Seminyak, Indonesia

Tuesday 3/7
Mark and I had an early start this morning….5am. We waited for the sun to appear and then I walked whilst he cycled in the gym. We met up with the others for breakfast at 8.30. Matt, Annabelle, Eleni and Nick then headed out for a 10am spa treatment whilst Ali, Mark, Tom and I headed down to the pool. We planned to head into Kuta later in the day.
Tom hooked up with Matt, Eleni, Annabelle and Nick after their Spa treatments for a trip to Bali Deli. I am told, on the authority of Annabelle, that Bali Deli is Bali’s answer to Parisi’s at Rose bay.
We all headed into Kuta for the afternoon to have a look around the shops. Our first stop was Discovery Katika Plaza where I will forever remember this place at the venue where a young Balinese girl tried to fleece me out of a few dollars over some dried mango! The mind boggles I bet but, this is quite a story where I had even threatened to call the Police. I won’t be hurrying back there but at least Tom got some board shorts that he was after so the afternoon there wasn’t wasted. From this centre we wound our way up through various lanes of markets where I watched the kids barter their way through some purchases. I thought I was good on the shopping/bargaining front but I’m left for dead against these kids.
Our stroll took us up to the northern side of Kuta Square and up to a beach front bar called ‘Rosso Vino’. We had a fun afternoon of cocktails and pizza but this venue will stick in our heads as the place that Tom lost his iTouch. A point we didn’t realise until way too late and a lesson leaned! From ‘Rosso Vino’ we headed up through Poppies Lane 2 and towards a restaurant that matt and Annabelle had been to before; Macaroni. This seems to be a relatively new place and is huge, with high vaulted ceilings, lots of internal metal scaffolding and large screens TVs blasting contemporary Gen Y music videos. It was more reminiscent of a trendy Manhattan bar rather than a Balinese restaurant! The food was good though and especially the desserts. The kids headed out to sample more of the bar life but Mark, Tom, Ali and I headed home for a relatively early night.