"Taxi?" Means "hello" in Balinese...

Spent the first 3 nights in a beachside area called Seminyak. This is just outside the bustling clubbing centre called Kuta. We spent our days enjoying the beach and the surf. We hired a surfboard and I gave Shelly a surfing lesson. The surf wasn't great and quite closed out, but was enough to play around in. We are used to being stopped by locals who want to sell us stuff, but we find the Balinese are particularly pushy, especially on the beach. Shelly seems to attract them in droves. Whilst she had her shoulders massaged, a lady came and painted her nails without her wanting them done, she just couldn't get away from the woman.   We also had a gym by our homestay, so attempted to remedy some of the effects of our unhealthy travelling lifestyle.

We then got a bus to the cultural centre of Bali called Ubud. This place is full of temples and art shops. Our accommodation was a converted temple and despite feeling like we were trespassing, was an amazing surreal experience.   The Balinese traditional buildings are really attractive; even the airport terminal is charming.  The highlight of Ubud was getting up at 2 in the morning and climbing to the top of a volcano called Mount Batur. Its an active volcano and last erupted in 2000.  Every so often during the walk you could see or feel the steam from the ground.   It was pitch black and almost felt like walking on the moon. The sunrise and breakfast at the top made this gruelling climb totally worthwhile. The loose stones did make it hard to walk so spent most of the descent on our backsides. We also got to go to a park that was teaming with monkeys.

The next and best part of our Bali stay was visiting the small island of Gili Trawangan. This stunning island is about the size of Herm and there are no motor vehicles here, so people don't say hello as much. We spent 4 nights here and got to go snorkelling with turtles and eat delicious and ridiculously cheap food. We discovered we could each live comfortably here for £10 a day. The island is surrounded by coral reef and is perfect for seeing (and eating) marine life.  Just wish we had an underwater camera with us, we would have taken a lot of great photos!  There is a lot of building work going on here, so I'm sure it won't be long before this place has a Starbucks and a multiplex cinema. This is definitely the most idyllic place we have visited so far.

We then spent our remaining 4 nights staying in the not so idyllic Kuta. This is Bali's Benidorm. The streets are lined with sports bars, fat white people, happy hours, flashing lights, shops selling tat and very irritating pushy locals. Everyone wants to sell you stuff plus they speak good English, so you are constantly being led into pointless conversations with the inevitable attempt to get you to buy some overpriced crap you don't want (but no rabbits, if you're reading this Carl!).    We managed to escape Kuta by scooter (by the way Bali has a traffic problem!) and saw some pretty beaches in the southern peninsula and some very posh hotels (we couldnt help having a nose around what we definitely cant afford).   Bali has some amazing scenery and its a shame we didnt get to see the whole island but its too big to fully explore in 2 weeks.The weather here has been hot and humid so any opportunity to jump in the sea was welcome and the water was amazing! Shelly got another massage she wasnt looking for at Ulu Watu beach,  but to be fair, they cost about 3 quid and she really rates Balinese massages, so its no hardship!  

The religion here is mainly Hindu and each morning they place outside their door a small basket made of banana leaves and containing flowers, food and incense as an offering to the gods. The road sweepers then take them away. These sweepers really rate themselves... 

Our experience of the locals has been largely based upon the market traders.  In Asia, we are seen as walking ATMs, so you have to expect their attention.  I just feel if they adopted a less pro-active selling technique, they might attract buyers and not scare them off.   We did however, meet some nice people.  The locals seem pretty chilled and friendly, and would sometimes approach you just for a chat, to practice their English. 

With regards to trying local food,  we havent been that adventorous here as its yet more rice and we were mainly craving western food like pizza, which is avaliable everywhere.  We tried Nasi Goreng which is a typical dish of mixed fried rice thats quite nice and black rice pudding, but we should have made more of an effort trying other stuff.

We have found that when we go to a new country, you can't help but compare it to the last one you visited. I found myself waking in the night in a broken sweat having flashbacks of Nam. Flashbacks of decent air conditioning and cheap Mojitos.  By comparison we have not been very impressed with the accommodation in Bali. I think when a place becomes really successful with tourists, it stops trying, which is where Bali is. I think Vietnam is definitely in the trying phase and India never tried.