Kuta Beach , Bali

I have enjoyed very comfortable and troughout lazy days in this busy paradise already over one week.
My last day in Australia was fantastic.It was the Melbourne Cup day, the day of horse racing, the biggest annual sporting event in Australia. The entire continent stops for some hours. Jane, Jeff, David and I took part in a champagne lunch at nearby Italian ristorante, with big screens to follow the races. The main start was at 3pm and everybody made bets for his or her favourit horse. I did put A$.20. for my
lucky number 24 horse called Mahler,named after a famous German classic music composer in 19th. century. Of 23 horses, still some few hundred meters before the finishing post, Mahler still did lead, but then unfortunately got tired and two horses did pass him. I had put my money only for the win,so I did not get anything, if I had bet for the podium I had doubled my investment. It was a lot of fun anyway, and a great experience.
Here I stayed the first week in Bounty Hotel, quite good, but somehow I wasn't totally satisfied. It was filled up with very noisy Aussies especially during night time. It did not disturb me, but I did neither socialize with them. Actually almost the only ones except the staff, I was talking with were two very pretty and stylish young ladies from the neighborhood of Perth, Portia 19 and Elle 18.
Day before yesterday I changed my accomodation to Satriya Cottages, a fantastic place very near to the beach with big swimming pool, and even cheaper than Bounty, only US$35 a night including breakfast and taxes. I can warmly recommend this hotel to anybody. Here I met immediately nice talking partners like Kenneth 22 and his girl friend Nicole 19 from Stavanger,Norway. Then there are two American firefighters on their holidays from Afganistan, Josh 31 from Decatur, Illinois and Armando 28, from Houston, Texas. Their station is just some kilometers from Pakistan border, and they know exactly that Taliban is fireing them from Pakistan side.
There is also a very funny middle aged couple John and Maria from Sydney, Australia world travellers too , with a lot of funny stories. With those people and with a Swiss couple, we had yesterday plenty of Bintang beers a lot of laughs in the swimming pool bar until dark.