So, it's our last night in Indonesia! The culture here is so friendly, inquisitive and cheeky that we're sad to be leaving it behind. It's been noticeably heart-wrenching hearing about the economic struggles of some Indonesian families; one bartender works 6 days a week to be paid 400,000 rupiah (£20) per week, all of which he takes back to give to his elderly parents. He has nothing himself, but was so happy, smiley and jokey, and loves to breakdance. He has danced in red bull competitions here in Indonesia and has a dream to go to Singapore and compete, but it was really upsetting seeing him getting choked up and saying maybe one day when he thinks it's unlikely to ever happen.

From Gili T we travelled to Kuta Beach, Bali, mainly for one thing... Surfing! But we thought we'd get the culture stop out the way first. On our first day here we visited Ulu Watu, a traditional Hindu temple set upon the cliff side. We must say, it's pretty impressive. Our guide taught us about the different types of Hindu temples and processions that go on. The three tiers of the temples stand for creation, protection and destruction - in other words, the process of reincarnation. It's been amazing throughout Indonesia seeing offerings being made at least three times a day.

For our first few days in Kuta, there were thunderstorms galore. They don't call it the rainy season for no reason! Despite the rain the humidity just increased and it's been baking hot the whole time.

Back to the surfing! We've had two lessons and a great time. The sun decided to come out during our first lesson yesterday, leaving us with scorched faces. The surf school provided us with all our surfing gear. First we had theory time on the beach with our boards. We were taught about different waves, positioning on the board and safety in the water.

Soon enough, we were heading out jumping over the incoming waves. There were four of us to two instructors, a nice size group. To begin with, the instructors held the tip of the board, indicated when we were to get on it and when to paddle and stand up. We both stood up on our first wave! We were in the water for over two hours and got a good grasp of catching the waves and riding them to the shore. Of course, this didn't come without a few nasty wipeouts. Max did particularly well and put his little snowboarding and skateboarding experience to good use.

In our second lesson today there was three of us to our instructor, Agun. Progressing really well, Max went straight into choosing his own waves. The biggest was maybe 5 foot. The water was a lot tougher today with many double waves. Towards the end, Max had learnt how to turn his board - a tricky feat as we were on 8 footers. Steph progressed to catching a wave on her own.

Tomorrow morning we're planning on going to see the memorial in Legian where many locals and Aussies died in the bombings of a nightclub. Various locals have spoken about it with us. It's a sad tale, so many Balinese people died, and so many Balinese people lost their jobs as a result of the slow down in tourism after the incident.

Tomorrow we fly back to Singapore for a pit stop, and soon we'll be on our way to Oz! It's hard to believe that our time in South-East Asia has come to an end and that we are now over half way through our journey. We've learnt so much about the local cultures, about travelling itself and about ourselves. In this 3 months and 10 days we have visited 7 countries (some more than once), flown with 7 different airlines (that we've never flown with before), stayed in 33 different places (be them bungalows, beach huts, home stays, guesthouses, hotels and hostels) and become friends with other travellers of 21 different nationalities. There has been ups and downs but we wouldn't change our time here in any way.

Steph and Max x