Bali/Lombok

Hey hey everybody! Well despite what you might think, I’m alive and lazy….I know I haven’t written anything for a while so I’m gonna give it my best to re-inspire myself and write a bit about what I’ve been up to for the last few weeks (…or is it months!).
Bali/Lombok
After roughing it somewhat in PNG for three weeks or so I decided to follow my buddy John to Bali for a much needed break from the real world. Time to get back to the tourist trail to cut loose and meet some more backpackers for a change! The logistics of getting out of PNG are a bit of a nightmare with no flights directly to Indonesia, so I had to take an internal flight north and cross the border over land into Jayapura, the Indonesian side of Papua. Here I met some really friendly locals who put me up in their home for 4 days while I waited for my flight to Bali and showed me all the best sights and karaoke bars in town. I think the highlight here would have to be the food… best chili I’ve ever had, and cheep as chips!
Anyway I finally made it to Bali, grossly overweight with all my kite-surfing kit and promptly got ripped off by the first taxi I took into Kuta. Apparently dude had never heard of poppies lane where all the cheap accommodation is….. yeah right! Luckily, when you get ripped off in Bali it’s usually only over a few thousand rupiah, so paying off the cops every time you get busted for not having a license for your scooter, or not wearing a helmet, or running a red light or….. whatever, should never cost you more than about 10 bucks. Anyway, Kuta as expected, is an incredibly touristy place with cheap counterfeit shopping everywhere. You also get pretty good at bartering, hardcore! Scooters only cost a couple of dollars a day to rent so it wasn’t long before me and John saddled up with all our kite gear for a road trip around Bali and neighboring island of Lombok in search of the ultimate kite surfing spots. To cut a long story short, I nearly killed myself landing my kite in Sanur, (which prompted me to double check my travel insurance policy and bank balance after paying off the locals whose beach stalls I wrecked on my terrestrial kite looping session) and John did his best to kill himself with a triple dose of Malaria, Dengue Fever, and Bronchitis. Luckily for him his insurance picked up his 5 star hospital bill until he decided to head home to recover. I hear he’s back kite-surfing again so he must be doing fine!
Well, that just about covers Bali and Indonesia. After many great kite sessions in Bali (no really, we did have some great kite sufing!) I managed to sell my gear for a good price before I hit Malaysia and Thailand, where I knew the kiting would be average at best. From here on I was hoping to hit Borneo for some jungle fun…. More soon!