DiggerDawg Travel- Mike O'Dell
10 - 45905 Yale Road V2P 2M6 Chilliwack, BC, Canada

So our vacation is nearly at its end, we fly out at 110am tomorrow morning. Our last stay was in Kuta at Yulia Beach Inn. A liitle about Kuta from my perspective. Kuta is a tourist town for sure. Close to the airport, beautiful beach, tons of bars and pubs and thousands of vendors. Kuta is loud, busy and crazy. Kuta beach is absolutely amazing and the sunsets there are not to be missed. The water is warm with huge waves, especially good for beginning surfers and boogie boar...ders. The shopping is great and the food even better. The one thing that ruined it for me though is the street vendors. Elsewhere we have been you would get approached by a street vendor and hear, hi where you from, or I have good deal for you. A polite no thank you sends them away. Not Kuta, they are relentless here. They will follow you down the street yapping at you, some will even grab you and try to turn you around towards their shop or kiosk. Politeness does not work here, even a stern no falls on deaf ears. Yeah I had to get rude a couple of times. They will try and sell you anything from trinkets, clothing, souvenirs, massages (and not the kind you get in spas), hell I was even offered young boys by one scumbag. I also read a review somewhere where bartering here is frowned upon, not true my friend, when they quote you that inflated price for that t-shirt, shake your head no and say too much then try to leave. The price will come down faster than you can blink. Yes we are only talking a few bucks here but why by a t-shirt for $10 when the very next shop will sell it to you for $5. In the end, Bali is a beautiful place and is so diverse from town to town. We have loved our vacation here and who knows, may be back.

Just a quick review. As we get ready to leave Amed for Kuta this morning I thought I would write a little about Amed. Amed is located on the coast and has one main road running through the town. Once and still a fishing village, tourism is well seen and felt here. Where Ubud is busy, noisy, full of culture, arts and fine eateries, Amed is a dive town. Not that it is bad but rather if you are into scuba diving this is the town for you. You can't swing a flipper without hitti...ng 5 dive shops. But as such, there is virtually no shopping for the souvenier hunter or at least very little. There are lots of Warungs and spas, in fact it looks like every resort has one. The street is not packed with hundreds of scooters and cars and at night you can hear the chirping of the insects and frogs as well as the waves washing ashore. From our balcony each morning we could watch the fishermen drag their boats out to catch the fish of the day to sell to the restaurants. These same fishermen can be hired later to take you snorkeling, fishing or just on a little cruise of the coast. There isn't much in the way of a beach with the exception of a couple small stretches, most of it being rock but once in the water if you are snorkeling or diving there is lots to see. I have to give a shout out to Bali Reef Divers who own 2 dive shops, here and in Tulamben. They run a very professional operation and are very safety oriented. I did 5 dives with them that were awesome to say the least. Thanks Anna, Kadek and Longshore. All said, if you are not into diving or snorkeling then Amed may not be for you but if you are then you got to stay here fir a couple days anyway.

Trip review part 2 Temples volcanoes and elephant rides Waking up Sat morning and seeing the resort in the day time confirmed that I had made the right choice in selecting Bali Dream Resort. But more on that in a later review. Sat we spent the day relaxing by the pool, eating and napping trying t recover from our jet lag. ...Continue reading

My First Bali review One of our bucketlist trips has always been to vacation on Bali Island, Indonesia. We have finally made this happen. We flew with China Southern Airlines from Vancouver (YVR) to Guangzhou, China (CAN) to Denpasar, Bali (DPS) First off l will say I was pleased with China Southern, their service, plane and over all flight. The seats were comfortable for the 13 hour flight from YVR to CAN. A little less so on the 4.5 hour flight to DPS. The flight ended be...Continue reading

This is what I get to wake up too the next 6 days