We arrived at the dive centre excited for our day in the pool. Christopher was late (naturally) but we were soon learning our way around the various hoses, cylinders, regulators and inflatable waistcoats as well as fins, snorkels, masks, weights and belts. Embarrassingly, we had to prove our swimming competence, as well as our ability to float. Bob had this ability in spades so was strapped to several mill stones to try and prove she wasn't a witch, whilst I possessed more of Dad's characteristics and sank like a stone without any help.

We buckled into our BCDs (buoyancy control devices) and before we knew it we were cruising around under the surface, blowing bubbles, clearing our masks and trying to float still at a steady depth. The feeling was incredible and as the day went on we went into the deeper water and practiced losing more bits of kit, how to deal with air supply problems and generally becoming more agile under water.

At one frightening moment Bob ran out of lung capacity to clear my spare regulator and took a breath of water. We shot up to the surface for Bob to splutter and splash whilst re inflating her already compromised lungs but fortunately recovered swiftly. It was a bit of a shock for us both but after Bob was instantly aware that she would make a very short lived fish and so would stick to using the regulator as an oxygen source when underwater.

After 5 hours in the pool we were suitably pruney and I was starting to feel like the scuba gear was an extension of my thought process and the next step was our open water dive tomorrow!

Farish suggested we head to Uluwatu temple for some cultural exposure after we'd finished and we persuaded a taxi driver to take us the 45 minute ride to the southernmost tip of Bali, waiting to be out transport for the way home as well.

It was exciting to be on the road again and having dodged numerous accidents, nearly caused several more, we arrived at the temple grounds where our driver stopped the meter and was seemed very happy to wait for us. We donned our compulsory purple saris and crept through the ancient gates into the lush temple grounds. We were right on the cliff top and soon came across a marauding band of mischievously photogenic monkeys. They were entertaining to watch but one huge male was chewing on a pair of expensive looking sunglasses looking very pleased with himself. A swift barter with one of the temple attendants resulted in the already obese monkey having too much fruit to carry, so dropping the grateful tourists glasses, who was less amused when she assessed the new tooth mark design on the sunglasses arms.

We wandered through the ancient grounds and eventually back to our driver who made it to Jimbaran, a fishing port up the west coast, without inflicting death on us or any of the swarm of mopeds which surrounded us for most of the journey.

We arrived on the beach and chose our very recently live supper from the counter before settling in to consume the snapper, prawns and calamari on the beach overlooking the bobbing fishing boats as the sunlight faded to dusk. We managed to avoid the warbling string quartet which was moving between the tables and were soon back in our taxi heading returning to Sanur where we thanked our driver and were welcomed back by the receptionist. The jolly man concerned us by asking what time we were checking out and we realised that I had cocked up the hotel dates, leaving us homeless between the last two days of our dive course. With the room secured for another night we collapsed on to the bed and attempting to complete our homework together before falling asleep, excited for tomorrow's dive at Tulamben!