Anyone expecting to find the 'paradise island' that Bali is portrayed as should stay well away from Kuta beach. It's more like a landfill site than a beach, and surfing there was a truly stomach-turning experience. The sea is absolutely full of rubbish, and everytime I got caught by a wave crashing down on me, I emerged from the water with a plastic bag or a crisp packet or something else equally gross hanging from me - yuk! I thought I might just be being a bit of a baby when I spotted some locals laughing at my reactions, but looking back, I think I was right to be disgusted! When I asked the surfboard hire guy whether it was always like that just shrugged, saying it was the wind: "tomorrow, maybe less wind, no rubbish", as if he was talking about whether there would be a lot of fish the next day! (Another local later blamed it on the Javanese - perhaps Matthew can offer some thoughts on that?!) Luckily I found a much nicer spot a little further down the coast for the rest of my surfing action - the waves were really long, fast and powerful, and I had a great time - I feel like I'm really getting the hang of standing up quickly and properly now too.

Other fun activities included snorkelling in Nusa Dua and a visit to Turtle Island. To be honest, Turtle Island was a bit lame, more like a poor zoo than the natural habitat I was expecting, but I did get to hold a turtle, a toucan and an eagle, and touch an iguana and a snake (the snake just with one out-stretched finger, and probably for less than a second). The snorkellingwas cool though - I didn't find Nemo, but I did spot Dory, as well as fish that looked like tigers, fish that looked like zebras, fish the size of dinner plates and some that looked like little blue swimming dragons, glimmering with pink and yellow. These were my favourites! The weather was great too, hot and sunny and not humid, plus I was lucky enough to stay in a hotel with a pool, so I guess Kuta's not all bad (actually it is - if I ever go back to Bali I will avoid it like a proverbial plague - although if you like crazy clubbing, expensive shopping malls and McDonald's, you would love it and should go immediately!)

I realise I've been super slack with my 'new fruit' duties lately, so while in Bali I tried snakefruit - a tear-dropped shaped brown fruit that looked like snake skin and tasted like... you guessed it, lychee. But less sweet I think. I also had my first Starbucks since leaving the UK, which was nowhere near as healthy, but so, so good! It cost 35,000 Rupiah (just over two pounds) though, which is ridiculous considering I haggled with a taxi driver for the sake of 5,000!

Time to go now, I'm now in Jogjakarta after a loooong bus journey that was four hours longer than it was supposed to be (next time I will just pay the extra and fly) so will write again soon.

Much love,
Kim xx