curry and sterling pounds.

well...i'm not in a different country, but i wished i could have been approximately one or two hours ago...
we arrived back at Kuta today, after spending a week at Lovina which was heavenly, and a couple of days in Ubud as well.
Lovina was great!
i swam with dolphins which has been on my to-do list for about 22 years now and we spent day after day frying by the pool at our beautiful resort.
once we were ready for a change of pace we moved on to Ubud...a little artsy, touristy village.
and a few days later and here we are...back at Kuta.
we took what we thought would be a quick van ride here...it was a sweaty PACKED minibus full to the tits with fellow backpackers...all of whom were expecting something different as well.
I was surrounded by backpacks and couldn't move an inch, or breath for that matter.
we arrived back in a familiar place in kuta, and then walked and walked and walked for what felt like miles...days even.
derek and i were both in foul moods and it took a turn for the worse when we went back to the hotel where we had stuff stolen from, tried to book a night, thinking maybe they would be nice and give us a free night or something.
not so.
in fact, they did the opposite.
they tried to double the price from the last time we were there, we got them down to a somewhat decent rate, and then i brought up the whole stolen stuff thing and asked if anything had been returned or found...no dice. and out of nowhere they had no rooms left. SORRY.
not a happy camper...i went and had a lemon shake while sweet sweet derek continued to look for a place for us to stay...it seems like all prices went up in the last week.
funny how that works.
we have a place now.
i had vegetarian curry for lunch and it was delicious, and now i am calm.
i'm sick of being treated like a stupid tourist. there's nothing you can really do though.
last night at dinner in Ubud, a lady came up to us with a man and started speaking in a language neither of us understood.
finally we discovered that she was accusing us of having her money and she wanted it back...
her story was that we changed 90 sterling pounds into rupiah at her store and she gave us WAY too much money back.
that's odd...neither derek or i have ever set foot in europe...never even held a pound in my hand.
she was sure it was us. she remembered our piercings...of course.
after getting upset and showing them our passports..."LOOK! NO STAMPS IN EUROPE..." and trying to be nice about it, explaining that her accusations were absurd, we finally stormed out of the restaurant...she was still upset and gave us the evil eye on the way out. haha. oh bali.
so that's how it's been the last couple of days.
i'm still having fun, and it really is beautiful here...i just wish i didn't always feel like i was getting extremely ripped off or hassled. oh well. c'est la vie.
ta ta lovers.
e.

bali-wood

i think i've developed a pattern for writing on this thing.
once every country?
good enough for me...

so many days have passed since we have arrived here in Bali.
this place isn't what i had imagined really at all.
it's lovely don't get me wrong, just different.
we arrived here on derek's birthday, about 4 days ago i think.
i had booked a really nice hotel for the occasion and it turns out you definitely get bang for your buck.
the bed could have easily slept 8 people.
the pool was right outside our door...
we had a/c and hot water!!!
the next day we moved on to a more realistic backpackers' area...
Kuta Beach.
this place is 10000% chaos.
i can't wait to get somewhere a little more off the beaten track.
i don't feel like a foreigner anymore, and i don't like it.
i had become accustomed to being the only white girl for miles...but this is CRAZY.
we are staying at a really nice hotel on poppie's lane.
it's the exact part of bali that was bombed in 2002 and 2005...we both kind of want to go somewhere else.
it feels super safe, as long as you walk single file all the time.
i have almost lost both arms now because of motorbikers ripping past.
i'm definitely sick of people begging for us to come and buy buy buy their crap crap crap.
one guy suckered me in and i ended up buying 4 pairs of the same sunglasses.
don't even ask me how. it's a mystery to even me.

on the brighter side, the food is really really good.
the portions are smaller than most places we've been so far, but pretty inexpensive.
we found one favorite place near our hotel that we can both have a shake, appetizer and a big meal for under $4 for the two of us.
so far that's the cheapest we've found.
they just milk the tourists for all they're worth.
i'm sure once we go to a different part of the island it will be different, at least i hope so.

if it sounds like i'm complaing, i'm really not.
i love this place...it has a lot of potential i think.
there's just so many people!!!
and they all want your money and it just gets frustrating.
i am super relaxed though...we haven't done anything here, and i'm not really too concerned.
we rented a dvd player for our room so that we could start killing off the 100's of dvd's that we have bought while we have been here.
the way i figure it is, they are cheaper to buy and mail home then they would be to rent at shell, so even if i watch them once, it's worth it. and we tested each one, so we know that they work really well!
we also have a beautiful pool at our hotel...it's absolutely gorgeous.
your money goes a lot further for accomodation here, than anywhere else i've been in Asia.
we're paying around $12 a night for the two of us, and we are staying in a stunning hotel!
our beds are so comfy and have so many blankets, we crank the a/c at night just to cool down under all the layers.
i honestly haven't slept this well since back home.

today we were walking down the maze -like corridors of this crazy part of town when i heard my name being called.
"ERIN! ERIN! HI! HOW ARE YOU ERIN!?"
i looked around, and finally put two and two together...
it was the cutest little lady that worked at the dvd shop that we went to four days ago.
we had warmed up to each other and she still remembered my name! how cute!

well, i should header...
not like i have anything to do, but i should be outside...watching the kites flying in the sunset.
talk to you soon...
or once i get to a new country perhaps.
love love love.
e.