The Royal Pita Maha Ubud

... etc.

First, we had to follow him another 5km around the lake or so to the village where the boat left from. What a road!! We went up and down some very steep and sharp bends. At one point, the car seemed as thought it wouldn’t make it up the hill. I had visions of having to get out and walk up the hill, carrying the carton of water bottles that that we had in the car!

When we arrived at the village, our villager friend ditched us ...

... to a "beautiful waterfall" which to be honest wasn't very impressive in comparison with what I saw (and rappelled down) in Vietnam. Whitney said that there are more impressive waterfalls literally minutes from her house in Oregon than this one. The only way to reach the waterfall was to climb down a large number of stairs, building the anticipation for a gorgeous view. Needless to say, the day was off to a disappointing start. Next, we arrived in Lavina at 2 p.m. after a ...

... 50,000 rupiah ($5 each) to get in.

This Botanical Garden is quite different than any that I have ever been to. For one thing, it didn't need any greenhouses since it's already in the tropics and it is built into a ravine alongside a short strip of wild jungle that is nestled between brand new villas and rice paddies. There were a myriad of strange flowers, fern trees, and bamboo which put me in awe. It was a great way to get ourselves back into the rhythm of ...

... we were all tired and just wanted to sit/sleep in silence, which must have seemed very rude, but we did explain we'd been up most of the night. He did warn us about the ladyboys, advice which would have been too late anyway. He told us that the clubs were full of ladyboys. He advised us that you should, if dancing with any SE Asian 'girl', to grab down below hard at their genitals. You'll find out soon enough which sex they are [Andy: Sadly a ...

... of time for my yoga practice and have been really getting into the dance community here, with 'classes' offered at The Yoga Barn, the main yoga studio here in Ubud. One is called 'Ecstatic Dance' and on Sunday mornings a bunch of us get together with music and just move! The other is 'Contact Improv' and it involves connecting through movement and dance in contact with others. In some ways it can ...

... wandering town and having a nightcap drink at Mama's German Restaurant. On Tuesday, the 2nd of December we booked a two day, one night trip to Nusa Dua, a small town at the southern tip of Bali. We arrived here and immediately began our watersports we had signed up for with Wanaka Ocean Company. We took a glass bottom boat out to snorkel where Jamie and Stacy fed the lively fish of Bali. (Lauren wasn't feeling up to par for snorkeling due to the attack of ...

Dr. Sanjni Thadhani of The Thandhani Foundation who was born in India and now lives in New York and was a delegate to the Asian Pacific Microcredit Summit had arranged for a car and driver and was kind enough to invite Dr. Kulkarni and I to go along with her on an all day tour of Bali. We ...

... 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 ...

... to out-lying islands thus putting them in direct conflict with indigenous ethnic communities. These displaced people began claiming forested lands to support their farming activities thus resulting in slash-and-burn type of activity. Suharto then proceeded to set in motion the Million Hectare Rice Project in central Kalimantan, going against all the scientific evidence that said that rice would not grow on swampy lands. The project was an abject ...