Hello from Bali!

Firstly I just want to let you all know, I passed my diving course and am now qualified to go scuba diving - go me! The final days diving was amazing, we got to come real close to an 8m whale shark, something our instructor told us was rare to see, some people do hundreds of dives before seeing one, right time right place huh!

So yeah, I have left Thailand behind and am in Bali for a short period only, literally while en route to Sydney. The journey here however was horrible. It started at 9pm on Sunday, an 8 hour ferry ride from Koh Tao to Surathani......im trying my best to delete it from my mind but its proving difficult. The ferry is in 2 levels, top level has 50 matresses lined up for u to sleep on and the lower has the toilets, staff, engine room etc. So, picture it, the ferry begins to pull off, literally within 10 minutes my tummy was playing up, I headed down to the lower level where part of the back of the boat was open so a bit of fresh air could be got along with the fumes (nice), anyway, cut a long story short, I never made it up to the upper level again, haha. I basically puked my guts up for about 3 hours, clinging on to a piece of rope with my right hand to keep me from sliding across the boat everytime it rocked and using my other arm to rest my head on, it was one hell of long 8 hours, I have never felt anything like it, nasty! When I eventually stopped puking I found a stack of plastic sheets about 5 foot square (im 6 foot 2 remember) and that was my bed for the night, I was like a little stow away, the staff would walk past and look at me and be like "who's this" I do the international sign for puking my guts up and they smile and nod as if to say ok you can stay here, ha ha. Anyhow, eventually made it to the port and then had a coach journey ahead of me that didnt happen, it turned into a cab (long story) so, cab it was. Arrrived in Krabi for my flight, got on that ok, landed in Malaysia for what must have been 4 hours then back out again to Bali, finally reaching here about 11pm. The flights were actually really good apart from being half empty which is no good for the environment people!!, but yeah they were cool, im actually glad it was a tad empty, well at least my row anyway because I was wearing the same clothes that I had been puking up in and was unwashed and had a weeks growth of beard hair...so, as you can imagine I was a little worried about any aromas wofting off of my person and people thinking "where has this guy been" what a journey, it had everything, sickeness, all modes of transport (ok no train) and even some humility from the boat men, ha ha, glad its over? YES!

Bali seems lovely, part of me wishes I was staying longer but part of me really does not. Most of you have probably heard about the execution of the terrorists, well because of this, there is some serious high alerts in some places in Indonesia and its a bit fragile right now so im a tad glad im not staying any longer, at least until it dies down a bit. Still, its been worth coming if only just to rest and recharge my batteries ready for Australia.

Ok going to leave it there for now. I'll do my first blog from Australia soon.

Daniel.