Well, where to begin? Forget the images of sea, sand and thatched beach umbrellas. Instead think surf, volcano, mountains, lakes and temples! Oh, and beautiful sunsets! When we arrived it was dark and we were driven through the built-up, brightly lit Seminyak. I have to say we were slightly disappointed. In the morning we got the shuttle bus to our beach - again, it was slightly underwhelming in that the surf was so big there was no swimming! Luckily our hotel was amazing, a really different open air environment with a superb swimming pool. But, in the following days, we saw more of the real Bali and grew to love it.

I guess one highlight was being driven to Kintamani, high in the mountains of the north. We had breakfast in a restaurant with stunning views of Lake Batur and the active volcano. We could see the lava flows from the last eruption in 1963. Bearing in mind what happened last time we visited an active volcano on Cape Verde (it erupted soon after we left!) we are watching the news hoping that the same doesn't occur on Bali. There are so many people living just below the volcano that it would be devastating, as it was on Cape Verde! We then embarked on a 26km bike ride, which took about 2.5hrs with a few stops to take photos and meet the locals. I can honestly say that I only pedalled once - it was all downhill, and thank God the brakes were good as they were permanently on!! At one point we had to go over an unmade rough track - it was like a mountain biking downhill trail, and was slightly scary at first. I felt out of control, but the bike wheels seemed to cope with riding over the large stones that I couldn't avoid! However, my arms started to itch and then turn bright red. I thought I'd been bitten by a swarm of insects but, apparently, it was my blood reacting to the rough terrain - a doctor on a previous ride had experienced the same thing but knew what it was. We rode past temple after temple, all the houses have one and some houses are built to look like them. While we were there it was a festival of the full moon, and offerings were made to the Gods twice a day. We also saw an amazing amount of rice fields, and the rice terraces were awesome to look at.

We also went to Nusa Dua, a beach on the other side of the island, on the recommendation of the hotel, where the water receded at low tide except in the middle and swimming was much easier. It was very untouristy in that there were very few places to eat on the beach, so we walked to the far end and found a local place just off the beach. We had a couple of beers and shared a Nasi Goreng, which came to 85,000 rupiahs - about £5.50. Bob didn't have any change so gave the lady 100,000 rupiahs, a tip of about a pound. Well, I wish I could have taken a photo of that lady's face. She was so overcome and grateful. Her family came out and they insisted on shoving a bunch of bananas into my bag as a thank you. That was something I will never forget - how a simple pound can change someone's life!

The fire dance at Uluwatu Temple was another highlight. The Temple itself, perched high on a cliff jutting out into the water, was spectacular in itself, but we were then ushered into a circular arena. I got a bit worried as we were quite tightly packed in, despite being told that it was ticketed. Then the dancers came on and started a sort of rhythmic chanting, that then accompanied a performance narrating a story of the Gods. The sun was going down, it was a beautiful sunset over the sea, and the sounds and sights were strangely hypnotic. However, for some reason, a large number of people, who were either bored because they hadn't bothered to read about the ceremony, or who preferred to go and take photos of the sunset, decided to leave, picking their way slowly through the packed crowd. It was very rude, and very disruptive for the performers, but also annoyed the crowd who bunched up to make it particularly hard for them to leave! The climax was a fire dance, a ring of fire surrounded a ' magic monkey' who managed to put the fire out and escape. However, there were a few hairy moments where I thought the costumes were going to catch on fire and some embers blew into the crowd. No Health and Safety anywhere to be seen!! Then we were off to have a seafood feast at a place called Jimbaran - an expanse of beach where all the tables and chairs were on the sand. Very romantic and a lovely end to a lovely day.

But again, we experienced the contrasts of Asia. One day we set off for Canggu, another recommendation from our hotel. Another lovely beach with surfers to watch. Wanting a drink (iced coffee I hasten to add) before we settled on the beach we chanced upon a beach club called Finns. Well, we certainly fell on our feet. For a minimum spend of 375,000 rupiah we could stay as long as we wanted, have the use of two loungers, an infinity pool and swim-up pool bar plus a DJ sorting the music all day! Well, a few cocktails, a bowl of nachos and a couple of beers later and that minimum spend was well surpassed. The photos say it all, a brilliant day totally in contrast to the rest of Bali. However, getting back to the hotel proved somewhat of a challenge. The local taxi guys seemed to have a monopoly on the taxis leaving. We were asked to pay 100,000 rupiah - not much really but, considering we'd only paid 35,000 to get there, we considered it too much. So we walked to the end of the road and flagged down a local taxi. Oh dear, our taxi was afraid to stop as the local taxi drivers started chasing him down the road. Eventually he did stop 500m down the road, and we had to catch up with him. He was so apologetic that he couldn't stop closer but explained the local drivers were 'mad!'. We were just grateful that he stopped at all! That evening we had also booked a nice restaurant in town, Chandi's. We were ushered into an air-conditioned room, along with only two other people. The food was amazingly well presented and also tasted awesome. Fine dining at it's best - expensive by Balinese standards but reasonable by ours. What a day!

We ended up loving Bali and the people, they were so friendly and smiley and reminded us of the Cambodians. Bali is SO much more than the sea and beaches, and a real mix of authentic Bali and tourist Bali. A real conundrum but one we loved!

And now for the bad news. Travelpod, who host this blog, are shutting down in June. I am gutted as it was really easy to use and you all seem to find it quite easy to follow. I can transfer the blog, following their instructions, to Wordpress, another blogging site, but not specifically for travellers. I guess I will have to do this, so the next blog, about Oz, will be on the new site. I will be able to put the links on Facebook and emails as usual but they will be different so please watch out for them!!