Steven Raucher's World Tour
2001-10-25 in Bali, Indonesia
Selling my soul and other tales
Bali, well, what can I say? I have chased the myth once again. Bali is one of those names that conjur up images of sun-kissed white sand beaches and tropical paradise. Just mention the name to anyone stuck in a 9 to 5 job and their faces will light up.
Not many people know of the species that that roam the streets here, surfus australianus, often spotted bare chested clutching a beer and belching whilst firmly placing his hand on the buttocks of a passing local girl. There is enough testosterone in Kuta Beach to take on the Bulgarian Ladies Weightlifting Federation, okay, maybe not that much, but you get my point. After a while one gets sick of hearing words like �narly� and �cool dude� and �tube riding� and �grommet� and �
I grew up on the beach in Cape Town but surfing has never been my thing. Perhaps I will try to get hang of it in Australia, well that and �roo shagging � just kidding!
And so the touring began, we headed north to the hills of central Bali, and onwards to Lovina beach where true to form I had no cultural experiences apart from finding the local airbrush artist who gave my bike a �Bali� look, hibiscuses and flames! Lovina is actually a lovely quiet beach with black sand and the sarong seller to tourist ratio is definitely more favourable than in the plastic and dayglow South. From Lovina we headed south east over Mt. Batur, a very picturesque crater (see pic), and towards and Ahmed, a place that through some miracle or another has escaped the clutches of the Lonely Planet and was therefore deserted. We stayed at a lovely place called Good Karma, which is exactly what I needed.
My friend Doug was flying in to Bali on the 31st of October so we high tailed it out of the tranquil setting of Ahmed beach back into the frenetic ways of South Bali and Kuta Beach. On the way down we happened to stop for coffee at the local police hangout, and was immediately taken aback by the CHIPS-style motorcycle uniforms, there are a lot of Eric Estrada wannabes floating around the Bali Police HQ (see pic)!
To commemorate Doug�s arrival Doug and I got really drunk and stumbled into a techno party full of transvestites, even in the state we were in we managed to stumble out with our pride, if not our livers, still intact.
The 2nd of November was to be my one year anniversary and Louise�s good friend�s brother, Toby, and his wife, Ali, very kindly offered us the run of their house in Bali while they were away staying at the hotel where Toby works, to which we were invited to stay for 4 nights as guests of Toby�s. Check out the next story for a bit of overlanding style!
 holding my breath, the only time I'm silent. |
 me and the rest of our new CHIPS look-alike gang |
 okay, okay, I know, no more pictures of rice paddys, right? |
 Mount Batur, another day another crater |
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