We flew with Air Asia from Jakarta to Bali, one of their air stewards was very interested in our travels and sat with us for half an hour, telling us where he likes in Indonesia and we learnt a little bit of Indonesian too. He even gave us some free fruit!

On arrival in Bali we had a taxi driver from the homestay (guesthouse) we had booked in Denpasar (South Bali) coming to pick us up and again it was dark when we arrived so time for an early night ready for our first day in Bali.

Over breakfast the next morning we chatted with fellow travellers and realsied that where we were was very quite, not near any nice beaches and there wasn't much going on at all. So, we checked out and took a Taxi to Kuta. Just driving through we knew that this was the sort of place we were looking for, very touristy but we weren't looking for a paradise retreat we wanted a mini holiday within our big holiday! We found a nice place to stay and went out exploring. We found a bar with Wifi, always important for family, friends and sports updates on whatsapp! Gem found Bali Cider - very happy lady :) :) :) and an hour later whilst walking along the main street we heard a shout, "Matt!". It was Gustavo - him and the other Brazilians were due to leave Bali on the Friday meaning we had 3 nights to party with them, and party we did! We had such fun, the nightclub we went to most nights was called Sky Garden and we both agree it's the best night club either of us have been to. They had everything and anything you could think of to make a nightclub great. All you can eat barbecue and salad bar on the roof top between 7 and 9 for 5 dollars. All you can drink free cocktails (that were actually nice!) between 9.30 and 10 and between 11 and 11.30. Many different floors, rooms with different themes, water features, great views of Bali, toilet attendants who won't let you go in the cubicle until they are happy it is clean etc etc! But better than any of that was the company, we always have such fun with Gustavo, Kim, Caue, Victor and Anthonio. They have all become great friends and we will see them when we are in Brazil.

So, after party central for the first part of our week in Bali we decided to chill for the rest of the week and spent a day on Kuta Beach watching a kids surfing contest - great fun. We stayed to watch the sun set on Kuta which was beautiful and made our way back to the guesthouse.

Much of Bali's sea is for surfers, constant high powerful waves. We read about a place called Nusa Dua where this isn't the case as the beaches are protected from the waves by natural coral. So we took a taxi to Nusa Dua where all the expensive holiday resorts are in Bali. Kuta Beach is nice enough but we didn't think it was particularly special and we wanted to find a beach like those you see in the travel brochures for Bali. Nusa Dua didn't disappoint, we walked through a hotel and out to the beach and in total walked for about 5 hours oggling at the expensive hotels and their amenities. The beaches were amazing and the pools, sunbeds and service the guests could take advantage of looked fantastic, we felt like imposters! Great day.

We spent half a day at Uluwatu beach where all the surfers go to hit the biggest waves in Bali - a spectacle to watch but non existent beach hence us only being there for half a day! The waves were amazing though and watching the surfers speeding through and over them was good fun.

There was a big Bintang (the local beer) sponsored party on the beach on our penultimate night and we enjoyed watching the lazers and drinking beer but the music wasn't really for us so we didn't stay long, lol! We walked back towards our guesthouse and found a pub with a local guy playing guitar, as soon as we walked in he asked for a request to which Matt replied "Painted Black" which he played so well we stayed for the rest of the night - he even sang Counting Crows for Gem!

Kuta is like an Ibiza for Australians - all the Balinese shop owners and waiters etc say "g'day mate" all day long and all the bars have signs selling "Bloody Cold Beers" - it was a bit cheesey and very touristy. But we had a fab time with friends and we explored some quieter parts too so we feel we got the best of both worlds in Bali.

We leave for a place called Probollingo in the morning. Probollingo is back on Java and will be our base to explore Mount Bromo (A very active volcano that is supposed to be in an exceptional setting)....