Hellooo!

So we're now in Bali and have been here for about 1 and a half weeks and its SUNNY!! I have 'colour', Maria is golden and Elly is bronzed!

Chiang Mai continued...

So we went to tiger kingdom which was good, im sure you've seen the pics!! Then for the next few days we had left we thought we would book onto a trek. We booked onto a 2 day 1 night with elephants and waterfall and rafting etc. The elephants were amazing,I stupidly opted to sit and straddle the head of ours as there were too many people and not enough elephants I immediatley regreted this when I had nothing to hold on to!We knew that a trek would entail a bit of walking, or so we thought! It was when we were almost climbing a verticle dusty hill in pumps (and maris in her rebok classics!) that we probably should have asked how strenuous it was going to be! The climb eventually became too much for 3 Austrian girls and when the guide offered a taxi (I thought he was joking seeing as we were half way up a massive mountainous hill) they accepted and asked if anyone else required one - Maria shot her hand up much to my relief! So the rest of the group went off and left the 6 of us in the middle of the Chiang Mai forest. The 'taxi' eventually arived and was actually a pick up truck that we were expected to sit in the back of, it was an experience as we were flung to the bottom of the truck as the hills were that steep!! We arrived in one piece though and spent the night in a bamboo hutt which was good as our group were lovely! The next day we did another strenuous walk but this time down the side of a mountain! The whole thing was a good experience, but I advise proper foot wear as 'Toms' and urban outfitters pumps really dont bode well on a mountain!

We spent our last day in Chiang Mai at the Zoo which was nice but a bit sad to see the elephants in tiny spaces! We booked the bus to Bangkok to catch our flight to Bali and meet up with some of Maria's friends. We had a great night out in Bangkok and re-visited the 'trendy' venue that is called 'The Club' on Koh San Road.

We arrived in Bali last Monday and found we were staying a few beaches up from Kuta. We were actually staying in quite a remote part of the island and many of the locals seemed to enjoy standing, staring and laughing at us as we tried to find somewhere for dinner! We decided to go straight to the Gili Islands which are off the East coast of Bali and next to Lombok. The Islands were so pretty we stayed for a week! As usual we did our hotel hopping trying to find one that didnt contain too many lizards and insects but one that wasnt so expensive we felt guilty! We drank a lot of Bintang and met some interesting people! We took a day trip snorkeling and saw some turtles and lots of coral, Maria was very pleased with the whole experience as she hasnt been snorkeling before and struggled at first with the concept that she wouldnt be able to breath through her nose! The Gili's were by far the prettiest beaches we have seen so far! After a week we decided to head back over to Bali.

We've spent 2 nights now in Kuta which is populated by Australians! Its not the prettiest of places! We have ventured out around the rest of Bali and seen the monkey forest in Ubud, the monkeys took quite a liking to Elly to the point that she had 3 jump on her. We also visited Tana Lot Temple on the west coast which was beautiful. Planning on going to Jimbaran Bay tonight for seafood on the beach them going to visit all the beaches in the very south of Bali this weekend.

Off to Australia on 28th!

Lots of love xxxx