We sailed into Bali, and it was raining! Had a quick breakfast and headed down to the Vista Lounge to collect our tender tickets, as the ship is much too big to berth close to the dock, We chose to do Kuta on our own with Paul and Kim, a 45 minute boat ride then 20 minute bus ride into the main part of Kuta. As this was our first time to Bali we weren't sure what to expect. In hindsight I wish we had done the traditional village tour which would have given us a better insight as Kuta is all about haggling and George an I don't enjoy that, although some people do. Anyway the Bintang beer really helped us to chill out! It is an interesting place with the contrast of beautiful monuments and run down shacks. We only had 2.5 hours to shop and all we bought was 6 beers for less the $10, to bring back aboard. Arriving back at the dock, the scene was hilarious as there would have been about 1000 people all waiting to catch the tenders back to the ship. However it was only about 1.5 hour wait, in the heat and starvation setting in, we finally got on our way. Well this proved to be the most exciting part of the day as we had some BIG waves rocking the tender boat, so much that a huge wave caused water to pour in through the hatch on the top. Yes, it landed on George and his bag. My first thought was NOT ANOTHER CAMERA GONE, but thankfully it survived. I have to say that I was quite terrified on the tender. We were so exhausted we fell asleep after we got to our cabin and missed dinner.
