I arrived back in Bali from Timor last night after a two hour wait for the visas on arrival at the Bali airport which was super annoying. But alas, I arrived at the Bounty Hotel; a mecca for sun, fun, Aussies and complete and utter debauchery. Friday night is their biggest night with an all you can eat and drink extravaganza for three hours before everyone heads out to the Bounty Bar which as I’ve mentioned is legendary around these parts.

Last night started out all innocently as a casual dinner kind of thing before this Aussie guy I met named Jimmy started ordering tequila shots-20 at a clip for our whole table: over and over again-it got ugly quick. I mean, why not-they’re free or at least included in the $40 charge along with a pretty good band, some Balinese dancers and plenty of drinking contests on their stage. The kicker for these drinking contests was that if you lost you had to take your clothes off and jump in the pool or be thrown which was often the case. I didn’t lose.

Needless to say it was a lot of fun and if you’ve ever been to Bali or any of the SE Asia party hotspots in Thailand or Malaysia then you know what I mean. I could have done without the drunken Aussies guys doing karaoke but hey-you win some you lose some.

I wish I could say I had some kind of cultural experience back in Bali last night but no such luck and after a much needed greasy breakfast, it is beautiful out once again and they are playing the SE Asian staple music of Jack Johnson-again, if you’ve been out here to any of these countries you know what I mean-they constantly play it all day before they switch to hardcore techno and crap like that at night. Life here is a lifestyle that’s easy to get used to and when you are back home-you dream bout it.

Anyway, I am now deciding if I am going to spend my last night here in Bali or head up to Borobodur and Yogyakarta tonight for an early morning temple viewing or just head up to Jakarta today because my flight to Shanghai leaves from Jakarta tomorrow night. I hate difficult decisions-but I guess it could be worse!

A quick side note, when I was waiting in the airport in East Timor yesterday for my flight back to Bali I saw the Brazilian President “Lula” land and walk in. He was out in Japan for the G-8 summit and then decided to head to Portuguese speaking Timor before heading to Jakarta and then home. It was pretty cool to see his two Air Force One equivalents land and him be greeted like a President is greeted.

Ironically for me, I was in Rio de Janeiro when he was elected the first time in 2002 and it was hailed as a great moment in their history. Lula will go down as one of their greatest heroes as he has made the economy thrive in these tough times. He is also very respected in the International community. If you don’t know his story about growing up in the favelas in Brazil-you should check it out-very inspiring stuff. I thought it was pretty cool to see him in such a random place as I feel lucky to have been in Brazil on that day in 2002.

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