Bali Aga Swiss Belhotel Nusa Dua

... place of all, we put them to use along with some little plastic bowls we bought so we could eat breakfast in our room. This plan, along with some local Bintang beer purchased at the grocery store, and some fabulous noodle and rice dish lunches for $2 at the nearby public beach warungs (little food stands) kept us in budget. We did have a few very good meals – one at a seafood restaurant by Jimbaran Bay, a major surfing beach on the west side of ...

... said prayer, it resembled a scene on the banks of the Ganges (I would have took a dip but didn't want to offend anyone, it's baking hot, again!) . When we arrived at the Volcano the rain had set in, big time, making views a little sketchy to say the least. Why does this always happen to us? Table Mountain, Penang Hill, and now here. We had some lunch and the rain subsided a little, the photos aren't great but I guess you had to be there. Finally ...

... As a result of the size of the Indonesian archipelago and its geographic location in the Pacific Ocean, it has a much later monsoon season (rainy season) than continental Asia where the monsoon had passed before we arrived. There are two contributing factors to the filthy state of the Balinese beaches because of the rainy season. Firstly, the rainwater washes all of the garbage that is littered profusely from the villages at the center of the island (Bali ...

... on some very famous river. Compared to the Kicking Horse, this river was definitely more tame but so much warmer (no wet suit required!!) - safety maybe not so much as the Canadian tour but not scary. Our main guide explained all of his commands to start with my favourite being "Boom Boom!" which means duck in the boat. A "Special Boom Boom!" meant were all to sit on the floor of the raft and hang on for dear life. There was one ...

... when i got bored of gaz's ramblings!...(only joking Tina!) From here went to phnom penh to the genocide museum which was really shocking and sad - no glossy billboards like you'd get in the U.K - just big rooms with torture beds in them and a photo on the wall of the last inhabitant - all gruesome stuff. We topped off this with a visit to the killing fields - they have built a shrine to the dead there, and it is a see through monolith filled with skulls form 8000 vicitms of ...

... after a busy couple of months on the road. Day 165 - 05/08/08 Woke up this morning and had a stroll down to the beach which appears be a complete surfers Mecca. Many many surfers in the water catching some big old reef breaks. Bali and Java are renowned in Asia as the best places to surf on the continent. Several international competitions are held on the famous G-Land peninsula on the south-east coast of ...

... and a joke but the 20th time someone offers a taxi in an hour, I get annoyed. We look for another hotel, more in the center and with FREE Wi-Fi. Cannot find anything. Not at the price we want to pay. So we have to extend in our hotel. We stand still at the memorial of the bombing in 2002. We ask ourselves: why??? Why did all those innocent people have to die? The murderers are still in prison, sentenced to death but in appeal. We have a beer in a pub, where ...

... stayed in Sayan in a spectacular room overlooking the jungle before heading to Borneo in Malaysia. Too short of a time in Bali to really immerse yourself in the culture but we did as much as we could in such a short time. We loved meeting the local people...and learning about their unique culture.

Two days of hardcore-being escorted around with our own personal guide called for a day of doing nothing! A day in the shade of a palm tree was exactly what we needed. We would have preferred a place with no people, but then again there is nothing like spending an entire day observing people around you -I wouldn't want to be bored when tanning in the sun while listening to the wavy ocean either. Additional ...

... from 4am! The airport differs from most we have been in by virtue of a lack of computers at check in, so with our handwritten boarding cards we were on the plane. Only 40 minutes late we arrived at Bangkok and halfway on our walk to the other terminal one of those golf carts with the flashy orange lights stopped to offer us a lift, given we are nether a)disabled (well physically anyway) or b) Celebrities, we felt rather privileged as we swept past all the suckers ...