After bartering with every minicab driver in Kuta we had a ride to Uluwatu beach for the bargain price of 70000 rupiah (about 4pounds). We were promised a nice beach and being a prime spot for surfering, plenty of fellow travellers. We arrived to find a non existent town, no restaurants, no shops and no people. The decision to leave was made that much easier when we saw the only rooms on offer came complete with pet tarantula. Not sure how we'll cope in Australia as seeing this on the wall had us running from the room screaming. Decided to pay our driver a bit extra to take us back to a town we'd passed 10 minutes earlier called Jimbaran which would be busier. We were dumped at the bottom of a huge hill and instructed to walk 'up' for accomodation so we struggled up with our backpacks, realising as we walked past the 4 seasons that this place was probably out of our price range. Embarasingly we had to approach one of these higher class establishments and ask security for a taxi. We grilled the taxi driver about every beach in Bali and what they had to offer before finally deciding on Sanur. Our morning spent bartering was wasted as we forked out yet more money for taxi fare!

Relief as we arrived in Sanur to find a nice town with people and cheap places to stay and we quickly checked ourselves into a homestay, a room in the grounds of a local families home. Having intended to sunbathe all day on a beautiful beach in Bali we eventually made it onto the sand at 4pm, just in time for the next monsoon! Undeterred we found shelter under a beach hut in the sea and spent a few hours relaxing with our books. Thankfully next day we woke to beautiful sunshine so headed straight to the beach where we stayed for the rest of the day. We enjoyed an Indonesian dinner that night while being treated to live music, a singer and keyboard player covering depressing English songs. He did dedicate nearly every song to the 2 'angels' from England but given there were only 2 others in the restaurant he didn't have much choice!

After some more expert bartering we had transport to Ubud. A very friendly (or just pervy!) driver who would like to visit England but first needs a wife- cue winking in the mirror at Leanna, and would give us free rides wherever we wanted to go in Bali from now on. The Balinese are really friendly though and he was quite happy when we said thanks for the ride but we won't be seeing you again. Found another homestay which looked very grand but was still as cheap as Sanur. Its key feature was a bathroom with a window covering one wall facing into the room, it di have a curtain though so we didnt have to watch each other shower! We headed straight out to look around and book a trip to Mount Batur, the only active volcano in Bali. Sadly Leannas finances meant she would have to give it a miss but we both had fun negotiating a price for Nikki, a 'lonely' trekker, as the man at the tour office kindly put it. The trek would involve getting up at 2am to get up the top to see the sunrise so in disbelief that i'd actually paid money for this torture we had an early night.

After what seemed like minutes in bed Nikki was up and in the taxi on the way to the volcano leaving Leanna peacefully asleep. Her day would be spent doing her sums to make sure she doesn't miss out on future early moening adventures! Meanwhile Nikki was joined by a nice couple from Aus (originally Ireland) for the trekking. First was a 3am pitstop where the driver dragged a poor lady out of bed to serve us tea in her garden before moving quickly on to meet our guide at the bottom of the volcano. We were handed sashes that we had to wear at all time as Hindus consider Mount Batur to be sacred and after being given the all clear (nopregnant or menstruating women allowed?!) we strated the climb to the top. It took an hour and a half in the pitch balck with only torches and the guides hand to help us up the very steep, rocky trail. Made it to the top at 530am to see a beautiful sunrise over Lake Batur and Mount Agyung, as well as the steam from the crater, lava deposits and a collection of plastic bottles placed by the locals to collect holy water. We made our way back down amazed at what we'd managed to clamber over in the dark, and had a sleepy ride back to Ubud passing rice terraces and stunning views of the volcano we'd just climbed.

Arrived back to meet Leanna and we both headed off to Monkey forest. We walked around a few temples and graveyards surrounded by wild monkeys, not daring to look at them for too long as we'd heard they can be quite vicious. One grabbed onto Leannas leg but after realising she had no bananas thankfully left her alone. In the afternoon we snuck in to a nearby hotel and took advantage of the sunloungers by the pool, succesfully posing as fellow guests. An early night after a very early start and then onto Lovina...