Finally got to Bali

I have indeed arrived and it's frigging boiling here!

I'm in Kuta, which is the hotspot for western tourists, but it still feels extremely foreign. Tiny little alleyways with scooters weaving their way around you, Balinese people constantly (and I mean literally every 10-15 seconds) asking if I want a taxi somewhere, some cheap sunglasses, my hair dreadlocked, my back massaged, a bike to rent, a surf board to hire, some lessons in surfing, a tailor made suit... I could go on, but I'm sure you've got the idea by now. It is completely incessant and quite annoying, so going to leave Kuta tomorrow and head north to Ubud, which sounds a bit nicer.

It's not all bad here though. The food and drink is phenomenally cheap - I paid about two pounds for a quite large (and very spicy) meal and a beer - and once they realise they might actually make a sale out of you, the people are very nice, friendly and helpful. It's nice being a millionaire too :) it's about 15,000Rp to the pound at the moment and I haven't seen much being sold for more than 50,000Rp

I gotta be off now though
Bye

...

Back again :)

Been here for a day and a half now and the culture shock has hit me pretty hard. I'm occasionally feeling at a bit of a loss in this new place with far too many sights and sounds to take in and being an obvious foreigner I'm a particular target for all the thousands of street-side vendors. So I've been feeling a weird rollercoaster of optimism and excitement to bouts of hopelessness and overwealmedness (there must be a word for that...).

Things are looking up though and I now have a plan!

But I'll have to tell you the plan later because my internet is running out... their idea of 30 minutes seems pretty dubious to me! It's a good plan though, you'll like it.