As I said in the last post, Leah had been ill overnight so I left her to get some kip while I looked for a new room. Big Bubbles had people arriving who’d filled the place with reservations and we had to shift elsewhere.
I tried a few places up the road until I got to [...]

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I was up at 8:30 to get my breakfast before my dive on Shark Point. A good job as it took half an hour before it was delivered (it was only a banana pancake) and I had to check my equipment before we hopped on the boat at 9:30.
Ours was a small group – myself [...]

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We’d booked fast ferry tickets to the Gilis due to the shortness of our stay. The much cheaper slow ferry takes 12 hours which essentially loses you a whole day, and means you arrive late on – a death knell on your hopes of finding accommodation during the current high season.
Again we’d organised things through [...]

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Courtesy of the nice folk at MBA Travel (what seems to be the largest tour company based in Kuta), we booked a 3/4-day trip around the island. The trip we opted for was their Bedugul “Green” Tour at $30 per person.
They offer two timeslots – pickup at 8am or 11:00 with the latter offering a [...]

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I did finally get to go diving today, but not as much as I’d hoped and later than planned. Two of our divers decided to have a lie in so we left Kuta at 9:30 instead of 7am which pushed the rest of the day back and meant it was my turn to be late [...]

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Unfortunately, the custome I was supposed to be diving with this morning cancelled at the last minute and rescheduled for tomorrow. Hopefully they don’t do it again…
Instead I’m loafing in the 24-hour Minimart deli on the beachfront with it’s free wi-fi. Of course, I do this on a day when I have next to no [...]

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I’d had a long and tiring day on the 18th with the bus ride. I needed a good night’s sleep, but courtesy of three of the most selfish dorm-”mates” I’ve ever had the displeasure of encountering I didn’t get it.
A Dutch couple were in the opposite bunk and woke at 6:30am, chattering away as if [...]

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Courtesy of being disturbed by some bloody selfish Dutch people this morning (and one guy from Eastern Europe or Russia, judging by his accent), I stewed for a while and realised I’d had a few things happen in dorms over the course of this trip.
So, here’s a guide on how to behave when sharing accommodation [...]

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Sorry for the screaming caps, but I wanted to make this one stand out.
Regular readers may recall I mentioned that you can visit the Merpati office in Dili where they’ll book your flight for a $2 booking fee. No money changes hands, you simply take their printout to the airport in Kupang, hand over your [...]

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There had been a bad crash outside our hostel overnight. At a guess it looks like one 4×4 had been overtaking and gone head-on into another at speed. I’d suspect someone had been at the palm wine. Both cars were being lifted onto a car transporter by a crane when I got up.
Not a lot [...]

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