After about 3 1/2 hours in the air we came in to land on Bali, with a great view of the green island as we approached. Once off the plane, we bought our visas at a desk, quickly passed through immigration, then collected our bags and left the terminal. We walked straight past the scores of taxi touts asking ridiculous prices and crossed a big car park in the sunshine, trying to get out of the ariport. We had heard that taxis outside the airport would charge far less to take us places, so made our way towards what looked like an exit. As we were about to leave, a guy approached us and offered his taxi services. When we asked the price it was much more reasonable than the prices we had been quoted thus far. I asked him if he had air conditioning in his car, the one thing we cared about since the journey to our intended destination, Ubud, was supposed to take at least an hour and the heat was stifling. He assured us his car had air con and when we said okay to the price, he scurried off to get his car from wherever it was parked, somewhere outside the airport.

We should have known when we saw the scruffy guy in the first place that we shouldn't have bothered even listening to him, and when he pulled around the corner in an old, unmarked black car we sighed at our own stupidity. We could have probably just walked away then but feeling bad that we'd agreed a price and so forth, we loaded our bags into the boot and climbed into the car. Of course, the promised air conditioning didn't exist, and we thus found ourselves cruising through the grubby streets around the airport with the windows down, gasping for air with our backs stuck to the seat behind us. It was too late to change our minds then, so we just had to put up with the heat as we crawled our way through the surprisingly thick traffic along fairly built up streets of shops and hotels, which were universally unappealing and grimy.

It wasn't too long though before we passed into a more rural setting. The road here was badly eroded at the edges, with huge potholes our driver had to continually swerve around. Along the side of the road were innumerable outlets selling stone carvings in all shapes and sizes, but predominantly Buddhas and pretty awesome-looking representations of Ganesh. Beyond these shops were verdant rice paddies and lines of palm trees. we drove through this flat landscape for a while before the road began to climb gently. At this point the grey clouds which had been building overhead began to unload in a heavy downpour. As we continued, climbing gently, we soon realised we were in the area around Ubud. As we took some more turns we passed through the tropical trees, by fancy spas and nice looking hotels and restaurants, until we finally climbed a sloping street lined with impressive stone walls. At the top of this street we spotted the sign for some bungalows we had seen online and liked the look of. We got our driver to stop here and piled out of the car, quickly grabbing our bags from the boot as there was a traffic jam forming behind us. We had decided on the journey that since the driver had lied to us about the air con we were going to pay him less than the amount we'd agreed on. Instead of the 150,000 rupiah we had said, I handed over 120,000 which he wasn't happy about. He threatened to go to the police but I stood my ground, saying I'd asked him only one question, whether he had air con, and he had lied to me about that. When he realised I was in the right, and when he saw the traffic building all around him he took the 120,000 and drove off.

We then climbed the sloping stone driveway to the bungalows on the hillside above. A young chap showed us around a few and we decided to splash out a bit and went for an air con upstairs room with plate-glass windows looking out onto a big tiled balcony, which in turn overlooked a little gorge filled with lush tropical plants and trees. It also had a big bathroom with fantastic double doors of carved wood. It was a really nice room in a great setting, and the inclusion of breakfast, which we understood could be served on our balcony, sealed the deal for us.

After unpacking our stuff and taking a shower, much needed after our sweaty 1 1/2 hour taxi journey, we chilled out in the room for a while as another huge rain shower poured down outside. When this abated, we went down to register for the room, then headed into town for a look around. We walked along the narrow main street, busy with traffic for such a small road, on a pavement punctuated by rickety grilles over deep drains and numerous 45 degree ramps at the entrance to every little doorway off the street. The whole place had a very compact, vibrant feel to it. The street was lined with the elaborate stone gateways into little places, some of which seemed to be temples, others accommodation. In between these were numerous shops selling wood carvings, ornaments and clothes which all had a much higher quality look than much of the tat we'd seen so far in Asia, as well as lots of restaurants, most of which were fairly fancy looking affairs decorated smartly. Outside all of these places were countless stone statues of ugly demonic looking creatures as well as more recognisable deities.

As we were hungry, we checked out the menus at a few places before being lured in by the Lotus Cafe, more because of its location than anything else. This open-plan place looked out over a big stone pond filled with lilies and lotus flowers to a temple on the far side, reached by a stone causeway. It was a fantastic setting to sit and eat some lunch. We ordered some soup, spring rolls and an Indonesian dish of spicy shredded chicken with vegetables in coconut milk and rice, which we shared. The food was tasty, but more expensive than we'd been used to over the past few months.

After lunch we wandered through the streets of town, past more craft shops, stone temples and bars and restaurants, ignoring the locals' constant calls of 'Transport?'. We had a brief look around the large two-storey stone complex housing the Ubud market, where stalls were crammed with more wood carvings, clothes, souvenirs, and lots of rattan goods. From there we took a loop around some more of the town before doubling back to our accommodation, arriving there in the late afternoon. Although the town was very pretty, its compact scale, business with other tourists and awkward pavements made walking around almost a little stressful, so we were glad to relax for a while back at our place.

We took a seat out on the balcony with a couple of local beers we'd picked up, and started to read our books. However, the peace was soon shattered by incredibly loud and erratic percussion 'music' coming from across the little gorge in front of our room. At first we found the frenzied cacophony of banging, crashing, dinging, donging and rattling amusing, but the novelty soon wore off as the incessant racket continued seemingly endlessly. Eventually however, the creators of this din moved off from their practice spot and the noise faded away. I found myself falling asleep in my seat out on the balcony so nipped inside to lie down in the cool room, and ended up falling asleep for a couple of hours.

In the late evening, after I had woken up, we decided to go out and find somewhere for dinner. We walked down the steep, rough driveway from our accommodation to the main road and once again made our way up the awkward and uneven pavement. At a restaurant not far from our driveway we were given a flyer entitling us to free dessert, so we checked out their menu and decided to give the place a shot. We were sat in the stylishly modern seating area, open to the hillside behind the place with a stream we could hear running by underneath somewhere. Lucy ordered a sort of chicken cordon bleu with sesame seeds on it while I got grilled tuna skewers which were served with a thick saffron sauce inside half a coconut, with rice and some chilli sambal. Both dishes were tasty, and we enjoyed them before ordering our free dessert, opting for a fruit plate and some black rice pudding with coconut milk.

After dinner we went back down the road to our place, where I sat out on the balcony for a while on the internet while Lucy had a shower and went to bed. Just before midnight I went inside and had a shower, then climbed into bed. As I did so, I heard a faint repetitive knocking noise coming from somewhere outside. This steadily increased in frequency and volume before, to my horror, being suddenly accompanied by the cacophonic crashing din of the percussion mentalists from earlier. These inconsiderate and/or deranged souls then proceeded to frenetically strike, bash, shake and bong out a headache-inducing mess of noise for well over an hour before finally shuttng up and letting me get some sleep. Lucy slept through the whole thing, although she did wake up for a few seconds and when I asked if she could hear the drumming she replied: 'Which one?' then fell asleep again.

In the morning we got up and dressed, then thought about breakfast. When I opened the door to have a look out on our balcony I found Wayan, the young guy who worked at our accommodation, out there cleaning. I ordered some breakfast from him which was soon brought up to us on the balcony. We sat overlooking the green gorge below and had our breakfast, chatting to Wayan and asking him a bit about Bali and what we should see and do.

After breakfast, we decided we would pay a visit to the monkey forest, one of the main tourist attractions in Ubud. We weren't really sure what to expect, but anything involving monkeys sounded worth a look. Therefore we set off to the main street which we walked a short distance along, before turning up a side road, Jalan Bisma. This paved street sloped up from the main road before levelling out, flanked by little restaurants and homestays which all somehow looked like miniature, elaborate temples with ornate stone gateways and walled gardens.

We continued down the street in the bright sunshine before the paving gave way to dirt. We found ourselves walking between bright green rice paddies, crammed into every space between the temple-like lodgings which were now dotted about rather than right up against the road.

We took some small paths down alleyways between some of these places to have a look around, finding more paths leading through more rice paddies. Doubling back to Jalan Bisma, we continued through this pretty scene, interrupted only by some low-key construction sites with bamboo scaffolding everywhere, where new tourist accommodation was being built.

The track sloped down, then turned at right angles to the left before crossing over a stream, with a pretty waterfall plunging into a jungly gorge below, then climbing one last rise before emerging onto a busy, narrow road.

This road was Monkey Forest Road, as it is know locally, as it leads to the aforementioned monkey forest. We found the entrance to this place just to our right, and bought some tickets at a booth before walking down a stone path between some carvings into the forest. The forest was an area of tall, tropical trees with these stone paths winding through it and it was indeed full of monkeys, long-tailed macaques to be precise. As soon as we passed through the entrance they were all around us, in all shapes and sizes from little babies clinging to their mothers to nimble little juveniles with cheeky mohawks, up to the fat-faced adults slowly prowling around looking disdainfully at everything. We strolled along the paths in the shade among the tall palms and strangler figs, entertained no end by the antics of the primates who squabbled over bananas, played football with coconuts, jumped from tree to tree, lazed languidly as their friends groomed them, and even put on some x-rated displays which we could have done without.

The paths led eventually to a walled temple where we donned some sarongs and sashes, as required, before entering for a look around. Everywhere were stone carvings of mythical creatures, deities and demons and the angular, multi-levelled facades around gates and on top of pillars.

After looking around the forest for a while we made our way back out the way we had come in, past the neverending monkey show and into the narrow, busy street beyond. It was now around midday and very hot. When we saw Monkey Forest Road stretching uphill in front of us in the direction we needed to go, we decided to take up the offer of one of the many touts around offering transport. We bargained a price back to our accommodation, then hopped in his boxy car to be whisked up Monkey Forest Road. When we saw the length of the road, and how crowded it was, we were glad we'd taken the lazy option as a stroll up the steep, heaving street on the narrow pavements would have been a nightmare in the heat.

We were soon dropped off at our accommodation where, instead of going to our room, we followed the driveway around the side of our place where it turned into a dirt track, then a narrow paved walking path running between two walls. We knew from our chat with Wayan earlier that this route would take us north into the rice paddies on the gentle slopes behind Ubud, where roughly a kilometre away there was an organic restaurant overlooking the countryside. We followed the path around a corner, between high walls surrounding some lodgings before we emerged into the fantastically beautiful landscape just out of town. The little strip of concrete we were walking along was lined with odd palm trees here and there with a little stream running alongside. The water gurgling through this little channel had flowed down through the innumerable rice paddies which surrounded us on both sides, stepped ever higher up the gentle slope in front of us and cris-crossed with narrow raised paths of dirt. In the distance off to the side we could see valleys and beyond them, more of the temple-looking buildings so common in the area.

We walked through this wonderland in the blazing afternoon sun, stepping off the path every minute or so to let a moto pass, and gradually climbed up the gentle slope through the paddies with the little stream burbling alongside for company. We passed waddles of fluffy brown ducks apparently bog snorkelling in the reflective waters of the rice fields, some of which had little houses at the end of concrete causeways in the middle of them, cute painting galleries and locals at work in the fields. Eventually we spotted a two storey building in amongst some shrubs, with an open upper level overlooking the paddies below towards Ubud. This was the restaurant we had been making for, and we entered down a little stone path before finding a seat with an uninterrupted view from the balcony.

We ordered some fresh fruit juices and some food to go with them. I had a lemongrass, ginger and palm sugar drink while Lucy ordered a lemonade with mint. The latter was absolutely delicious, being made with crushed ice and tasting just like a mojito without the rum. As we waited for our food we watched the ducks waddling around in files below us, roosters strutting around and cock-a-doodle-dooing and just took in the awesome view. When we were served our food, we realised it had been worth the effort making the journey for more than the view alone. We shared a burrito which was filled thickly with chicken, beans and vegetables in a curry sauce and a plate of grilled vegetables with a grilled chicken breast and feta cheese. We also ended up ordering one more lemonade as the first one was so good.

After our feast, and once we had cooled down a little, we set off back to our place, hopping on and off the path again to avoid the surprisingly high number of motos using the path. When we got back to the driveway at the entrance to our lodgings, I left Lucy to go back to the room and walked into town to find some adaptor plugs as the local plugs were the American type rather than the usual flat-pinned type we had been used to in the rest of Southeast Asia (aside from Singapore and Malaysia where they conveniently used UK plugs). Once I had completed my shopping mission, after checking in a few convenience stores, I returned to our room where we both changed into our swimmers and headed up the path outside our room along the side of the little gorge to the swimming pool.

Although I had to skim a few bugs and leaves from the surface of the water first, we had the pool to ourselves and relished the cool, refreshing water after the heat of the day. We floated around under the trees for a bit until we had cooled down, and some grey clouds had gathered overhead. We walked up the remaining length of the path alongside the gorge to look at some of the other bungalows on offer, then went back to our room to shower.

We spent the next while out on the balcony with some bottles of Bintang, trying to plan the last couple of weeks of our trip. We had decided to fly from Bali to the centre of Java and spend just a few days there before getting a train to Jakarta for our flight home. We managed to book some cheap flights, then browsed the internet and relaxed a bit.

In the evening, we heard music from outside, across the gorge again. This time, however, it was one of the many local dance shows which was being performed at a temple/stage on the other side of the gully and not the racket-makers of the night before. We had found out from Wayan earlier that the percussion frenzy we'd heard had been an annual ceremony to encourage growth in the forest, or something to that effect. With the dance show music in the background, we left our room and strolled to the street, where we caught another taxi.

We instructed the driver to take us back to near the monkey forest, where we hoped to find a restaurant we'd read about online. The streets of Ubud were packed with really attractive restaurants, all with great-looking menus and well-designed environments. I don't say interiors because most of them were open-sided or -fronted affairs so weren't really inside. This made choosing hard so we had turned to Tripadvisor again, where we found great reviews of Semestra Warung. We were dropped off near where we thought it was, and soon found it. Based on the reviews we had expected a little hole-in-the-wall place with basic seating and so forth, but the restuarant we found looked more like a wooden beach house from California, with balconies on two storeys and an open front, decorated in soft pastel blue with smart wooden furniture and kitsch tea-towel napkins and placemats made from old shopping bags.

We took a seat on the balcony overlooking the quiet street in front, and ordered more fruit juices. Lucy went for lemonade with mint again while I tried a concoction containing beetroot, pineapple, celery, lime and honey. It was really good. We had some very tasty food to go along with the drinks. Lucy ordered some creamy pumpkin soup made with coconut milk, while I had an Indonesian soup with lots of fragrant green leaves, potato, and the squidgy flesh of young coconuts in a flavoursome broth. Following that I had some nasi goreng, fried rice with chicken through it, with a fried egg on top and a big prawn cracker and Lucy had nasi campur which was a cone of steamed rice surrounded by a selection of different Indonesian dishes, almost like Bali tapas. She had some minced chicken with lemongrass and chilli steamed in a banana leaf, some sweet soy pork, prawns in chilli sambal, and a few other tasty morsels. We polished off the lot then set off to wander down towards the monkey forest.

We passed by the dark jungle of the park, with the cries of the monkeys far off in the trees. The stone statues of monkeys we had seen earlier in the day seemed quite creepy at night in the quiet street, but we had soon rounded the corner onto the main stretch of Monkey Forest Road where it was a bit busier. Not wanting to go against the precedent we'd set earlier, we opted not to walk and again enlisted the services of a taxi driver to take us up the hill and back along the road to our accommodation. Back in our room, we relaxed for a bit before going to bed, as the next day we planned to take a tour by car of some of the sights around Ubud.

We got up at about 8am the next morning and I nipped downstairs to order breakfast, which we were served shortly, on our balcony. After eating, we grabbed our stuff and went down to the front of our accommodation where we met our driver, Made. We hopped into the back of his boxy Suzuki people carrier thing, one of innumerable such vehicles on the island, and set off up the main street on Ubud.

We soon headed out of the centre of town before taking some turns and passing through numerous craft 'villages'. In each of these, long stretches of the road were lined, chock-full, with shop after shop making and selling the same type of goods. The first stretch was all wood carving shops, and we decided to stop at one. We saw some of the craftsmen painstakingly carving chunks of mahogany, hibiscus and other woods into Ganeshes, Buddhas and creepy masks with impressive skill. We then looked around the shop and, although tempted, managed to resist buying some of the more expensive 'masterpiece' carvings which were really beautiful.

From the wood carving place we had intended to head straight on to our first 'proper' sight of the day, Goa Gajah or Elephant Cave. However, as our driver kept telling us that the route we'd be taking was 'one way' we decided, at his suggestion, to stop at one of the batik painting places and a silver jewellery place. We drove first to the batik painting 'village' and pulled into one place, where we found a car park full of identical Suzuki boxes and the place teeming with tourists. We hopped out for a quick look at the women applying wax to bits of cloth and carefully applying paint to create the multicoloured designs. We didn't stay long before moving on to the silver 'village' where we stopped at one shop amongst hundreds and saw some jewellers at outdoor tables making earrings from tiny bits of silver all stuck together. We whisked around the showroom without buying anything, then got back in the car.

From there, to our confusion, we turned and headed back towards Ubud. When I asked Made about our direction and his claim that the whole route was 'one way' he said that it was, apart from this bit (i.e. the bit we didn't care about and ended up wasting a total of two hours on by the time we were back in Ubud and on the right track). After getting back to Ubud we drove along narrow roads winding up and down above deep forested gullies and through little villages with the ubiquitous temples everywhere (we found out that these were family temples where the locals worshipped their ancestors, and there were some 10,000 temples in total in Bali) before we arrived at a car park at Goa Gajah.

We walked from the car park through a gauntlet of souvenir stalls to a ticket booth where we bought entrance tickets and were kitted out with sarongs around our waists, to comply with the dress standards for the temple. From the ticket booth we then took a staircase down into a deep, steep-sided hollow at the bottom of which was a stone courtyard surrounding a sunken bath area with statues pouring water from jugs, and an ornately carved facade surrounding a small cave entrance. We ignored the pestering would-be guides who offered their services and walked through the literal mouth of the cave, it being carved in the form of a face, to find ourselves in a small, 'T' shaped cavern rounded out of the hillside. In it were a few electric bulbs strung from the roof, a little statue of Ganesh at one end and three phallic stone lingas at the other. And that was it.

We left the cave a bit disappointed, then wandered through the surrounding grounds for a bit. We found a staircase leading deeper down into a steep, jungly gully with stone paths and ponds here and there and a very atmospheric little waterfall area, in which huge chunks of stone lay coated in moss, the outline of carvings visible on their faces. These huge boulders had obviously been part of a carved cliff face in the valley but had collapsed due to erosion over the years. We walked on some paths around the area and found another little temple, from which there was a nice view down to the bottom of the valley, where a river was running.

Finding the heat quite unbearable, we left the area and climbed staircase after staircase to reach the car park, dropping off our sarongs on the way. We found Made snoozing on a little covered bamboo platform, woke him up, then all got back in the car. We had been keen to visit a site called Yeh Pulu, which we knew was near the Elephant Cave and which featured relief carvings in a rock cliff face. We had been told at the Elephant Cave that we could reach the site by a path through the jungle, which we didn't fancy in the heat, or via road. Therefore we asked Made if he could take us there, but he didn't seem sure where it was. In the end he found out from a car park attendant and drove us a short distance up the road before turning down some narrow little lanes zig-zagging between temples and houses where signs pointed to Yeh Pulu. We had almost reached the site before our progress was halted by a group of locals sitting in the road ahead of us, taking part in some sort of ceremony. This transpired to be a cremation ceremony for a local priest, and was going to be going on for some time. Therefore we had to abandon the car in the lane and walk the remaining few hundred metres to the entrance to Yeh Pulu.

We paid another entrance fee at a stall at the head of a flight of stairs, overlooking stepped rice paddies opposite and a little valley below. We went down these steps and along a path through the shallow valley, alongside a pretty stream. We passed through beautiful tropical trees before emerging to an open clearing of sodden rice paddies filled with quacking, fluffy brown ducks. Lining the left side of the area was a small cliff face, carved along its length with weathered, life-size figures engaged in day-to-day activites, with a little Ganesh carved at the far end. We passed through a stone gateway and admired the ancient carvings in solitude before returning back up the valley and up the stairs.

We decided to have some lunch at a little cafe just at the top of the stairs, with a view over the rice paddies, so sat down with Made and ordered some local dishes. Just as we did, we heard some drums start up at the top of the lane. Made informed us that it was from the funeral ceremony and said we should go and have a look. We nipped up the road to see the tall, elaborate coffin being carried around by some pallbearers, surrounded by local men in sarongs and headscarves and to the soundtrack of percussion instruments. The coffin was conveyed down a lane to our right, followed by the large procession until it moved out of sight. After watching this we returned to the cafe to eat a tasy lunch before getting back on the road.

We drove out through the countryside along universally narrow roads, winding through little villages full of ornate little temples and areas of rice and palm trees until we pulled into a car park in one village. From here we walked down a sloping street through another gauntlet of souvenir stalls, where we had to ignore constant attempts to sell us sarongs. At the end of the street we found ourselves at the top of yet more stairs, this time above a deep valley descending far below us in stepped, green rice paddies, with palm trees growing wherever the rice wasn't, and a river flowing at the bottom.

We paid our entrance fees, had sarongs and sashes tied around our waists, then began the trek down the stone stairs. The steps curved around a hillside, pat numerous souvenir stalls all the way down the slope, before crossing a little stream about halfway down. From here we got a view of the site we had come to visit, Gunung Kawi, below us. Through tendril-dangling fig trees lining the river, we could see tall cliff faces with large hollows carved into them containing stupa-like structures in relief. There were also windows and doors carved into other parts of the solid rock walls.

We carried on down more steps, descending through a cutting a few metres wide carved out of the solid rock of the hillside. We passed through a stone archway at the bottom to the temple site on the riverbank. On our side of the river, we looked around some of the huge stupa-like carvings and Flintstones-like rooms carved right out of the hills, before crossing a little bridge and exploring a more extensive stone-built temple on the opposite bank, as well as more immense carvings. There were whole buildings carved straight out of the rock over here, all overgrown with weeds and moss with water trickling down over them, but still of religious significance as evidenced by the cloth sashes tied around certain parts and the little offerings of food in little dishes woven from leaves left everywhere.

After exploring the site for a while, we crossed the river again and began the long and very very hot climb back up to the road. We counted 268 steps from the riverside back to street level, with sloping paths between staircases not included, and by the time we got back to the top we were literally dripping in sweat. We stopped at a shop to buy some ice cold drinks before returning to Made and his car in the nearby car park.

Back in the car, we set off once again through the countryside. We passed through more rural landscapes than before, as we began to climb higher and higher up a hillside. The scenery was all beautiful, with the ever-present rice paddies in stepped terraces, occasional deep, steep gorges thickly overgrown with tropical plants and the odd little village. Of course we were never far from a temple. As we passed through one small village, we actually had to slow to a near stop as the streets were filled with colourfully-garbed locals emerging from a public temple. They all wore sarongs and headscavers, and almost every one of them carried a woven basket or bowl full of food, mainly fruit but with some rice and cakes and things in there as well. Made told us they would have been attending a ceremony where they make offerings of food to their ancestors, who partake of the spirit form of the food leaving the offerer to take the real food home to be eaten by them and their family.

When we passed them, we continued on up the hillside, before pulling into a little car park at a coffee plantation, touted as an 'agri-tourism' attraction. Here, Made led us through a garden filled with coffee plants, herbs, cacao plants, pineapple plants and other flora planted to display the priduce grown in Bali. At the end of the garden was a little covered seating area overlooking another deep jungle gorge. We sat here with the fantastic view and were served little glass cups of several types of flavoured coffees, cocoa and some flavoured teas. We sipped the various drinks, finding them all tasty and a well-needed pick-me-up after our busy day up to that point. After enjoying the free samples and chatting to the owner, a local priest, we had a quick look in the shop before returning to the car.

From the plantation we drove onwards and upwards in the bright late-afternoon sunshine until we reached a gateway where Made pulled over. We had to pay an entrance fee here before being driven through the gateway and into a car park just off the road, beside a restaurant built into a hillside. We left the car and wandered over to a patio area near the restaurant, from where we had an incredible view down over a huge wide valley, actually a volcanic caldera, with the cratered peak of one volcano, Batur, in the centre, then beside a large lake far below, the larger volcano, Agung. It was only partially visible, its top half being blanketed in fluffy white cloud. We enjoyed this view for a while and took some photos before returning to the car for the journey back to Ubud.

Made drove down the hillside, taking a different route to the way up. We cruised down the narrow roads, winding and undulating through the countryside and through narrow village streets, descending all the time until we reached our final stop for the day, at some of the famous rice terraces. We parked just off the road and hopped out of the car to an instant onslaught of peddlers. Ignoring them, we walked to the edge near the road, where the hillside dropped sharply away from us into a valley, lined on the far side with attractively arranged curved terraces of rice. These ran the length of the valley to our right and left and we stood enjoying the view for a while before getting back in the car.

Made drove us a little further down the hill where we stopped at another viewpoint over some even prettier rice terraces. Again we had to fend off touts and peddlers just to enjoy the view, and didn't spend too long before we left. From the small village, we continued downwards through the beautiful Balinese countryside until we found ourselves back in the centre of Ubud.

Made drove us, via an ATM where we topped up our cash supplies, back to our accommodation. We had a word with his boss about hiring a car for our journey up the road to Tulamben the next day and managed to come to an agreement. We then returned to our room, stopping to pick up a couple of Bintangs from reception on the way, then sat out on the balcony relaxing for a while with our cold beer.

Once the music started up at the dancing place across the gorge again, we decided to head out for dinner. We walked right the way up the main street in town, until we came across a small restaurant we had heard about online. It was a Padang restaurant, where a buffet-style selection of food is out on display and you pick and choose the dishes you want to make up a plate of whatever you like. We filled 2 plates with a selection of things between us, including spicy rendang beef and chicken, BBQ chicken legs, grilled aubergines, fried spinach with spicy sauce, chunks of fish in chilli sauce and prawns on skewers. We enjoyed this feast, washed down with a big bottle of water for only about £5 in total.

After eating, we walked back up the main street then turned down a narrow little street we hadn't explored before. We walked past more of the pretty little restaurants and boutiques which filled the town, then continued along some streets we had explored a couple of days before. We soon found ourselves outside a bar with a happy hour deal on cocktails. We noticed on their menu that they also had a very appetising sounding pudding which took our fancy, so we took a seat and ordered a couple of mojitos and the dessert, banana, coconut and palm sugar spring rolls with ice cream. Both the drinks and the dessert were delicious, with Lucy proclaiming the spring rolls probably the best pudding she had ever eaten.

After our drinks we wandered back through town towards our lodging, ignoring the constant 'Taxi? Taxi? Transport? Transport?'. Along the way Lucy hilariously startled a dog which was drinking from a big stone plant pot. She didn't notice the poor pooch and walked right up behind it as it drank, before noticing it and starting with a yelp. This terrified the dog who jumped up, spun around and sprayed water everywhere from its mouth in fright. Once he realised we were harmless he went back to drinking while we walked back to our room, stopping at reception to order some breakfast for the next day.

Inside, we showered and relaxed, checking out some videos of the diving around Tulamben where we were heading in the morning, before getting off to bed after a busy but enjoyable day.

The next morning we got up and packed our stuff, before Wayan appeared with our breakfast at half past 9. We ate this out on the balcony then headed downstairs with our stuff and loaded it into another little Suzuki box/car, smaller than the one from the day before. We hopped in the back behind our driver (a cheery guy whose name we forgot to ask) and the boss at the travel agent company he worked for, then set off for Tulamben.