The Grand Bali - Nusa Dua

... one particular trio which we got to know quite well was a Chilean guy and two Germans who were living/working in Sydney but had come to Kuta for their Ibiza experience! This may sound like an odd statement until one realizes that the flight time from Perth to Bali is only about 4 hours so its pretty much the closest they can come to going to Ibiza on this side of the world...especially when you see the nightlife which we did that night! After a cheap dinner (Padang 'cafes ...

... sun was rising, and it was spectacular! On a balcony overlooking two active volcanoes, we practiced 90 minutes of Vinyasa. It was definitely worth the early wake-up. After our yoga practice, we got a little daring and starting doing some fun stuff on the ledge. FYI - by "a little daring", I mean totally nuts, we could have easily died at any moment if we lost our balances. I was keeping it relatively safe by just doing tree, but some people were doing ...

... we returned back to our phenomenal hotel and showered up for the evening - Saturday night in Bali. Cruising Kelly's Turf We cheated as our travel through this part of Indonesia was assisted. My family friend for years, Kelly Greenwell, spent a large part of her life out here in Bali, Lombok and Gili Air. I remembered that this was her home turf and received a Lonely Planet: Kelly Edition full of recommendations over email. She suggested we stay at the Sari ...

Hm, where to start... Well, Bali is not what I have expected to find on this island. I stayed in Kuta. This place is very touristic. There are a couple of Starbucks cafes, Mc Donalds restos and Pizza Huts :) But you will find a lot of local restaurants as well. There are stalls everywhere trying to sell you anything... The beach is quiet nice. There are a lot of ppl who ...

... awesome to watch! Gaz got some epic waves at uluwatu and dreamlands (for those of you in the know) and I got some great pics. So that brings us finally (thank god as it's hotter in here that is legal), to Nusa lembongan, off the coast of Bali. It is a little bit of heaven, with 'epic, speedy heavy rights' (according to Gaz) and to top it all off today we went diving and saw 3 Mola mola (sun fish) within 20minutes of each other, all so close you could touch them - it was like ...

... at 9 AM and finished at 7 PM. The cost for each of us was $15 and included all entry fees, lunch, tea, driver and car. The tour included: The Mandala Wisata Wenara Wana Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary Lunch in Pura Besakih Gunung Batar Volcano and Lake Sunset Pura Uluwatu Temple on the ...

... enrolled on a cooking course. We spent the day being taught how to make various traditional Balinese dishes, all of which contained a LOT of chilli! Luckily our spice tolerance is better than when we left the UK otherwise it would have been a difficult day! After cooking and sampling what seemed like a 10 course meal we waddled back to our room for a rest! We got to keep our aprons and a recipe book so will definitely be trying out some of them when we get home. That night we ...

... and around my ear with it. Then another took some hot wet leaves that were soaking in something that smelled floral and spicy, and put them on my cheeks and under my ears. Finally, another came with a leaf rolled into a funnel and blew some hot smoke into my ears. After another cup of the orange turmeric tea, and some little seeds that Wyan gave me to swallow, we sat there for a while (2 hours all together) and she rubbed my neck and ...

... of the larger resorts in Nusa Dua. Ellie's had a nicer home flavor to the place. We end up chartering a driver to head up to the volcano and lake. Also check out stonecarvings and local Balinese paintings, before calling it a day. Breath is taken away by the view of Mt. Agung. The drive from Nusa Dua to Mt. Agung is almost 2 hours.

... surviving) Chicks Most of Kish's friends are in the hospitality industry (not suprisingly given Bali's primary source of income) and we therefore spent most evenings in the company of Roberto, manager of 'Macaroni' or David manager of 'Pappas' needless to say we enjoyed delicious Italian food most nights! There was also a good deal of beer drinking and dancing, things we are definitely out of practice at. Towards the end of the week we decided that we had better leave the ...