We arrived in Denpasar airport at around nine in the evening, and realized that we had no US dollars (or rupiers for that matter) to pay for the Indonesian visa, we needed to get through the passport control. We were however allowed to go to the ATM if we left our passports at the visa counter. We were standing at the ATM mocking it saying how ridiculous it was that it only wanted to give us 50.000 notes and that the fees were so high to draw money. The machine obviously heard us, because not only did it refuse to give us money, but it didn’t feel like giving us the card back either. At this point you start getting nervous, because you find yourself stuck between a grumpy machine and unfriendly Balinese people in the passport control, without money OR passports. After five minutes of pushing different buttons (Maja) and banging the machine (Jono), Jono decided to go and get help while Maja hang around the machine in case the card would miraculously come back out. And it did. Now how often does that happen? In the meantime Jono had sneakily taken our passports from the unguarded counter, deciding it was better to just walk the border post now and deal with it later. By the time he came back however, Maja had already taken money out in another ATM (a more cooperative one), and we could both wipe our horrified expressions off our faces, and go through the passport control. Legally. Now we just had to cross our fingers that no one and snuck any drugs into our backpacks, since that most likely would get us into even more trouble than an eaten credit card. Death penalty for example.
Half an hour later (plus a few fights with come crazy taxidrivers) we found ourselves in our beloved Kuta – Bali. Walking down Legian Street on an ordinary Wednesday night we were met by no less craziness than Kuta had offered us one and a half years ago. Drugs (“Ephedrine? Shrooms?”), prostitution (“Hey, you like young girls?”) and absolutely horribly drunken Australians in Bintang wifebeaters going completely mad. We were very late for dinner, but managed eventually to find a place that still served food. The guest house that we had booked into in Poppies Lane 2 was very close to Legian Street, and as a result to that we didn’t get much sleep the first night. We were repeatedly woken up by drunken idiots shouting “fuck”, “fuck you”, “fuck me”, “fuckety fuck” and the occasional “I’ll fucking kill you” with an Australian accent. So the next morning we got out of the place as quick as possible and started searching for a better one. We found a nice, chilled place (with a pool!) in the middle of Poppies and decided to stay there for a few nights. Since we had more or less skipped breakfast we felt it was acceptable to go out for pizza before we started our day. After, we walked down to check out Kuta beach, before we missioned off to Discovery Mall. We were both really excited to be in Kuta again, and for a long time we managed to fully enjoy the city without getting too irritated with the locals. It was fun to see that not much has changed since last time; all the same fake surf brands, copied dvds, bottle openers shaped like giant wooden penises and the slightly insulting stickers you can buy everywhere. An example of such a sticker is: ‘Stick ya &%!#ing %&¤ in a ØÆ#”ing dogs &%¤Æ!’ We are both unable to imagine who would buy a sticker like this, but we’re suspecting that the people who were keeping us up the first night might be in the target group.
Next morning we woke up with not many plans, or so Maja thought. Jono however had big plans in mind. The day started with pizza for breakfast (again), followed by a swim on Kuta beach. Then Jono took Maja for a full body massage at a spa. We then headed back to the hotel room and while Maja got ready for the afternoon ahead, Jono went to ‘organize a scooter’ telling Maja he wanted to go and check out the waves at Uluwatu. The scooter was already organized, Jono’s real plans were to make special dinner reservations at a very romantic restaurant where Jono and Maja had their first date together one and a half years ago. A couple of minutes later we were on our way on the scooter heading for Uluwatu. Jono suggested that we stopped at some nearby cliffs overlooking a deserted beach and the ocean. On our way there the weather was starting to turn overcast and it looked like a storm was coming. But the moment we got off the scooter up on the cliff, the sun came through the clouds and showed off the most beautiful sunset. Some special words were shared between Maja and Jono, before Jono got down on his one knee and pulled out of his pocket the ring he had been carrying around in his backpack the entire trip, and proposed. Afterwards we headed off to our restaurant ‘Ketupat’ to celebrate with an engagement dinner. This place has beautiful little huts which had been decorated for the occasion, full of candle lights, placed around a lit up pool. This plus amazing food, great wine and lovely service made this dinner absolutely perfect. The celebration continued at a club where our friend Svein was DJing that night, and several toasts to the happy couple was made before we went back to our hotel to sleep.
The next day started with amazing sushi at Discovery Mall, before we found an internet café so we could share the good news with our families. It warms that everybody is so excited for us!! On our last day in Kuta we went to get Jono an engagement ring down in the art and jewelry side of Legian Street. This day there was a celebration in Kuta, so on our way back we got to see a big parade coming through Legian. Later we went to book boat tickets to Gili Island, before we went to eat dinner at Kuta night market. This place has about 20 restaurants placed around an eating area. When you walk in there all the enthusiastic waiters and waitresses starts shouting and screaming, holding up menus, crabs, lobsters, fish and any other live animal they can get out of their tanks, to make you come and eat at their place. Jono the vegetarian was not so interested, and settled for vegetarian Nasi Goreng and morning glory (that’s water spinach if anyone was confused…). Tomorrow morning we head off to beautiful Gili Trawangan.
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