We got picked up at 9 for our transfer to Sanur to catch the boat to Nusa Lembongan. After calculating our spending, we decided to take the slow locals boat, which took 2 hours instead of 30mins in the speedboat. This entailed us sitting on planks of wood that stretched horizontally from on side of the boat to the other and for about 5 people on each plank. It was a smooth enough journey thank goodness. When we got off the other side, we were hounded by Taxi Taxi!! And I know that they completely rip you off on the first offer. I just wanted to sit down for two minutes to put my shoes on and take a drink but they wouldn't leave us alone. Went to a cafe and eventually left us. On our way back out, they arrived again but ended up getting the taxi for half of the original price. Just gotta bargain. So the taxi was a moped. Front of bike, my big backpack, taxi man, me, my small backpack. And Kenny the same on his. Really don't know how we made it up those steep hills and through all the potholes, I was holding on for dear life. But they got us there in one piece about 15mims later to our accommodation at Sedonk Jineng Villa, at Sunset Point. Really seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere, but the huts were nice, outdoor shower and toilet which I liked and the AC seemed to work. Pool liked nice too. So we asked where mushroom bay was, apparently a beautiful snorkelling spot and off we went. Unfortunately the beach was full of boats and not safe from what we could see to snorkel. Had lunch at cafe bali, was ok then headed back to the hotel to splash about in the pool and watch sunset. Very pretty. A very nice view. We had dinner at the hotel, and a few too many Bintang, but got to know one of the workers there and meet Sally the dog.

On the second day, we really didn't do very much. As we were disappointed by the beach, we just lay by the pool and looked into some Thailand hotels. Realising that it was peak season and lots of the places were already full or more expensive than we thought, we decided on our route and booked them up until Koh Phangan on 7th Jan. Aww it's nice to be organised :) some of them really were double the price of what we wanted to pay, but that's what happens when you travel during peak season and want to go to the full moon party. We walked down to the beach for dinner, at a really cute hotel overlooking the water, furthest to the right (can't remember the name) and had a really nice tunasteak. Again the staff were just lovely. We noticed that some places include government and service tax and others don't include service, so it's always good to check. That night we got eaten alive my mosquitos. I had 4-5 bites on my elbow, nearly double the size it should have been. You have to take the good with the bad.

The next day was our five year anniversary, so we rented a moped and explored this island and also nusa penida via a rickety yellow bridge with planks of wood missing. Lets just say it was a very bumpy ride, we didn't have helmets on (we forgot to ask) and I don't know how the bike made it up some of the hills, crazy steep and bumpy. It was very cheap on fuel; to fill it up, it took 25,000rupiah, $2.50. And that lasted us all day and there was still some left. First stop was Dream beach, followed by the underground house. I duno what I was expecting from it, an actual house underground, but it was more like a series of tunnels, some lit and some not, but suddenly got pretty scary when you see rats and wana get out ASAP, and your hitting into spiderwebs (Bali has big spiders) and you can't figure out how as each way looks the same. That was 5mins of my life I'll never get back. The man said an Australian couple meditated down there for a whole week without coming I up. They are definitely braver than me.
I had a go driving, which lasted all of 10seconds, so back to Kennys turn. We saw a lot of seaweed farming, which was interesting. You could see the grids laid out in the water as it was soo clear. We saw cows just randomly chained to trees, where there was grass around. Lots of random dogs and chickens, as is Bali. Went to the 'blue lagoon' where on the way in man offered us magic mushrooms and on the way out, asked us to pay for letting us on 'his' land. Let's go. Inside was a pretty coastline and a place to cliff jump into the sea. As we were the only people, we thought not. It was pretty high too. These parts of the island really let us see how the locals live, with very little, but most seem happy. We had lunch at Tigerlillys in the main village, the pizza was freshly made even the base and was delicious. I got to wait by swinging in an egg shaped hammock; I love hammocks.
For sunset, we headed to Devils Tears, and it was just beautiful. Sun setting over the ocean, love it. Took lots of pics, perfect end to a perfect day. We had dinner at lumbungs villas and a cocktail at another resort, celebratory drink.

We had another lazy day by the pool, ya need them sometimes especially when it's this hot. The travel company Bbs have all of our info to book our boats and buses so I could relax for a week or two. We had dinner at Mushroom villa, which was the furthest along mushroom beach. When we had ordered I noticed a sign saying mushroom beach; low and behold a perfect snorkelling beach; crystal clear water and not a boat in sight. Always the way, especially when ta get lazy like us. Beautiful dinner, although did get attacked by mosquitos, thanks to a fellow tourist who came to my rescue with bug spray.

24th December: it's my birthday :) 27 and old. But today I was determined to break tradition and not cry, I did it. But I did picture my birthday two years ago; Christmas jumper on lying by the fire with my doggies= Perfect. But we were gona try to make this one a good one too. We decided on the fast boat back to Sanur as I didn't wana risk my life on a motorbike taxi with my backpack again, and this one went from mushroom bay near us instead of the village and they even picked us up. Got the taxi from Sanur to Seminyak, we weren't able to negotiate that much with this one and arrived at our new fancy hotel at 11; the Ivory Resort. With a welcome drink on arrival, the staff were really lovely. They carried out bags to the room where the surprise lay: they made my bed up for my birthday, I absolutely loved it!! Made little elephants out of the towels and had happy birthday written in flower petals, soo cute. The room absolutely beautiful too; a massive bed, big bathroom, big bathroom with massive shower head, own robes and slippers, an outdoor sitting area; felt like we had won the lottery. It was a little bit more expensive that normal but it was our Christmas treat. We had snacks from the shop directly across the road, they had everything and we pretty cheap. We spent the day walking the beach, the whole way to double six. The beaches weren't that impressive, pretty brown and littered a lot in places. (The resorts cleaned the area of beach in front of them but the rest was left. Oo well, can't win them all.) We stopped in a Biku along the way; had the best milk shakes we've ever had. The lonely planet definitely got this one right. We had dinner at warung eny, as there were lots of people in (our usual sign of where to eat). I ordered 'mixed dishes' and asked the waiter what the dishes were. 'They dishes' was the reply, so after several attempts I gave up and hoped for the best; thankfully wasn't bad but not a clue what half of them were.

Happy christmas from Bali. We spent the day by the pool, took the necessary christmas snaps and ran in and out of the room in between the scariest sounding lightning. The best part is I got to watch my family opening their Christmas pressies, so exciting!! I also had a massage which was 15mins complimentary per person, but Kenny let me use his too so I got 30mins and it was a really good one. We had rolls for Christmas dinner, determined to find a proper one later. We spent the evening hunting for Christmas dinner. Ended up at Mandre: the food was good but minimal to say the least. I'd say my dinner at home would have been 5 times the size. We will def make up for it when we get home.

On the last day in Bali, I had my first lie in, until 9am, go me!! Kenny a actually had to wake me. Amazing. We had a really good breakfast here included, which was eggs anyway you like, which included omelette with peppers and onion (yummy) and proper coffee machine coffee. O how I've missed decent coffee. Today we went exploring: ie out if the hotel and turned left. After about 20mins of not knowing where we were going and in the blistering heat, I was a bit worried but eventually found the beach. There was soo much washed up on it... Coconuts, branches and lots of flip flops and other waste. Not what we were expecting of bali beaches. The waves were pretty strong too and realised why there were soo many flip flops as we watched one girl lose hers. We headed back to the hotel, where they let us hang by the pool. We had an amazing lunch at the hotel; sometimes its easy to skip eating in the place you are staying. We should have eaten here every day. In general though, we have loved Balinese food. And did eat local dishes almost every day. We literally had enough cash left for lunch and the rest had to cover the taxi to the airport. So Kenny and the porter waved down taxis to find one that would take us to the airport via the ripcurl outlet shop to get Kenny his delayed Christmas present, with the amount we had left. Perfect. As it cost at least 50,000 rupiah every time we lifted charged from the machine and a charge from our own bank, we def didn't wana just lift small sums. Got to the airport via the torrential rain and in rush-hour took about 1 hour plus the 20min ripcurl stop, and got checked in straight away. Paid our 200,000 rupiah exit tax, the joys. Unfortunately with Airasia our smiles and upgrade request were met with, 'if you'd like to pay', so economy seats it was for us. It was actually really comfortable and efficient, quickest 3 hours ever, and wen arrived early into KL. Having not done a great deal of research into whether or not we needed a visa for KL, I approached immigration with my fingers crossed. Yes! Stamped and on through with no charge :) we collected our bags, headed the correct terminal with a stop via Burger King, as McDonalds here wouldn't accept card. Found a chair to sleep in as it was 2/3am by this point but couldn't so Kenny slept and I looked around. At 4am we checked in for our next flight and being told it would take an hour to get to the gate, we started walking. Before we knew it, it was 7am and we were on the next efficient Airasia flight to Phuket.