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September 10, 2005
Bali Paradise Lost?
DAY: 90
LOCATION: Bali - North Coast
NAUTICAL MILES TODAY: 14.5
NAUTICAL MILES YESTerDAY: 21
NAUTICAL MILES TOTAL TRIP: 817
LATITUDE : S 08 degs, 10.96'
LONGITUDE: E 114 degs, 57.03'
The last couple of day have been slow, sloggy days against a 0.75-1 knot tide. That plus the north coast of Bali turning out to be absolutely jammed end to end with people has made for rather a disappointing start to our last week paddling before the bike section across Java commences next week. I'm not sure what I expected. Small, qaint villages sprinkled along the coast, rather like our first Balinese port of Ahmed that was such a delight, perhaps. Instead the coast has been non-stop village after village after tourist complex after village. Yesterday we ended up paddling for 10-hours straight just to find a 50ft stretch of unoccupied sand we could camp on.
This was slightly precipitated also by being questioned extensively by the police the night before. Every night we stay in Indonesia we theortically have to register with the local police station. For most tourists this isn't an issue as their hotel registration forms are copied and picked up every evening by the local police. We obviously don't fit into the typical mould and we've been really lucky to get this far with as little hassle as we've had (on just one other occasion April and I had to produce documentation outside the village of 'Pota' on the island of Flores). Our situation at present is also complicated by our passports being at the immigration office in Denpasar getting visa renewal stamps (we'll pick them up when we return there Tuesday/Wednesday to drop off the kayaks and pick up bikes). Luckily I had one photocopy of mine which seemed to satisfy them for all of us. But now we're out of copies so tonight we're camped in a hide-out between bushes on a relatively quiet beach hoping to avoid detection again.
It has been great to reunite with Chris though who is sporting a rather dapper hat with a vast brim that doubles as a spinaker sail when the wind is from astern.
Posted on September 10, 2005 1:17 PM
Comments
I just love bureaucracy, make work to keep themselves employed, all the while hindering progress. I have never enjoyed power trips from officials...
Keep a low profile ;)
Erden.
Posted by: Erden Eruc at September 14, 2005 2:06 PM