Hi Everyone,

I have now taken the plane from Thailand to Bail via K.L. (Kuala Lumpur) with just an hours turn around on the flights between Countries, having never been to either Malaysia or Indonesia before I had no idea what to expect and as I have changed my plans I am actually totally unprepared for this leg, so let's see what is in store. I had become somewhat 'comfortable' in Thailand and now I have to find some of that travellers spirit again and get on the move. Using my new cash card I braved the ATM at K.L. International - failure!! Oh joy of joys!! Fortunately my Credit Card worked so I was able to withdraw 100 pounds in local currency in order to exchange it for Indonesian currency, Rupies - Millions of them!!

I eventually made it to Dempasar Airport and in a complete change of climate (rain and humidity) I arrived at the accommodation with another fellow traveller in tow. I'd met a guy from England who clearly had more issues than me at the time so I took him under my wing for 16 hrs or so and shared food, water and eventually a taxi and room with him. My friends Kerstin and Toni were already in Kuta so shortly after arrival I met up with them, introducing my companion. In company with other friends I then spent the following 4 days having a great time. I was staying in Kuta the most lively place on Bali I think? and also the scene of the Bali Bomb back in 2002. The night life competes with anything from Thailand and combined with very narrow streets, copious amounts of motor bike, some with surf boards strapped to the sides negotiating alleyways at the same time as pedestrians, it is equally as frenetic as BKK. I did have a good time although I am still totally confused and disorientated by the whole layout of the place. It is a rabbit warren which runs this way and that and it was only by luck that I found my way on more than one occassion. I cant say that i noticed an aweful lot of local heritage in architecture I know it is there I just have to identify it! I am feeling a bit disorientated, this is Phuket or Pattaya or Blackpool, this is not Bali - surely?

Well of course the answer is Yes and No, once the decision to leave Kuta was made I was on my way to see more of the true Island and headed in the direction of Ubut (pronounced Ooboot) I had been unprepared for the total change in climate as well. From hot sunny dry days, warm balmy nights with clear skies I have come to very high humidity, searing heat from a very hot sun and torrential rain with thunder and lightening! Blimey where did my World go?

Regardless of the weather I had a truely great time with K & T and their friends, I took a private bus to Ubut and was met by Mr Jalan who expertly guided me to his Tungung Bungalows to meet his wife and children, this was more like a 'homestay' than anything else and I stayed with them for 4 nights whilst I toured around the area with Mr Jalan and on my own. The accommodation was costing me a grand total of 5 pounds per night and Mrs Jalan was feeding me breakfast as well so I was more than happy. Ubut is far more cultural and far more about what I had come to see. I went to see two shows one of which Mr Jalan was in (the firewalking show) but both of which had stunningly beautiful female dancers and costumes. They are really worth visiting and although you may feel perhaps this for tourists in actual fact they are performed all the time and form an important part of Society and daily life, the main religion is Hindu and that encompases many different beliefs in different Spirits and Gods. The dances reflect this side of society and they are facinating. The fire dance concludes with one of the participants actually dancing through coconut husks which have been set alight. The dancer kicks the fire apart and spreads it around the concrete dance area, walking on the embers and sweeping throught the fires with his bare feet. All a bit of trickery I hear you say, well if it's trickery it pretty impressive because having sat at the front for one of these performances I felt the heat coming off the husks as they were kicked towards me, I can say quite honestly say that they were burning hot, I could feel the heat from them a good 2 meters way so what it must have been like to walk on them and through them with bare feet I wouldn't like to think. The dancer clearly enters some form of trance and after the performance he is layed down on the floor to recover, it takes a few moments for him to recover his senses and then you can approach him, there is clearly 'something' which happens to the guy but when you look at his feet, although blackened with soot, they are not burnt at all, there are not blisters or any sign of burning, it is quite amazing. Mr Jalan told me that they beleive that the men who perform this dance are born with the Spirit of the Fire God inside them, he said that he does not know if this is true but the dancer does enter some form of trance like state, so as Mr Jalan points out, who is to believe that the dancer is not possessed of the Fire God? Who can say, but if you are going to do it you had better beilieve it.

Ubut also has a Monkey Forest and that is where I took myself to on the second day of my visit, it is hot and humid and damp as you might expect but it is also the home to hundreds of small grey monkeys which sit around in packs (if that is the correct term?) They all have a dominant Male, ugly as anything, and clearly a brut. My poor camera became the target of some severely unwanted attention and having been grabbed, the cowelling on the front of the zoom lense was prized away and taken by one of the younger monkeys. I had to get a Keeper to recover it as I had seen what some would do if a visitor tried to take anything away from them. They became very aggressive, baring two fearsome rows of fangs so I decided that this was a task for someone who knew better than I how to handle the situation. So, along came the keeper, catapult in hand and casually fired off whatever it was at the culprit who promptly let go of the camera part. Poor little chap, I didn't know he was going to get fired at! I retrieved it and made off with haste! The forest is thick and in a deep gully, it steams with hot clamy air which just hangs over you, like when you've just had a very hot shower and a cold day and you have kept the door shut so the hot steam comes down from the ceiling and hangs around you (not when you have an extractor fan I know, but use your imagination!). You can feel the vapour rising up from the ground and it becomes quite oppresive, I hate to say this but I spent most of the rest of my visit absolutley drenched, but never mind. The only repsite I found was to crawl back to my bungalow, have a very cold shower, stand under the fan with the switch full on, dry naturally, put on clean clothes and walk to the local Spa, about 75 meters away, have another shower and then submit myself to the hands of a lovley lady who then massaged me for the following hour. Fabulous!! After the hour the said lovley lady then washes the oil from your body and leaves you refreshed and ready to go outside and start sweating again!! Sorry, I was just trying to make you smile there. Actually timing is all important here because I found that if you time the treatment to finish around 6.00pm everything cools off and you can be fairly assurred of a dry evening provided that you don't walk up and down too many hills, and there are a few.

Mr Jalan took me on a whole days drive around the Northern and Eastern parts of the Island, I visited the Volcano the Elephant Cave, the main wood carving area and several important Hindu Temples. The whole day was intersting but you have never seen as many carvings as there are on Bali this must simply been the centre of the Wood Carving World. Anything you think you have seen or which you suspect of originating from Indonesia, multiply by one Million and I suspect that you have something like the quantity of product here. I am not exagerating when I say, if you can not get it here, then you CAN NOT get it, period.

I spent lunch time looking at Gunang Batur the active volcano and Lake Batur which sits below it. The weather was getting steadily worse until the inevitable happened, rain poured down and the previously magnificent view was turned into a thick grey veil of mist and cloud. Within minutes the area was awash with water and with no guttering entering or leaving a building becomes somewhat difficult unless you have a huge sturdy unbrella. With or wirthout an umbrella you need two things, agility and nimbleness, neither of which I possess in great abundance these days, so getting to the vehicle was an intersting experience and a wet one! The volcano is impressive it last erupted around 8 years ago and many people apparently went to the spot where I had lunch just to watch the spectacle, Jalan told me that black ash was thrown thousands of feet into the air, personally I would have wanted to be as far away as possible, the local Spa sprang to mind, but there you go!

Must go, a lovley lady has just turned the shower on!

See you soon,

Chris