After the most exhausting week of our lives wer finaly arrived in Bali, to be greated by no one, I dont mean friends and faminly I mean nobody. We struggled even to find a taxidriver. Everywhere else we have been to so far we have been pesterd to death by taxis on arrival now we needed one3 we couldn't find one, how ironic!! We did finaly find oneand told him where we wanted to go, he agereed to take us there, and then left us somwewhere else, fortunately it wasn't far from where we wanted to be, guess he just didn't want to face rush hour traffic. We began our search for a room at 4pm knowing there were 100's of hotels and it shouldn't take long for us to find one. After a 4 hours, 400 hotels, and what felt like 40k with a 40kg pack we found the "last" room in Kuta, oh sorry thats a lie the 2nd to last room in Kuta looked like a prison cell with a matress on the floor, but cost the same as our AC room with hot water and swimming pool. We dumped our bags and made full use of the pool, knowing from previous experience this was the best way to unwind. We spent the rest of that night drinking beer, people watching and rat spotting in a bar to get a feel for Kuta to see if this was the kind of place we could bring Ma Fitz and Haze. After watching rats running around the kitchen and half naked ozzies staggereing up the street we decided we needed to explore more of Bali as Benedorm wouldn't be Ma Fitz's choice for a holiday. For some reason that night we werent tired and the beer had little effect, so we stayed in the bar until 4am. We watched a gang of young Brits who had no room ditch their bags in a 24 hour bar and head off for a night of drinking with the plan to stay awake all night until people checked out of hotels the next morning so they could check in, oh to be young and wreakless again! Our exploration of Bali for Ma Fitz and Haze was supposed to take us arround the island, but part of the fun of travelling is not knowing what comes next. We had a very rough idea of where in Bali we wanted to take them after ditching the idea of 16 hour bus journeys cross Java (we only had 2 weeks, it seemed unfair to spend most of it on a bus). The next 4 days were spent sunning on the beac, searching out cheep beer and batering for the best tat and trying to find local food (this was more difficult than it sounds!). After soaking up Kuta for a few days we decided it wasn't that bad after all.

Now due to the fact that the hotels in Kuta dont take reservationswe were unable to secure a room before the day of Ma Fitz and Haze's arrival. The morning of the day they arrived we were up super early trying to get a room, which seemed through previous days of pestering to have paid off, we were greeted at one hotel by, " hello Rob ive got two rooms if you want them" music to our ears, blow the cost we just need to have rooms. With our welcome sign prepared we set off to the air port, armed with the knowledge of how to book a taxi. Dressed in traditional clothing from various parts of the world (Thai, Malay, Laos) we drew a look or two while waiting for the arrival of Ma Fitz and hazels plane. They spotted our sign welcoming them to Benedorm, and through their looks of confusionim sure they were glad to see us. Looking like seasoned proswe orderd a taxiwhile the catching up started. After a floorless trip to the hotel we treated ourselves to a beer while dipping our feet in the pool. They were both keen to know what we were up to over the next two weeks, and fortunately they were as happy as we were to freestyle it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The next day the aclimatising began by spending the day on the beach with our two new travel buddies hiding in the shade, and me attempting to surf, I say attempting as surfers usually stand on top of the board.