Mageland - Yogyakarta - Denspasar - Kuto

Many miles since last post.

My new friend Tugah brought me to his twice a monthly neighbourhood gathereing where alle the men met to discuss anything from recent news to neighbourhood security. After that they played guitar and sang karaoke all night. The norwegian song "Idyll" by Postgirobygget was a smashing hit when I got to try the guitar. I`m glad I learned how to play it.

The indonesian people are very open minded and the welcomeness is always great. I`m also glad to find out that I could leave my bag with some strangers in a travel bureu for a whole day without loosing more than a pocket knife from the top room. (Actually I think they went through the whole bag, but there was nothing else but shoes and clothes in there.)

After staying one night in Mageland I decided to skip the Dieng Platue and head straight for Bali. The reason being my soon expired visum. My first bus trip was a far from plesant, sitting inside a tiny minibus with no AC, no leg space, and no chance whatsoever to sleep. This time I decided to go for a luxury bus with all the available facilities, and it was very much worth it. I arrived Densapar ("capital" of the Bali island) early this morning, and hitched a ride to Kuto, a very popular place for surfers and other tourists. This place reminds more of a greek island than the rest of Indonesia, because of its high standards. The differences within the Indonesian islands are big!

Even though Bali is a tourist place (and crowded) I enjoy being here, and I think I will pay (way to much) to renew my visum to stay another week. It doesn`t really matter too much, because even if Bali differs a lot from the rest of Indonesia, the prices are still very low compared to anything else. I have a great room, eat whatever I want, been surfing all day and I`m now drinking cheap beer, and it doesn`t cost more than about 300 kroners/day.

About the surfing.. It`s hard to learn, so I signed up for a beginners course tomorrow morning at 0700, which means I have to get to bed early not to miss it. So far I have no sun burns, but I`ve had my clothes on for most of the time, and I`ve been using water resistant sun block factor 45. Indonesia is not far from the equator, the the sun is strong!

That`s it for today! Take care! :)