The Northern Territory of Oz and beguiling Bali

I know I haven't updated the blog in a long time and much has happened since my last proper entry. The things is that the spare time I have apart from the sight-seeing, is easily used on writing emails and such, writing my journal (by hand) and reading and doing research on my next destination. Today is a different matter though. I'm in Singapore for the third day, have seen all the free attractions I'm interested in and I have already exceeded my budget for the city-nation. So I'm lying low and just waiting for tomorrow when I'm heading into cheaper Malaysia.

Kings Canyon in central Australia.

In the mean time I'll use the opportunity to catch up on recent (ehm...) events.

Rather than writing humongous blog post about all that has happened since the Great Ocean Road in Australia, I'm going to do things differently this time. I'll post the links to the photo albums here, but the telling will be done by the captions of the images. For those who care to read a bit more, I'll briefly summarize my best experience in Australia and Bali further down in this text. I was hoping to post pictures from my entire stay in Indonesia today as well, but I didn't get further than Bali, so Java will have to wait until next time, not to talk about Singapore. Sorry.

Here are the links to the photo albums in the gallery:

• The Red Centre of Australia
• "The Track" - from Alice Springs to Darwin
• Beguiling Bali

As far as experiences go, by far the best thing I did in Australia was visiting central Australia: Alice Springs, Kings Canyon, Uluru and Kata Tjuta. It is a unique area and so very different from anything else I've ever seen. The problem I found with the East coast was, that it resembled the north island of NZ too much. Sure it's beautiful, but not until I got to Alice Springs did I feel like I was in the Australia I had always imagined. Sleeping in swags under the stars. The heat. The red sand and rock. The dryness. These were the things I came to see in Oz.

Me by a funny looking termite "mound". I believe "tower" suites better. Check the image gallery for a much larger mound!

My ear which got hammered while surfing on Bali, is now much better. I will surf in Southeast Asia again before long, no doubt about it! Surfing was my best activity in Bali, it was so much fun and such an experience. Why is there no surf back home?

Pretend that's me.

Surfing on Bali

This is my fourth day in Kuta on Bali. It's frenetic, it's warm, and too touristy, but I like it as my first touch with Southeast Asia. The main reason why I wanted to come to Kuta is its beach, which has the best surf on Bali for beginners. And indeed, I have tried surfing here. It was heaps of fun, and not at all as hard as I would have imagined. I hired an Indonesian instructor on the beach and practiced with him for about 3 hours. It's real work out, I'll tell you. I never imagined it would be so energy consuming to get out there again once the waves have given you a ride to the shore.

Kuta Beach sunset.

Sadly, I won't be able to surf again on Bali. An unfortunate fall off the board due to a huge wave made me accidentally hit the side of my head on the board. As a consequence I now have a small perforation in my left ear drum. I can't swim or surf until it's healed to prevent infection; doctor's orders. And the worst thing is that it can take weeks, up to a month, for the ear drum to heal by itself. So until then, not only do I have to refrain from surfing, I also have to live with reduced hearing on my left ear, which is quite annoying. I'm disappointed, but such is life.

This just means I have to change my plans regarding my time on Bali and do something else. I'll probably travel to the less hectic cultural centre of Bali, the overgrown village Ubud, and take a lesson in Indonesian cooking.