"I really think I'm only going to spend 2 nights in Kuta, it's to commercial to hang around in for long and I want a proper experience of Bali". These were my words not 1 week ago but I was found in the same bar with the same friends saying exactly the same things 5 days later! Yes people, I am a sucker for pre-packaged paradise but I can't deny it's been a whole lot of fun despite the fact that all activities have revolved around a Mojito. yum. Perhaps the only downside to this place is the amount of guys walking around with Arse Cleavage. Seriously pull your god damn shorts up, nobody needs to see that when their havng their brekkie

The week started off particularly well mainly due to the fact that I had a reunion with Tessa and Naomi from previous travels and Ed came over from Yogja to. Basically our activities revolved around eating lots of Italian food and drinking Mojitos which I guess is about as cultural as we got. (Italian culture that is) We also managed to generally fall into the easy going lifestye that Bali is famous for, which was good for me. Ed managed to stay for one night out with us before realising that hanging with us would 1) Damage his liver and 2) mean that he would spend the rest of his time in bed with a hangover, something which he did on the second day there. At this stage we decided to make a plan to see some more of the island while we're here, so Tessa and I decided to hire a car. I was really excited as I have'nt driven since I left the UK. All I can say is that 6 months of not driving really messes you up on the raod. Still we managed to survive and thanks to Tessa I now know a whole handful of well phrased Italian obscenities and hand movements which will be great fun to use back in the UK.

After 5 days in Kuta, I finally decided to leave the place and head for the Gili Islands off the island of Lombok. This wasn't before being invited to the opening of a bar/club in Kuta the night before leaving. Naturally I was only going to have a few drinks and then head back as my bus left at 6am. However it didn't quite work out this way and I've put it down in a simple list inspired by the Animaniacs of why this happened. I call it Good Idea/Bad Idea (I know, a little weird but just go with it)

Good Idea; Socialise with friends from other countries and have a good time. Bad Idea; Listen to said friends and believe them when they say "of course you'll get up at 5am after 10 beers".

Good Idea; Go out to enjoy local hospitality and attend new bar openings. Bad Idea; Staying out till 1 hour before going, go back to bed and then failing to wake up on time resulting in one angry bus driver banging on your door.

Good Idea; Eat, Drink and be merry. Bad Idea; Travel for 12 hours on a bus and boat with quite possibly the worst hangover of your life on the hottest day of your trip.

The moral of this story friends is that you should never trust Italians or people from Plymouth. They're out to ruin you and all it takes is one Mojito. As you can tell the journey over to this Island paradise was not pretty. The one saving grace was that Pukey Sue obviously stayed on dry land for this trip and I was safe from a vomit inspired soundtrack the whole way. Perhaps the most worrying point of the whole journey was in the second mini-van we boarded which was literally falling apart at the seams. I had to hold onto the wall of the van to stop it falling off when we went around corners! Man alive. By the time we got to the Island, the heavans opened just as I stepped onto the beach. All I could do was laugh at this point.

On a brighter point, the islands here are really nice. Not as nice as Perhentian but still pretty awesome. I spent yesterday on the beach and was quickly surrounded by 100's of Indonesian kids all on a learning English trip. They all wanted to practice their English and I was a celebrity after wards having millions of photos taken. It was all quite tiring I have to say, so when the last group of kids came I told them I was German. Today I went snorkelling and again successfuly managed to not see anything while the others all saw Turtles. Damn it. I did manange to jump into a load of Jellyfish though as lept over the side of the boat and I and a few others all shouted a few choice words before getting back on the boat and checking out our newly acquired stings. The bloody skipper just said "oh no problem for you, it good for skin" The bloody idiot could've killed us. Man alive indeed.

So it's back to Lombok tomorrow and another trek. The mountain of Rinjani this time and then back to Bali for one last shebang with my compadres.

Hope everyone is well back home drop me an email sometime.

Love

Will

P.S. MOJITO's Rock!