The lovely Harry had offered to take us from Ubud to Seminyak so he picked us up from our Ubud hotel at 10am and took us to our first stop which was Bali’s version of the Grand Canyon. It turns out that it was more of a gorge walk through a river and we had just washed our hair that morning. So we were like “sorry Harry, not today. We’ve just washed our hair”. We’re honest like that. We also weren’t dressed appropriately to get wet and it meant unpacking appropriate clothing from our backpacks and that was a lot of effort in this heat (I brought way more than I needed to so it’s always a struggle to do my backpack up). So we continued on to the next stop in Denpasar (the capital city) to the 3D Painting Museum. We walked in and it was like Hollywood Bowl during the school holidays... kids galore! We wondered where Harry had taken us, but paid our entry fee and started walking through the museum to see all the 3D paintings. Next to each one was an example of how to pose for a cool photo. Soon we were like two kids in a candy shop... excited to move on to the next and see what acting role we could take on for it to look semi-realistic. Photos to follow. They’re pretty cool.

Next stop was ‘Upside Down World’ near Seminyak which was also pretty cool, although slightly awkward as we had a whole team of photographers following us round taking photos, although they did give us guidance on how to pose for cool pictures. I don’t even want to explain the photos as it will ruin the illusion, so let’s just pretend we defied gravity for the day and turned upside down while visiting this “house”. One of the photos is the profile picture for this blog. Again, more photos to follow.

We arrived at our “posh” hotel in Seminyak mid-afternoon (we splashed out at £12 each a night for this!) and headed to the hotel restaurant for something to eat which was yummy. We then freshened up and went back down to listen to their live entertainment set and have a few drinks, then did a bit of a bar crawl and tried a few other bars out in the area. It turned into a late night so we were very lazy the next day, and even took advantage of the room service. But we did make it out in time to watch the sunset at one of the many beachfront bars that provide beanbag chairs (our favourite). The beach is filled with these bars and we ended up staying there for a few hours after meeting another Australian guy who was vacationing with his family and ditched them to go and make some new friends.

We had planned to go to Potato Head Beach Club the next day after a few friends had recommended it to me, so we got there by 9:30am to ensure we nabbed a sunbed. This place was pretty fancy. Even for flash packers. It wasn’t too big for it to get overcrowded, and had a gorgeous infinity pool overlooking the beach, and had SUPER friendly waiters to cater for your every need. Food was quite pricey but what you paid for the sunbed you could claim back on food, so we didn’t mind buying a slightly pricier meal when it cost us nothing to be there. We were going to stay till sunset, but one of our waiters advised us we wouldn’t see it so we left about 5pm. A full day in the sun had tired us out (mainly the 31 year old) and we enjoyed another lovely dinner in our hotel and headed to our room for an early night. For the first time in our entire friendship I think I actually passed out before Gaby!

The next morning we had booked onto a craft lesson in our hotel. Everywhere you go in Bali you see these little baskets on the pavements and outside houses, shops and temples filled with flowers and food, which we knew were for religious purposes, but this class taught us how to make one and what goes in them and why. They are made from banana leaves and contain flowers of different colours and types, and food (banana/sugar cane/leaves). They are used as offerings to God to show thanks for food and everything one is blessed with. Most families make these and offer them daily. The Balinese are HUGE on religion and such good-hearted people that believe what you give out to the world will come back to you. They show such gratitude for what they have, and (most) treat others how they would like to be treated. We weren’t that great at making the baskets as they were quite technical and we required quite a bit of help, but they turned out beautifully. One of the staff members then took us to the temple outside the hotel and showed us how they traditionally offer these baskets and encouraged us to participate. They place the basket down at the temple, then offer a white flower, then red, then mixed. They would normally also burn incense but we didn’t have any. With each flower offering you can say thanks for whatever you’re grateful for. It was quite nice to participate in their practice, and take a moment to say thank you for all that we are blessed with in this life.

After the crafts class we decided that as we were staying on the same floor as the hotel Spa, it would be incredibly rude to not pay them a visit. Basically, after my sunburn I’ve been peeling like a flippin reptile and in desperate need of a body scrub, so we took advantage of their spa package. I had a one hour Balinese massage, body scrub & pedicure, and Gaby had a Balinese massage, facial and manicure. Yep... unashamedly flashpacking!! It was a fabulous afternoon.

We then got ready and headed out for sunset drinks in our favourite position... beanbags on the beach! After a few drinks and some live music we decided to go into the centre for something to eat and then stopped somewhere on the way back for some more live music!

We’ve decided to extend our stay in Seminyak as we love it here and had left the last ten days pretty flexible to allow us to decide last minute. We’ll be staying here till Saturday so will update you on the rest of Seminyak after then!

Much love xxxx