Late start to the day. Decided to walk along Sanur beach, which was similar to yesterday's walk along Nusa Dua but not as 5 star. Quite a few cafes and restaurants just around the corner from us and we picked out one for lunch as we strolled along. Towards the end of our walk after passing some nice resorts, we saw some fancy privately owned properties, which were huge. We stopped at Bamboo Eatery and Bar and we both had a yummy crispy fried whole snapper. Food is so cheap here that you really never have to worry about prices. After lunch we thought we'd better get over to the GWK Cultural Park , our planned activity for the day. I'd read that you only needed 2 hours, so the plan was to head over to ... read more

Today’s activity was a visit to see the sunrise on Mt Batur. Woke up very early this morning for our 3.00am pick-up (although they were 15 minutes late). I figured that this was the best day to do this because our bodies hopefully were still on Sydney time which meant 5.00am. Seemed to work although we didn’t get to bed as early as I had planned so we only got about 5 hours sleep. It was a 1.75 hour drive to the jeep pick-up, so we both managed a bit more shut eye before then. It was a 25 minute drive in the jeep, 5 minutes on a sealed road, then 20 on a steep, bumpy dirt road. It was actually a lot of fun. We reached the viewing area at 5.25am, along with about 200 ... read more

Up at 4.30am, ready for the 5am pick up. We went to the same spot where the Aarti ceremony was last night, but a lot less people. As we got rowed out, I realised this the location you usually see in photos. The sun even poked out from the clouds a couple of times. It was a lovely peaceful time as we witnessed devotees washing, swimming and praying in the Ganges. We then alighted from the boat, tipping the young rower and walked through a new complex built recently by the government containing a temple and some fast-food outlets. Fortunately, the buildings are built to the traditional style. We then visited a store which had clothing made by Cotton Flower, a co-op of women making clothing to support their families. We then had a 1.5 hour ... read more

Very early start today at 6am for our visit to Taj Mahal. Supposedly for sunrise but it wasn't really. Sunrise was earlier than that and it was very overcast today so it wouldn't have been worth it to go any earlier. The complex is quite large and the building is in a large courtyard with 4 gates. Our first glimpse of the Taj Mahal was quite surreal as it almost blended in to the surrounding early morning mist. Arjun sold us on using one of the accredited photographers who followed us in and posed us for photos in the best spots. It was quite amusing as we felt like we were posing for wedding photos. It really is a stunning building to see, being completely made of white marble. Inside, it is decorated in a simpler ... read more