Hello to all,

Well there's been a little gap since the last time we updated you all so I'll jump right into the update.

Since the last time we chatted we stayed 3 more days in the wonderful village of Ubud. We were a little tired of walking the streets trying to find cool stores to do some shopping, so we decided to kick up the fun factor and we did like the locals and rented a motorbike. For two days we cruised the streets of Ubud, now traffic is a little different then back home, one way streets are merely a suggestion and speed limits do not exist. The amount of people on one bike is determined by how big your family is. We saw a family of 5 all on one bike going the wrong way on a one way street 20 km above speed limit with no helmets. We were a little more conservative and followed most of the rules. The bike gave me (Brad) a new appreciation for shopping, I drop Karina off on a certain stretch of street then cruise around for little while, then play the game where I try to remember what street I dropped her off on. Sure makes for a fun day.

We checked out the Monkey forest in Ubud, where the monkeys own the roads and climb all over the tourist digging threw there pockets looking for bananas. We didn't let any of them climb on us, but Karina did have and incident with a mama monkey attacking her leg. If you ask me, I think we were set up. We were just sitting on a bench minding our own business when a baby monkey came strolling by acting all sweet and cute. (Queue the diversion) Unknowingly to us mama monkey was crawling down from the trees behind us all stealthy like and latched onto Karina's leg. It looks like Mama monkey has developed a sixth sense for finding bananas, and discovered that Karina had a few hiding in her pocket. Needless to say Karina was chased 25 meters down the road surrendering her treats in the process but came away unharmed. Those monkeys sure are smart, I think the locals have learned a few things from them cause I've seen them practice this technique on the tourist more then once, except its not bananas there after.

After Our time in Ubud we jumped on a plane to the neighboring Island "Lombok". Plane ride was only about 20 minutes, but still was a little nerve racking. Not that the plane was unsafe, just was a little rougher of a ride then we could white knuckle. We will try our luck with the sea when we go back to Bali by boat. So our first night in Lombok we stayed in a town called Senggigi. Not much of a village, a few fancy resorts with everything from $10 a night to $300 depending on where you wanted to stay. We played it conservative and had a $20 room looking over the ocean. The streets were a little disappointing, being that's its off season its hard to walk 5 feet without having one of the locals latch onto you for 3 blocks wanting to buy anything they had, and everyone is a tour guide offering you trips around the island. As soon as you shake one off, you walk 5 more steps and you got another one on ya. You're not even safe in the restaurants. They walk right in sit at the table beside ya and start talking to ya, trying to get you to go to there shop or cab or whatever else they could get ya to do. Needless to say this got old real, quick. So the next day we splurged and went to one of the nicer resorts with a sweet pool and hung out all day sipping Pina Coladas and jumping in and out of the pool. Our first stay of the trip at a nice resort, as fun as it was one day was enough with us. We kinda felt that we were missing out on touring the island. So the next day we packed our stuff and headed for the "GILI ISLANDS"

The Gili's are filled with white sand, crystal clear blue water and a ton of dive shops for all your diving needs. There are three islands to choose from. #1- is a quite small island with not much except for a few resorts. #2 - A little more lively with great snorkeling and a few bars for the night life, but still moderately calm. And #3- The party island with loads of bars, resorts, snorkeling and Diving. This is the Island that we have taken over. We have been here for a total of 5 days, and are loving it. The second night we were here the Island hosted a "full moon Party". Every month on the full moon the whole Island (and I do mean the whole Island, from the wee little babies to the old wrinkly men). Party starts at Midnight and goes well past sunrise. We never did see the sun rise, but we sure did enjoy ourselves. The moon was so bright that it lit up the whole beach, people were dancing by in the water and the music played all night long. The next morning was a little quite, we choose not to go diving and spent the day lazing on the beach and watching movies in little grass huts outside. These huts are pretty cool, comes with a TV and DVD player with a selection of about 1000 movies. You order a free movie with your meal and drinks and veg all day long. One of the best ways to spend the day after a night of umm…….. hanging with 500 of your new best friends.

Besides sun tanning and movie watching we have also been doing a lot of diving. We are on dive number 10 of our trip and have decided to kick it up a notch. We are in the process of getting our "Advanced open water dive certification". In order to get this, you have to complete 5 particular dives. Two of the five dives are mandatory and the other three you can choose from a list of options. For example the two mandatory dives are your "Deep Dive" and your "Navigation Dive". Pretty much just what it sounds like, deep dive is a 30 meter dive were you practice a few certain techniques making sure you don't panic. The Navigation dive is filled with compass work under water, teaching you to stay on course and enabling you to find your way back to where you started. We did both these dives today and have only three more to go to get certified. Tomorrow I will be doing a "multi level" dive as well as a "night dive" that I'm excited for. Karina is doing a "under water photography" dive as well as the "Multi level" dive. Before we leave this Island we will hope to be certified.

That's about all, I think you're all caught up, we can't seem to find the time to upload any of our pictures do to the pain staking time it takes to upload. So they will come when they come. We will however try to post you our water melon carving, for the competition. We received a few good candidates all ready and will post all the pictures we get. You can email the to Brads hotmail.

Okay my time is up, hope all is well back home and we will talk to you next time. Until then keep fit and have fun!!!!!!!

Brad and Karina.