Selamat pagi! Hello from Bali! I am writing this after 5 action-packed days on Indonesia's most popular tourist island. It is hot, humid, beautiful and a little bit crazy. I arrived late on Saturday night after an exhausting flight from Sydney, via Melbourne of all places! It took about 10 hours! Then another 2 hours to get through customs and immigration.. it was 3am my body-clock time when I finally arrived at my hotel. I had booked somewhere in advance as I knew I was arriving late at night. The following day I spent exploring the area I was staying, Kuta/Legian/Seminyak, one huge stretch of beach with resorts all the way up. Kuta is famous for it's party atmoshpere and sun-worshippers and is a confusing array of markets, shops and restaurants throughout the tiny laneways. Further up the beach is quieter and more relxaed. I also booked a flight to Flores, another Indonesian island, for Thursday.

The following day I caught a bus to the cultural capital of Bali, a little town called Ubud. What a change from Kuta! I was relieved to be away from the resort scene, and although still touristy, Ubud is a much quieter, more beautiful and relaxed little town. I found a little losmen (guesthouse) to stay, in a small bungalow in a family compund. The setting is very peaceful, with the family temple in the centre and small bungalows tucked away around it; a piece of tranquility, away from the hustle and bustle of the town. That night I went to see a traditional fire dance called Kecak which was used to tell the Hindu story of Rama and Sita. It was fantastic! It was in a small village near Ubud and 150 of the 700 villagers took part. The men were the chorus and they sat in a circle, chanting and singing and dancing occassionally. The character parts were played mostly by women who told the story through dance. Thankfully we'd been given the sotry before so we could follow it. It was brilliant, especially the costumes. The dancing was so precise and measured, which matched beautifully with the chanting and swaying of the circle. A fascinating spectacle.

The guide who brought me to the hostel is also a tour guide so I negotiated to hire him and his car the next day for a trip around the north-east of Bali. Thank goodness I did! It is high season here, and as a result there are tourists EVERYWHERE, and by taking a private car rather than a coach tour, I missed all the hordes and had every site we visited virtually to myself. Worth paying a little more for! We visited several temples in beautiful surroundings, filled with impressive carvings and very peaceful. We then went to see the volcanic region of Kintabanu, where the road runs along the edge of an ancient volcanic crater. There is a large lake at the bottomw with two volcanic peaks towering either side. Bali's highest mountain, Gurung Agung, was just visible in the distance. We had lunch at a local cafe, called a warung, where we had huge plates of fried rice and chicken for 60p! Nice. My guide then took me to his home town, Bangli, where not many tourists go. Here we visited a traditional village, a look-out over the rice fields, and his temple. This turned out to be the highlight of the trip as they were preparing for a ceremony the following day. Hence the entire temple was covered in colourful silk flags, all the statues were dressed up and the usually empty stages were filed with instruments and offereings. There were also over 200 men preparing the feast, slaughtering pigs and decorating! Quite a sight! And a brilliant day.

On Wednesday I started my day with a cooking class! They began by taking us to the local food market, a fascinating, chaotic place full of all kinds of fruit, vegetables, meat and spices. We then spent 3 hours helping to prepare and cook 7 different Balinese dishes, including an amazing dessert. Of course, we then got to eat it all - yum!! In the afternoon I got my haircut; not normally something I would report in my blog, except it's quite short (eek!) and also, she cut my hair with a small saw! I kid you not. Not scissors, a saw. Very strange feeling. I like it though.

Anyway, tomorrow I fly to Flores for some scuab diving and to visit the Komodo dragons. The internet here is quite slow, and Flores is much more remote, so photos will be a while coming. I'll try to keep the blog part up to date though.