Dear blog,

today i spent 7 hours in the tinyest be it the cleanest airport on earth. with no free wifi. brilliant.

that was basically how my trip to Bali began, with a 7 hour wait in singapore airport becuase had to vacate my room so early in the day! and as much as i would have loved to sightsee a bit more, a 20kg bag on my back does make that slightly more problamatic! Anyway, i finally got to Bali around 7pm after another wonderful air asia 'pay for your air if you want to breathe' flight. the only light on the horizan was that gap adventures had actually managed to sort an airport transfer for once and so there was someone waiting to take me straight to my hotel - i was unimaginably grateful by this time! the rest of the evening was pretty quiet, i got to my resort 'swastika bungalows' around 8 and i know what your thinking and no im not suddenly a big supporter of historic german blonde hair obsessions - swastika actually means luck in Balinese! the resort itself was beautiful, even at night, there was elegant balinese architecture everywheree, and so many flowers you wouldnt believe it! the swimming pools were georgously landscaped and everything just had a very quaint and relaxed feel about it - it was almost like stepping into the secret garden...but with balinese people offering you room service :P my room was actually pretty damn nice - the bed was huuuggggeeeeee and for once i had a tv with proper english channels! plus, and get ready for this, there were NO lizards in my bathroom! wow huh!! oh and i had a bath which was even better because dont get me wrong showers are fine but sometimes, every now and then when the mood strikes, you just want a bath. as you may have guessed baths are quite important to me...

so, after a night of pure unadulterated rain, i woke to find a very damp but very nice little town right on my doorstep, something i hadnt taken notice of the night before. there were little market stalls with giant wooden penis statues for sale (really, balinese people are a little obsessed...) little cafes whose owners were beating stray cats away with big sticks, and of course the traditional taxi dance on the side of the road, where 24 hours a day numurous men would line up by their empty taxis and honk/shout/sing/propose marriage to any female that walked passed in the hope that they would get a fare out of it. they didnt. they never will. give it up. eventually after what seemed like quite a long walk i ended up at the gates of what i can only describe as the most beautiful hotel i have ever seen...the bali hyatt. now i know my place in life, ill never stay there and im ok with that, but that doesnt mean i cant take a peak at how the other half live does it?! so, with my most rich and powerful face on i strode into the reception area, casually glanced around and upon seeing a piano bar overlooking the beach i subtly ordered myself a drink and made myself at home for the afternoon! the best part was not only did they have wifi that i managed to hack into by guessing that there was a guest by the name of smith who was staying in room 455 (impressive i know!) but they brought out free nuts and snacks with your drink!!!! i mean, a bird attempted to eat mine but thats not the point, they were there and they were free!! but then i had to leave because the drink actually cost me half what i was paying for a nights stay at my hotel and really, it just. wasnt. worth it.

walking back to my lowly poor part of town i got caught in the most unbelivable rain storm - im talking biblical level here people! god decided that he didnt like bali so actually tried to wash it away, seriously, it was just imense. and ti so happened that they rain continued all day, all night and all the next day as well! to the point where on tuesday morning i tried to walk into town and didnt even make it to the end of the resort, i had to turn back because my clothes were soaking even through my raincoat! and my feet were under 4 inches of water within 10 mins! so much to the entertainment of reception staff who watched me walk out, get wet and walk back again for no reason whatsoever, i spent the rest of the day in my room surviving on crap i bought from 7/11 and watching the water level outside get higher and higher and moving closer towards my room with each passing hour. the funny thing was i actually didnt mind because im a bit weird and enjoy the rain so sitting and watching it was quite nice, but then i got bored and watched a movie in my room. so a very productive day in my opinion! no seriously, the rain was ridiculous by this point but i really quite liked it, there is something peaceful about the rain, i found the same thing in africa, just the smell of wet grass and the quietness of everything except the constant rhythm of the water. it was definitly a good day to be on my own because i could just sit there on my patio and get lost in it whilst listening to my music. David Bowie + thunderstorm = happy jenni apparently.

Wednesday brought me the sun. a lovely, hot, sunny sun with only a sprinking of rain in the afternoon - finally Bali is living up to its reputation as a tropical paridise! with that in mind i decided to take a leasurly stroll along the beach and enjoy the sights and sounds of the boardwalk by the sea...except that i got lost and subsiquently ended up walking the entire length of Sanur for about 6 hours until i finally reached the hyatt's bit f private beach that i recognised and once again faked guest status to gain entry and dissapear out the back onto the road that lead to my hotel :P one plus point though is that i found a really nice little rstaurant on the beach that served me some georgous - if a little spicy - grilled prawns to help pass the time whilst the tiny bit of rain passed - best bali meal yet thats for sure! so by the time i actually got back to my hotel it was kinda dark, and i was tired and full of prawns, and it made sense to just chill out in the resort for the night and hang by the pool for a bit etc etc, i know i know im boring but you know what, its my holiday so screw you, ill sleep if i want to :P

Thursday was my big exciting cultural day that i seem to have in each place i go! i decided waaaaaayyy back that i wanted to go elephant riding whilst i was away but, me being me, i was completly unorganised and didnt get time to do it in thailand, sooo Bali was my last chance. therefore i decided to spend the day at the renowned and infamous Bali Elephant Safari Park which housed over 100 elephants, all rescued and looked after by a single person from infancy - family elephants they called them - and how could it not be good when amazing faces like Tony Blair and David beckham had been there and endorsed it!?! they always tell the truth right?... Well, when i got there i quickly discovered that it was pretty amazing, i mean every elephant had its only keeper and they were just looked after so well it was unbelievable! Just before i met my elephant for the day i bumped into a nice family who kindly let me impose on their entire day by hanging out with them lol! plus they needed a fourth person for the elephant ride, so really i was doing them a favour! our elephant was called Nobi (amazing name for an elephant) and we (me, ellie, jamie and gale) got to ride all through this little rainforest for an hour or so right on his back in a cute little straw seat! it was amazing, thats all i can say, amazing. and if that wasnt good enough, when we got back to the main area Nobi took us into the water and started splashing about with us still on his back! he was having a whale of a time! so basically what i learnt was ELEPHANT ARE SO DAMN COOL!!!!! YAY FOR ELEPHANTS!!!!!

but oh the imenseness continued, after our ride there was an elephant show where a group of the elephants started playing basketball and football and hula hoop and even painting! and i know what your thinking, its cruel etc etc but actually, they were really enjying it, you could tell! and apparently it keeps their minds sharp so they dont like just fall down and stuff... but anyway it was really really great and mum can i hav an elephant for my birthday please....

after all that we got to feed the elephants for a while and luckily for us there was a new little baby called richi i think it was and we got to go and feed him for ages! he had this really cool fuzzy hair going on and was literally the sweetest thing i have ever seen! i tried to steal him but my bag wasnt big enough.... plus you know his mum was there and she was a bit bigger than me, im not saying i couldnt take her if i needed to, gale already said she would hold her down whilst i took the baby, but really at the end of the day an elephant is for life, not just for christmas and its a big commitment, plus im always on the road at the mo and its not fair for a little baby to be moving all the time. oh and customes would have s*** themselves too! they already keep stopping me because they think im smuggling bullets from vietnam or carrying a vibrating bomb, you know the usual stuff, and i just wouldnt want to add an elephant to all that! or maybe it would be like there was an elephant in the room and no one would want to mention it so they would just let me through hehe... sorry, rambling, ok, so we got a massive buffet lunch included in the ticket price and then after that is was obviously gift shop o clock! i found the most perfect gift for mum in that shop, it was this massive multicoloured elephant which sounds gross but it would have been great for her little tropical garden thing she has going on...except that just as i was about to pick it up some b****** couple grabbed BOTH of the only reamaining ones left! i bet they didnt even want them, i think they just wanted to spite me. b******s.

The evening was mainly spent running around my room like a crazy person shouting 'I LOVE ELEPHANTS, I RODE AN ELEPHANT, ELEPHANTS ARE GREAT!' etc etc and then just repacking ready for the next day :P

speaking of which, that brings us all up to date to today! i managed to wrangle my room for an extra few hours since i have a really late flight (11pm) so i have spent the day grabbing a few last minute souveniers and supplies ready for sydney and in a little while i shall say fairwell to the wonderful world of Bali ready for my next adventure as always :)

xxx