Hi Everyone,

The return journey to Ubut from the mountains was through many rural villages all of which seemed to specialize in woodcraft or farming. The trip enabled you to feast your eyes on hundreds of thousands of creations some seemingly fashioned from whole trees or root systems. We stopped briefly in order that I could photograph the rice terraces and I jumped out having arranged to meet Jalan further down the road, no sooner had I left the vehicle than the heavens opened again and I was captured, the only place of refuge from the rain was under a shop canopy. Resisting the temptation to buy something at every turn is very difficult and it seems possible to see something you would like at every premises, however, I did resist but needed an umbrella, wooden or otherwise! I was offered one such item for 100,000 Rupees, very generous, until the owner, hoping to make a quick killing, opened said umbrella to reveal a broken support and several holes. A wooden option was looking quite viable!

I 'hired' an umbrella and owner and made it back to where Jalan had parked himself and was just laughing at me as I toddled down the road hunched under the umbrella held by a local who could have been no taller than about four feet. We returned to Ubut thereafter having had a really good day and having seen what I set out to see.

The following day I booked myself onto a bus to Lovina in the North. The book says very little about Lovina and many people say they don't like the beach because it is black volcanic sand and not golden. I wanted to see what it was all about so I headed off to find out. The bus journey was not too good, pot holed road, twisting and turning this way and that, slow traffic, it was all a bit stomack churning. On the bus was Carl from America who teamed up with me for a couple of days whilst we found our feet around the small town. We eventually made it to Parama main office, about as far away from the town as is possible to get, a free lunch and potential free accommodation was on offer for the first night, so it sounded attractive but I went looking for the catch. Both Carl and I decided to stay and took 'upgraded' rooms, my reason was simple, I wanted to go Dolphin watching the following morning and knew that this was going to be an early start. The room was actually pretty dire but it was really cheap so never mind.

Carl and I went into town which was approximately 2 K's from where we were and located a much better Guest house for ourselves to move into the following day. We later found two guys to take us back to parama who had motorbikes. My driver, ketut, told me that his Mum worked as a masseuse down by the beach, I told Ketut that I would seek her out over the following days I was in town, he also offered to take us on trips around the area which of course I was interested in too. Once back at the room the fully awefullness of it began to sink in. The fan sounded like a turbo prop preparing to take off, there was no sink, no waste paper bin, noise from the road, uncomfy bed, horrible towel etc etc. I was actually shocked at myself for not having looked closer in the first place. I found a chair out in the courtyard and dragged it in so that I could reach the power lead to the fan and pull it out of the wall, the switches on the fan had already broken so there was no control option, on or off, that was it. I opened the one working louvre window and coverd myself in mosquitoe repellant. Suffice to say that it was not my most enjoyable nights sleep.

I was up at 5.45am to go Dolphin watching along with John and Cheryl, a lovely couple from the States and John and Viv from Spain but formerly from the UK. We set off and saw some reasonable Dolphin action albeit that my pictures were terrible. the sight of two Dolphins tails disappearing into the water, one Dolphin so far away it may have been anything and that was about the sum total of it! Pretty poor show on my account, as far as photography was concerned at any rate. It was an okay morning though and we stopped on the way back in for some snorkling, John and Cheryl had been briefed about this and had come fully prepared, unfortunately, John, Viv and myslef had not so in my case I just decided that underpants were good enough and in I went, well they were M & S so at least the elastic was okay!

Our Captain was offering fishing trips and once back on dry land I spoke to Carl about this. I was approached by a man selling wood carvings of the Dolphins and I have to say they were excellent, full marks for exploiting the market and getting to the beach just as the trippers come back, good strategy. Having had breakfast, Carl and I decided that fishing was to be done the next morning therefore my task for the day was to set it all up. We both relocated to Elsa II bungalows and we were well pleased with the rooms, four poster bed, Mosi net and a wonderful bathroom with everything in it which worked. So off I went and set about my task, I found the wood carving man, a friend of the Captain, and asked him to get Captain Cod to come and see me at the Guest house in order to make arrangements and negotiate the price. I met Ketut's Mum, Reni, who was a bit perplexed and seemed somewhat confused by how I knew her, but all that became clear later. I bought myself some fruit from a nice lady and resisted buying anything else, at least for the time being. Later the Captain arrived at Elsa II having just had a motor cycle accident, I had to administer Firtst Aid (long time since I've had to do that) patched him up, did the deal and confirmed arrangements for the following morning, figuring that he was a better boatsman than he was motorcyclist. I heard later from some people who witnessed the accident that he had actually been very lucky having been hit from behind, thrown over the bike and landed on the road infront of some very heavy traffic.

Over the following days I got to know the beach and people pretty well, who belonged to who, who was related to who, etc etc. It turned out that Reni was a bit of a Mother hen, a Queen Bee. The wood carver is her Brother and is married to the fruit seller who is obviously Reni's Sister-in-law. A sweet little girl, Ana, is Reni's Neice by her brother and Reni's son Surya works in the nearby restaurant and is actually called Ketut Surya. It was ketut Gede, who is Reni's Nephew on another side of the family, who had approached me on the first night. It turns out that Gede is close enough in their society to call Reni, Mum. This is not the first time I have encountered such a confusing situation and it applies to Maori culture as well. So, I was nearly sorted out but not quite. There are numerous other relationships going on here and it is so confusing, the kids are really sweet and persuasive, I know I'm a soft touch but as soon as they know your name it all becomes very difficult. I have done a deal with the children. No purchases until my last day and then only one item each, by the time my own Neice gets to read this she will be the recipient of numerous bangle and necklaces and will probably be cursing me, but there you are.

It's a nice society and not too difficulkt to work out who the more dominant sellers are. One lady, who is really lovley, was not around when I wanted to buy a shirt and missed the sale, turns out that she has a very young son and has to look after him in the mornings at home until one of her relatives relieves her and she can then go to the beach to make some money during the afternoons. I made sure that I bought something else from her and also that her daughter was one of the children to sell me something on the last day there. I was ultra careful not to upset anyone or say the wrong thing, it would be all too easy to brush everyone away and dismiss them all but I don't want to be like that.

The following day Carl and I went fishing, we were collected by the Captain and taken on the back of his motorbike (Yikes) to the boat. We then had a very pleasurable 5 hours at sea where we caught 3 Snapper, 2 Grupper fish, and 2 something else's. Actually the largest Snapper was caught by the Captain, none of the fish were more than 5 to 6 inches long but there was enough for a meal if we put everything in one pan! I managed to hook myself twice, some may think that was a reasonable catch, others may simply have put me back!! It was fun though and all done with just a line, three hooks, some Calamari and sone other really smelly fish. We were offered the chance to go trawling which sounded a lot more productive but we would have to make do for today. We were landed on the main beach and drew some attention and a lot of hilarity when we showed out catch. We took it back to Elsa II where the fish were set in the chiller and later cooked up for us by one of the restaurants. We feasted on fish curry, vegatable and rice, it had turned out to be a grand day and to finish up by eating what we had caught topped it all off.

Carl departed the following day and I was booked to go snorkling off the Island called Menjangan on the far North East tip of Bali. John and Cheryl were on the same boat and we had a wonderful day out. The Island has some of the best Coral anywhere and it was certainly some of the best snorkling I have ever done. The highlight for me was seeing a giant Puffa fish swim up the shelf which lyes just offshore and then swim into the shallows, slowly and cautiously it moved to a point where it was totally surrounded by smaller Cleaner fish. It then opened its considerable mouth and gills and allowed the Cleaners to go to work. I managed to get close enough to see that it was about a metre in length and had a head the size of a Labrador, it was immense but of course it was probably quite small in comparison to other fish found in deeper waters. All in all it was a very rewarding experience, the sting in the tail was that I ended up with a very badly burnt back. I had put sun screen on, Factor 30 to be precise, but it wasn't enough and I had forgotten just how strong the sun on Bali actually is. I called on the services of Reni who kindly put Aloe Vera on the burns and cooled things down for me somewhat.

The following day I was due to go on a motorcycle trip with her son Surya, I didn't want to miss that, so I took it easy. Albeit still very sore I did go with Surya and we visited GitGit Falls, yes really, they are called that, around the lakes over the mountains and then to the Hot Springs. later reni did the necessary with the Aloe Vera and that evening I purchased a load of food from a local Warung (food stall) and got a lift to theri house where the whole family sat down to eat and have dinner with me. We all fed and had a wonderful evening which included watching an Indonesian football match on television, broadcast live rthe match was played in atrocious conditions with monsoon rain falling steadilly throughout the second half. it reminded me off games we used to play at school with 20 yard sliding tackles, a ball that just would not go anywhere and generally great fun! Eventually Surya took me back to my room and that was the end of yet another wonderful experience.

I shall catch you up on some more very soon, take care.

Chris