The start of the final day in Bali today. We’re looking forward to getting home to see Sasha but there is plenty of Bali that we haven’t seen so we’ll be sorry to see that opportunity disappear for now. Pamela and Emily started the day with a quick swim. Emily is very proud of the fact that she swam every day while on holidays – even those days that she was sick. They didn’t spend long however as we had to have breakfast, finalise our packing, check out and head to the airport all before 10:30. Sadly, for my tastebuds (but perhaps not for my waistline), today heralded the last time in the foreseeable future that we will have our vanilla crème donuts as part of breakfast. We savoured today’s sugar bombs just that little bit ... read more

One of the nice things about Breakfast in resorts is that you get to eat things you don't normally eat. For example, Brett and Emily have discovered the joy of freshly cooked donuts covered with vanilla cream; a far cry from their normal bacon and eggs. Not a habit that they will return to Australia with but fun while travelling. When walking back from breakfast to the room we saw a worker who was inscribing messages and designs into sand gardens inside the hotel. We've been looking at these each day as they have been changing on a regular basis. He had cleared all old messages and was starting fresh today so we asked him if he would write a message for us. We kept it simple "Happy Holiday Crosby Family, Bali 2017". It was amazing ... read more

One thing about travel is that it forces you to look through a different lens from time to time. I was sitting in one of the pool cabanas and complaining about the fact that my green juice was more froth than juice when I started to think of the orphanage that we are going to visit later in the week. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind the froth! But that was late in the day. Let's look at how we got to that point in time. Resort life is as little strange really. Every blog entry could simply read. Wake. Swim. Breakfast. Swim. Lunch. Swim. Dinner. Swim. Bed. Then rinse and repeat for the duration of the stay. It's great if you like sitting by a pool and sunbathing - but that's not really my thing. ... read more

So the upset stomach finally got to me overnight and I really wasn't in the mood for breakfast or food in general. I stayed in bed and rested while Emily and Pamela went for breakfast. The staff worked out that I wasn't there and, when they found out I was a little poorly, followed the girls back to the room with a tray of fruit, yoghurt and pastries. The gesture was nice but I really couldn't face it. We had a call from our travel agent this morning informing us of some issues with Tiger Air and flights from Australia being cancelled. Hopefully this is sorted before we are due to head home next Thursday as I don't relish the prospect of getting stuck here indefinitely. He seemed confident that whatever the issue is it will ... read more

So, everyone better this morning - at least better than they were last night. Actually everyone still pretty poorly and struggling to keep upright at this stage. The mere mention of food around Emily is enough to drain the colour from her face and start the sweat flowing. I'll keep the details light here other than to say it was a very restless night for Pamela and Emily. However, despite how everyone is feeling, today is the day we headed to Ubud and the Santi Mandala Spa and Villa. Our original plan was to hire a car for the day and stop at a few places on the way to Ubud. With Emily virtually unable to walk we shelved that plan and caught a taxi straight here without stopping. Unfortunately the heat, humidity and fever got ... read more