Christmas on the Gili's   We thankfully left Kuta on the 23rd for the Gili Islands. Sadly however we would need to return due to the overcomplicated and ever changing process of getting a Visa extension in Indonesia, so with passports left with an Agent in Kuta we took the ferry (oversized speed boat) to Gili air. The Gili Islands consist of 3 small but very different islands; Gili Trawangan - the party island Gili Meno - almost deserted but good for relaxin...

Ubud to Bingin, Bali A couple of exhausting, 30 degrees bus rides later, we finally arrived in Ubud, still stinking of eggs and ready to sleep for a week! Ubud is the cultural capital of Bali, and we were looking forward to getting somewhere that we could start to soak up a bit of local culture rather than scale volcanoes each morning! On arrival we dumped our stuff on the path and sat next to a water fountain whilst trying to research somewhere to stay for the ...

Beautiful Bromo & Intimidating Ijen Having got back to Yogyakarta we had to make some decisions on where to go next - realising we wouldn't have time to go to Borneo before we needed to be in the Gili Islands for Christmas, what with the unreliable public ferry that only runs every few days from Java to Borneo, we planned instead to head east through Java to visit the volcanic regions of Bromo and Ijen and undertake a couple of hikes. This time we stayed in...

Next stop...Indonesia Our flights to Singapore and onto Jakarta all went well, although landing in Singapore where the airport was in full Christmas mode, with decorations and Christmas songs everywhere reminded us of what we were missing back home. To console ourselves we headed straight to Starbucks and indulged in a Christmas coffee! On arrival in Jakarta we boarded an air conditioned bus that left straight after we got on, with no-one shouting, no loud music...

Phrases: India 'One Minute' - The term an Indian person uses to expain how long you have to wait for something...usually 10 times longer! 'Monkeys slap Dogs' - Apparently this does happen in India...You Tube it! 'Fu**ing India!' - At all times of stress in India- used a lot! 'Mind the sh*t' - Cow poo / rubbish everywhere! 'Anything is possible in India' - An Indian's excuse whenever something ridiculously weird / awful is happening 'Paneer Belly' - our...