Sahid Raya Kuta

... and legging it down the street.<br><br> We've done a couple of day trips so far, our first was to an 'Elephant Safari Park', a one and a half hour trip out past the town of Ubud, a solemn drive, nursing hangovers from the previous night of partying. Once there though our feelings quickly changed. We got to feed the elephants breakfast, then jumped on the back of one and went for a ride through the forest and farms in the area. No I'm not turning into a ...

... off a heated debate about the origins of the Maori people in NZ. It was only yesterday I proved Disco wrong by copying and pasting articles from Wikipedia into an email for him. Just to settle the debate 2 weeks later. We failed to convince him to not turn up to his three flight the following day and so he was the first to abandon the group as he headed to Thailand and so the group was down to four as we headed out of Kuta and embarked on another adventure up the east coast of Bali.

So after a few people in Oz had told me that Bali is a cool place to chill in the sun and drink cheap booze at night, I thought I'd give it a go. I arrived there late at night with no accommodation booked. I found somewhere at the airport to book a hotel, got the cheapest one, and headed there. This wasn't a great place, dirty, lock on the door didn't work and the fan in the bathroom sounded like the hotel was taking off! <br><br>So i slept there and left in the morning to try ...

... to sensationalise my evening! It was fun. Debbie's friend was also great - I called her Crazy Ama (she must've been the one that Rich and Andy walked past). When I walked past where her group was sitting (pretty much at the end of our road) on my route home, they called my name and I ended up talking to them for a bit. I left when they did and went down our (now dark) street. Here I randomly bumped into the dancer who apparently was refusing to dance with me earlier on in the club ...

... any of the main streets in Ubud without seeing a spa every other shop. Since I didn't take advantage of the Aurvedic massage in India nor the popular "thai" massage in Thailand, I decided a massage in Bali was long overdue. We found a cheaper spa that offered a great price for a full body massage, a facial, manicure and pedicure, and a conditioning treatment for your hair. I have never had a half day spa package so I was really looking forward to enjoying the ...

So our biker gang the N.A.D.S. (never a dull second)(sorry Amanda we didn't know that u made that name up not mike d, sue him!) took our badass scooters and made a trek to Ubud about two hours from were we are staying(three when you get lost), to visit the monkey forest. Riding scooters in Bali is not the smartest thing to do, but it is the main source of transportation. Don't worry Mom's we have all vowed we won't make a trek like that again that far, but the scooters are a ...

... anticipating they were landing in Bangkok. When we left D&amp;D Inn, the employees were all concerned asking us "you leave because of fear?" - as the protests have now spilled into nearly a week. We reassured them our view of Thailand had not been skewed, &amp; we checked into our new hotel...which was conveniently located about 500 yds. from a main rally point for the anti-gov't protestors. Horray! We hung around Bangkok a few more days in the sun &amp ...

... to me. I'm paying 40 pounds for two nights in a single room (Jules will join me on Monday after he's done his diving) but at least it's next to a pub. Afterwards we're going to book into a different place calld the Bounty Hotel, which looks a bit resorty but hopefully it will be somewhere fun to celebrate my birthday. Friday I had my last day at the hospital. Me and Jules bought a joint present for Mr Shan (even though Jules will be back), a big colourful ...

... followed him. As it happened, he had a really nice place ('Darta Homestay'), with little individual bungalows, each with its own little verandah, for a very reasonable price. He brought us tea, we sat on the verandah and drank it, and all was good with the world. After doing some laundry and hanging it out on the verandah, we went to explore the town a bit and Kirsty invested in some nice, unusual, Balinese silver twirly earrings. In the evening, we found a warung, where we ...

... Something like that. The fgures were awesome and showed Balinese have artistic skills indeed. At the same time they compete within a village of the best figure title and receive some money if the group wins. The kids were so enthusiastic and for us tourists it was something new and great too. In the evening when the actual celebration and parade started they had all the enhancement like lights and fireworks and speakers explaining the meaning. Streets were ...