We arrived in Bali to beautiful blue skies and gorgeous sunshine, we jumped into a cab to 'Poppies2' which is a crazy small road that leads up from the beach and checked into a little place recommended to us by a scuba instructor in Borneo. This place was a brilliant recommendation with a gorgeous stone pool and waterfall shower and temple like breakfast balcony...and all for just 7pounds a night! We headed out for a few drinks with a few people we'd met at our hostel, a few turned into a few more and before we knew it we were heading for a place called the 'sky garden', this place had fire dancers, silk dancers that hung from the ceiling and some weird looking bar top dancers!

We soon caught on that Kuta (the capital) was going to be excellent for stocking up on some well needed supplies like new boardies and dresses, but would not be the idyllic rural Balinese paradise we had imagined...so to avoid the expensive resorts and villas of Bali but still to see the amazing beaches etc we got told about some Islands just off Bali called the Gilli's. They were everything you would imagine a paradise desert island to be like, there was Gilli Trawangan which was the island to go to for beautiful beaches but also a good few drinks and a good night out. Gilli Meno was the smallest of the islands and the least developed and therefore the beaches and coral were amazing and unspoilt! We opted for the quick boat which took around two and a half hours to get to the Islands, (As opposed to the slow about that takes around 9 hours!)

Our first stop was Gilli Trawangan where we managed to find an amazing hotel with a pool and shishka Indian restaurant right on the beach for about 10 pounds-bargain!...Apart from the fact that there are power cuts on Trawangan for about 12 hours of the day and therefore it didn't seem to matter if you had a fan, air con or nothing at all! One particularly sweaty night rich decided some DIY was in order to allow the ceiling fan to face us while we were in bed....if only he had turned it off!!! Before he had even started on the redirecting manoeuvre there was blood all over the bed sheets and Rich was scared to open his bloody hand in case he had lost his thumb! Luckily the thumb was still very much intact with an additional gash down one side, so we had to spend the rest of the night with no fan at all as it now developed a strange and very loud buzzing sound after Rich's DIY skills!!! We spent about 4 days soaking up the sun and the gorgeous beaches of Trawangan and enjoying the amazing sunsets and cocktails but then decided it was time to check out the other Gilli island we could see across the water from the island we were on. So we jumped on the daily public boat across to Gilli Meno where there were literally a few hotels, huts and a couple of restaurants-it was gorgeous and so quiet! We checked into our beach hut for the night and set off snorkelling around the island, and after a gorgeous day we headed out for some dinner. The whole island was in complete darkness and the restaurant was lit solely by candles, and as you all sat in little individual huts on the beach by candle light and ate your dinner, you could hear the sound of a man playing the guitar coming from the bar....so cool! For our final night back on Gilli Trawangan before heading back to mainland Bali we decided to soak up the stary skies and lie out on the mattresses on the beach and have the most gorgeous curry followed by Sheshka bubbly...such a good night, shooting stars whizzed above us as we lay on the beach!

Before we knew it we were on the boat back to Bali for our last few days, after Shell returning from a definite shade of green after the return boat ride we decided to rent a little Jeep and explore the island a bit more! It all started off great, no need to show your license...here's the key and off you go in some bloke's personal car he rents out to get some extra cash! So off we headed up to a little town called Ubud where they made everything and anything out of wood...so after some much needed wooden souvenirs (more stuff to carry!) and rich nearly being sick at the local market due to the night before events we headed to a monkey temple! This place was ridiculous...there were literally hundreds of monkeys all climbing all over everything and everyone they wanted! We made the naive mistake of buying bananas thinking it would be nice to feed them but after one tried to pull Richards shorts down and another jumped right up and simply helped himself we began to realise they weren't as stupid as they sometimes looked. We then took a seat and proceeded to watch visitor after visitor try and trick the monkeys into thinking they had no food before being brutally stripped and mugged of their treats! One cocky Chinese guy gave out a few bananas before holding his bag in the air and saying he had no more food, sure enough the monkey climbed straight up his back, along his arm, opened the zip, open the Velcro and then open a packed of M&M's hidden in his bag all over the floor for the other monkeys to enjoy!!!Unfortunately our road trip then turned a bit sour...it all started with the ridiculous traffic which meant it took hours to get anywhere. Then the car began to overheat and was soon showing in the red, we pulled over to allow it to cool down but when we tried to restart it again....nothing! It wouldn't even tick over, after a little panic we managed to find a mechanic to have a look at it and to our absolute relief he got it running again! Our mission then was to get it back without stopping and now with no aircon or radio as we didn't dare touch anything! So after a disgustingly sweaty 2 hour drive and only the one motorcycle hit (trust us this was a good record for Bali hence why we got the car and not a bike-the bike was at a standstill by the way!) we arrived back and literally dumped the car at the rental place before heading back to get packed and head for the airport....never again will we drive in Bali HA!