kuta

in kuta now, after a potentially horrendous situation yesterday - i got hit by a motorbike while i was walking on the sidewalk in Ubud. the driver stopped and took me to the clinic and then the hospital because we thought my elbow was fractured. took a couple of xrays and it turns out (thank goodness!) it is only a sprain. will have my left arm in a sling for the next week but very happy it wasnt any worse than that! made the journey to kuta today - its not really my sort of place. a nice, very long beach but the city itself is very polluted and noisy. lots of australians on a short holiday so you have the real Tourist crowd instead of just the backpacker crowd, which means prices are more expensive and life in general is more commercial. i will likely only stay here a couple days and then head maybe to padang padang before going to candidasi and diving the liberty wreck in tulmarine (sp?)

i was impressed though at the hospital and clinic in ubud! the doctor spoke english (almost perfect except for the extremely disconcerted mix up that he *and apparently all other balinese* have of saying "hand" when they mean "arm" and "sick" when they mean "hurt") and the facilities were very clean and orderly (though not nearly as modern as a western hospital) and to top it off, everyone wore fun, brightly colored clothes which gave the place a more festive atmosphere!

tonight headed to the night market in kuta, away from the city center, hoping to get out of the tourist scene for a couple of hours and get back to the street food ive been missing in bali!