We decided to end our days in Bali on the coastal/surfer heaven of Kuta Beach - a place we probably won't return to. It was our least favorite place of the whole trip. Full of young partying Australians, it was definitely not our style.
Nothing really authentic about the place and the beach was "m.e.h" - we've seen better. The food was boring and expensive. The hotels were run down and dirty. So after almost a month on the island we changed our flight not once, but twice. But not before one last evening on the beach, which comes alive as the sun goes down.
We were so excited to hop on a plane out of there and leave behind the touts and the constant chatter of "you buy boss, boss" that we arrived at the airport unprepared to pay the exit tax to leave the country. Yes, they charge you to leave the country. We were so dizzy with joy at the thought of seeing something new that we completely forgot about a few minor details (ie frustrations) with flying. We arrived at the airport for a midnight flight, made our way through security, paid a hefty fee for overweight baggage, bought a beer to calm our nerves, paid our exit tax, finally arriving at our departure gate to only be told security needed to search our bags. We quickly found out the reason we were stopped - a ceramic souvenir bottle of rice liquor, purchased mainly because of the unique bottle and more than allowable liquid amount on flights. So instead of feeling yet another sense of defeat, we decided we wanted the bottle and stood in front of the gate and downed the bottle of liquor, offering sips to anyone who walked through security behind us.
Our little pre-flight night cap made for a pleasantly passed out (Anne) and nauseous (Mike) flight, but we managed to keep that ceramic bottle with the cool bamboo cap. We really enjoyed our time in Bali and look forward to returning to explore more temples, soak in more architecture and culture, learn more about Bali's unique Hindu culture and drink more of the best microbrewery beers we found the whole trip.
We decided to end our days in Bali on the coastal/surfer heaven of Kuta Beach - a place we probably won't return to. It was our least favorite place of the whole trip. Full of young partying Australians, it was definitely not our style.
Nothing really authentic about the place and the beach was "m.e.h" - we've seen better. The food was boring and expensive. The hotels were run down and dirty. So after almost a month on the island we changed our flight not once, but twice. But not before one last evening on the beach, which comes alive as the sun goes down.
We were so excited to hop on a plane out of there and leave behind the touts and the constant chatter of "you buy boss, boss" that we arrived at the airport unprepared to pay the exit tax to leave the country. Yes, they charge you to leave the country. We were so dizzy with joy at the thought of seeing something new that we completely forgot about a few minor details (ie frustrations) with flying. We arrived at the airport for a midnight flight, made our way through security, paid a hefty fee for overweight baggage, bought a beer to calm our nerves, paid our exit tax, finally arriving at our departure gate to only be told security needed to search our bags. We quickly found out the reason we were stopped - a ceramic souvenir bottle of rice liquor, purchased mainly because of the unique bottle and more than allowable liquid amount on flights. So instead of feeling yet another sense of defeat, we decided we wanted the bottle and stood in front of the gate and downed the bottle of liquor, offering sips to anyone who walked through security behind us.
Our little pre-flight night cap made for a pleasantly passed out (Anne) and nauseous (Mike) flight, but we managed to keep that ceramic bottle with the cool bamboo cap. We really enjoyed our time in Bali and look forward to returning to explore more temples, soak in more architecture and culture, learn more about Bali's unique Hindu culture and drink more of the best microbrewery beers we found the whole trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment