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Day Eleven - Nostalgia City, Bali Hilton - Population Us

Tonight we go on a good old trip down memory lane for a bit of nostalgia. It begins unexpectedly in the Nusa Dua Galleria as we look around for a restaurant in which to eat when we spot our guide who took us out for the day around the island on our last trip here. Or rather, he approaches us, as he's a waiter for a restaurant here, asking us if we'd eat there. He doesn't appear to recognise us, which is a great shame. As guiding people can't be something he does incredibly often, it's a bit disappointing, but I suppose us westerners all look the same to him! But here he is, two years later in the same place, the same job - though I can hardly talk - I'm in the same crappy job as I was last time here…

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After the meal, we stroll in the opposite direction from the Melia Bali to take another look around the Bali Hilton, our home on our last visit. Even after staying in our impressive new hotel, it's still a gargantuan monolith of a structure with a massive long entrance - a great man-made pond flanked by 50-foot length carved stone serpents. As we walk into the hotel, striding purposefully as though we're staying there, going all dewy-eyed at the memories of our near-nirvana state upon originally arriving here, a girl greets us at the entrance with the words, 'Hello and welcome home'. Of course, it's a standard nightly greeting for them, but to us, with it's much greater meaning, a right-royal lump forms in our throat.

We wander down to the Octopus Bar, our old nightly haunt here for a couple of Singapore Slings (not the same as the genuine Raffles ones - these are drier and more bitter, and actually more to my taste) only to find as well that the same covers band is still working here (not bad for that sort of thing). Prices too have increased here and we end up spending over £20 on two cocktails each… Ouch.

We then take a wander up to our see outside our old room just for the hell of it. Sad, I know, but healthier than getting all wistful and pining for eighties music.

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We walk back to the Melia Bali along the beach. Something significantly better about the Hilton is the quality of the san, sea and view. At the Melia we're separated from the Hilton by a cove, and our side is extremely shallow with little or no waves and a none too staggering view. Here though, even in the dark we can recall the difference and resolve to come here for a swim before home time comes around. An easier way to illustrate the difference between the beaches is that when at the Hilton we would lie the beach every day, only using the pool to wash off the salt water before retiring. At the Melia we've not once sunbathed at the beach, instead using the poolside at all times.

Another great thing about the beach here at night time are the phosphorescent beasties... Each wave after it hits the shore, breaks and recedes, leaves behind a smattering of little luminous dots of light, like bright green glow sticks that beam brightly in the night sky for over a minute before slowly fading away or getting washed back into the sea by another wave. I don't know what they are and we must find out, as they are, in a word, magnificent.

After chasing hundreds of small crabs along the shoreline we return to the Melia for more cocktails and then a whisky nightcap. I end up a completely drunken wreck and slump to bed with a spinning head, fatally inebriated. A great night, but we're supposed to be up early in the morning for a trip to Ubud. Oh dear...