The krazy intense central city tucked in the heart of paradise.
Captains Log Day 3 – 26/12/19 7:25 pm.
What started off as a small spark in the Captain and Admiral’s minds, slowly ignited and with the fuel of other comrade’s reports and lures of paradise, this desire grew quickly to a flame, and within a few weeks of returning from their South American mission, the Captain and Admiral started planning their escape to paradise.
To celebrate his efforts over the tough 2109-year, Captain and Admiral were fortunate enough to recruit and bring along with them on this mission the infamous General Nuj, returning to mission life after a hiatus of travelling missions for about 2 years.
Filled with the sense of adventure and after, ample planning, coordination and research the trio lifted off on the eve of Christmas day flying direct from Melbourne to Denpasar. The trio wore Christmas attire, and looked more like a Christmas Kid’s special TV hosts rather than militants off on a party assignment. With many stares, smiles and comments from fellow travellers and airport staff, they departed on to the island.
This trip was to be split in many phases starting with the exploration hustling and bustling land of Kuta, followed by the Monkey adventures in Ubud, the relaxation resort life in Nusa Dua and finally finishing the adventure off in Paradise – Gili Trawangan for New Year’s Eve.
To make this log more legible it will be broken down by Chapters this journey.
Arriving at Denpasar airport after a 6-hour flight, the trio said Bali Hai! Just like that the mania set in straight away, breaking away from large travelling crowds, hustling taxi drivers and worst of all trying to stay cool in the ridiculous heat. Sifting through all the overpriced taxi drivers, doing their best to bargain and get a reasonable rate and not get kidnapped at the same time, the Captain guided the crew through what felt like a jungle of insistent cab drivers, it was not long before they found one that was willing to take them to Kuta at a sensible price. The fear was written across the Admiral’s face as they sat in his unmarked car. The Captain assured her that everything will be alright. After all, what could go wrong with a cab driver named G’Day.
The drive was long and the traffic as bad as the heat. The trio reached their bunker as the clock struck 11:30, it was getting late. They quickly dropped off any supplies they had brought with them and hit the Kuta streets, which already had died down significantly since they had passed them half an hour before.
With the first order getting some local currency, generally a simple enough exercise but once again like many times in the past, even the simplest of tasks can deviate form expected outcomes, and this was just the case. After the Captain was able to successfully withdraw some cash, the General went next – entering the correct pin and selecting an amount the machine started to flash the message “Too long to remove card – Card has been retained” and did not spit out any cash or the card, leading a panic moment. Noting down machine numbers, phone numbers, times and arguing with the shop attendant, minus one card. Trying not to stress out and planning what to do next they headed to grab some food and their first Bintang of the trip! #bintangfortheboys
For those that don’t know Bintang is a local Bali Beer, along with Bali Hai. They gulped their beers and enjoyed some local food, as the surroundings started to shut down. With a blink of an eye the time was approaching 2 am – it had been a long day and it was time to retreat home and to call the banks, one to put a hold on the card and the second to find out where the card was being taken, then to finally call it a night and get some rest.
The next day the trio explored the hotel grounds jumping in the pool and sipping Pina Colada and other various cocktails, whilst being watched by a perched bird. The perfect Christmas some would say. Drying off within seconds, feeling refreshed from the long travels the trio were off on a scouting mission.
Heading first to the Beachwalk central mall where they picked up Sim cards, sunscreen and mosquito repellent. The captain then led the crew onwards down towards Legian, showing them the infamous Sky Garden nightclub amongst other things. The streets busy, bustling with traffic, tourists and shops selling everything, a huge contrast to the night before.
It was not long before the Admiral had had it. The heat had started to break her, she was drenched in sweat and feeling very flustered. They made an emergency pitstop at a juice place to pick up a coconut and cool down the Admiral before Iran invaded and attacked the poor Indians. Continuing on their adventures they endured the heat and walked for another hour on the way, stopping for lunch and a fruit snack at an epic brunch place – ‘Resting Brunch Face’. At this point the General decided that he would go on his own adventure, leaving the Admiral and Captain as he went to explore new lands. Meanwhile the Admiral and Captain found a massage place and once again bargained unnecessarily to get the price down by a dollar – rightfully so they would find out later as the massage was terrible, consisting of more talking and socialising including asking them uncomfortable and awkward questions like “How much do you earn” whilst lightly massaging the crew.
It was not long after the terrible massages that the trio were reunited back in the hotel room with each other. Exhausted from the days exploration they freshened up and headed out for another 3 km walk to the Sunset Road Shisha Restaurant.
To make the walk more interesting and to enjoy the Kuta sunset – the walked along the beach stopping on along the way grabbing some Bintangs and enjoying the view as the sun played hide and seek with us for the night. On a mission they continued, and it was not long before the walk turned into a pub crawl, stopping every second place for a Bintang as they walked towards the final destination for dinner.
Heavily intoxicated they arrived, initially they were struck instantly by the ambience of the restaurant – it resembled a Bedouin oasis hangout, something taken straight out of Agrabah from Aladdin. Lanterns and, rugs and beautiful paintings surrounded by arabesque artefacts and furniture.
It was a very nice-looking place; here they were able to find a table and started off with some delicious dips and shisha followed by a scrumptious middle eastern feast.
Overly full and feeling very gluttonous, they were unable to walk (at least vertically) and decided to catch a cab and head back to the hotel room, it only took a few minutes after they had entered that they had were fast asleep.
Early morning the trio awoke, feeling satisfied by a deep slumber they had had from the food and drink from the night before. The Admiral had to go pick up his card from the bank branch so they quickly packed their bags and checked out of the hotel and took a taxi towards the bank. At the branch a concierge led them to the right person who advised that he should have the card by 5PM later in the day. This was going to poise an issue as this would mean that they had to be available to pick it up by 5 pm, and this was not lining up with their schedules.
After much conversation and deliberation, the group decided to just cancel the card and not to worry about it, by doing this they now had a full day without any constraints. The Admiral would continue to withdraw cash of the General and he would then intern use the net banking function to refund her, allowing him to get a new card sent back to AU.
With the time constraints lifted they could finally tick off going to one of the best waterparks in Asia – WaterBom. Taking a Taxi from the Bank branch they rushed to get to the waterpark to enable maximum time for all the rides.
Once again the Captain and Admiral felt like a kids in a candy store – more like a kids in a water park, rushing about, trying to pick which ride to do first. On the other end of the spectrum sat General Nuj, who was petrified of the rides and was dreading jumping on them. With some convincing as well as the steep price of entry, he was ready to join them as they embarked on some of the best waterslides and rides that they have ever done. It was after about 5 rides that the nerves finally broke the General, he had some chafing pains in his legs and felt too exhausted to continue – he retreated as the Admiral and Captain continued to conquer the waterpark. Adrenaline pumping, they were able to spend a good 6 hours as they hopped between rides until it was time to leave the magical place and head off to their next Bali destination – deep into the forest awaited the lands of Ubud.
