Well yet again I have to say sorry for not writing sooner, it is almost 2 months since this trip, but things are so busy it is difficult to find 5 minutes to sit down and write in my blog, so here I am now finding those 5 minutes (well actually it might take a bit longer than that to write this).

Bali was booked for the long weekend of Easter, finding the right flights and at a good price was the first hurdle, which after lots of hunting we finally found some, flying out Friday lunch time and returning Sunday at midnight, I was very excited to do this trip and to do it with Kate made it even more fun as it was my first insight to Bali.

Well as many of you know I am not very good at packing light to go on a trip, so I found it difficult not to over pack, even though I know I was only going to be there for less than 3 days, but nevermind a girl can never have enough clothes when she is travelling, so I had finally chosen my wardrobe to take and packed it in my bag ready for the next day. I went to bed as I knew the next day was going to be a long day with the alarm set for 6am. Kate and I got a becak to the station and got on the train (which should only take about 3hrs and should have arrived in Jakarta at 11:30am), when 11.30am arrived and we had still not arrived in Jakarta and could not see the tall buildings of the city, we were starting to panic a little because we did not want to miss our flight (we had had to many mishaps with missing trains previously travelling we were not going to add a flight to this), so when the train was stopped and after speaking to an Indonesian man who said that we wouldn't make it to the airport in time we made the decision to jump out of the train (probably not an excellent choice, but in the circumstances it had to be done) as there was a gap in the wall, we could get off the track. I was panicking a little because it was really high, jumping on to gravel, but after Kate had already jumped out the train, I had to do it to, so after three I jumped, just as Kate took my bag from the man the train started to move, so glad I jumped when I did, otherwise I would have still been on the train and Kate would have been disappearing in the distance. Well as if by magic there was a taxi waiting for us on the road by the gap in the wall and we got in and travelled to the airport, laughing at what we had just done, both of us in a little bit of shock.

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, so we went and checked in and got food and waited for our flight to BALI, woohoo!! We got the call to the plane, so walked down the step and across the airfield to the plane and got to our seats and enjoyed the 1hr20 flight. When we arrived we became typical tourists and took photos under the Bali sign, before heading to collect our bags. It was love at first sight, as soon as I landed in Bali, I knew I didn't want to leave. We were being met by Kate's friends she met while in Australia, so we made our way out of the airport and what did we only go and find, yes it was as Starbucks, so we headed straight in there and waited for Kate's friends. When they arrived, they had hired a car for the weekend, so we could all visit different some different places in Bali. After a finally getting through the traffic, the girls wanted to hire surf boards, so we collected them then headed to our home stay. It was very nice, clean and perfect for what we wanted, Kate and I showered and got ready and went for dinner with Andrea and Becky. Again my dinner did not contain rice and it was accompanied by a glass of rose wine, which went down very well! We then went for drinks and then to bed ready for the next day to be spent at the beach.

In the morning we woke later and went for breakfast, we then return to the room to get ready for our day at the beach. Andrea and Becky want to go to Padang Padang for the surfing, Kate and I didn't care where we went as long as there was a beach, so we set off in our little car for the beach. It was so nice to just enjoy the view out the window and talk with the other girls! We arrived at Padang Padang beach, the views from the bridge were amazing over the sea, so we got all our stuff together and headed down to the beach, it was busy and full of bules (which Kate and I creepily stared at). We found our spot on the beach and went swimming, it was so nice to be back by the sea again, it reminded me of home a little. We enjoy the sea, sunbathed, did the typical tourist pictures on the beach, went back in the sea, enjoyed lunch and sunbathed more, but the time we were going to leave I realised that I had burnt and was feeling as though I was on fire. We head along the coast a little and stopped for a drink and to watch the sunset, after we headed back to our home stay, but after a lot of traffic on the road (with the holiday weekend) we did not have time to change so just went straight for dinner, which again was amazing and did not contain any rice!!

After dinner we went back to the home stay and showered after the long day at the beach, we needed it! Andrea had suggested going for a drive as she did not want to give back the car with a full tank of petrol, so we head off to Ubud (by this time it was past 11pm) so there was not very much to see because it was dark, but it was just nice to be out, with friends, enjoying a holiday.

The next day we went to a different beach, but closer to where we were staying so we could get back and shower later before catching our flight home. The beach was gorgeous again and it was so nice just to relax and enjoy some ME time. Before we left we got ourselves corn (corn on the cob), which tastes so good here and headed back to the home stay to shower, before going for dinner and drinks before our flight. Dinner tasted so good again and I didn't like the fact that I was going to be back in Cirebon soon with only rice L!

After dinner we went and got drinks and did a bit of shopping, which when I purchased my new sunglasses, a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses. Eventually it was time to say goodbye and get a taxi back to the airport, I did not like the fact we were leaving, I wanted to explore more. But it was time, so we headed to the airport in the taxi after saying our goodbyes. At the airport we checked in and went back to Starbucks for another coffee before we left. Our flight was delayed which was not good, because we were getting back late enough, it was going to be later now, eventually we boarded the plane and flew back to Jakarta, once collect our bags and came out the airport, the school driver, Pak Toto, was waiting for us, as we had hired him to bring us home as there were no trains. We started our drive back to Cirebon, I slept a bit on the back seats, which was good as we had school in the morning. We finally arrived in our neighbour hood at 6am, with just enough time to drop off our bags change and go out the door again for school. I don't remember a lot from teaching on the Monday, I think I did doze off a couple of times, but as soon as we could we left and went home to catch up on our sleep. It didn't matter though because we had had an amazing trip and I was looking forward to going back to explore some more!!

Until next time!

Lots of love

xxx