Ozbus11 - Bali

Bali is somewhere I had visited before aged 11 and remembered it as being this exotic almost paradise location. When I got there as a 23 year old I was going to remember it for something else – Aussies, nightlife and surfing. It was the first place on our trip that we'd actually encountered other tourists and the fist time we'd met Aussies on the tour. The capital on the south side of the island was a hedonistic array of surf shops, reflexologists, spas and bars. A place that I found on the first day though was an Eco Warehouse boasting the biggest array of sustainable DIY and building materials in this hemisphere called the Little Tree. It was newly opened and at the back they had an organic vegetarian cafe which me and Rob enjoyed lunch at. My diet had taken a battering of various McDonald's when I couldn't eat spicy stuff and other meat laden dishes when I could so I was keen to become more vegetarian to maintain a balance.

The evening of our first full day in Bali the whole of Ozbus11 had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Then a few of the youngens went out to experience the Bali nightlife. And what an experience it was. Suddenly in these more than recognizable I got a sense of returning to the Western world and in that, leaving some of the adventure behind. But I did enjoy the frugal sense of going out and spending time enjoying oneself.

Day 75 saw me get up at a reasonable hour and head to the beach enrolled at one of the many surf schools dotted along the coast. I had visited with Irish lass Lou and Germanic blondie Lara when they booked their lessons and decided a beginners morning session was in order. It had always been my plan to come to Australia pursuing Surfing after being introduced to it in the South West of England and I can tell you now – lessons in Bali are a far sight cheaper than in Australia. So the lesson in Bali went well – standing up on the board isn't the hard part for me and I've got the technique pretty much after a weekend session back in England 2005 and a morning in Bali refreshing it. What I find difficult though is having the stamina for catching the wave over and over again without getting super tired. Guess that's just my lack of fitness but at the time of writing – I've been in Australia for almost 5 months and the closest I've got to surfing is taking photos of those actually doing it on Manly Beach.

But it was all good fun in Bali and nice to do something challenging. That evening a few of us made our way to the beach to watch the sunset with a beer and I had dinner in a tiny off street eatery with just the right amount of cuteness. I used the morning of our last day in Bali doing boring administrative stuff like emailing, trying to get photos off my laptop for a OzBus11 souvenir book but my laptop had refused to get better since Mt Bromo. Then it was time to pack. For some reason, just because my bag knew that we were in Bali for a couple of days, it took the opportunity to expel all of its contents forming a volcano of clothing at the foot of my bed. I was sharing with Dru again and she must have been shocked at the mess. At 6.30pm a light dinner was laid on for us before we all loaded onto shuttle buses at 7pm to the airport. It was an agonizing wait in the lounge for a 10.45pm flight to Darwin. Once on board, a few of us got a little shuteye until we landed at Darwin Airport, NT, Australia.