Well this is the final instalment of my travels (for now!) as im home on Sunday! Doesn't time fly when you're having fun! Ive spent the last few weeks travelling round Indonesia - well when i say travelling round I sort of got stuck on an island - you know how it is when you find paradise - so hard to leave!

I arrived in Bali 2 weeks ago and headed for Kuta, the main tourist destination in Bali. I had been warned on the mentalness of Kuta but I don't think anything could quite prepare me for the hassle! I decided (for some stupid reason) to leave the delights of my lovely hotel (loving being in Asia again where I can live like a princess for cheap!) and wander around Kuta. I think it took about 20 seconds to realise this was a mistake - as I've never experienced hassle like it! People just don't leave you alone - you get cry after cry of "transport, transport" "braid your hair" "massage" blah blah blah. It was non stop and rather intimidating - specially when scary men come up to you and tell you they want to buy you - they also insist on pulling your hair - as they dont see blonde hair that often! After the bombings, Kuta has got a lot more desperate so you can kind of understand why but I was definately not loving the first day of travelling on my own!

So having experience Kuta I decided to get the hell out after 2 days of not leaving my hotel and headed over to Lombok - next to Bali. I ended up flying over on some dodgy indonesian airline (lucy, Jim, Anna - it def brought back the thailand trauma!) but least i survived to tell the tale! I then headed out to Gili Tranwangen - of the Gili Islands and from there came a turning point - started enjoying myself again! Decided to do my Padi open water dive course, and had such a wicked time on the island. It was a really cute island - but still pretty big - the only transport was pony and cart and no atms or anything actually civilised! I met loads of people and had some crazy nights out with the locals - so it was fun going diving at 8am the next mornings! (anna - i even managed 2 nights out in a row!!!)

A lot less hassle than Kuta and the locals all try to imitate you english accent - they kept saying "lovely jubbley" (didnt want to break it to them that no one actually says that), "easy tiger", "reeeally, why not" and my personal favourite "i see you before.....in Engleland....in my dreams". Their accents were so funny it actually sounded like they were trying to imitate Borat!

The diving was amazing - although the coral isnt the best after years of blast fishing - which is now banned, they have the most variety of tropical fish in the world. It was so cool - loads and loads of turtles, sharks and millions of tropical fish - i wont bore you with the fish details but i have lots of photos of fish to bore you with when im back! Ended up doing the advanced course as well as i was having such a good time and it was also Nyepi Hari Raya in Bali - which is a big Hindu festival where even tourists arent permitted to leave their hotel for 24 hours! And i really didnt want to leave so was a good excuse! My birthday was fab - i did a dive in the morning and the dive shop lent me an underwater digital camera so i could take pictures - and we saw a manta ray - which beleive me is exciting news as they are very rare - all the other dive shops were so jealous and didnt beleive us - luckily i had the photo to prove it! Spent the rest of the day sunbathing and having a few beers and dinner with some friends.

Now back in Bali, in a placed called Ubud, which is nicer than Kuta but still a bit rough - lots of rabid dogs running around the place but quality shopping so on that note im off to shop till i drop - wont take long as its 32 degrees today and unbeleivably humid! Cant complain as i hear its snowing at home!

Looking forward to catching up in England,

C xxxxx