"How much am i worth??" It's a question i am sure most of us have asked ourselves at one point or another in our lives. Well, today i managed to answer that question ... Rp 100,000 apparently, or to everyone at home - a little over a fiver!!! You see, this is the amount of money that we have saved today by sending me on a dangerous mission - an hour long ride on the back of a moped piloted by a crazy local indonesian guy on these psychotic balinese roads. The reason??? To try and get to the nearest ATM to draw out some cash to pay for our shuttle bus to our next detination - back to Kuta. Now the roads here seem to follow very unusual rules. Where at home traffic tends to flow in singe file - here there will normally be 3 or 4 mopeds side by side, all overtaking and undertaking each other like there is no tomorrow.

Now, so far i have bungyed, done a canyon swing, abseiled, rap jumped and parachuted!!! If i were to add all of these up they would not even come close to the terror that i experienced on the back of that moped weving in and out of the traffic, driving along the wrong side of the road around corners!!! But, after about 10 mins, i swallowed hard, leaned back, and decided to become content with wind rustling past my out stuck knees as bikes flew past inches away. I got used to inhaling the smoke of lorries merely inches away from the front of the bike!! An experience it surely was!!

We arrived in Candi Dasa (where we are now) a few days ago. There really is nothing here in this ittle tiny village, even an ATM as we found out the hard way!! This has transpired to us being prisoners in our little bungalow/restaurant complex as the only way we have been able to eat and drink is to put it all on our tab and pay for it all by card at the end!! So we have been eating breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same old place for days now!! We tried to find a way out of here but were blocked once more - by the balinese hindu new year on monday. On this day no one is allowed out of their house/hotel (to trick the evil spirits into thinking that there is nobody on Bali!! Clever eh??!!) not even tourists. So to get a taxi or a bus back was physically impossible!!

We are trying our best to enjoy this 'downtime' before the real travelling continues!!! It has been pretty boring, especially when you cant even sunbathe as the heavens are opening on cue every afternoon!! Yesterday we witnessed THE loudest and most frightening thunder EVER!!! It was so powerful that our bungalow literally rumbled and shook with the force of the thunder and lightening!!! Pretty cool in all!!!

Apart from weathering storms all we have done is a bot of snorkelling (now my favourite pastime) and some sunbathing. Although when i say WE have been snorkelling i mean that i got Sarah out once after a lot of persuasion, but it was not up to her standards (she has been in the crytsal clear Med) so i was left to my own devices to snorkel away and burn my back under the baking morning sun!!

With all of this excitment to report i almost forgot about one of the funniest moments of the whole trip!!! Now ... do you all remeber as kids, getting a couple of chairs and draping a blanket over them to form your 'den'?? Then spending hours hidden away in their dark depths!!! Well i never thought i would see a fully grown adult make a den in a perfectly good house!!! Now you remember me telling you about all of the bugs in the last accommodation?? Well Sarah got so fed up, determinded not to suffer another sleepless night, she (to my watching amazement) started to unravel the tent from my backpack, and asked for my help to pitch it - which i dutifully obliged!! 10 mins later, the guy lines were tied to the banisters and my backpack, a few books were holding the porch down, and Sar had her den. The next 10 mins was spent fumigating the cushions etc to rid them of bugs for her nights sleep! I could not stop laughing!! I was lying in this queen bed, all to myself, watching Sar wrestle with her sleeping bag in our tiny tent!!! After all of this ..... she still got bitten anyway!!!! hehe!!!

So, all in all, Bali itself has been pretty uneventful. We have done nothing spectacular here but made our own fun!!! Just waiting for Singapore now!!! Ready to move on and find new pastures!!!

All for now

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