Since everyone has said how great Bryan's blogs are I've banned him from writing any. So you're stuck with mine!

We returned to the mainland of Bali and for some reason that now escapes me we chose to go to a place called Bingin on the coast. It hasn't fully developed as a tourist resort yet and in fact trying to get a taxi there was pretty difficult just because no one had heard of it. After a lot of pointing at maps and negotiating prices we eventually got someone to take us there. Well I say take us there...he dropped us at the top of the road into Bingin saying cars had to pay to go down there and it was only 100 metres down the road to "many hotel". Bryan thought he was so helpful he gave him a substantial tip. The 100 metres turned out to be more like a mile before we got to the vehicle barrier. It wasn't enjoyable walking with our ridiculously heavy backpacks in the midday heat. What's worse is motorbikes kept zooming past us and laughing at us! One guy even said "taxi no take you all the way?".

When we finished our "100 metres", dripping with sweat, I had the delightful task of looking for accommodation while Bryan waited with the bags. Most places were full or too expensive. While I was doing this, Bryan was playing Angry Birds on his phone and had attracted the attention of seven local children who had gathered round to watch. Eventually I got him to do something useful and we went back to a guesthouse which was too expensive and Bryan negotiated the price to within our budget because the pool was currently being fixed.

We liked the sound of Bingin because it was not so developed and therefore the beaches hadn't yet been ruined. I was sort of expecting something like Ko Muk, my favourite island in Thailand. In reality it meant there was little to do, hardly any transport, no decent food, everything was overpriced and the place was dead by 8pm. Still, we made the most of it as we always do. The pool was fixed by the evening of the second day so that was a bonus. There was a nice cushioned area where we sat and played cards a lot.

Bingin is more a surfers beach than a sunbathers beach. We had breakfast at a little straw hut on the beach and watched people surfing. It was a bit too rocky to find a decent sunbathing spot and we could see a nicer beach in the distance so we decided to walk to that one. It was a slightly precarious journey that involved climbing over slippery rocks and at some points waiting for a wave to go out before dashing across to the next rock so as not to get dragged into the sea by the next wave! We eventually made it to the beach which was called Dreamland Beach. It was a worth the trek because it was pretty and the waves were quite big so it was funny watching people get knocked over by them! The only problem was when we wanted to leave we couldn't walk back to Bingin because the tide had come in and it really was too dangerous. So instead we had to get a taxi back which cost us an absolute fortune despite Bryan's excellent bartering skills.

So that's our last beach for a while. I think we've done plenty now and it's a shame they've been all in one go rather than spread out a bit but that's just the way it happened. I've got a pretty awesome tan and Bryan...well he's less pasty than when he left England. He'll keep working on it! That's Bali over and done with now so next we're going to Java - the most populated island in Indonesia.