MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY! Season's greetings from Bali. We hope Santa was good to you, we know that you probably have been good this year so we hope the gifts were plentiful and that you ate until the button on your trousers popped off. Before we spent our Christmas in Bali, we had spent a couple of fruitless days in Senggigi on the island of Lombok. It had sounded really promising after what we had read about the place but we discovered that there wasn't too much going on. We had the impression that Senggigi was a funky beach town but it turned out to be a quiet one horse town instead. But if you don't adventure and explore these places you never find out and it can't be amazing all the time. It wasn't a total wash out and we did enjoy parts of our time on Lombok. We spent a day walking the length and width of Senggigi taking in the costal views stopping at Pura Batu Bolong, a small Balinese Hindu temple set on a rocky volcanic outcrop that rolls into the sea, as waves crash against it constantly disturbing the small black crabs that adorn the rocks. The pagodas are traditionally decorated with the gargoyle-esq faces and are positioned to face toward Gunung Agung, Bali's holiest mountain. We had to wear a sash before we could enter and tying them around our waist we made our way through the gates. The place itself was quite cool as it looked like it was coming straight up out of the sea as the waves crashed and spilled through and over parts of the temple.We climbed the few stairs and stood at the top of the temple that gave a great view of the sea and the coast either side. On our way to the temple one of the many street dogs decided to walk along with us, stopping when we stopped, walking with us when we walked and she kept us company for a good 30 minutes or so. Ashleigh named her Scratty as it also described how the dog looked, she had a canny face though but we weren't going to give her a stroke. She was just happy walking along with us. Our room in Senggigi was a bit of a dump and we spent as much time as we could out of the room and spent most of our time walking around or finding a good place to eat. The only other highlight was the school of dolphins that swam alongside the ferry on the way there and back. But hey ho, nothing ventured noting gained.

We were rather happy to be leaving Lombok and making our way back to Bali to spend our first Christmas away from home. Our ferry took us back to Padangbai where we would take a mini bus to Sanur. We arrived on the 23rd December around 6pm needing to find a room for one night as we had our accommodation already booked and paid for for the Christmas period. We walked up and down the main street in Sanur and finally found a great place that was cheap and had hot running water as we needed a good wash. That night we explored, ate great food and curled up in a comfortable clean bed that was a luxury in itself after the place we had stayed in for the past few days. The next morning we had breakfast and after checking out took a taxi to our hotel, Diwangkara Holiday Villa on Sanur beach. We were looking forward to staying here as we had booked it when we booked our trip many many months ago. Luxury for the Christmas was a must and after nearly four months of travelling we were ready for it. When we were show to our room we thought it was nice but when we booked it originally we had been shown a different room and expected a bit more for the money we had paid. The staff on the desk were great, we didn't complain but told them how we felt "Take a seat and give us a few minutes..." After a few moments a member of staff approached and said "Follow me" and we were lead down the paths of the gardens and into one of the mini villas with its own small pool. The room was great and defiantly what we had been expecting. It was an upgrade from the room price we had paid for but they gave it to us for the same price and we were more than grateful for our early Christmas gift from the hotel. After a few high fives on our free upgrade we made our way down the path and onto the beach to take a look at the neighbourhood. We spent the first few hours of Christmas Eve on sun loungers topping up the tan but then it was time for the important stuff, Christmas shopping. To get that real Christmas feeling we left it right till the last minute to buy a few presents for each other. We had a budget off 300,000 rupiahs each (£20) and we split up and hit the streets in search of gifts for one another. It's amazing what you can get for £20 out here and we made it stretch quite a bit. After spending an hour or so in the shops we met up with each other back at the room and took it in shifts to wrap each other's gifts, Ashleigh using tourist information leaflets as wrapping paper whilst I opted for the classic newspaper and medical tape. Total mystery as to what we had bought each other for Jesus' birthday added child like excitement and the Christmas spirit was well and truly alive. We spent the evening in our room with a few bottles of red wine and watched movies on TV for the first time in a month and a half.

Christmas day we woke to discover that Santa does indeed visit Bali. But before we decorated our bedroom floor with wrapping paper we made our way to the restaurant and grabbed a bit of crimbo breakfast. It was a hot day and the sun was shining, a strange experience on Christmas day. We made our way back to our room for the present extravaganza and started to rip the paper off one by one to reveal the mysteries of the shopping trip from the day before. I had bought Ashleigh two rings made from seashells, a new hat, sun glasses, two bracelets and five packets of Oreo Doublestuff's (well I couldn't find Mcvities digestive biscuits, lord knows I tried, so they were a good substitute). I had a right goodie bag going on from Ash. I got a can of Heineken, a chupa chup lolly, pencils and rubbers for sketching, a butterfly pencil sharpener, three bracelets, a book on Scottish football hooligans, a packet of Juicy Fruit chewing gum and a business card with some money attached. The business card was for a tattoo studio and I was booked in to get a tattoo at 2pm that day. Nothing like being thrown into the deep end. It was a great present and a great idea. So we had a few hours to kill before my date with the tattoo gun and we spent them on our backs in the sun.We turned up at the tattoo studio on time to find that the tattoo artist was still finishing off on his previous customer and we were asked if we could give it an hour so we made our way up the street for a festive drink. We both ordered crimbo cocktails and two drinks each were put down in front of us, buy one get one free that we didn't even know about. A cheeky little bonus we thought. Time flew by and before we knew it we were back in the tattoo studio waiting for my Christmas present to be etched into my skin forever. I had been playing with the idea of having a musical note on my right hand for some time now. I was torn between getting a quaver or a treble clef and had drawn out the two options on paper and had been holding them on my hand changing back and forth asking Ashleigh "Which one do you think?" The price was good and it was going to cost 200,000 rupiahs (£14) to have it done. I decided to go for the quaver on my hand but asked what it would cost to also have the treble clef done on my left forearm. 400,000 rupiahs for them both, so as a little Christmas present to myself I went for it. I found the bamboo tattoo technique ten times worse on the pain scale and the tattoo gun method didn't bother me in the slightest, maybe it was the couple of cocktails we had drank beforehand. After an hour my Christmas presents were complete and I was over the moon with how they looked. Thanks Ash, I love it! But remember kids, a tattoo is for life, not just for Christmas.

We made our way back down to the beach in the sunshine in search of something to eat for Christmas dinner. Places were offering the traditional dinner but we were looking for something a bit different. We found a place down on the beach called Mango and opted for a couple of chefs specials, Ashleigh choosing the whole grilled Snapper and I went for the posh Surf and Turf with the surf of the dish being a lobster. Both plates of food were delicious and it was a refreshing change to your normal Christmas dinner. Naturally we were really missing our families and friends and were not sure how we would enjoy the day. It was never really going to feel like it was Christmas day with the climate we were in but we had a great day and made the most of it. On the evening we wanted to see our families and phoned home using the web cam so we could see everybody. It was great being able to see everybody and it made us feel like we weren't so far away. We had to make a few calls to make sure we spoke to everybody, so armed with a few bottles of red wine we set up camp in our hotel lobby and spent four hours chatting with family members to find out what Santa had brought them. At around 11pm we signed off and made our way back to our room to catch a movie and reflect on our first Christmas as travellers.

We have spent the past few days relaxing and getting our minds ready for the next massive part of our trip, that's right folks the time is upon us for our great Australian adventure. We are currently sat in our hotel lobby waiting for our taxi to come to take us to the airport. So it is goodbye to Southeast Asia. We have absolutely loved our time here and we are a little sad to be leaving but a whole new adventure of exploration is on the horizon and we can't wait. So if we don't get a chance to say it beforehand we wish you all a happy new year for 2011 and all the best.

Love Peter and Ashleigh x