Okay last time we talked we were taking in the sites and sounds that Kuala Lumpur had to offer. Checked out some real cool places like the crazy night market in China Town. Our hotels front doors were right off the market roads, which meant that every time we stepped out onto the street we had a group of little people (we were Giants among dwarfs) pulling and grabbing at you to come into there store, "hello you want watches, purses, dvd?? I give you special deal for friend". I didn't know I had so many friends I never knew before. It was kinda fun at first but after 3 days of it, we would step out of the hotel door and make a run for it until we were in the clear. We also went and saw the famous Petronas Towers, from what I hear they are the tallest twin towers the earth has to offer. (thank RC). We also checked out some shopping centers and Little India ( which was pretty much all shut down due to the Ramadan holiday). So after a few days in Kuala Lumpur we jumped on a Plane to beautiful Bali Indonesia.

We landed in Denpasar at around 8:00pm and initially wanted to head straight to Ubud, which is almost central Bali, but with it being late we thought we would just stay the night in Denpasar and leave in the morning. Most people arriving in Indonesia head to Kuta which is the main surfing town and party spot of Bali, but because of the Ramadan holiday, the population of the town triples and hotel rooms are hard to find. So we figured we would be smart and head inland for a bit before checking out the surf. So we start hunting for a room, turns out it wasn't just Kuta that gets busy during the holiday. We went to 10 hotels and not one of them had a single room for rent. We had a taxi drive us from the airport to our first Guest house choice, thanked the driver, walked thru the gates of the building and found out their closed for renovations. Okay we thought bad luck we'll walk the 5 blocks to the next guest house. Get there ask if they have a room for rent and the guy starts laughing............ umm does that mean no??? We get back on the street flag down another cab who drives us to a spot where there's 3 hotels within walking distance. Perfect we figured, out of the three there's gotta be one with a room, so we pay the man and off he goes. Turns out all three hotels were booked up. So now its around 9:30 pm its dark, we're hungary and our packs are getting heavy. We flag down our third cab, and tell him were not getting out until he finds us a room. The Cab driver was a super nice old man, who was eager to help out a few tired Canadians. So after getting rejected by another 5 hotels we figured we should go to plan "B". Thankfully for us, before we left on this trip we stopped by Rob Spelliscys house. My brother Kevin and him went to Bali about 2 years ago and he gave us a few suggestions of where we should go and stay. One of those suggestions was "Ketuts Place" in Ubud and he gave us their card he had saved from his travels. Well if it weren't for that card we would of been spending the night on the street. I called them up and they had a room available. So we told the driver to take us to Ubud, which was an hour away. Best call we could've made, the place was gorgeous. Picture a giant garden with walkways over little ponds with fish and flowers everywhere. The rooms are something you would expect from a palace. From this point on we have fell in love with Ubud. Everything about this place is amazing. The town is the arts hub of Indonesia. The locals here have mastered the art of Stone carving, Wood carving, paintings, Silver and Gold jewellery making. Everywhere you go the streets and alleys are filled with this stuff. Also everyday theres about 10 different cultural Dances and shows depicting ancient stories, filled with cultural dances and bright colourful costumes. Karina described this place as being the "Essence of her being". Needless to say she really really likes it here, and doesn't want to leave.

We've been here for about 3 days now and Karina has allready found her business partner. As luck will have it, on our way home from a tasty cheap meal, we flagged down a taxi driver that wasn't just your ordinary cab driver. He also does tours of the island for a modest $30 a day you can hire him, and he'll take you to where ever you want to go, and gives good suggestions to places that you should see. So thats what we did, we hired him for the day and saw a lot of cool stuff, Temples, volcanoes, rice fields, silver shops and a couple good wood carving shops. After talking to Rie for the day(our cab driver) we find out that Rie has a side business going as well. Turns out that he helps export goods to shop owners around the world. He works for a guy in Vancouver, Los Angelas and a guy in Austrailia. All have stores selling Indonesian goods. So Karinas been picking his brain for the past few days about where to go for good quality goods, right from the source and not the store that sells it. Shes all ready booked him for Thursday to tour all the places where he gets the goods first hand. Could make for an expensice day.

Tonight we feast on a Traditional Balinease Dinner, Also recommended from my Brother and Rob Spelliscy. So we're getting ready for some serious heart burn and what ever else comes our way. Should be interesting. All in all we love Ubud, and we keep saying to each other how much our family and friends would love it here.

We have a ton of pictures we need to upload, but the computers here are super slow. We have to hunt around to find where the fastes connections are, then will load them all up. Might take a few hours thou so will have a couple Bintangs (beer) while we wait. (one for you too Spelliscy)

Then next few days we plan on taking some cooking courses, yoga classes, a painting session and a whole lotta massages. We planned on being here for a few days but it looks like Karina will keep us busy for a few weeks. (not that I mind) We'll let you know how it all goes.

Hope all is good in Edmonton. Any snow yet? How about anything crazy or exciting that we should know??

The Island people dont celebrate Halloween, but we figured we would give you the heads up now about the pumpkin carving contest. We will be carving watermellons and are putting it to anyone whos up for a challenge. You gotta post your carvings on our message board, Winner gets something cool from Bali. Good luck to all.


Bye for now.

K and B