Everyone has heard of Bali, and it seems most people want to go there. Paradise on earth, apparently. Well, our experience shattered a few expectations; both good and bad. While I had never expected to find amazing temples and beautiful highland villages, we found just that. But the flipside; the beaches we visited were either not all that nice or full of rubbish and way over touristed. Kuta is over touristed like no other place I have ever visited. Kinda sad.
Let's back up. In the last post Julia and I were just leaving the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park. Our bus down the mountain arrived to Probolinggo by early afternoon. At the bus station the sales guy assured us that the journey from Probolinggo to the port town of Ketapang would only take four hours, but in reality it took over six. In a hot, sweaty, cramped public bus (conditions that by now are par for the course). We jumped straight on the ferry for the short hop across to Bali. It was after 8pm by the time we arrived on the island, in the small harbour town of Gilimanuk. It seemed like a deserted place with not a lot going for it. We had spent most of the day travelling with another couple that were trying to head on to Lovina the same night, and as we didn't have any firm plans we decided to join. Unfortunately the public buses only left when they were full (14 people) and being quite late no one was around. We ended up bargaining hard and getting the guy to take us for about US$4 each.