surprise, like every Aussie in SE Asia he was a miner!). He was nice enough and had been there a few days so knew a few good places, and said he could bring us to one. So after the pool we headed for food at a place that I think was called Tom Yam or something like that. It was really nice, had a Thai Green Curry which was awesome!

After dinner we got ready to go out and had a few beers at the hotel and chatted a bit etc. The girls had heard of a bar...I think called sky bar...where tourists got free drinks between 10 and 11 every night, so that was our plan for the night! It was pretty good, but so weird full of australians...bali is a bit like their Magaluf, so it was full of "schoolies" - their word for kids who have just finished school and going on holiday with their friends. It was a good night though.