Hotel Puri Tanjung Nusa Dua

... due to my excessive drinking the night before, the following day was pretty much spent baking by the pool and nursing my hangover...could be worse I suppose.....it did however give me time to think about something else I hadn't planned on doing but was now seriously considering....a new tattoo. Those of you who know me well (and to be honest if your still reading my blog you must do by now) know that I love tattoos and way back in the day when a certain group of drunken ...

... their home with burning incense (each family has a temple as part of their compound). Their complete devotion to their spirituality has created a culture in which offering themselves to a higher power is part of their daily routine without question. Imagine what the United States would be like if we each devoted even just 20 minutes a day to connecting to our own spiritual beliefs. It's a beautiful thing to witness. While getting to know the island and ...

... sign of Sarah as evening descended on us on Feb 7. We were hopeful that Sarah would somehow get to the airport the following morning. However, we would have one big and drunken night out in Bali because we reunited with our old pals from Koh Tao. Running Into Old Friends In addition to trying to rendez-vous with Sarah, we knew that our Washington friends Steve, Matt and Jake, who we had met while diving in Koh Tao, were supposed to be in this part of the world ...

... maybe not the most cost conscience thing to do but split three ways not too shabby at all. For the convenience factor, it's truly a bargain. We're staying at a breathtakingly beautiful (no exaggeration here!) hotel on the outskirts of Ubud - we're in our own little jungle. It's a very small hotel (maybe 15 rooms) and we've coincidentally been assigned Room 114 - just like ...

... and I went bar hopping again... and we had a blast. My flipflops got broken while we were walking from Legian to the Beach club in Kuta... that was sad, but some guy helped us out. God bless him. :) I just needed to mention this, two of the most interesting people we met were Paul from France and Wade from Gold Coast Australia. Surf on guys! :)

... pool-side it must be said). We stayed in two different hotels, 4 and 5 nights in each and they were great really. The second was only 10 quid a night including breakfast and came with a large balcony which was great to sit out on in the evenings, which enabled us to make use of our new laptop to watch a few dvds (dirt cheap pirate copies here). It also had wi-fi which was a major bonus as we started to research Australia. Excellent. Add ...

... before meeting Will for another fab dinner at a French restaurant that had a superb selection of cheese (something we haven't seen much of in Bali!) The next morning we decided to do one of the walks recommended in our Bali guidebook. We started off with a visit to the Blanco museum. This museum is an homage to Bali's famous Catalan expat, Antonio Blanco. Born in the Philippines, Blanco arrived in Bali penniless, but eventually befriended the king, married, had children, and ...

... Yay!) Today I was having lunch on the main drag in town, and she swung by on her moped (man this really is a small town, when I bump into folks I know all the time, it's really strange for me after living in Manhattan where that never happens) and she strolled up to the deck/patio I was eating on and said she'd reserved us two adjoining bungalows on the beach for Sat night, and to meet at her house for the 2 hour drive. I'm really ...

... additional spa treatments - all for only £350. Our room was large and nicely decorated, with a huge marble bathroom, cable TV, Air-con and a massive comfy bed (PIC). The balcony looked out over the gardens and pool and if you leaned over it you could see the ocean - we didn't really use the balcony though as the cool air-conditioned room was far more habitable and didn't have mozzies! We spent the first day lounging by the pool (PICS) and enjoying the sunshine ...

... nightclubs in Dyana Pura. We felt pretty rough the next day... Kish however managed to get up for work!!!! Despite Kish wanting us to stay (and we were very very tempted) after 9 days it was time to move on and after a lovely meal at David's we said our regretful goodbyes at the airport bound for Melbourne. Kish had been the most patient and generous host, and as soon as we were on the plane we wished we had stayed longer... but as Frodo says, "the road goes ever on and on...."