Legian Beach, Bali, Indonesia

So I made it here.  It only took a 3 hour flight to Brisbane from Christchurch New Zealand and a 6 hour flight from Brisbane to Denpasar, Indonesia.  The flight was through Virgin Blue and not even water was free.  I watched two movies on the plane (at $7 each) and bought 4 of those mini bottles of wine.  Whatever it is, the altitude, the wine, the move, I don't know, but I always laugh extra loud at the funny parts and cry extra hard at the sad parts in movies. Click here to read about when I watched Kit Kittredge: An American Girl on the way home from South Africa

Anyway when I arrived, I was scared to see a big sign that said: DEATH PENALTY TO THOSE WHO CARRY DRUG INTO BALI.  I remembered all of the scary stories you hear of people who have drugs planted into their bags and then they get busted and spend the rest of their lives in dirty rotten prisons for something they didn't do.  And so I twisty-standed in line to go through customs, just in case anybody wanted to touch my backpack.  I pretended like I always do the twist when I stand in line and kept a straight face.  Normal, right?

Then I had to get my checked bags off the conveyor and find my ride, who would be holding sign with the name of my hostel on it.  Easy.  You can't believe traffic here.  It's insane.  The roads are very narrow and there are one million motorcycles everywhere.  They dart through traffic and also drive in front of and behind you to get to the other side of the road.  It looks very dangerous. Also there are very narrow walkways that the motorcycles ride through:

It's very HOT and HUMID here.  But the atmosphere is laid back, and I have already had three massages in three days.  The first one was $9 US and was two therapists.  It's called four hands massage.  The other two have been at my hostel and are $7 US.  The woman is fantastic.  I'm going to write more about the massages later because they are stories in themselves.

Back to gecko country.  I didn't think about it and even forgot all about the geckos in Samoa.  So naturally when I was in the shower and accidentally looked up to find a gecko crawling across the wall, I freaked out.  Later a guy in my room said he was going to the bathroom and one fell on his head.  When I heard this, I said I need to go home right now.

It's so refreshing to pay only 33 cents for a huge 1500 ml bottle of water.  Dinner is $3 for amazing vegetable curry.  Internet is free.  My hostel is a tad expensive at $25 per night, but I'm saving so much money everywhere else I'm Ok with that.  Plus this place is pretty darn clean and offers free breakfast with tea.  There is a yoga studio upstairs and I used my free session today.  So my agenda for today was:

9:30 get up and have free breakfast
10:00 facebook/email
11:00 walk to beach with two girls from hostel, watch surfers
2:00 get lunch for $4.50
3:30 hour long massage for $7
5:00 stretch class
6:30 get dinner for $15.00 (this included 3 drinks)
9:30 facebook/blog/email

Chilled and relaxed and loved it.  I'll leave you with a funny story:
A girl that I met today from the hostel is from Minneapolis, so we chatted a bit and she told me that she just came from India.  Somebody she met from Switzerland shared with her a terrible story of riding a bus all day in India and feeling very sick.  She was puking into a bag, and trying very hard not to poop and pee her pants for four hours.  Finally the bus reached its destination and she ran to a restaurant across the road.  She begged for the bathroom and the man at the door said, 'yes, right this way' sensing her urgency.  Then he turned around and looked at another man, who must have been the manager.  He shook his head no.  She was in an emergency situation so she bypassed the first man, ran to the manager man and said, 'please please I need the bathroom NOW!'  He still said no.  And so she went out front of the restaurant, and diarrhea pooped right there in the street.  She felt good about it too because the man was so mean to not let her use the bathroom, but was very surprised at how long it actually took to do the pooping.  All the while this man was yelling at her.