I'm going to try and make this entry concise and to the point as internet time costs more here in Oz!

From Mersing we travelled down to Singapore and arrived a little soggy and tired from the rainy early morning boat journey. The air conditioning on the coach was sub zero and we had take out our hoodies to warm up! We arrived in Jota Bahru bus station where we had to swap coaches, we then passed through Malaysian customs, got our passports stamped before swapping coaches again and passed into Singapore where we boarded another coach and got dropped in the city centre.

On arriving in Singapore it was a little overwhelming, we didnt have a clue which direction to head in. We spotted the first hotel sign, went in its direction and ended up settling on a $15 dollar a night shoebox of a room near the main shopping malls near Little India, as it was the cheapest we could find. The room was just big enough for a set of bunkbeds and a chair and not much else. It's probably the most cramped space we've shared since setting off! The walls were plywood and there was no ceiling, just a space leading up to the main roof. The toilet and shower was another story, they were both plumbed into a space barely big enough for either a toilet OR a shower, not both. Good job i'm not taller than I am because my knees were pressed against the wall of the cubicle when i was sat on the toilet. Tiny! Also, the washing machine on the other side of the wall empties it's dirty water via a pipe right onto the toilet floor!

Ciara and I were both hungry after our journey so we ventured out and grabbed something to eat. Afterward, we traipsed round all of the shopping malls in the area, 5 I think. After spending so long on Tioman with not a lot going on, I'd adjusted to a slower pace of daily life and noticed the stark difference when we arrived in Singapore with all the crowds and traffic, it was a bit of an adjustment!

That evening we went for a tasty curry on the main road that runs through Little India. I had to make a careful choice of what I ate as my stomach had been doing loops for the previous two days due to some bogus meat in one of my meals on Tioman. I settled for a Korma so as not to make matters worse. Afterward we headed back for an early night as it had been a very long day. We didnt get much of a nights sleep due to none of the rooms having a proper ceiling so everyones noise just melded together into one massive din.

Next morning we left our bags with the owner of the guesthouse (nice bloke) while we went for another wander. We had hours to kill before the flight and didnt want to be lugging everything around. The cinema seemed like the best option to kill time in a big city so we went and watched The Fantastic Mr Fox, good flick. Afterwards we raced back, picked up our bags and got the tube to the airport.

On arriving we found out that our flight was delayed by 4 hours and wouldnt take off til 12.30am. Great, We'd planned on getting into Bali about 11 and getting a cheap room for the night so we'd be fresh for the next day. The delay meant that we wouldnt get in til 2-3ish. Oh well, what are you gonna do? We spent the next 4 hours walking round the 3 terminals of Changi airport. One of them is just shopping. I was getting sick of shopping by this point and my legs were knackered. We stopped at Burger King where I had a BK Rendang which is a burger with a kind of curry sauce on it, different but nice. I'd been meaning to have a beef rendang in Malaysia as I'd seen one being cooked on a cooking show and liked the look of it so this was the closest thing to it so far!

Hours passed and we boarded the plane and flew to Bali. We made it in 2 hours instead of the 3 it stated which was a bonus. We went through customs and had to pay 10 US dollars for a 7 day visa, luckliy this is the last visa we'll have to pay for. As it was by now 3am we had the dilemma of deciding wether to spend money on a room for just a matter of hours or wait til the sun came up and go to the place we'd booked on the net. We chose the latter and tried bedding down to get a few hours shuteye. Neither of us had slept on the plane so we needed it. I lay down on the floor outside the airport but had to move as i felt an army of ants crawl over one of my legs and saw a rat crawling around in the bottom of the window of the shop parallel to me. We walked round the corner where we found a couple of (Tim) nicely but dimly lit benches by some cafes that were closed. As much as we tried we couldnt sleep and when the sun came up and the cleaners started miling round us we had to move. After a stiff coffee in Starbucks we caught a cab to our cottage that we'd booked on the other side of the island in Sanur. Luckily, even though it was only 8am, the woman running the joint let us check in.

Our room was airconned and comfy as we'd hoped so we got in there and crashed out til early afternoon. Our cottage was mint! It had a TV and DVD player and a fridge as well as an ensuite and a pool, all within a tropical garden setting. Later we went for a walk and a meal on the main road near our place. Ciara had chicken satay and I had a nice fillet of fish in a Balinese sauce washed down with a few Bintangs, Indonesia's national beer. On our way home we picked up a good few 'cheap' dvd's and got comfy for the night with some beers and munchies. I think the flights and all the running around must've tired us out as we both slept in til the next afternoon. We headed out a bit late and grabbed some food again, a beef rendang in my case (cant remember what Ciara ate) which i thoroughly enjoyed. It's cooked with coconut and spices and I'd highly recommend trying one! That evening we had a late dip in the pool before we spent the night exactly the same as the last with dvd's and a few drinks in bed.

As we'd felt really at home in our little cottage we decided to spend another night in Sanur instead of heading over to Kuta as we'd planned. In case you havent been to Bali, Sanur is more for honeymooners and middle aged couples whereas Kuta is more for backpackers and the younger crowd. That day we decided that we'd spent too much time lazing by the pool and wanted to see the beach instead. We took a walk down there but it was dark when we arrived - Fail. lol. That night we watched some last movies ( I've really missed watching films...) before we got organised to check out the next day. As we'd already wasted a day as our flight was delayed and also spent the best part of 3 days and nights just vegetating in front of the TV we booked an excursion as we hadnt really seen much of Bali. Most of the things on the organised tours we'd already done elsewhere, monkeys, trekking etc, so we booked a car and drive for the day (Norman I think his name was) for 50 US dollars and chose where we wanted to go.

First we headed to the only holy spring water temple on Bali. It's situated in beautiful gardens with ponds full of Koi carp and massive stone carvings of Garuda's ( Hindu guardians who keep evil spirits away) We saw the spring itself, it had fish swimming around in it as well as an eel or two. It leads off into 11 spouts and they are supposed to have cleansing powers if you drink the water as Indonesians believe that bad spirits live in the stomach. I decided to have a go and got into my shorts, draped a sarong around me (dont worry, I havent gone gay and turned Beckham, it was compulsory to wear one in the spring) and got in the water. You're supposed to wash your face 3 times, then shower your body 3 times and then take 3 sips from each spout in turn. I sipped more than I should have done and by about the sixth one I didnt feel as thirsty as I had done 5 mins beforehand. It certainly tasted better than the holy water that my mate Dean and I drank from the church up the road when we were 14, penniless and thirsty in the summer. I got to the 8th spout and a local guy next to me said not to drink from that one. I asked why, he just said not to so I took his word for it. I dont want a curse! Afterwards, I stepped out and felt all of my lifes bad deeds cleansed and forgived. Yeah right. ha ha

After I dried off, we jumped in the car and headed over to the rice terraces where we had a bite to eat in a restaurant overlooking them. They do what they say on the tin, just rice being grown on the hillside, picturesque.. Afterward we drove up to see Mount Kintamani, the islands main active volcano. We wanted to book a tour up to the top but got told that a couple of weeks previously it had started spewing smoke out the top of it so all tours up there were off. We had to make do with just taking in the view from afar but it was still pretty impressive with oads of black volcanic rock all the way down the side of it. It last erupted in 1991 i think so I fancied my chances that it wouldnt go off. After that we went and did a bit of shopping in Ubud which was on our way to Kuta. Ubud is crammed full of craft shops selling all kinds of carvings and cool paintings. We decided to pick up some xmas presents and after a lot of bartering and a few hours walking round the market in the sun we went back to the car and Norman drove us to Kuta with our bags.

We checked into a nice enough room in Kuta, bit grubby and had a crap shower that was just a single slow stream of water coming out of the space where the shower head should have been but it was cheap and quiet. We were to spend the next 3 nights in Kuta so went and had a wander. It was a lot busier than Sanur with tons of shops, big clubs and boring house music. Clubbing has never really been my cup of tea, I'd rather just sit and chat over a good few beers so I wasnt interested.

We got up late the next day and decided to venture out and have a look at the beach. It was scorching hot so we decided to try and work on our tans. The waves were quite big with quite a few surfers in there too. That night we had an earlyish one as we'd both booked separate excursions for the following day. Ciara didnt fancy white water rafting and I didnt want to get on a horse after the last time so we both booked our own things instead.

I've just checked this blog entry and once again I've typed a huge essay, apologies for drawing it out..

Next morning I felt quite rough after too many beers and not enough sleep the night before. I got picked up at 8am and along with 3 Chinese students I was driven 90 mins to one of many white water rafting centres in Bali. I asked the driver to stop at a 7/11 so i could pick up some food and a coke to wake me up as I wasnt fancying the prospect of going rafting with a hangover. I was fine by the time we got there and once we got our kit on, the cold water of the river straightened me right out. I've never been rafting before and really enjoyed it! We did a 14km stretcjh of river that had plenty of twists and turns in it, we had to brace ourselves each time we hit a wall, bounced off it and went backwards down the river until our guidfe straightened the boat up. As well as all the bends we had 4 or 5 really low bamboo bridges to contend with, we had to lie flat back in the boat when we passed under one, my nose was about an inch from one of them. After a while the current got a bit faster, things got a bit wilder and we got stuck on some rocks and had to jump and bounce the boat to get it free. We stopped halfway at a waterfall before carrying on for the last stretch of the river. At the end we got briefed by our instructor as we were about to go over a 5 metre drop in the boat. The paddles went in the rear of the boat and we had to lay down and stretch our legs out before we went over. Luckily I was at the front as both of the two Chinese girls behind me must've knocked themselves on the way over, one of them on her knees and the other one nursing a crack to her jaw from her friend's helmet who was sat next to me, ouch! We then stopped the boat to step onto the riverbank at the end of the stretch. I felt chuffed that I had managed to make it to the end unscathed. Then on stepping out, I cracked my 3 middle toes of my left foot onto a rock, they still hurt now. Doh.

After the rafting, Ciara and I met back at the room and headed down the beach for a last spot of sunbathing before going for a pizza and drinks. We went to bed early before catching a taxi at 4am to the airport to fly back to Singapore. I wish we'd had longer in Bali as it's such a lovely place with tons to do. Oh well, there's always next time..

On leaving Bali we got a nasty surprise in the form of 'airport tax'. We had overspent a little and needed what we had on us for presents. We had to pay the equivalent of a tenner just to leave Bali. Seeing as it was 6am and we were both grouchy from getting up early we were a bit cheesed off. Oh well.

The next two days in Singapore were spent much the same as the last time we passed through. Shopping malls and cinema. Oh and also Singapore Zoo which was dead impressive, tons of species of animals that you wouldnt see in the UKL, different climate and all. To make sure we didnt end up in some dingy hostel like last time we prebooked on the net and ended up staying right near a tube station which was handy for getting about. The check- in was a bit weird though, you got emailed a code and when you turned up entered it into a digital safe which contained your room key, bizarre. We did briefly meet the guy who ran it , a Chinese guy, Mr Lee who always looked like he was in a rush! He's obviously too busy to sit on a reception counter. He gave us a massive family room with aircon as he didnt have the room we'd booked. Bonus.

Our last day in SE Asia was spent in the post office and the cinema before we went over to the airport to catch our flight to Oz. We're currently having a great time and its sunny and hot EVERY day but i'll write about when i find time. I hope reading this has been as taxing for you as it has been for me typing it up. I think i feel carpal tunnel syndrome coming on, lol...