Swiss Bel Hotel Bay View Nusa Dua

... island and another at Bambu Bali, a well known Indonesian restaurant in Nusa Dua. (but to be honest, my favourite was the noodles from the warung on the beach).<br><br>OK, so what of Bali culture have we been exposed to in this &#8211; so far -  sterile introduction? One thing that is immediately noticeable is the Balinese ritual of offerings. When we arrived at the airport and needed to change some money, I glanced down to the floor by the window at ...

... heading home we stopped at the impressive rice terraces that make intricate patterns on the landscape, it's a visually beautiful form of farming. The only down-side to Ubud is the persistent harassment by taxi touts, but i'm more than willing to put up with it. P.s - I feel I should explain that the photos of me wearing a sarong are nothing to do with a new lifestyle i've chosen, they are simply worn out of respect in the temples (Please believe me!).

... a massive island and it takes many hours to traverse) down the rivers and streams into the ocean, where the waves kick it up onshore Secondly, because it is the low and wet season, there is no effort to clean up the beaches until the rains subside and the tourists return. What you get is a phenomenally disappointing beach experience in what is tabbed one of the premier beach destinations in the world. Yuk. We called it an early night on our first night in Bali ...

... Boom Boom and it occurred pretty early on in our adventure - a 2m drop... Trev of course was giggling uncontrollably while Kate was being hurtled about the raft. For some reason, it was "pick on Shaunta day" (or "Big Boss" as the company personnel called me). The guides would throw water on my head shrieking "Monkey Pee!! Monkey Pee!!" I would shriek back, everyone would bust a gut laughing, and five minutes later they would do it ...

... khmer regime - just a tiny portion of those still in the field surrounding the area. On the lighter side of cambodia, the people were super friendly, and they have amazing croissants for breakfast! And so onto 'Nam! Went straight to Saigon, which is a crazy busy city - we took a motorbike ride of death and even our 'experienced' drivers were screaming which was pretty worrying! decided to rely on the good old legs after that - not ours but the grandad aged dudes peddling us around ...

... The beach in Kuta is beautiful but far to crowded, the surf is crowded too, looks pretty precarious surfing on this beach, saw a few big collisions, ouch! Kuta is completely tourist driven, every shop is targeted at the holiday makers, can't really see anything remotely related to Indonesian culture here. I've decided to leave tomorrow, don't really want to stay in Kuta longer than I have too. I can completely ...

... football is on. It is actually Perth playing and the pub is full of Australians. They call THIS football??? What part of 'foot' did they miss? They touch the ball. They run around with the ball IN THEIR ARMS. Tsssssssssssssssssssss. We stop at an Irish Pub for dinner. Or better: the Irish pub. The food and the ambience are very good. The screaming children much less. On top of that, I lose at cards, twice: very frustrated! When I try to extend our hotel with 2 nights ...

...I guess I'm getting onto local time. =) Which is really unmeasured. On Sunday night there was a big fair type thing in the main soccer field here in Ubud. Apparently the Governor was giving a big party to thank everyone for his re-election. There was free food, and a couple Gamalan Orchestras and even fireworks. I went and enjoyed the scene and felt right back at home as if I was in New York City. I hadn't realized how quiet Ubud was ...

... was brought to us by five squirrels. They started out by just running from tree to tree. They got more courageous after a while, and started running around among the sunchairs, to much amusement of the sunbathing tourists, who started feeding them peanuts. The squirrels became more and more courageous. One lady who had fun throwing nuts to them, eventually ran out of excessive food, so she went back to ...

... Any feeling of well being soon evaporated upon arrival at the Garuda transfer desk where the check in woman happily informed us that our flight from Singapore to Bali had been cancelled and we were being routed via Jakarta (not too much of a problem) but wouldn't arrive in Bali until 3am (aarrgghhh!). By way of compensation we were given a 'meal voucher' which turned out to be for 100baht (US$2.50) at KFC (empty because of the chicken flu!), I was happy with my 'Fillet ...