Day 87 Seminyak Beach Bali

It's raining, no it's not raining it's absolutely chucking it down and has been most of the night along with interspersed thunder and lightning. Thoughts for today were lazing around the pool and soaking up the sun, no chance. When the rain stopped briefly mid morning we went for a walk along the beach which whilst it is cleaned outside the hotel the same cannot be said for the areas further along which were littered with more debris and detritus than I ever seen on the beach. I can now quite understand how there is an area of plastic in the middle of the ocean the size of a large country, a fair proportion must have come from here and similar places where drains just flow into the sea from the town with rain water and everything else on the streets at the time. It's criminal that such a beautiful country in many ways can just let things go like that.

It was still dry when we returned so the earlier planned for visit to the pool was called for, however we had barely had the loungers prepared for us and sat down when the sky darkened dramatically and the heavens opened once again. This saw everyone scattering for cover and the poor staff desperately collecting mattresses and towels. As the sun showed little sign of reappearing anytime soon we took the hotel shuttle (taxi) into Kuta. The journey took around 30 mins with the traffic and we were expecting a shopping complex but in reality it was an extremely long narrow street full of stalls selling pretty much everything. We were looking for a specific restaurant for lunch that had been recommended and without exception everyone we asked just pointed down the street. I had almost lost the will to live after walking for 20mins when we spied a tourist info booth and she directed us down a small alleyway which after a few twists and turns did in fact lead to the place we were looking for, Gongs Korner. Here we had a lunch of Fried Crab, Salad, Fries and a Beer for the princely sum of £7 for the two of us. Food is certainly cheap here. After catching the return shuttle we attempted to resume our time at the pool as it had been dry with a little sun whilst we'd been in Kuta, but only managed about 20 mins before the threatening cloud dumped its load of rain on our heads and off we scurried again. No further opportunities presented itself and so we wandered slowly into town for dinner a Ultimos, another recommended restaurant. We were advised to book and boy were they right. Had a fantastic lobster dish and a panacotta for dessert. A little more expensive this time at £20 for two but then we did have lobster. Off on a trip tomorrow with Sudi and guess what the forecast is - yep rain!!!