Uluwatu

It was sad to leave the Gilis behind. I could have spent a lot more time doing nothing except to enjoy the easiness of life over there but we had terminated our holiday before we had even started it which meant we had to stick to our schedule. We had booked a shuttle service which would bring us directly to Kuta, Bali, because we didn't want to loose any more time through inefficient traveling. The shuttle company had boats to get us off the island, then we were driven to Lembar (with only a few stops on the way) where we got on to the ferry that brought us to Padangbai, where we were picked up and transported to Kuta. It was still not even close to the standards we are used to in the western world but it was more than 200% improvement to what Bekki and I used to experience. The trip took us the whole day though, mainly because of the ferry which took more than 5 hours, we left at 8am and arrived at about 7pm. We had some problems finding a room for the night because most cheap hostels were already booked out but we eventually found one that was a bit more expensive and offered free WiFi and breakfast.
The next day we rented a bike and, after the worst breakfast so far, we left our bags at the information counter and drove towards the southern peninsular. Right on the south-eastern tip of that peninsular is a Buddhist tepel that didn't interest me at all, but gave its name to a place a bit further north: Uluwatu.
Uluwatu is one of the reasons why I wanted to go to Bali in the first place. It is an unforgettable sight when you walk down the steps that lead towards the wave and you can make out beautiful barrels through a gap between the cliffs. At once my heart started beating faster and I was curious to see more. More of the place I wanted to see from the moment I'd first heard of it and it was amazing. You walk through something like a little village right on the cliff, where surf shops, board repairs, restaurants and souvenir shops are almost built on top of each other, all facing the wave. When you chose one of the restaurants an sit down right above the edge you have an panoramic view over the wave and all its sections. It is another sight that is hard to describe and unfortunately my camera doesn't have a panorama function but you must imagine it as a 180°+ view from the left to the right with at least five sections (not always all of them work at the same time/ in the same conditions) from medium to big with all shapes of good waves. Along the cliff you find everything a surfer needs but it is rather expensive compared to other places. It was a small day and we spent a few hours watching the waves and surfers, enjoying the loose atmosphere on the clifftop before we went for a swim in the rock pools and headed back to Kuta in the afternoon. It wasn't easy for me to see those waves and not be able to go out (due to astronomical board rental prices and missing reef boots) because it was quite small(4ft) and I was really starting to miss the surfing and again I told myself I would come back here to surf these waves with more time.

Hmmm... why isn't that me???

The entrance cave to Uluwatu

I'm not sure why we did so but we decided to stay awake the next night before we got our flight to KL the next day. It might have been because the flight we had planned to book left at 6am (now it left at 11am) or just because we didn't want to get more money out on Bali but we stayed awake. We dropped the bike off after a shopping tour through Bali's surf shops and went looking for a bar with free WiFi. We were lucky to find one with WiFi, good food, comfortable chairs and European sport on one and a surf movie on the other screen. The only problem was that it closed at 12am which meant that we had another 11 hours to go. We decided not to go to a nightclub because we had all our stuff with us, bought some snacks and coffin drinks and sat down at the beach. It was far less creepy than the first time because there where many other people there, sleeping or chatting in small groups. We felt a lot safer than on our first encounter with Kuta's main beach and started watching movies on Bekki's laptop. That was a great way to kill time and it was almost 5 o'clock after we finished the second movie. We tried to sleep a bit as well and spent the last hour at McDonalds with a coffee and internet.
We decided to walk to the airport which wasn't far away. The flight went by without anything special happening (which probably is a good sign when you're in the air). It was great to see Bali from above. First the coastline with all its breaks and further inland the volanos and lakes. We flew almost right over the Gurung Agung (the volcano you can see during the sunset on Lombok) before some clouds came up and blocked our sight.