A hideous early start was trumped by the weather which had worsened overnight. We packed up and donned full waterproofs before heading out into the storm for the dash to the station in the grey dawn.

The wind drove squalls of rain at acute angles as we dashed along the flooded pavements but we arrived at the train station dry if slightly overheated. We manhandled our heavy bags through the early morning tube to town and soon arrived at the airport, checked in and sat watching the ground crew's misery through the huge picture windows of departures until we boarded.

The plane was small and our childlike excitement of looking forward to watching a few movies was blown out of the water when we realised that this plane did not have an inflight entertainment system! So started 6 hours of reading, snoozing and completing the puzzles in the in-flight magazine. I even managed a difficult sudoku I had that much time!

After being told of the immigration requirements for Indonesia I had to dispose of the edible contents of my bag, or eat them. an easy decision when it contained 6 tasteless peanut energy bars from some of our first walks in NZ which looked very much the worse for wear! I managed to eat 5 of them I was so bored.

Eventually we began our descent and soon we were spilling out onto the humid tarmac in Denpasar, Bali. It was about thirty degrees, and as expected it was the humidity which made getting through customs and baggage reclaim hard work. Much to Bob's excitement our passports received visa stickers and stamps and we headed out into the tumultuous chaos of the sweaty arrivals hall.

We pulled some cash out of an ATM, noticing that Bob was a multimillionaire as far as rupees were concerned and found a taxi to take us to our hotel. For around £7 we got a half hour theme park ride through rush hour Denpasar and into Sanur in the back of a clapped out Nissan. It was like being back in India with horns blaring,mopeds darting in and out of the lanes of traffic and generalised complete disregard for the Highway Code. We were silent as we took in our amazing change in scenery as we whizzed past opulent statues juxtaposed with filthy clothed men fishing in stagnant storm drains filled with litter.

We arrived at the hotel exhilarated but unscathed and were shown to our 'suite' which opened onto the pretty courtyard where the pool lapped between 4 flowering frangipani trees. The room was spacious with luxurious AC and an open air shower in the bathroom which was novel but did make doubt the rooms security and the effectiveness of the AC unit.

We dropped our bags and headed straight into 'town' dodging mopeds and being repeatedly honked at by taxis. Our eyes must have been out on stalks as we took in the sights and sounds of Sanur, wandering the pavements past tumbledown shops, pristine restaurants and all sorts of characters in between. We eventually navigated to the beach as dusk fell and then retraced our steps back onto the main strip.

We ate at 'the fire station' which was very much a Westerners bar but the food was excellent and I got my first taste of Bintang beer. We wandered back to the suite, watched 'Pompeii' and collapsed in the blissful chill of our air conditioning, trying not to imagine how anyone with any degree of climbing skill could descend into our bathroom.