June 6, 2001 Wednesday - Kuta - Bali, Indonesia

A temple in Ubud - Bali, Indonesia

We moved into a less posh hostel US$4.50. After moving in, we headed out for lunch. Dan still has his craving for Western food so we headed to KFC. We both ordered a Chicken Burger, which was only a pitiful patty between fairly flat buns. We walked around endless stalls of people selling items but they were far less aggressive than the merchants in Ubud.

I read later in the Lonely Planet book that in early 2000, the town tried to make it more tourist-friendly by beating up a whole bunch of aggressive hawkers. I guess it worked. Later that evening, I met up with Till, the German guy I met while in Queenstown, New Zealand. It was weird to meet up with him after so many months. We caught up on what we were doing and he gave me some tips about traveling in Germany and Europe. He's the type of backpacker that avidly avoids tourist spots like Kuta. He was staying in Denpasar.

We had dinner at a cheap but very good restaurant called Bamboo something on Poppie Lane I. After we ate, we parted company and I will see him probably in a month or so.

Dan's been looking for a pub that might be broadcasting the English football match. We found one who claimed to be showing it, but we were pretty skeptical because the guy who made the claim didn't even know whom England was playing. After a few more drinks, more Brits piled into the bar after hearing that there would be a match on and when it was time, they were still showing the Israel vs. Spain match.

We finally found it on a different station 15 minutes into the match and everybody cheered. The silly circus-like tune that they sang which consisted of only the word "England" as its lyric was sang throughout the night. It was pretty catchy, I had to admit.

England ended up winning 2-0. Dan looked pretty happy and it's the most lively I've seen of him all this week. I took an early flight next morning and head to Singapore.