Bali...baleeeeeee!

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Saturday: Fly to Denpasar via Darwin arriving around 5.30pm. Car is waiting to take us to Hotel Sorga. Room is a but old but big and has tv and a/c for $34/night. Walk around Kuta then have cocktails and fancy dinner for chris birthday - splurging out at $25 each!

Sunday: Walk up the beach to Seminyak. Get taxi to Tanah Lot temple on the coast and stay for lunch. Takes around an hour to get there and costs less than $10. Spend the evening drinking, shopping and eating around Poppies lane. Every 5 minutes someone is trying to sell you mushrooms, enphatimies, happy endings etc. Shop owners and hawkers and much nicer and gentler than other places we've been to. The Balinese are super nice and happy people.

Monday: Morning surf at Kuta beach. Hire car and driver and go parasailing at Nusa Dua, Ululatu sunset and Kekac dance and finish off with Jimbaren bay seafood dinner on the beach...literally.

Tuesday: Taxi to Sanur walk the beach and jet skiing. Matt got his ear lobes tattooed. Last night in Kuta so out clubbing nearly made it til dawn. Jugs of bullfrogs!! Crazy times...Woohoooo!!!!!!

Wednesday: Checked out of hotel. Take car to Tulumban about 3hours drive away from Kuta across to the north east coast of Bali. Staying at Matahari resort $32/night. Rooms are gorgeous with 4 poster bed and fresh flowers! There is nothing there except a few dive places, for the USAT Liberty shipwreck. It's amazing! The ocean is litterally lapping at the stairs of the restaurant then 2 steps into the crystal clear water and you just about stepped on nemo and dory! There is so much life down there. The wreck is right on the shore too. We spent the afternoon snorkelling and playing with Chris's new underwater camera!

Thursday: We did 2 dives in the morning. 1 on the wreck and the other to the drop off. The ladies there carry 2 tanks and bcds on their heads then walk up the rocky beach...so strong! We swam a lap of the ship and inside it. The coral is so colourful and there is so many fish. I will describe more later. We had to head back to meet Matt/Pete in Ubud. On the way we stopped at the beautiful Water Palace. A little further on was Goa Lawah, the Bat Cave. Apparently this cave goes 50km into the mountain! There a zillions of fruit bats living in this natural cave and all these huge pythons that eat them and there is a temple at the entrance. The bats are protected by law! We found Matt and Pete already checked in a Puri Bayou, our lovely Ubud Guesthouse. 4 poster beds with mosquito nets, fresh flowers and gorgeous outdoor bathroom! That night we ate a restaurant right next to a dance theater so we could watch the show.

Friday: I woke up to Ketut (the guesthouse guy) sneaking up to our balcony to set the table for breakfast. It was so lovely...we had fruit and green banana pancakes! We hired a car to go up to the Volcano and visiting a few places on the way. We first stopped at Gunung Kawi which is an 11th century temple complex with shrines carved into the cliff faces. Next stop was Goa Gajah, the 9th century Elephant Cave which has an amazing stone carved cave entrance. We 'acquired' a guide here and couldn't understand a word he was saying! We then went to The Tirta Empul Temple which includes the traditional Balinese split gate along with shrines to Shiva, Vishnu, Braham, Mt. Batur, and Indra. There a pool with fountains that people bath in to purify their souls. The road to the volcano was long and windy and it was quite cold up there. You can see the blackened ground running down the mountain from the last erruption. The view of the lake below is beautiful. We ended the trip with a visit to the Bali zoo, where we played with a baby tiger! The zoo, like many in Asia, are heaps more open and the cages are right next to the paths, than in Australia. We were right next to lions, tigers and bear...oh my!

Saturday: Went to the Monkey Forest which is fully of macques. They are acuatlly quite sacrey and were fighting in groups along the paths and trees. We even saw a big monkey fall from about 7m up in a tree, straight down on its head! We did a bit more shopping at the uBud market then went for a lovely 1hr massage! After a bite to eat we looked through the Museum Puri Lukisan, the heritage of Balinese art. Their art is gorgeous and soooo intricate, there are no empty spaces at all in their traditional paintings/drawings. Car back to Denpasar for 10.50pm flight.

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