Dewi Sri Bungalows Ubud

... as at breakfast I blog and check e-mail, and Gary did research on the best places to eat and see as we want to make good use of our time. Gary calls Ubud the Roseville of Bali as there are tons of shops and resteraunts everywhere. On one section of the street you would swear it was Carmel as the shops were quite and eclectic, everything but the sidewalks which are very uneven and in places are missing or ...

... we finally did make it to the mountain, all of our police-dodging became well worth it (it almost became a sort of game for us, turning down side roads and quickly parking our motorbikes on the shoulder to avoid getting another license lecture) for the spectacular view of the Gunung Batur (volcano) with Danau Batur lake nestled beside it. Danau Batur is the largest lake in Bali, home of Dewi Danu (goddess of the Crater Lake) and is sacred to the Balinese ...

... around two tambourines and smashing you on each side of head in no apparent rhythm… See the video clip and make your own mind up One day we woke early and went down to the Monkey shrine forest. Pretty place with shrines, forest and plenty of monkeys. There are Beware the monkey signs and the reasons why all over the place in every language…. Many tourists pay no attention and herein lay the humor…. It should be noted ...

... seemed like a dreadful hour. But yes, the boat did arrive and bring us to safety! Nothing bad happened, but nothing good happened either. All I can say is that I tried it and I did it. I would never go back with that company and I hope I never have to dive off of a canoe again. And I know that I don't have to bring Gabriel to that reef since nothing was worth seeing. I was just glad to come back to my hotel, shower, put on clean bed clothes, eat a warm dinner, and climb into bed.

... we took a snorkelling trip with one of the guys that works at our hotel (Wayan). He took us to a Japanese ship wreck just off the coast in a village not too far from Amed (maybe a ½ hour boat ride). It was brilliant! The wreck had turned into an artificial coral and was teeming with life. Erin and I were both in agreement that this was the best snorkelling we'd done to date. I've never seen so many fish and so many different ...

... mountains....our other team members were from south africa and one was a pilot and the other was a artist and they were there with there parents. We stopped off first at a plantation which had allsorts...coffee plants, chillis, cocoa, pinapples, lemongrass, peppers, cinnamon....loads. This was family run area and the guy was like willy wonka ( the jonny depp version...so was really funny and had a strange laugh which was almsot the same), they had a monkey, a puppy and ...

... The ship sat on the beach until the 1963 eruption of Gunung Agung broke it is two and left it just off the shoreline, to the delight of the divers. We dove the Thistlegorm in Egypt, which is also a sunken ship from the 2nd world war (nr 3 on our top 100 list, nr 1 on ours). But this is whole other cattle of fish. In the Liberty there is nothing left inside: you cannot even penetrate it. Why is it nr 11, then? Well, we will see, we hope ...

... it. I checked in and it was a far cry from any bali hospitality i had so far. Still, it had a certain something...and i was looking forward to a little bit of music and some people around. I had dinner at the hotel and headed to "center stage" where a very good rock band was playing. I was able to order a martini...and then spent several hours chatting with some locals sitting at my table. finally, being too tired to continue even though Kuta had a ...