After a three hour flight we touched down on the Indonesian island of Bali around 7pm. Great expectations were afoot and we couldn't wait to start getting out and about and exploring the place. First things first though we had to pay for our visa's on arrival and collect our baggage. Our bags were already off the collection belt and on the floor surrounded by two men in uniforms when we arrived. We didn't know what was going on as one of the men asked "Are these your bags?", "Yes, Why?" we replied, "What is your name?" we gave our names and they checked the tags on the bags, picked them up and said "Follow me to customs". We started to follow the men who carried our bags thinking that they wanted to search through them. We got to the customs desk and were waved straight through. They put our bags on a trolley and wheeled them over to a money exchange then asked us for a tip. There was us thinking that customs had flagged our bags for inspection and we would have to turn our bags inside out and they were just a couple of porters in a fancy uniform looking for a tip, the cheeky b*****s, we told them to sod off and wheeled our bags outside of the airport on the trolley they had so nicely loaded up for us. We hopped into a pre paid taxi and made our way to our first destination. We have been flitting around Bali since we got here so I will break it down into chunks of places and dates.

Kuta 10th-11th December

By the time we got out of the airport and took the taxi to Legian it was pushing on for 9pm. We were originally going to stay here and the place we had found in the Bible's prices had increased dramatically since the time of it going to print. So determined to find a cheaper place we strapped on our backpacks and made our way down the road. Our first impression of the place was that we had walked into party central, with dance music booming from all angles and drunken Ozzie's stumbling all over the roads. After a good hour of walking up and down stairs at different hotels checking the rooms and the rates we found one that we were happy with paying 150,000 rupiahs a night(about £10). Looking at the hotels address on their card we noticed that the address was in Kuta, a good mile and half down from Legian. This didn't matter though and we made our way out around 10pm for a walk about and to find something to eat. Walking around Kuta we decided in about ten minutes that it seemed a bit crazy and full on. The locals on the street constantly ask if you would like to buy something from the many street side stores whilst the guys sat on their motorbikes shout "Transport?" at you then offer you drugs straight after. In the middle of all that is the army of typical lad tourists riding along on mopeds with their tops off and sunglasses on in the dark. The same types are also falling all over the paths drunk as monkeys too. The majority of them are Australian and as we would call them chav's, as I learnt from Jace, these type of Australians to them are called Bogans.Ashleigh described Kuta brilliantly by saying "Bali must be like the Australians version of Magaluf!" Anyway we finally found a place to eat and then made our way back to our room with a bag of beers.

The next morning we took a walk to the beach to check it out. Kuta is a totally different animal by day, calm, quiet and relaxed almost. The walk to the beach didn't take too long and before we knew it our flip flops were in our hands and the sand was between our toes. We walked northwards up the beach for around two and a half mile watching the surfers bobbing up and down in the water waiting for the perfect wave and finally made it to Seminyak. We had read about Seminyak and it sounded like a more chilled out area than the crazy Kuta that we were currently stopping in. We walked into the town to have a look about and grab a bite to eat. We found a cool suffer hangout hotel called the Green Rooms and made enquiries about booking a room for a few nights. We arranged to have a room there the next day and we let our hair down by paying 350,000 rupiahs a night (£25). Afterward we walked slowly back down the beach towards our digs. The night came and the animal of Kuta changed once more as the Bogans flowed onto the streets. The next day we packed up our things and took a taxi up the road to Seminyak.

Seminyak 12th-14th December

The taxi didn't take long and before we knew it we were in our room and jumping for joy with the bit of luxury we had. We were straight down poolside and took advantage of the sunshine whilst we could. The first day's stay in Seminyak was a lazy one with us taking in stroll down the beach and back again as the sun was setting. Walking back up the beach we passed a couple who were looking at us as if they recognised us. As we past Ashleigh said "I really recognise them from somewhere..." and as we turned to look the other couple done the same and said "Hello is it Ashleigh...Adam's friend?"Turns out it was a couple who we met on Ko Phi Phi called James and Becky who we met through Ashleigh's friend Adam Monkhouse.They recognised us from the Mr Peanut vest I was wearing. We decided to grab a beer at one of the beach bars and pulled up a couple of bean bags to catch up and hear what they had been up to since we had seen them last. We talked for a few hours and walked back up the beach with our legs bitten to bits by the swarm of sand flies to the safety of our hotel rooms.

The next morning was stinking hot and we spent the first few hours of the day sat by the pool.After a while we had itchy feet and hit the streets for a walk around Seminyak to see what it had to offer. It defiantly looked and felt like what we had been expecting from Bali as in Kuta we were both disappointed thinking is this it, is this what Bali is like?We ended up making our way back to the beach and walked down past Kuta and towards Tuban taking in the sights as we went. We stopped off at a food court in Kuta for lunch. As you enter people from the food stands chase you around the tables and chairs pushing menus in your face trying to get you to eat from their place. A quick tip, whatever you do just keep looking at the boards with the picture of the food on because if you make eye contact they will never leave you alone. A good thing about travelling Southeast Asia is that you learn how to be able to ignore people when you need to without feeling rude. The food at these places is always cheap and is always good with a wide range to choose from. We continued our walk taking up most of the day checking out a few sites and places that we would revisit the next day as we had a day of action planed. We had walked a good ten mile and by the time we got back to our digs we were ready to rest our weary legs.

The next morning we were up and out by 8.30am making our way down the beach so I could get my first ever surfing lesson. People offer them on the beach for cheap but I thought if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it properly and took my lesson with the surfing company Quicksilver that was boasting having the World Champion surfer Cheyne Horan as their head instructor. I paid 350,000 rupiahs (£25) for a half day lesson. Ashleigh has surfed before and wasn't too bothered about doing it again so she gave it a miss. It was probably due to her last experience of surfing, her cousin Neil took her out for a surf lesson whilst she was visiting in Australia and he swam out with her on the board and swam off leaving her by herself in the sea not having a clue what to do. Neil's brother Daniel had to swim out and get her. She still goes on about it now and I don't think she is ever going to get over it. I was handed my Quicksilver surfing top to put on and felt like the bee knee's as soon as I did. The group was small and we made our way onto the beach to start the lesson as Ashleigh set up camp further down the beach ready to take picture in the event that I might actually manage to stand up on the board. Our instructors name was Guday as in the Ozzie "G'day mate!" and he wasted no time making us stretch off making me use muscles that I forgot I had. We were told about the boards and the parts of the board, the nose, the deck, the tail, the rail and the fins. We were using long boards as they are easier to control and better for balance. After being told how to steer the board we set off down the beach towards the water to learn how to catch a wave and ride it lying on our bellies steering the board back into land. This part was quite easy and I was confident in what I was doing. After twenty minutes or so we walked back up the beach for a bit of a break to catch our breaths and rinse the salty water from our mouths.

Now we were moving onto the serious stuff, standing up on the board. The secret is to be able to 'Pop' yourself up quickly. You take a push up position with your hands lower than your shoulders and you push up and snap onto your feet making sure your feet are evenly spread just wider than your shoulders, facing out from the board and central with knees bent slightly, keeping your weight central and not leaning back on your strong leg whilst looking straight ahead and pointing your arms out in front of you for balance. Sounds easy enough doesn't it? It took a few attempts to get it right standing on a mat on the beach, how the hell was I going to do it on a board in the sea? I had faith though and listened to every word Guday was saying taking it in like a classroom swot. The time had come and we made our way back to the waves where our boards were waiting. Catching the waves was fine but being able to pop up and stay on my board was another thing all together. Back and forth I went lugging my board through the water. It takes it out of your arms and legs wadding through the water quite a bit as the waves roll into you again and again until the water is at chest height and you can jump on your board to start the process again. It took about five attempts for me to stand up on the board even though it only lasted for two seconds. I was just over the moon I actually stood up on the board but with each try I was getting better bit by bit. I managed to actually surf eight or nine times with my record time being for about seven seconds at the most. It doesn't sound much but in surfing terms that is like a minute. I would have been happy just too actually get up on the board, the rest was a bonus. It is extremely difficult and I have a new found respect for surfers as I know how bloody hard it is. When the lesson had finished I was knackered but felt like a kid at Christmas at the same time. As I left Guday gave me a high five and signed off with a "Keep Surfing!"

So how do you follow a morning spent surfing?You go to a water park, that's what you do. We had heard about the Waterbom Park through Ashleigh's cousin Neil (yes the one who left her on a surf board by herself) as he had been to Bali a couple of years before. The place was great and was packed with all kinds of water based fun and daftness. Some of the water slides you just throw yourself down whilst others you used rubber rings and macaroni tubes so you could go down in pairs. Think of Wet and Wild but outside and not s***. Our favorite two water slides were called the Boomerang and the Super Bowl. We went down these two together every time. The Boomerang loops you round before a steep drop so you pick up speed, you shoot up a wall of water and you think you are going to fly over the edge. Just as this happens you head backwards down the wall and spin round over humps that throw you into a pool at the end. The Super Bowl starts as a steep drop that throws you out into a massive…well bowl at high speed. You wiz around the bowl until your nearly dizzy and then all of a sudden you are pulled into an opening at the bottom of the bowl and into another slide that crashes you back into the pool.We loved these rides and rode them the most. One other slide called the Climax was also amazing. We made our way up the stairs and cued for a short time. Nearing the front you could see the attendant letting people into a chamber one by one and locking it. You then heard an automated voice say "3…2…1" followed by a banging sound then the scream of the person who had just went down the slide. As we got closer we discovered that the countdown was for. You had to stand in the chamber with your back arched on the wall with your legs crossed and your arms over your chest, after the count down the floor disappears beneath your feet and you slid straight down the tube. In this discovery Ashleigh was having none of it, lost her bottle and decided not to do it. She stayed up top to watch as I climbed into the chamber. The countdown started and I nearly done a little tommy squeak but before I knew it I was off down the tube, through the loop to loop and splashing my way out of the slide all within five seconds. After pulling the shorts from out of my bum crack that had been firmly lodged up there via the slide, we went on every slide there was to go on even taking time out on the lazy river. After a good few hours we decided that we had had enough childish fun for the day and made our way to the locker rooms. We stopped at the restaurant next to the Waterbom Park called Bubba Gump Shrimp, a restaurant themed on the film Forrest Gump. The place was great and decked out with things relevant to the movie but the prices were astronomical so we had a drink and left straight after. We took the long walk back to our digs and decided to eat there and rest up for the night as it had defiantly been an action packed day.

Ubud 15th-17th December

We had loved our time in Seminyak but if we wanted to see as much of Bali as we could we had to move on. We had arranged a mini bus to take us to the rather central town of Ubud. The ride took around two hours and on arrival we got chatting to a tout and we checked out his hotel. We treated ourselves again to a flash room for what we had been paying in Seminyak, this time though it was even bigger.We loved this new found luxury but we have to be careful not to get used to it. Walking around Ubud is great and the place isn't too big and you can walk around it within a few hours. In Bali you find statues with grotesque face on every street corner but in Ubud they are everywhere. It's great as everywhere you look there is a little face looking back at you. The streets of Ubud are a mix of old and new architecture, it looks like a new town has been built over the old one and the old one has broke through the surface and growing upward within it. To us we thought that this is what the real Bali is. It is a very chilled out arty place with painting shops and galleries lining the streets. I've never seen so many art galleries in my life, on one street alone I counted twelve. As we walked about exploring the place we were on the lookout for a restaurant called Ibu Oka that is famous for its Balinese style roast suckling pig. We found the place to discover that it had closed down and we couldn't believe it. At the last glance we noticed a sign saying that they had moved and a man with a sign for the restaurant ran towards us pointing us in the right direction to the new home of Ibu Oka. When we finally made it there after walking down small side streets we walked into a bustling place with tables packed with customers and the air packed with the smell roast pork. The place gets that busy that you have to just grab a seat wherever you can. The menu only offers about five dishes or you can order a specia (special) where you get to sample a bit of each dish on offer. This was the dish for us. It is basically pork cooked five different ways and is absolutely delicious and cheap. We left the place feeling stuffed and totally satisfied. Needless to say we were back there again the next day for lunch. We carried on walking around Ubud looking at some of the many temples and looking in the art, jewelry and craft shops that displayed the tradition Balinese dance masks outside of their shop fronts. We spent the rest of the day walking around finding our bearings as the many faces of Ubud looked down on us.

The next day we hired some bicycles to ride a bit further out and about around Ubud. It was a hot day again and it didn't take long until we were wearing suits of sweat. We rode around the outskirts of Ubud and decided to take a look at one of the many art galleries. This was a big one though and was showing the work of the Spanish artist Antonio Blanco. He had moved to Bali in 1952 and married a famous Balinese dancer and lived out the rest of his life there. I had heard of him before but hadn't seen any examples of his work. The gallery is situated at his family home that also doubles as a bird sanctuary. The entrance to the gallery has a sculptured sign that you walk through, this is Blanco's sign/signature and is the largest displayable signature in the world. The gallery was very grand with marble pillars and staircases sweeping upward to the other gallery level on each side of the large main room. The paintings were great with as much effort being put into the design of the frames surrounding the paintings too. It was not hard to see why they called Blanco the Dali of Bali with his surrealist style and his obsession with erotic images.We came across a painting that he had done of Michael Jackson that both he and Michael had signed showing a photo of them both together also. Blanco was obviously a huge fan as there were a number of paintings that related to the king of pop. His work overall was great and had a tongue in cheek aspect to it as he mixed poetry with paintings and objects like plastic toys of ET and bars of soap. After looking around the gallery we took a look around his studio with his original paints and brushes still lying where he left them. Overall it was a great experience and we enjoyed his work as it had an element of fun to it unlike other renaissance artists.

We got back on our bikes and made our way to Ibu Oka for our daily intake of pig and afterward took a slow bike ride down to the Sacred Monkey Forest. Besides the temples that are within it, this thick forest with paths that run between it seems to pop up within the town and is inhabited by a band of grey haired and very greedy Balinese Macaques. We bought two bunches of bananas to take in with us and they didn't last two minutes. As soon as they know you have food they are on you and I mean on you. Climbing up your arms and legs they grab the bananas from the bunch and from your hands. Ashleigh threw her bunch at me after ten seconds and moved away from the greedy band of brothers to take some shots of the monkeys that where climbing all over me. At one stage, one sat on my shoulder for a few minutes whilst I handed it bananas and it sat there happily eating. One thing they are not is shy. The heavens opened as it seems to do around 3pm everyday in Bali, you can set your watch by it and we took cover from the rain. After a while a monkey sat next to me on the wall and thinking I had some food in my pocket, pulled my pocket inside out and looked at me as if to say "Where's the food like?". It done this again and again and would keep coming back to me just in case the situation with the pocket and food had changed at all. The rain was falling heavy and as we waited the monkeys gathered around us. Behind us on the wall two monkeys started going at it hammer and tong. It didn't take long for the male to jump off leaving a lovely trail of, let's call it monkey juice, all over the wall and the female monkey. As my luck goes the female monkey decided to jump on my shoulder and sit there for a while. I defiantly needed to take a shower as soon as I could as thought of having monkey juice on me wasn't a pleasant one so we made our way back to our bikes and made a quick but short ride back to our digs.

After giving myself a good scrub twice I was ready to face the night smelling of roses. We had bought tickets for a traditional Balinese dance show that evening and set off on the tem minute walk up the road to the Pura Penataan temple. The show was billed to start at 7.30pm and we made it there in good time to get some good seats. We managed to get front row seat but the demand wasn't huge to be fare with only around 30 people showing up to see the show. I think the show we went to watch was classed as a Kekac and Fire dance. The stage area was situated in a large open pagoda type building with the chairs place around the outside of it. In the centre of the stage stood a large candelabra with oil lamps burning all the way around it. As the show started 60 or so men walked into the performance area and sat down in circle around the candelabra in rows of three. We were wondering if the music would come from a load speaker for the dancers then all of a sudden an old man in the troop of men shouted "CHA CHA" and this started of the rest of the men chanting and singing different sounds. It worked like a choir all having their parts to play in the overall sound. The old man turned out to be the head of the choir and they followed his calls and chants for the different parts of the memorizing tune. They would move their arms and do a jazz hand like action toward the flames every now and then in sequence with each other. Slowly from the back of the performance area, the dancers emerged taking it in turns to dance around the candelabra as if under a trance by the melodic chant. The male dancers were dressed from head to toe in outfits that represented different animals and beasts, also wearing the traditional dancing masks giving them a freaky look to their movements as they twisted their heads back and forth. The female dancers looked beautiful in their dance attire as everything that moved glittered. Taking the stage in turns to dance, the show played out with the chant of the male choir being replaced by a smaller female choir. If there was any story behind the dance we couldn't work it out but we were enjoying the show of Balinese culture all the same. There hadn't really been anything relating to the fire dance side of the show up until now bar the dancers dancing round the lit oil lamps. The stage was cleared of the candelabra and replace with a pile of dried coconut husks that was promptly set a light. The fire in the middle of the stage was well underway and the male choir started there chant with the command of a "CHA CHA". A dancer appeared from behind the choir with a hoop between his legs and a horse's head and tail at either end. As the chant went on the dancer made his way around the fire weaving in and out towards the crowd. As the tempo of the choir sped up the dancer kicked the pile of flaming coconut husks apart with his bare feet spreading the fire around the stage area. One flew towards me and I jumped back in my chair as the flaming coconut husk stopped between my legs. First, monkey juice and then flaming coconuts being kicked at me in the same day, whatever next? I kicked the now smoldering husk back into the stage area as the dancing horse made his way around the stage stamping out the flames with his feet. The embers were pushed back into the middle of the stage and the process was repeated a few times. As the show came to a close Ashleigh said "His feet must be knackin!" When the show had ended we took a walk to have a bite to eat and kept signing the "CHA CHA" chant all the way home.

As we didn't really get a chance to explore the Sacred Monkey Forest the day before due to the rain and the monkey juice incident, we decided to go back for a good look around without bananas though this time. The monkeys were as cheeky as ever and it was great to watch them climbing all over everybody else and not just me for a change. We walked down a path to find 30-40 monkeys all lying on the wall and path grooming each other. You could walk right up to them and they would just look at you as another two monkeys would be picking their way through their fur. One monkey sat by itself on a wall behind us was sat with its hands on the wall whilst it tapped its foot. We found this rather amusing and watched for longer that we probably should have. Walking further around the forest we found an active group of monkeys who were feeding on the wall. Ashleigh took a seat for a picture and straight away one was on her trying to pull her top down. Her face was priceless. After a good few hours looking around and making it out without getting any monkey juice on us, we walked back to our digs just in time before the heavens opened once more and we spent the rest of the day listening to the thunder storm that went on well into the night only venturing out briefly to grab some food.

Amed 18th-19th December

After spending three days in Ubud we moved on further north via a two hour car journey to the sleepy coastal town of Amed. The place itself is rather quiet and there isn't really much to do. But in all honesty we needed a rest from doing stuff and walking around as in the past eight days we had walked around 50+ miles. We decided to treat ourselves to a nice room for the last time as we were in danger of becoming Flashpackers, they are backpackers who stay in really expensive places and live in luxury throughout their travels. We would love to be able to flashpack but we don't have the budget to, but a treat every now and then is ok and plus it is nearly Christmas. Even though our legs felt like they were going to drop off we still had to get out and about and have a look at the place. As I said the place is quiet with hotels/spas and restaurants scattered here and there with the odd diving shop thrown in for good measure. That is the main attraction of Amed as it has great diving and snorkeling spots but all the time we were there the seas were choppy and in all honesty we just wanted to sit about and do nothing for a day. And the next day that is exactly what we done. We sat around our pool taking advantage of the sunshine and even fitted in a cheeky all over body massage, as I said its nearly Christmas so why not. As the masseurs went to work on us, we simply gazed out onto the view of the sea with the sound of the waves spilling onto the pebbled beach.

Padangbai 20th December

Feeling very relaxed and rejuvenated after our day of doing nothing we moved down the east coast to Padangbai, a funky little beach town that also has a port linking Bali with another Indonesian island of Lombok. It only took an hour by car to get there and we were dropped off at a place that we had spotted in the Bible, this time it was nice and cheap for a night's stay only setting us back 150,000 rupiahs (£10). We dumped our backpacks and made our way out to find an ATM for some cash and a place to eat. The only ATM in Padangbai was broken so we were going to be stuck for cash if we couldn't sort something out. As if by a chance (not likely) a man was waiting outside of the ATM booth and told us what we already knew "It's broken, it's always broken. Nearest ATM in another town 25 minutes away. I take you ok?" we didn't really have a choice "How much?" we asked "100,000!" so it was going to cost us about £7 just to get there and back to get some cash. To be fair it would have been the same if not more in a taxi. He got us there and back in 35 minutes so it wasn't too bad and my wallet was graced with the presence of money once more. We thanked the man and paid him his dues and continued back along the port to find a place to eat. We spent time walking along the short strip of bars and hotels watching the boats coming into port. We originally planned to spend two nights in Padangbai but as Ashleigh was looking through the Bible she said "You fancy going to another island for a few days? Senggigi on Lombok looks good" why not I thought. We weighed up that there wasn't much to do in Padangbai but sometimes you don't know until your there. That's the great thing about traveling as it gives you great flexibility without being too expensive to cover the distance if you want to get out of one place and onto another.

We arrived on Lombok today by ferry but we will be returning to Bali on the 23rd December to spend the Christmas there and then onto Oz. Happy days!

Love Peter and Ashleigh x