Bali…

Wow, we've been in Bali for almost a month now…time seems to just pass here, it's wonderful. Our first stop off in Lovina was a quick one to recover from our volcano trip. Unfortunately, I picked up a migraine so spent extra time getting over that, but it gave James the chance to get out on the bike and explore the hills just a bit inland with our Dutch friends from the tour. Given that I'm still not that comfortable going down steep hills on 2 wheels though, I'm glad I missed out…my track record with brakes on bikes isn't that good for a start! James was let loose with the camera on my behalf and it looked pretty amazing; the road up to Munduk past a couple of lakes and waterfalls, roads going along the edge of hills and very steep twisty turns - even James struggled a bit in places, so I'd have had no hope!

From Lovina we went east to Amed, another black sand beach along the north of the island, a great area for diving and snorkelling… We met up with a friend, Edd, from home who's now living in Ubud and also has a house right on the beach in Amed. He was heading off to Lombok for a few weeks and kindly offered us his house to stay in for a few nights, which we gladly moved into after a few nights of staying in different homestays with varying degrees of issues. Edd had taken it up himself to cure my fear of the sea by demanding that I go snorkelling - well, fair play to him because it worked. The snorkelling just off the Jemeluk bay (the next one along from Amed) was beautiful and although it was a little bit shallow (got a few scrapes and cuts between us) got me slightly hooked on the underwater world. A few days later, we rented snorkels again and tried out the bit in Amed, although the visibility wasn't that great and there wasn't much close in to the shore to see, so we went back to the coral garden at Jemeluk and I even went out a few times by myself! There was a sunken little temple out as well, probably about 5 metres down and try as I might, I just couldn't get enough power in my little legs to propel me down to have a look inside….oh to be able to breathe underwater….it certainly gave me food for thought, but if anything it had given me a bit of confidence in the water - being able to see what's around made it feel not quite so big after all.

We ummed and arred over whether to go to the Gili islands (just off the coast of Lombok) from Amed, it's the shortest crossing, but the tickets were quite pricey and the crossing was supposed to be a bit choppy (still not so good on boats!). Also, it's high season and so we weren't sure if it would be really busy and expensive…we've added it to the list of places to come back to. Instead, we went south to Nusa Lembongan, a tiny little island (8 km₂!) off the coast of Sanur thinking it would be cheaper and quieter. Well, that wasn't entirely the case, but it was worth every penny.

We made it to Sanur from Amed just in time to catch the 2pm boat across the water (we used the Rocky fast boat service, which although quite pricey, had the best reviews - good for my nerves), it was a little rough in patches (the Badung strait in between Bali and Lembongan is one of the deepest stretches of water and sometimes can have some very big swells), but we arrived safely…back to island life…well ok, smaller island life. We hadn't seen water that blue since we were in Phi Phi and it was beautiful. Instant relaxation. Our theory about it being quieter was also proved wrong quite quickly when most of the places we tried to get a room were full (room hunting at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon…oops!). Taking our search back from the beach, we finally found a little homestay with rooms to spare and at a reasonable price, only an hour and a half after we started. Quick change and down to the beach. So, we settled quickly into island life, we found a great little Warung (local restaurant) just around the corner from where we were staying that did the biggest portions of food and possibly the best banana pancakes that kept you full past lunchtime. The beach was lovely, although a bit corally which made walking on the sand and entering/exiting the water a slight challenge, but it was perfect.

On our second morning, we met a Norwegian couple who were on their honeymoon (Johannes and Julie), they'd been away for almost a month and had spent a lot of time diving in Gili and on Lembongan, they were finally glad to meet other people to spend some time with (they're both keen travellers and not your average newlyweds on honeymoon…they tried to do it 'the way it should be done' but ended up enjoying backpacking again and meeting people!) and promptly invited us round for a gin at 5 o'clock. The next day (I think) we rented a few bikes to explore our tiny little island with Johannes and Julie, with very little traffic, we got round it quite quickly and saw most of the 'highlights' with the rest of the crowds of day trippers…especially at the Devils Tear, a little cove where the swells crash into the caves under the cliffs and force the spray out in big bursts - like an angry dragon, it was mesmerising and I could have happily stayed and watched it all day. At some point, my brakes stopped working, so it was time to call it a day…just one last stop via the dive shop for J&J to confirm their dives and for a little nervous me to sign up for the Open Water PADI course - after loving the snorkelling, I'd been thinking about trying diving and after some gentle words of encouragement from various people…I thought 'why the hell not'.

While I was playing mermaid, James was off exploring Lembongan, Ceningan (the tiny little sister) and Penida (the older much bigger sister) with our Norwegian buddies on anything with 2 wheels, finding little hidden beaches and climbing down sheer cliff faces into waterfalls, generally enjoying being an adventurer! I was studying, taking tests and learning new stuff. After the first few pool sessions (the second one being quite tough to mentally deal with…I almost jacked it all in there), we were off out into the open ocean, where surprisingly, I had no issues throwing myself off the boat at all! It was amazing. I completed the 4 open water dives over 2 days and saw countless fish, corals and even a few turtles! James had travelled back to Sanur to meet Colin and Annette while I was still finishing the course, so I had to dig deep once again to get the boat back by myself to Sanur the next day…hmm, better on boats now, but much prefer the diving ones!

It was so lovely to see Colin and Annette again, we last saw them in Goa so there was lots to catch up on. After a few lazy days of mainly lazing by their pool, and me not quite having got all the diving out of my system, I went back to Lembongan (actually almost enjoying the boat ride this time) for a few more days, giving James some quality time with his parents. After a bit of a wobbly start, I soon got the hang of it again (I'd only had a week off!) and had 4 amazing dives, swimming with huge beautiful manta rays and getting caught up in big schools of fish, sadly though, I didn't get to see any Mola Mola (Oceanic sunfish; huge gentle creatures that you can only really see in these waters for a few months…but they tend to be a bit lower than 18m…a few were spotted at 40m…so I'll save them for next time!). It was awesome. It's just a shame I've managed to pick a rather expensive hobby, otherwise, had we not got a flight to Australia booked, I fear I might not have left the island! Anyway, just as soon as I'd arrived, it felt like I was leaving again and heading back to the mainland and up to Ubud for the last few days of Colin and Annette's holiday. The journey back took forever and we even had the joy of a freak wave hitting the boat…we wobbled a lot…which was all kinds of fun. I was glad to be back on dry land, exhausted but riding on my underwater high!

When we were in Singapore, we'd met up with one of Colin's old work colleagues, Peter Shaddick, and had secretly arranged for him to come and meet us in Sanur as a surprise. After almost a decade, it certainly was a surprise and nice for us to have a hand in bringing old friends back together again. Shad was only in town for the day before heading back home, so the day was passed slowly working our way through the restaurant's supply of Brem (Balinese rice wine) and enjoying tales from the past - perfect!

Before we knew it, it was time for Colin and Annette to head home, time had flown by so quickly and it was hard to get our head around that and the fact we only had 10 days before heading to Australia. After our final farewells, it was again time for us to work out where to go and spend the rest of our time in Bali. Fighting the urge to return to Lembongan and spend all of my spare money under the sea, we played around with some options and decided to take the easy route, booking into a nice hotel in Seminyak and spending some time actually looking at important things for Australia and giving us a chance to catch up with stuff….like the blog!

So here we are. It's now Saturday, we fly on Thursday for a new 3 month adventure. New continent, new country and new experiences! The past year (crikey!) in Asia has been one of the best years of our lives, we've met so many amazing people and seen some awesome places. I can't wait to come back and explore more, especially Indonesia which for me, has had some of the highlights of the trip. But it's definitely time to move on and pause our Asia adventure, for a little while at least.