MAD MONDAY 14th Sept - our last day in Perth, flying to Bali, Indonesia later on today. Rick got his hair cut while I was busy running around sending parcels home, getting toiletries and closing my aussie account. After checking out of our hostel, we went to intrepid tour office, to book our thailand tours, for when we leave Bali in 3 weeks. Ricky decided on the "inside indochina vietnam/cambodia/bangkok 26 day tour" It turned out you are not allowed suitcases, you have to have backpacks, so I decided not to go with this company, and go it alone booking flights and accomodation as I go. I decided that I want to see south thailand, places like phuket, phi phi, krabi and koh samui. It was beginning to seem like everything was against rick booking his tour, his card was not working so had to borrow money from me to pay for it, and he didnt know wabout the vietnamese visa situation, and so would have to send his passport off to the consulate while we were in Bali, and then get his family in Australia to post it special delivery to the last hotel we would be at, it was all very confusing, and we have never run around so much in all our lifes!! We were having big problems finding accomodation in Bali online, so we decided to pop to a jetset travel place, and got lumbered with an idiot called Rick, who was , putting it politely full of sh*t! lol. Only when we arrive at the airport, does Rick call us and say he's managed to get us 5 nights accomodation in the area of Sanur in Bali, thank god we have something! I ended up having to pay $80 at check in because my suitcase was 24 whoopsy, will book that ahead online in future now to save money! We were flying with Air asia, its basic but comfy seats! rick had nobody sitting next to him, so he could stretch his legs. Although there was this huge woman behind us that was so irritating, complaining about so much, for a bloody 2 hour flight!! We arrived in Bali to glorious heat. It cost 95,000 rupiahs to get a taxi from airport to the Besakih beach resort in Sanur. The hotel was very nice for a 3* We had a twin room, no others were available,so we pushed the beds together and headed out to have a wander around and get some dinner. We found a little place just down the road, and had a tasty 3 course meal for about seven pounds!! including a few drinks. It was mad, we could not beleive it. Had an early night.

tues 15th sept - guess what, no hot water! cold showers wern't too bad though as it was so hot. the air con was lovely, perfectly nice hotel, pool etc, right on the beach. Today we took a taxi to Denpasar the capital city, because the post office is there. Rick sent his passport and vietnam visa application off , back to the consulate in Australia! lol that was an experience, being with all the locals in the post office! it was mad. he will soon find out how reliable Balinese post is! We got a taxi back to Sanur, and spent the day on the beach/pool, Rick could not get used to the humidity and was constantly sweating profusely, it was very funny, because usually I am known for sweating, but I was fine! Went for another slap up meal in the evening before bed. It's so hot we are just tired all the time.

weds 16th sept - AMy is here, disaster has to happen......... Today we sat by pool, had lunch, in the evening we went to the internet cafe opposite the hotel, and, low and behold all of the power in the south of Bali goes off. Huge power cut, we are plunged into darkness, cannot see a thing! It was funny though, people over react to such things, demanding the hotel staff produce aircon or electricity...from where?! their fingers??!! stupid people. We went for a nice meal in the mona lisa restaurant, rick loved it here, it was nice. I was told by Rick that the aircon and power came on again around 1am, but I was asleep and never noticed.

thurs 17th sept - after another nights great sleep we had our breakfast which is included, and got a taxi to an impressive monument in Denpasar (cost RP 250,000!!!!) we took Rick the pr*ck's advice from jetset and took a powder blue metered taxi, its the most expensive we have used so far! we walked around the monument, took some photos, it was unbearably hot. we walked a long way back to a roundabout, and hailed down a little green van taxi with no door. The driver was called Wayan, he was very sweet with hardly any teeth lol. He took us to an orchid flower farm, which was very pretty, but something we could have done without really! just extra money to be spent as always! they showed us this (fat cat) which was actually a mongoose they feed it up with cocoa beans, and a very very expensive coffee is made from it's poo! so that's something we never knew before I suppose! we tried some honey which is made from some of the orchids. Wayan then took us back to our hotel so we could spend the rest of the day by the pool. The taxi men are everywhere, constantly asking you "transport?? transport??" - "no thankyou" - "tomorrow?? tomorrow??" - "no thankyou, if i need trnasport tomorrow, I will ask somebody TOMORROWW!!!" it gets a little irritating after a while, it would have drove my Dad around the bend. Then they are all the same, even when you have given them business and you are in a taxi. They start asking you about your trip, honeymoon? first time in Bali? how long you here?? Ricky thinks they are just being nice and interested in us, so he says "we are in sanur for 5 days, then going to Ubud,etc etc..." they reply with "ahhh when you go to ubud? I take you? what time? from your hotel?" they are desperate for more and more money. Luckily the locals, you can barter with for a good price. It's just bloody typical that the local taxi men we always got had clapped out old banger card, with no aircon, and we found that we could get decent suzuki aircon cars for the same price ! lol atleast we were helping needy locals though, so that was good, and they were always a bloody experience getting in those cars! SO....ofcourse, we ended up agreeing to let Wayan take us to our next hotel, which is in the Ubud area, 1 hour northeast of Sanur, into the hills/rice paddies.

Friday 18th sept - We made a boo-boo lol we ended up promising 3 different taxi men to take us to Ubud at 3 different times!! LOL. I was killing myself laughing. It's because we kept getting cheaper and cheaper prices! This evening ANOTHER thing happened, probably because Amy Foster was in the area... we had an earthquake!! we were in bed asleep and the bed was moving all over the floor, and I thought Ricky was shaking me trying to wake me up, but it was the floor moving the bed. It was 6.4 on the earthquake scale. A very strange sensation that was, my first earthquake. We got a strange call this afternoon..... saying we had won a free holiday, I was so confused. It turned out it was a timeshare company in Nusa Dua area down south of Bali, that got our number of our room through that bloody jetset place. Ricky said ok they could pick us up, take us to nusa dua for lunch, as it would be another area for us to see, that we werenot planning on going to. Tonight I was really ill, I had official Bali belly. Everytime I eat, I am up all night. This was embarassing! I kept putting the shower on full blast incase Ricky heard any noises!! haha. Tonight is our last night at the Besakih, we check out in the morning.

Sat 19th sept - Wayan was there early and eager for our money and to take us to Ubud. He got lost in Ubud, and obviously did not know his way around, after asking a few locals, we managed to find our way to the Bhanuswari Resort & spa. Rick's face when in the taxi was a picture, he said are you going to murder me and bury me in a field?! I was thinking, I hope this is decent, because its quite an expensive hotel for us! I turned out to be a sort of big old balinese manor house, it was beautiful, it had a hige lilly pad pond out front, gorgeous flowers everywhere, it was amongst all the rice paddie fields, there were locals sorting and picking the rice with those little triangle hats on. It was so so quiet and peaceful. We said our goodbyes to Wayan and thanked him for bringing us, we took his card and explained that we will call him when we know when we are checking out, because we cannot find accomodation. He replied with I wait here for you, you wait here. We said yes, but only when we call you, we dont know when we are checking out, we may stay longer. We had a gorgeous big room, the pool was outside of our patio doors. We spent the afternoon by the pool, there were animal noises everywhere like in the jungle, I was having a fit due to the brightest biggest butterflies everywhere! lol. The hotel has a shuttle bus service, so in the evening we went into Ubud town, to the monkey forest road. On the way we dropped a couple off that were wearing sarongs and going to a Balinese ceremony for a sick man, which was pretty random! We had a lovely meal at Cafe Wayan (everything and everyone seems to be called Wayan in Bali!) we got soacked in the rain running to an internet place, because Rick lost the hotel card, so we had to get the number online, then use the phone to call them and ask the shuttle to pick us up again lol. We cannot find any accomodation for the next 3 nights after staying here for 3 nights, so we may come unstuck here possibly!

Sunday 20th sept - today we booked a Balinese masage for Rick, and a green tea massage for me. mine was RP 250,000 and Ricks was RP 100,000. Breakfast was lovely, we had ginger tea for my dodgey belly, which now I am addicted too, Rick likes it too, its really nice. it is so lovely here where we are staying, 3 days is enough but its a lovely peaceful relaxing break. The massages were very nice, I got covered in all sorts of muck, nearly kicked the girl in the face when she touched my feet! had lots of bones cracking, and having my toes and fingers popped was not that pleasant! after I had a soak in an outdoor bath with milk and flower petals, it was lovely. Then they gave us bannana pancakes and ginger tea afterwards, and we promtly went back to the room and had a lovely nap for an hour. This afternoon we went to monkey forest, it was excellent! we had monkeys all over us, sitting on our shoulders. The mothers with the babies were extremely cute. I made a little mate, a monkey with a dodgey neck that followed me everywhere looking at me with his big eyes. It rained heavily all evening, went to dinner there again, before heading back.

Monday 21st sept - today we went to an elephant sanctuary, It has been raining heavily since we arrived in Ubud, and today was no different! Its so hot though, it's quite pleasant in a way. there are 10 elephants at the centre, they were all rescued from the tsunami in sumatra, Bali does not have elephants. Our guide was dennis and his elephant was nancy, his home was destroyed in sumatra, as well as loosing some of his family, he brought nancy over with him, so she was like his best friend. He was really nice, said he liked english and aussies because we chat to him and have a laugh, he said he does not like the Japanese and Chinese, they are rude, will not talk to him and just want to take photos! lol. He earnt in 1 month, what one of our 3 course cheap meals cost that we were having every evening! scary. We had lunch and then headed back to the hotel, after riding around with nancy and dennis for half an hour. Today we had more spa treatments! I had an aloe vera facial and Rick had a sea salt crub massage and milk. Ubud is more expensive to stay, and to eat compared to Sanur. We check out tomorrow, and have managed to book 3 nights at Nick's pension hostel in Ubud still. God knows what to expect because the reviews are mixed! Didnt really want to stay in Ubud any longer as the weather is not great, but have managed to book a villa room at diana villa hotel in Legian/Kuta area after here, and then we need to head to Singapore before going our separate ways! :-(

tues 22nd sept - we packed our bags and headed down to breakfast. And low and behold who is eagerly hanging around outside with his little green van, after driving all the way from Sanur....WAYAN!!! Rick just bloody sat eating his breakfast while I asked the hotel manager to translate for me, because wayan obviously does not know what we are saying. I explained, thats why we took his card to call him when we need picking up, as we may be staying longer than 3 days, because we have 3 days after with no accomodation before we head to legian!! he looked like he was going to cry, I fely awful, he's asking me for some money, even 50,000, but I was annoyed he didnt listen, and also we had no money, we needed an ATM! so eventually after half hour he left, all I could do was apologise, but technically it was not my fault. He should not be so desperate, but I know its hard, he is probably poor with a family to support. After breakfast, the hotel drove us to Nick's pension hostel down a street called JALAN BISMA which Rick has now named Pepto bismal lol. It was lovely, big rooms, basic - twin beds again, gorgeous surroundings, not too far to walk to where all the action is in Ubud town. Again very quiet and peaceful and very quaint. Even though the bathroom is a tiled box, it was the first hot, decent shower we have had since being in Bali in gorgeous hotels!! lol We had a wander, went to some rapids under a bridge, after walking half hour in the wrong direction to town! lol we walked the other way and eventually found the post office, and sent some postcards home...the first I have sent in 10 months! Finally put our photos on facebook, and chatted to mum on chat. We had dinner overwatching the Balinese local dancing. I ordered a drink, and the whole restaurant was looking and lauhging at me..coming towards me was a huuge coconut with a straw in it!! I was so embarassed, trust me to pick that!! and it was disgusting, so I didnt even drink it!!

weds 23rd sept - slept well, had breakfast, which is included again. A lovely touch, at night they come round and light inscence for mosquitos on your porch, and in the morning they put 2 glasses and a flask of ginger tea on your table on the porch. It's so nice. Was raining still every day, so chilled out on porch, bought some books in town.

thurs 24th sept - finally on our last day in Ubud, we have a hot sunny day. Its been lovely though, very green and lush and wildlife everywhere. We went to monkey forest road for the last time and went to cafe wayan, ricks fave place so he can have stuffed crab for starters, he loves it. he ended up having 2 of them for good measure!! lol We went for a drink in the buddah bar opposite, got a taxi (called......wayan! you guessed it!) back to hotel, and you guessed it, he wanted to take us to legian in the morning, aaaand you guessed it, his car was discusting with no air con. Oh well! lol he was so so grateful and thankful that we chose to give him"job" lol.he told us about his kids, and said he could buy them some cake tonight from the money we pay him, my kind of man!! first priority: CAKE!!

friday 25th - Wayan arrived late, we nearly took the nie hotel taxi, which was the same bloody price! he turned up just in time. It was so hot and uncomfortable in his old banger, and it struggled geting up the hills of Ubud! The journey is 1.5 hours to Legian/Kuta, and he did take us a nice route through the rice fields and local towns, which were very poor. He tells us all he knows about rice and the villages etc...all the while I know he's trying to sell SOMETHING to us, because they always are! and eventually he keeps going on about him and his brother doing tours, "ve hav di nice car, vedi vedi nice car, air con" he kept going over this again and again. we took his card and said we'd call him if we want a bloody tour!! Eventually after going through a dodgey alleyway wioth a dirty river and getting scared about this hotel!...we found it. Its lovely, and we're not even in the main part of the hotel, we have a private gate and area, with our own pool, its villa style and share it with one other room. we spent the day by our private pool! and walked into Kata in the evening. It's hard to walk around, the pavements are high with huge pot holes every 5 steps! it's easier to just walk in the street! we had dinner, then walked to the beach. Bali food festival was on for the next 3 days, there was food stalls everywhere, it was packed with people, there was entertainment on the stage, it looked like a good laugh. After the good atmosphere on the beach, we decided to check out the main street in Kuta (where the Bali bombings happened) It was pretty busy, drunk Aussies everywhere (Bali is like the equivalent to British going to Ibiza, they are all walking round holding bottles of beer, with these awful "bintang beer" vests on being idiots!) We stayed in the 2 main bars/discos which were very hot and busy, we drank softdrinks, but stayed there a while, the music was good, we didnt realise how much we miss our bloody liquid clubs back home! with decent music and just having a laugh and dancing. We decided we might come back tomorrow night and drink some alcohol for once and get a bit merry! We left and walked to the bombing memorial. Its weird to stand there kinowing all the peoples names on the marbel died here, none of these bars that are here now, were there 7 yrs ago. there were quite a few English people that died in the bombings too. Our second day, sat 26th sept - we stayed by the pool, then went into Kuta again. after dinner we ordered 2 strawberry daquiries each from the happy hour menu, they were discusting! so strong, but we drank them. after one more alcoholic drink we were on water the whole night!! we were back in the bars we were in yesterday! it was fun again, all the scantily clad balinese girls come out and dance on the bar and the music was good, but it was just too hot!! it feels like your going to pass out. We got a taxi back to hotel around 1/2am and went skinny dipping in our pool!

sun 27th sept - i got up for breakfast (included) rick didnt move, he was not feeling well, so I bought him some breakfast back.spent today by pool, and going into kuta internet to sort out singapore and my thailand trip tonight. we heard back from ricks family today, his passport is on its way back to Bali - tank god.

mon 28th sept - we went to Kuta beach today, we walked for 2 hours in the blazing heat so rick could take some photos of the bombing memorial in the daytime! lol we had some lunch and stayed on the beach for sunset. the beach was nice, very wide, but no different from any beaches in Australia really. there were surfers everywhere, We were constantly bombarded by looky looky men selling everything you could think of, fruit, ice cream, statues, watches, rings, sunglasses, sarings, pillows, paintings, we even woke up to a man holding a massive bow and arrow to our faces trying to sell us that!!! it was very annoying. The massage women are everywhere too, they just start touching you up on the beach! On the way back to the hotel, I got shouted at numerous times, got told I was sexy lady, and did I want to buy some ice cold piss....and there was even a sign saying ice cold piss, at this, I burst into hysterics, I still have no idea what this drink actually is!! I started to feel cold and snotty in the evening, and had an ear ache. A car full of Aussies shouted "nice t*** love" and I said to Rick, right time for bed I think!! lol

tues 29th sept - did not sleep at all last night, got a bad cold, stayed by pool out of the sun, felt like crap. Rick had a bad belly today, what a pair we are!! Ricks passport finally arrived tonight!! so, after a dumb cab driver taking us 30mins in the wrong direction!! we went on internet and booked flights and accomodation in Singapore for 2 days after leaving Bali. and then booked my flight and hostel in Phuket, thailand, and ricks flight to vietnam. Had a very cheapo dinner tonight, we both got crab, but they were the crabbiest crabs ive ever had, too much hard work for rick, his appetite dissapeared after picking at the damn thing! lol.

weds 30th sept - we missed breakfast, we slept well last night, we sat around the pool for a bit, then got ready and got a cab to Uluwatu, to a temple on the seacliff for sunset, there were monkeys everywhere, we saw a kecack and fire dance which was brilliant, there was no music thank god, balinse music is awful it drives me around the bend, instead 70 men all painted came and made music with their mouths it was really good., bright and entertaining. we then went down south to Jimbaran for dinner along the sandy beach at a restaurant calle the blue marlin. it was very romantic and a lovely setting with the sea lapping at your feet, candles everywhere, food was ok, nothing special, just fish! lol nice ending to our last night in Bali though. We got some sweets and went back to hotel. It was all over the news, devestation, bad earthquakes in sumatra, earthquakes and tsunamis in vietnam, cambodia, hundreds dead....where Rick is heading in a few days!! I am nervous for him! hope he will be safe. After ringing intrepid tours, they said the flooding is south, tour is going ahead and ricky will be fine. Thank god.

thurs 1st oct - our flight to singapore was delayed by 1 hour, so sat playing monkeyball on my ds! there was a horrible woman sitting next to us who was ignoring her little daughter and the daughter was on the verge of tears begging her mum "mooom,mom,mooom,why ru hurting my feeeelings mom,mooom" I wanted to tell the mother to grow up! Bye bye Bali....hello singapore!

We were booked into the robertson quay hotel in Singapore, thankfully because I had already been, I picked a good place to stay. we walked around Robertson and Clarke quay, had dinner in a chinese restaurant, which cost $130!!! Ricky had his first chilli crab, the local delicacy, his eyes were streaming, nose running, it was pretty spicy I must say! really nice though. We had a few drinks in some bars, the clinic - hospital themed! with wheelchairs and hospital beds to sit on, and drinks from IV drips! lol then to Indochine, the forbidden city, which was a cool place, massive inside with ice sculptures, and massive fish tanks, then onto yello jello retro bar, a bit like flares back home, Rick loved it singing along to Belinda Carlisle summer rain and bannanarama lol. All the bars are empty, same as when I was here with Dad. Back to hotel, had a shower, cute little room, everything was like a caravan! funny shaped because the building is round. I got really upset tonight, about going our separat ways, not many boyfriends would do this to their girlfriends, and leave them in asia, so I am just hoping I'm not being an idiot like usual, and this works out when we are home.

friday 2nd oct - I booked my accomodation for phuket today, decided on a 10 bed air con dorm, so i can meet some people, its in the centre of phuket town, so not sure what to expect really!! Today we covered the majority of singapore on foot in the heat!! we "walked many miles!!" we were dripping! we went to chinatown, raffles area, orchard road, fort canning park,showed rick where i stayed with dad. Had dinner in the 24 hour hawker food place, so cheap!! duck, prawn dumplings, spring rolls, a lovely lychee ice drink, ten pound each! we walked all the way back to the hotel, and got straight into the swimming pool on the roof! it was lovely, all the city lights in front of us. went down the waterslide like little kids! It was so much fun on our last evening together. We watched I am legend on tv, then went to bed.