Billy Bali

It's my first time in Asia and we have been here for 3 days now. I'm really glad Tom decided to come along with me, as the people that are constantly getting in your face was a bit intimidating to me in the few few hours. I do believe I would feel a bit lost by myself, but as the days pass I'm feeling more comfortable and would be okay with venturing off for a walk alone. Bali does not feel like an unsafe place at all. I would guess the biggest cause of deaths would be tourists getting drunk and getting hit by a motorbike, as there are many. I don't think there are many road rules either. Do whatever you can to avoid the obstacles. We considered renting a motorbike and found out that you could probably rent one for a month cheaper than what a small bottle of sunscreen costs. Apparently suncream is a tourist item because the darker skinned locals wouldn't need it.


I have been thinking lately about heading to Southeast Asia, as I feel I have seen as much of Australia as I care to, for the moment, and would like to experience a different culture. These ideas have caused much stress to me as I have been getting mixed messages from both my family and my friends. My family all have warned me how dangerous Asia can be and that a young woman should not travel there on my own, while one of my very good friends has told me how she went there for a few months on her own and had no troubles besides the usual theft and over charging that can occur to anyone. It is commonplace for people to either go from Australia, both Aussies and backpackers, to SE Asia, or through SE Asia on their way to OZ. From these backpackers I have heard the occasional story of something bad that may have happened to them, but not one of them has told me not to go, and all of them say it's definitely worth it. So you may understand my confusion surrounding the issue. I think I will do a bit more research, being in Bali is part of that, and will have to come to my own conclusions as we adults must do every day, don't we?

There are a few tricks I've learned so far in Bali, such as booking hotels online is much, much cheaper than actually booking at the hotel, we usually get about 50% off what the hotel tells us. The price is ALWAYS negotiable. There aren't really prices marked on anything and most people look at the color of your skin before making the price up. I haven't really been comfortable with bargaining yet, something I need to work on, but I still haven't spent much on anything. We're looking to get out of Kuta tomorrow and see some other, less touristic, parts of Bali where people aren't trying to sell you stuff constantly. We'll see what happens.

OH yeah, about the rest of the road trip. It went pretty smoothly until the very last day where we lost 2 of the girls for about 3 or 4 hours, it was dark by the time they were found. So the next day there was still a few fuses blown when we arrived in Darwin and it was hot and we had to prepare the car to return, which took hours, there were many arguments and a few unkind words, but all in all we worked it out and the day was done to get a well-deserved beer and hot meal.

Darwin was nothing to write home about for me. Mostly a party city and I just wasn't really in the mood, so happy to be off to Bali and experience something new and different.

ALLLLLLLLLLOOOHA.

The Red Center: Chapter 1

It's day 15 of our epic road trip through the center of Australia and I'm having the most awesome time of my life.

I'll set the stage:
We have Lara who's from Ulm, Germany and a cosmotologist by trade, she cooks a mean meal every now and again
Amy is from Adelaide and is currently finishing her nursing diploma, she loves to have us pull her finger and let it rip loud and clear so everyone can hear
Baptiste from Paris, France has a certificate in wildlife preservation, he is a bit self-centered, but very good at eliciting help from strangers when we're having car troubles
Vanessa, Baptiste's partner, from Montreal, went to Concordia at the same time as I and studied sociology, she is very nice and says she never farts, how disgusting!
Tom, my boyfriend, from Dresden, Germany is a musician and is about to study something when he returns home from Australia, he's wonderful and adorable and loves to count my hiccups and make wishes on them...
AND me

We don't always get along being smashed into a car together for 21 days straight. There have been a few arguements, a couple of breakups and reunions, and heaps of swearing in various languages.

But we laugh CONSTANTLY and we cry and we are getting to know each other and their habits REALLY well.

We started in Adelaide and our target is Darwin, but currently we are in Alice Springs and sleeping in beds for the first time in 2 weeks, which feels amazing.

Along the way we saw The Olgas, Ularu, King's Canyon, a domesticated Emu that grumbled at me when I disturbed it to go take a pee in the middle of the night (who expects to see a giant bird outside their tent at 3 in the morning??), Flinder's Ranges, a crazy 4WD trek to Palm Valley, tons of mice (as there is a plague at the moment), heaps of nothing but salt bush dotted with random mountain formations, a baby joey in his mother's pouch, some wineries, done a few bush walks, got stuck in the mud at Lake Eyre, had a few car problems, slept under ground in Coober Pedy, saw a few wild dingos, and met many wonderful friendly people along the way.

We've named our rig Trudy, after a woman we met in the first couple of days. When Trudy's feeling a bit temperamental, she doesn't like to start, this can happen in the middle of nowhere off the main road or in a small town, which, let's face it, it's all in the middle of nowhere. We give her pats and tell her we love her and that usually gets her going. So, we're chugging along.

We only have 6 more days to go and it's passing quickly. Four of us are hoping to go to Bali together to keep our trip going because we love each other so much.

Will have to update when I get to Darwin, until then send your love to Trudy, we can use it!