We arrive at Cairns airport at 5pm and our flight is not until 11pm!! This saved us on having to pay for a taxi as our hostel offered a free shuttle. Not to bad as we presume we can chill, maybe grab some food and also catch up on The Walking Dead. Firstly the driver dropped us off at the in domestic terminal (GREAT!), you would of thought he would ask you where you were going. But we were quite thankful as it was pretty small and quiet terminal. After walking over to the international terminal we were completely shocked to find it completely empty - as in NO ONE in sight. It was deserted. Hmmmmm... Maybe we won't get some food and browse the shops until our flight then. Luckily The Walking Dead entertained us enough until check in opened.

We eagerly queued up ready for our flight to Indonesia, Denpasar Bali :). When we got to the check in counter the lady informed us that we were not allowed to check in unless we could provide proof of onward travel before our 30day visa runs out - GREAT! (Something they explained we needed as when we arrive we need to show visa on arrival to be accepted in the country, realising if we didn't have this we would be sent on the next flight back to Cairns at Jetstars expense). Firstly, we didn't even know where we were staying when we even arrived in Bali in a matter of hours let alone what our plans are in 30 days! And second we had just spent 4 hours doing nothing of which we could of planned and booked our onward travel. So in a bit of a cluster we quickly decided on a rough plan, knowing that Richard and Becca were joining us in Bali in the middle of June we knew we need to either get an extension of or visa or do a boarder run. We settled for booking a flight to Singapore from Jakarta on the last day of our visa - paying a little extra to get a premium package so we can change the date of the flight for no extra cost (just incase plans all change as they do). So finally we can check in, hassle over we sailed through passport control and security (as we were the only flight leaving!) and grabbed some food in the departure lounge - the majority of shops and restaurants had opened up just for our flight. It honestly felt like it was a new airport and we were their dummy run to see if everything goes smoothly.

FINALLY we boarded our flight and was soon to arrive in Bali. We were so excited to be back in SE Asia and start exploring and travel Indonesia. Whereas I mostly slept the whole journey, Curtis reluctantly started speaking to the American girl next to him (she wasn't a keen flyer so I assume it was to take her mind off it). She had been to Bali before and gave us a few pointers as well share her travelling experience - she originally came travelling with her boyfriend a year ago however in that time they decided to split up for various reasons. Now she is meeting her girlfriend in Bali before returning home - crazy right!

It wasn't long until we landed and had the hustle and bustle of passport control and visa on arrival. This also wasn't too bad sailing through and getting our 30day stamp :). As expected, they didn't even ask us for proof of our onward travel!! Typical. Collecting our baggage and made our way to grab a taxi. At this point it was 2am! We were completely surrounded by Taxi drivers upon leaving (well trying to leave) the airport with them asking where we are going, if we need transport and tbh invading our personal space! It was CRAZY and you instantly knew you were back in SEA. We decided to share a taxi with the American girl stopping at her home stay first before going to ours which was recommended by someone from our Whitsundays tour. Of corse the drivers were asking for ridiculous prices starting from 300,000 (when we knew our friend only paid 80,000). A lot of haggling was needed and all we cared about was getting to the hotel to sleep! Finally a man agreed to do it for 100,000 approx (£4.90) even though it was more than 80,000 it was in the middle of the night and we didn't care for the extra £1. But the driver then took us to his personal car - of which he promised us was a Blue Bird Taxi (a company we read up about for being a legit company and reliable), immediately refusing to go with him as it was rather dodgy. He pretty much said no one else would do it for 100,000 so we have no choice but Curt went and asked another driver (from the airport taxi company) if he would do it the same and luckily he did - result!! We dropped off the American girl and then it was us - we hadn't even booked a room and was hoping they had availability otherwise we had no idea what we would of done - now being 3am in the morning and no idea of our surroundings.

It was called Kayun Hostel in North Kuta (pretty much Legian area). Luckily there was room, with AC and an ensuite with breakfast for 340,000 (£16 which is half the price we have been paying in Australia - so glad to be back!!). We pretty much collapsed into our bed - heaven!

After our much needed sleep we woke up ready to go exploring. Firstly we grabbed our free breakfast - pancakes yummy! Also seeing the Hostel in the day we found out it had a lovely pool and was pretty nice! While eating breakfast we watched the hustle and bustle of the streets - everyone on scooters and a little manic but something that we love about Asia. We went for a stroll to Kuta Beach and to get our bearings. Walking around the streets felt like home and there was a distinct smell in Bali - outside every shop, house and restaurant they are small offering baskets made out of banana leafs, these are called 'canang sari' that Balinese offer to their Hindu Gods three times a day. It is basically a ritual of giving back what has been given to you by the Gods they tend to have incence sticks in them making everywhere smell gorgeous. It is also very hard not to step on them as they tend to be all over the paths!! Even after a couple of hours here we instantly knew we were going to LOVE it and maybe even more than Thailand and Vietnam.

Kuta Beach was a really long stretch of beach on the West of Bali - a popular spot for tourists, especially Surfers with the beach lined with sunbeds, and little so called cafes (locals selling cold drinks from an esky on small plastic chairs under some umbrellas). While watching the surfers we even saw one doing a headstand while surfing a wave - insane!! We grabbed some lunch from a local restaurant - Bamboo Garden Cafe just off the beach and had our first taste of Indonesian Cuisine. We were NOT disappointed - between us we shared Sate Ayum (Ayum meaning Chicken) - probably the first time both of us tried it and feel in love with it instantly, who thought putting peanut sauce on chicken would taste good, but thank god someone found out it was delicious. Nasi Goreng Vegetable (Rice, Fried with Veg) and Vegetarian Spring Rolls. All delicious, we knew we would be eating a lot over the next two months.

After a few hours of walking around in the baking sun we got pretty tired, still not caught up on our sleep from our journey over here so headed for a nap and chilled in our room for the rest of the afternoon. We grabbed some dinner later on at a nice restaurant on the main road running through Kuta again eating more local food this time - Nasi Goreng special (Fried Rice, with chicken sate, prawn crackers and a fried egg), and a Indonesian Chicken Curry. Again both being delicious. Before heading back to our room for an early night.

After talking to some people at the hostel last night we heard about a really nice Temple North of Kuta called Tanah Lot - it is on a small island just off the mainland where if you time the tides right you can walk across to, also amazing for sunsets. So our day was really based around heading here to Sunset.

We heard good things about Seminyak so firstly decided to take the short (ish) walk up the beach to Seminyak - taken us approx 25mins after getting lost a few times as per. However we did find a lovely colourful beach shack restaurant/bar where we grabbed some drinks to hydrate us from our walk. Even though Seminyak itself it was nice it was mainly full of resort type hotels and expensive shops and restaurants - mainly catering for people on holiday rather than travellers like ourselves!

At this point we were starving and found it difficult to find anywhere reasonable for lunch we jumped into a Blue Bird Taxi and decided to get to Tanah Lot. A 50mins ish taxi ride costing 107,000 on the meter (goes to show how much we got ripped off from the Airport!).

The area around Tanah Lot was lovely, full of market stalls selling lots of crafts and arty things, clothes, sarongs, clothes etc. The temple itself was also beautful (set upon rocks a few meters from shore with waves lapping up against it). It was VERY touristy though. While looking around we found some restaurants on the cliff edge that overlooked the temple and came back here to sunset - eating dinner while watching the sun slowly disappear. It was stunning. The temple looked beautiful in front of the sun and orange sky behind. Surprisingly the restaurants were not as busy as we thought, after sitting for over an hr for sunset so we made sure we got a good table and perfect view! Of which was succeeded.

By the time we had eaten and it got dark we made our way back to the entrance to find a taxi home - which of corse is never an easy task. Firstly there were no blue bird taxis, just drivers who were quoting ridiculous prices (as always), starting at 250,000 and not budging below 200,000. We decided that we would venture back in to see if we could find anyone else who were going to Kuta to share a car with to make the price more bearable. Every 'western' person we could find either had their own personal driver or had come on scooters (which we now know would of been a much better way to do it). Luckily we found 2 Dutch guys and a French girl who had their own scooters each. After talking to them for a bit they offered to give us a lift back to Kuta on the back of their scooters, they didn't ask for anything but the least we could do was fill their petrol tank, only 20,000! RESULT! The majority of the journey was fine, though there was lots of traffic we weaved in and out quite comfortably. As we approached Kuta there were Police lining the streets pulling westerners over. Curtis and I quickly hopped off in the hope they didn't spot us but we were unfortunate enough for Hank (Emily's driver) to get pulled aside. Luckily as he is here to study hospitality he lives in and works in Kuta, also he had an Indonesian Drivers Licence so the after a little interrogation, after showing them his licence they didn't seem to mind and he was let off phewwwwww. We googled mapped how far we had to go and it was only a 10min walk so we decided to walk the rest of the way rather than testing our luck again on the back of the scooter. We were very appreciative though! Again having an early night and heading to bed when we arrived back at the hostel.

C & E x