We arrived in Bali absolutely starving and couldn't quite function properly until we got some grub in us! So to Carol's delight we went to the nearest food establishment (if you can call it that) McDonalds! I normally expect rubbish food from McDonalds but this was really crap! Carol didn't even finish her burger! I'll repeat that, Carol didn't finish a McDonalds burger!! I think she's finally getting it.

Anyway we walked past all the annoying 'taxi! taxi!' men and flagged one down on the road (as reccomended by Carol's trusty lonely planet), and went to Ubud. The traffic was pretty bad but not nearly as bad as we have seen at other places. When we arrived we got dropped off and he charged us 175,000rp, I gave him 200,000, he gave me a big smile, a nod, and a thankyou very much, got in his car and drove off! Right I don't get change then! We landed on our feet though because we found a really cheap, massive room with a balcony, above a shop with really friendly people. Perfect.

We hired a scooter the next day from next door and went off towards a big volcano. The scooter was a bit ropey but OK, the helmets were rank! The roads got a bit quieter but still had to pay constant attention to everyone else that clearly had it in for us! We were stopped by the police, as is common apparently, and they normally fine you for anything they can find wrong. He asked for my licence while he stopped an American couple behind us. I showed him my international licence and he was overjoyed! I thought he was going to shake my hand! He flashed it to the Yanks and Said 'this is what you need'. They didn't have one. HA! He got out his notebook and started to fine them as we drove off. A glorious day for the Brittish! The volcano wasn't much too look at, it didn't explode or anything, but the ride was ok. It was a constant uphill all the way there so on the way back I switched off the engine and rolled for miles. I mean miles too, probably about 10, hitting speeds of about 80kmh! We even overtook someone.

Ubud was quite nice, just too much traffic but we got used to it. We didn't get used to getting asked if we wanted a taxi every 3 seconds, even if we were on bikes! They were annoying. There were a few spa's which Carol went to, I didn't fancy it after my last experience, I think I might be scarred for life. There was a 3.5 hour package at one place including full body, head, face, manicure, pedicure, I can't remember the rest, I wasn't that interested, but it was a lot, all for 24 quid! Carol's reaction suggested it was a bargain.

We did a cooking course which was great. We went to the market to learn about all the local food which was fun but a bit dirty (a few rats and cockroaches and stuff). Then we learned a few dishes which we will definitely use at home. (probably not, but its nice to think so)

At the market Carol bought some christmas decorations. (well there you go, is that news or what!)

We then went off to the Gili Islands, Gili Air to be exact. Which was brilliant, especially when we landed on our feet again with our room find. The first couple we looked at were pretty bad, but cheap. One that Carol looked at was the worst she'd seen apparently! So we carried on for a bit and for a couple of pounds more (a few million of whatever currency we're using this week!) we found an almost perfect bungalow. It had beautiful gardens a front balcony and an open air bathroom. And we think it was the cleanest room we have been in up to now.

We went out for a drink and found a place with a happy hour (for a few hours! I don't think they quite get it) where the cocktails were buy one get one free so they worked out at a pound each! Bargain! For dinner we had freshly speared Grouper fish which was really meaty and tasty. We stayed on the island for 3 nights and all we did was get up, eat, sleep a bit more, go snorkeling, eat, snooze, eat and drink. Lovely. We did walk around the island once, it only took an hour but that was plenty excercise for this week. One night for dinner we had grilled Mackerel, it was massive but apparently it was only a small one. We shared one half of it but there was so much meat we hardly touched our chips and rice! I feel brainier already!

The snorkeling was great, we figured out (I figured out) that the current, which was pretty strong, ran exactly parallel to the reef. So we walked up the path for 20 minutes, swam out to the reef and drifted for about 45 minutes back to our place. Brilliant. The visibility was about 30 metres and we saw a couple of turtles and the usual stuff.

After a few days on Gili Air we felt we had to go back to Bali to see Kuta. We arrived today at 4 and we feel like we have seen enough already, plus our hotel is horrible! So we're off somewhere else in the morning (I'm not sure where, she did tell me but I tend not to pay much attention to that sort of stuff, I just do as I'm told when I'm told). Its only for one night though because we've booked another diving liveaboard. Hooray! This time around the Komodo islands.

Oh and good news, it looks like we have picked up another virus on our photo's. Great.

Thats all for now.

Bye