First stop in Bali was Kuta, we found it a bit like Benidorm for Aussies! ha! Full of other tourists, bars, clubs and spas. Lots of Aussies visit to catch a few waves, Its a big surfers hang out.

We had two days here, adjusting to the heat and exploring the town. We alo treated ourselves to a massage each! Its was soooo lovely, and cost us a fiver each for an hour!

We had read and heard about our next stop Ubud as being the cultural center of Bali, full of Temples and Art. We jumped in a taxi to take us, and he talked to us ALOT about 'big happy', i'll give ya 3 guesses what he what chatting about! We stayed a little bit of the beaten track, in a lovely guest house, which was perfect for escaping the bustling town centre. Our guest house was surrounded by padi fields, and when it rained at night we could hear the frogs croaking outside! Here the local children fly kites alot , they some how manage to get their kites so high up in the sky, without the slightest breeze! They also have kite fights, with specially made kites to attack!!

Whilst in Ubud, we watched a traditional Balinese dance performance. The women dance with their eyes wide open and use their fingers to make small movements as part of the routine. A live orchestra played traditional instruments, we both really enjoyed it.

We also, joined a tour group for a cycling trip around rural Bali. Luckily it was a downhill bike ride, otherwise i propably would have got the ump! ha! We loved it. We cycled through small villages and visited a typical Balinese house, 'compound'. In the compound, the whole family would live, three generations altogether! Each compound also had its own temple, where ancestors would be buried, and only members of the family would be allowed to enter. The majority of Balinese families follow Hinduism, and different temples throughout the villages represent the 3 different gods, 'The creator', 'The protector' and 'The destroyer'. The compound we visited had many children playing, the boys were busy building a little bird cage for some baby chicks they had rescued!

On our cycling tour we also visited a coffee plantation, where we saw how the coffee would be prepared by hand for drinking. We also got to taste some samples. We tasted some of the most expensive coffee in the world, which is basically taken from possom poo! Yes poo. Its so expensive as the workers have to follow these possoms about in the jungle, without disturbing them, then collect up all their little balls of poo, so they can extract the coffee beans which the possoms have eaten and then pooped out! Yum.

As we rode through the villages the locals would say hello, and we even got a couple of high fives from the kids!

We ate in this brilliant restaurant in Ubud, where locals and tourists both seemed to be munching away, it was called the suckling pig. Which is a typical Indonesian dish, basically suckling pig, with rice and some spicy green beans! Very tasty, the best bit was that we sat on the floor and had to take our shoes off before we entered!!

The monkey sanctuary was also in Ubud and visited with bananas in hand ready to see the cute monkeys, however cute is not the word you would use for these nasty little buggas! ha! They wern't quite that bad but they were very aggressive and jumped on Jon trying to grab his bananas!! ha! We didn't stay long!

We are now in Lovina, which is further North, by the coast. The sand is volcanic and black, and the beach isn't that appealing, but today we hired a moped and explored a bit. All the locals drive mopeds, like absolute nutters, but Jon and i drove happily along at a steady speed, looking a bit like Harry and Lloyd from dumb and dumber!!! ha ha! We found some hot springs and dipped our toes, we were already soaked from driving the scooter in the pouring rain! Here we stopped for some lunch, chicken satay with the peanut sauce is a popular dish and sooo good, Jon is loving the noodles, and the price of our meals!!

Tomorrow we have an early start as we are going fishing! Yes fishing! For Tuna! Which we obviously get to keep and have for dinner! Apparently sometimes you can see dolphins too! so fingers crossed!

Hope you are all good, we are missing you all lots.

Kate and Jon xxxxxxxx