When we got to Bali, I noticed straight away that we?d have to keep our wits about us because I got scammed straight away. Some guy in uniform asked me to check the name of my bag, then carried it 30 metres to the customs, where he put it down and asked for a tip! I didn?t have any local currency and so the cheeky git pointed to a foreign exchange. I wasn?t going to do that so I was going to walk away, then I remembered I had a few odd dollar notes in my wallet. I gave him one of those which apparently wasn?t good enough as he demanded $5 instead! The way I cracked up in his face made him smirk and decide to walk off. We were in for a rough ride in Bali. The drive to the hotel was quite an experience, with mopeds, stray dogs and people all over the place. Our hotel was down a very dodgy alley but our room was surprisingly nice with air con, fridge, and TV, plus the hotel had a pool - all for £5 each. It was midnight and as we were shattered from the flight, we stayed in and watched the most appalling standard of boxing ever to make TV in our room. Day 2  It seemed that our hotel was on the main street in Bali and as soon as we ventured outside we were hit by the beggars, touts and shopkeepers, all seemingly sensing that we were newcomers in town. Luckily Fiji, well NadI in particular, had taught us well and it wasn?t so bad, although I wouldn?t be comfortable if I hadn?t experienced it before. The touts would even walk along the road with you until they were 100% sure you wouldn?t give in to whatever carving, beads, and fake t-shirts they had to offer. I was particularly tickled by the way that if you refused to buy a T-shirt, the tout would say ?but its Billabong!? - I didn?t know Billabong had such an amazing reputation in Indonesia. Eventually we got to the beach after eating one of the worst KFC I?ve ever seen. It seemed that Bali was a surfers resort as there wasn?t anywhere to swim due to the sheer number of surfers on the waves. It was a nice enough beach though but busier than I thought. The quiet beaches Bali is famous for are apparently at other, less tourist ridden parts of the island. After walking for miles getting to know the area, we went back to the hotel for a dip in the pool and kip because it is such a hot and hectic place. We had big plans for the night time because Kuta is the main resort in Bali, and also the place where the bombings took place. If its important enough to bomb, it must be good, was my logic. Duncs had a dip and read poolside and I decided to make use of the ?gym? - it was in fact an empty garage filled with weights with rugs laid down to stop you smashing the tiles. Doing exercise in that heat was pretty hardcore. On our night out we found Kuta to be much quieter than we?d imagined. All the main bars didn?t fill up till really late. We went to a place called Apache Reggae Bar, which our guide book describes as ?a dark, shady place, where the do only plays reggae music? - we had to go! It was disappointingly quite nice inside. A strange fashion designer woman we met there wanted to take us to some trendy part of town, as she believed it to be much better. It would have made for an impluse adventure I guess, but we decided to give the resort a chance seeing as we only had a few nights in Bali. Eventually the main bar/club filled up and eventually became super busy. There was a mini ice rink filled with foam and soapy water downstairs and people were slide tackling each other over - this looked like too much fun, so I went home to change out of jeans and into shorts for a night of foamy combat while duncs resisted the urge. The excitement was too much to handle so I ended up paying a drug dealer 20p to take me to the club on the back of his moped to speed things up! Unfortunately it went t*** up because after coming out of the foam I realized that someone had done a runner with my beloved Crocs shoes and Nike vest!! I was more than pissed off, which was compounded by not being able to find Duncan and having to walk 15mins home barefoot in just some wet shorts. Beggars were all over the place and in my state I made it very clear that they should come asking me for money when they don?t have more clothes on than me! Day 3 My night of misery got even worse today when I found out my card was missing from my wallet, and even worse, it had taken a hammering from whoever nicked it. Not too much to say about today except that I spent ages on the phone/internet trying to sort it out. I do have a report from the tourist police as a souvenir though, so all is well.. We met some decent old Aussie boys at a restaurant in the evening when me, duncs and Donald (our Jock mate from the hostel) went to eat. They were seasoned travelers and ?rough old Aussie b******s?, so they had a few stories to perk me up a bit. I went to bed to sulk whilst Duncs and Donald had a few beers. Day 4 We booked a bus to a town about 1 1/2hrs from Kuta called Ubud. We wanted to see another part of the island, but needed to keep fairly close to the airport. Ubud is famous for its art and cultural attractions and has less tourists, so it was a chance to wind down, and a place for me to take stock of the situation I find myself in. When we arrived in Ubud we found out that the bus station was 1.5km outside of the main street, so we either paid 30p for a taxi or agrange to stay in a hostel belonging to a tout at the station to qualify for a free lift. After being harassed far too much, we took the other option and walked it with our 20kg packs on!!!! It was a big mistake, although I felt that I could definitely do a job for the SAS if need be if jungle warfare broke out. We ended up walking down an alleyway where a shady old boy offered us a place in his homestay, we were too tired to refuse and at £1.20 each per night inc breakfast we thought it was value! A homestay is a compound of 3 small family shacks, with separate little cabin rooms for tourists. Ours was really nice with veranda and ensuite facilities. I noticed an older couple in the cabin next to us and went for a chat. After making the little lad from the family run to the shop to get us beers all afternoon at 80p a pop for a big bottle, we discovered that the couple were from??.Ashford!!!! Small world huh. That evening we went for some food in a restaurant for a quid each, then went for some late drinks to watch live coverage of the Arsenal v Chelsea. Day 5 Apart from the arts Ubud is famous for its Monkey Forest. As the name suggests it?s a forest full of wild monkeys. You can fed them, sit with them, and generally do whatever you want that doesn?t provoke an attack. I love monkeys so it was a really cool experience to get so close to them. We saw loads of the usual cheeky stuff groups of them get up to, like stealing food from each other, pulling faces etc. Luckily we went just after many of the females had given birth so there were lots of very young babies about. One monkey actually stole Duncans water bottle and ran off up a wall with it. We watched in amazement as it actually figured out how to unscrew the bottle top. All in all it was well worth the visit. The centre of Ubud is dominated by an arts market. Amoungst the usual fake watches and sarongs, there are lots of carvings, paintings and the like. Some of it is really good and sooooo cheap, although not my cup of tea. If I was into it, this would be heaven. I spied a few items of interest, but I hadn?t mastered the art of haggling so I just got some practice in, in view of cleaning up on my return visit. Duncs went for a walk while I played online poker in a posh restaurant. I lost again, but I?m blaming the pressure of needing the money for my bad play. I withdrew some of my poker cash though for piece of mind. In the evening Duncs went out to met a guy we met on the bus from Kuta. He did his masters in Bournemouth Uni so we had a bit to talk about. In fact he saw me in the restaurant playing poker as he walked by earlier and commented that he?d never seen anything like my online set up and programs, he was amazed by it all. I just call it professionalism hehehe. Whilst Duncs went out I decided to save money because I was feeling the squeeze, so I had a boys night in on my own! I watched UFC 69 which I had previously downloaded and had a few beers from the shop. It was pretty cool just lying low, sitting on the veranda and watching the greatest sport ever invented. A very chilled out night. Day 6 This was our last day in Bali, but before catching the bus to the airport we made our return visit to the arts market. I got a few prezzies for people, so I wont go into detail, but I managed to pick up a sarong and wooden mask to hang on the wall. I?m not big on all these cultural carvings so I havent brought much in the way of souvenirs on my travels so far, however, this mask is very funk (bright blue). Plus I managed to haggle the poor girl down to a quid on both. Maybe they were secretly laughing at getting that price, and maybe it was me getting ?done?, but I worked my socks off to squeeze that final 15p off the price hehehe. Pay a 3rd of the asking price is our motto thus far. Most people we meet say pay ½?..that?s far too much J . We got to the airport no problem. However, Duncan also lost his card, but luckily nothing was taken off it. We assume a security bloke at the airport stole it during the xray scanning as Duncs used it just prior. This actually made me feel better because I had been cursing myself for perhaps losing my card when drunk. On this evidence it would seem that my card was almost going to get taken no matter what I did, plus I honestly wasn?t that drunk at all on the night so someone was very sneaky to get it. Very dodgy place. Roll on Singapore. ??.actually it was a shame all this happened because we did infact like Bali, especially the less touristy parts like Ubud. If there were no major disasters during the visit, I think Bali would have been a good introduction to Asia and I really wish we could have had more time to explore the island.