It is hard not to relax here. And so, trusty readers, we did just that. For you. We relaxed another day. Massages by the pool arranged by our care team, reading and swimming, leftovers for lunch, more reading and swimming, a pre-dinner cocktail and more delicious dishes for dinner. What can I say, someone's gotta do it.

The following day marked the 10th day of our trip, and to celebrate that 7 of us went to Menjangan Island for diving. Known to be the 4th best dive site in Bali (and the closest one to us), we hopped in our bus at 8:30 sharp to make our way out there. About 1.5hrs later we got on the local, small wooden boats in the harbor for our 30min boat ride to the far side of Menjangan. Very charming, much preferred over the few fiber boats we saw.

We had 3 snorklers (Cindy, Janna, Daan), 3 introductory divers (some instruction and max 40ft depth, for Bram, Rick, Lisa), and me. Everyone had a great time on their two swims. The intro divers are considering getting certified (mission accomplished), the snorklers saw most of what we divers saw, and I got my decompression fix in on two nearly hour-long 65ft dives.

Massive solo barracuda, large turtle feeding between the corals, tons of clown fish (Nemos) and angelfish (Gills), a few sea cucumbers and a good bit of microlife that the diver master pointed out for me. The reefs are very much affected here as well, sadly, but there still was some good color to be seen. There were a number of leaves larger than I've ever seen before. And the water was warm (84) and with a slight current that extended the dive time (since I didn't have to swim back). What surprised me more than anything is the trash in the sea, and that the dive masters really didn't care. I picked up plastic bags, candy wrappers, paper labels, even a toothpaste tube, but my dive master didn't take the hint and swam right by it all. After lunch on the boat and a second dive, we took a shorter (read: faster) drive home and we were back at 4:30.

Meanwhile, Liz, Ans and Cees were on a mission to experience local shopping. Our team sent them to a store called Krisna, where they can shop for the two major Hindu holidays of Galungan and Kuningan, amongst other things. Not entirely what they expected, I believe, but don't be surprised when you ask to be surprised and are.

The day ended in, you guessed it, a scrumptious sate dinner at the next-door Villa Saffraan (saffron) and an early night.