Bali

As with many holidays when you arrive it can be a bit of a culture shock in Bali. We had never been to Asia before. The weather was hot and I (John) made the first error of allowing a baggage handler to carry my board through custom's, he then wanted more money than I was prepared to give him, he was not happy.
Then we had to try and barter the taxi drivers down to a reasonable price, which involved playing them off against each other. We finally agreed and headed for Kuta.
We dropped off the bags and headed into town. It was fun, if still a little of a culture shock. The Balinese are very, very friendly people. Hinduism is their religion and they are all smiles and handshakes. They are trying to sell you things all the time though but not in an aggressive or unpleasant way. You HAVE to barter in bali or you pay far too much. To the Balinese it's a game. We are following the rule of always offering at least half of the asking price and working from there. It is actually quite fun.We all slept very well that first night.