Bali

On the way to Bali & we'd already booked into 'Flashbacks' hotel in Sanur, it was the only place we'd had pre-booked since before we left the UK with it being Xmas and all (trying to be organised!) & when we arrived we definitely weren't disappointed. It was like a beautiful little haven, so very tranquil with a cute little pool. It felt a million miles away & just what we needed.
We met up Jonathan that night (a guy from Manchester whom we'd already met at Everest Base Camp) he drove up to us from Kuta, & then the next day we hired a moped & went to see him as he was leaving that day. Kuta was so much busier than where we sere staying & just so many motorbikes & typical aussie backpacker dudes - you know the type, lovely to look at but not much going on upstairs ;-). It was ok, but just not for us & we were glad to be staying a bit further out of the crowds. We left about 6pm that evening & what should have been a 50 min trip ended up taking us almost 3hrs! Yes we got lost & we discovered that the road signage in Bali is terrible. No excuse it really is.

The next few days we pretty much hung around at Flashbacks as it was just so peaceful, until we took our first trip off the island & went o the Gili Islands- we stayed at Gili Trawangan which is the largest of the islands (the other are called and it situated just across from Lombok. It's only 8k around the whole of the island and there are no vehicles here, only horse & carts. We took a snorkelling trip to the other 2 islands, Gil Meno & Gili Air and saw some amazing fish & coral as well as giant turtles which were incredible!!!. We met a lovely couple called Benito & Maya from Palma & had such a lovely day with them that in the evening we met up with them again & had a few drinks. Which turned into a few more & we didn't finish until about 2pm. In fact we know were were drake when we woke the next morning to discover that there had actually been a mini tornado that caused white a bit of damage to where we were staying & we hadn't even heard it!

Gili Trawangan

Benito & Dan

Fun on Gili!

Another place we were keen to visit was Ubud which on the map looked quite close to us to we decided we'd hire a couple of mountain bikes & take a trip. Well, after 18 miles just one way, a painful 2 1/2 hours of biking and a sore bottom later we finally arrived! I thought I was going to die! The ride there however was pretty spectacular, the villages & Balinese temples & buildings were very beautiful so that kind of made up for it ;-) And Ubud itself was a lovely, hippie like town. We decided that we'd definitely visit again, but next time take a motorbike!

Too much biking now......make it stop!!

On the way to Ubud

Ubud Monkey Forest

Ubud

As usual we decided that after a few days mooching about we were ready for one of our favourite pastimes…….a trek! So we booked a trip to Mount Batur Volcano, which involved being picked up from our hotel at 2am, taken to a small village where we managed to grab a quick coffee & then started our 1hr 1/2 walk at 4.30am. On the way up we couldn't really see anything to be honest, we'd got our torches at the ready & we culled only make out the pathway up. But when we arrived, and the sun rose the views were just spectacular. It was a fantastic little trip.

Sunrise atop Mount Batur

We had such a lovely time in Bali, obviously it was also special with it being Xmas, which although was very quiet was lovely even so - we enjoyed a traditional cooked diner on the beach & a few drinks so we definitely couldn't complain:-) But what was really great was just hiring a moped & scooting around the countryside. There are many beautiful landscapes & paddy fields, not to mention the famous sights such as the floating temple at Tanah Lot which was fab too.

Tanah Lot

At Uluwatu.....just beautiful

Views of Uluwatu

The 'secret' beach we found

Well, not so secret (it is signposted) just bloody hard to find!

Dans fave Balinese dish - Ibu Oka, Suckling Pig

Sanur, Indonesia