Hayes Adventures: Kuta and a million dollar meal

Day 9

I am pretty sure we didn't get one picture of day 9! It was super fun though. We had a lazy morning, got breakfast from the bnb, packed up, got another massage, and had lunch. We then met up with our driver who drove us down to Kuta! We found our next lodging spot and moved our stuff in. It was SO hot in the room. We knew that night was going to be absolutely miserable! We hadn't been to the beach in Bali yet, so we got ready singing "Lets go to the beach, lets get away..". We got to the beach, which was about a half mile from our hotel, and rented some surf boards! We surfed for about 2 hours. We aren't very good, but both Brian and I were able to get up at the same time once and ride a wave in together! It was super fun because we were looking at each other as we were riding the wave in! Once we turned in our boards, I noticed that Brian was super irritated. I asked him what was wrong, of course knowing what it was, as it was bothering me while surfing. The island is such a beautiful place, but they do not care for it. There was plastic and other trash floating in the ocean. I had more trash in my swimming suit after surfing than I did sand. It was pretty upsetting, but obviously bugged Brian a ton more than it had me. I asked what would help him get over it, he said a good Thai food restaurant would be nice...So we went on a hunt for Thai food. Eventually, after walking a while, we found one! It was soooooo good -and way more expensive than the places we ate in the North. We hit the tourist area.... That night, Brian had a lot of trouble sleeping because of the heat in the room.

Day 10, our last day in Bali

That morning, we woke up, packed our bags and headed out. We had a few places we needed to hit for some souvenirs! We got our last lunch across the street before we started finding our little knick knacks. It was so delicious and a great meal to have for one of the last meals there! I got noodles with an egg on top, and Brian got Banana Pancakes. I am surprised he didn't turn into a banana pancake by the end. He ate them every day! Anyway, we found some magnets for family, and an amazing painting that we decided to buy and take home to remind us of beautiful Bali. On our way out of there, we were asked by a taxi driver if we needed a ride. We decided he'd be perfect to take us for the day. He agreed to take us to see a temple and an amazing spot for swimming in the ocean, then for dinner, and drop off at the airport. He agreed. We asked him if he would be willing to wait a little while longer while we kept shopping, and he could hold our bags in the car while he waited.

This was one of the weirdest parts of the trip. We realized we needed to pull out a little more money to get through the rest of the day. We were looking for an ATM when a boy asked us to come in and look at his shop. We told him we literally had no money on us and that we were looking for an ATM. He took the liberty to go and show us a place to go to an ATM. That place didn't work to get any money for some reason. While we were at that ATM, I told Brian I didn't feel very good about that kid following us around and showing us ATMs...then knowing we have money on us. Anyway, we came out and the boy was like, now you come to my shop? We explained that the ATM didn't work for us and that we needed to find another one. He helped us find another one by pointing down the road a little way. He said there was one on either side of the street. We went and got our money pulled out. On the way back to our driver, we tried to avoid the kid who showed us the ATM and wanted us to go to his shop. Brian, being the kind person he is, was tracked by the kid once again who waved to him to come in and see his shop. Brian turned to go look at his shop. I followed. We went down off the main road into an alley of more shops. We turned the corner and there were about 6 shops at the back of the alley. The kid had shirts for sale. I wouldn't go into the shop..It felt weird. So I looked a little at other shops trying to avoid the kid and his shop. I found some pants that I had already purchased for my sisters. I wanted to know how much they were at this place so maybe I could get some for my nieces. They were charging TRIPLE what I got them for! I told the guy, oh, then never mind. He was like - why not, negotiate with me! I said that I already had some and wanted more, but that his price was too high. He asked how much I paid for them. I told him 70K for 3 of them. He was asking 80K for 1. He said, no way...thats not possible, and asked where I had purchased them. I told him in Lovina (the northern most point of the island that we first stayed at). He seemed to back off muttering something under his breath. Meanwhile....Brian was taking on 3 people in that kids shop asking him to purchase a shirt that Brian didn't even want. I called for Brian saying that we needed to go. I started yelling at him to come out of there. The kids were pointing at me with a 1 saying 1 minute while they looked at Brian -totally had him blocked in- asking how much he would pay for the shirt they had picked out for him to buy. I said to Brian again "LETS GO!" and "HE DOESNT WANT A SHIRT!" They pointed at me again and looked at Brian and said "how much?" Brian, forgetting how the money system works, said 5K rupiah (This is about the equivalent of 50 cents or less in America). The boys got SO mad! --They know the exchange rate, and know that foreigners have money. Brian meant to say 50K which is $5, but it was too late. The boys were pushing him and telling him to get out of their store. Brian bolted out of there, grabbed my hand and we briskly walked as fast as we could out of that crazy alleyway. Brian talking/muttering about how these Bali people were all so dumb because of the trash in their Oceans. It took a few minutes for Brian to cool off. Once he did, we hopped in our taxi, and took off for the Uluwatu Temple.

The Uluwatu temple was beautiful! We had to wear our sarong for the first time. Let me tell ya though, this was the hottest day we were there. Putting those sarongs around our bodies was instant sweatiness. We were able to walk around the temple for about 45 minutes before we couldn't take the heat anymore. We had to get out of there! On the way out the gates though, we were walking through another little monkey forest! It made us slow down and take more pictures of the cute animals!

Uluwatu Temple walk

My oh my, it was beautiful!

Amazing sights on this walk, but oh so hot!

The Temple entrance!

Little monkey with Brian!

It was seriously so beautiful!

When we got back to the car, we bought a huuuuge water bottle from the shack right next to the car. We downed most of that water! It was SO hot. He took us to the beach to cool off. On the way to the beach, he asked us if we wanted to go to an amazing place for dinner and see the sunset. We actually were planning to stay on the beach until sunset, but decided we'd go where he recommended. With us trying to get rid of all our Rupiah, we needed to know for sure if the place took card, just in case we ran out of Bali money. He said they did. No worries then! We hit the beach, and relaxed for a and swam for a couple hours. Brian loved it as we sat under an umbrella and he read his book. I just watched the waves, and a couple taking engagement photos. They almost got taken down by the water so many times! It was very entertaining! Ha.

The perfect Bali Beach! Not even dirty!

Beautiful Bali with Brian :)

After finishing up at the beach, we walked up to the car and got our clothes so we could shower up and get ready for our long flight home.

Our driver drove quickly for us to hit the sunset at his recommended restaurant. When we pulled up, someone opened our doors, and we immediately knew we had hit a really expensive restaurant. As they were leading us to our table, we decided it was our last night...Lets splurge a little. We splurged A LOT by the end of it. We were led to a table right on the beach. We had a waiter who taught us how to order the seafood we wanted. Basically you can pay a ridiculous amount to pick out a live few fishes to eat, or pick from their already dead section - which was cheaper. We picked out a nice big dead tuna fish to split and then prawns for both of us. We also got some virgin daiquiris, which were delicious. It was worth the money -a lot of money- for the most amazing sunset, and for the awesome band that played at our table. Here are some pictures: