Last few days in Indonesia

After the 3 night boat trip I spent a couple of lazy days in Laban Bajo.  Wrote some blogs. Went for walks around the harbour, met up with people from the boat trip.  As the days went on, more people left and continued with their travel plans.  Sarah and Steve (lovely couple from England/Scotland) had booked the ferry back via Sumbawa.  Guess what? Yep cancelled! Felt sorry for them but they managed to get a flight (albeit for 4 times the price).  Had a really lovely few days here.  It’s really unspoilt and the kids all want to say hello to you.  Cute.  I flew from Laban Bajo to Bali on the Tuesday. Nice quick, smooth flight and had company as I’d met an English guy (Stuart) on our Komodo Island tour who was getting the same flight. Great views from the plane on the way.  Shared a taxi into Kuta with a German girl I met in the taxi queue and managed to find a hostel.  It was a bit of a shock to the system being back in crazy Kuta in Bali! Busy streets, McDonalds, KFC, people hassling you to get into taxis. Take me back to the quieter islands!!  I had a nice leisurely day shopping, a full body massage for 3 pounds (thank you very much!), she was actually quite brutal! I’m sure I’d feel the benefits in a few days. Later I met up with Stuart (from the flight), Louisa (from the boat trip) and a Dutch guy from Louisa’s hostel.  We went for dinner and a few drinks in Kuta. OMG this place was awful! Loud music coming from the bars. People hassling you to go into the bars.  Bikes, taxis and cars on the busy street making it difficult for you to cross the road. Yes I felt OLD!  We had a couple of drinks but I knew I had to get up early in the morning to catch my flight to Singapore so wasn’t in the party mood.  I went home and back to the hostel.  I lovely air conditioned 5 bed room to myself Result!

I was glad to be moving on from Bali in the end.  In hindsight I spent too long there as I was still getting used to travelling alone.  After hearing about the murder in Ubud and loads of stories about people getting mugged, I didn’t feel very safe.  I think that’s why I wasn’t sleeping very well either.  Don’t get me wrong I did like it and it has loads to offer.  There were loads of less developed places I didn’t manage to visit and it was a good place to start my travels.  However, it does seem very corrupt there.  Someone told me that they had to pay for a Police report after they had things stolen from their room.  I mean, come on!  Now onto Singapore….