We were determined to make the most of the last couple of days in Bali, so after an interesting taxi ride up to Amed - driving past hundreds of people dressed in their Balianese best heading to the temple for a full moon festival, and eventually finding the hotel... we had a quick swim in the pool, checked out the black and beach and the incredible view across to Gunung Agung. The following morning we had an early start to get up to Tulamben to dive the USS Libe...

Arriving on Gili T after a ride on the roof of the fast boat and we were back in travellerland (or on the banana pancake trail). No cars or motorbikes on the Gilis, just bicycles and horse drawn carriages which, after some of the traffic jams in Kuta, is wonderful. Found ourselves a place to stay after a bit of work... moved the next day, and then moved again (to an air con room!!!) Immediately got ourselves booked in for some diving - in total we did 5 dives - ...

We finally had to drag ourselves away from paradise... and the place that we ended up in, Nusa Lembongan, was still pretty heavenly (and the romance level was still high!) The Viceroy had booked us into the Bali Hai Tide Huts - more aimed at your honeymoon/package tourist than us, but we made the most of it! The huts had the use of a banana boat, snorkling gear and a pool so we spent the first day mucking about in the water with the day trippers. Once they had al...

Apologies for no updates for a while... I have been too busy enjoying myself to go online! Ubud... as a birthday present, that I was incredibly lucky to also benefit from, Rachel was treated to a night at the Viceroy, Bali. We were both screaming with delight when we saw our garden villa (after being greeted with lais of flowers and welcome drinks and driven by golf buggy) complete with it's own infinity pool, bathtub, canopied beds, coffee machine etc! The sett...

In Legian in a lovely hotel in Legian (between Kuta and Seminyak) Bali! Bit of luxe for Rachel's big 3-0 which was yesterday... Arrived in late Sunday night so had a lazy morning and then kit the famous Kuta beach. There we got chatting to a couple of lifeguards who offered to give us some surf lessons that afternoon. Despite it being low tide (and so not good for surfing) we were soon standing up on the boards. Enthused after our first day we signed up to a 2 1...