Benidorm..... sorry I mean Kuta

So after the days of whiling away the hours on a Crusoe-esque tropical island, really feeling relaxed, two things happened to blow that feeling away. Firstly we were battered from pillar to post aboard HMS Fawlty Towers and then landed, ingloriously, into the pit of Aussie hell.

One thing that has ingratiated us both whilst being in Bali was the neccessity for all overweight and predominantly Australian blokes to wear Bintang vests. Bintang being the famous local beer. It serves both the wearer and indeed the watcher, to convulse in a way in which you've just smelt say, raw sewage. I'm unsure if they do it to pledge allegience to wanting to look both stupid and Australian, or indeed both, but they look absolutely rediculous. Not only that, but if one of the family wears one, again predominantly the dominant male (dad), then sheila (mum) will don a pink one and then the little scrotes (children) will don vest-ettes. Just to add misery/laughter (delete appropriately), to anyone foolish enough to approach the herd.

Kuta itself is anything but the image you have of Bali in your head. Warned multiple times by websites, guidebooks and fellow travellers with tales of monolithic creatures of the deep appearing in the surf shops, we had to check it out for ourselves. After being plonked outside the terrorist bombing memorial (Kuta was bombed twice in 2002 and 2005) by the shuttle bus from Padangbai, we escaped down one of the motorbike infested alleys, called gangs here, and went in search of decently priced lodgings. After doing the circuit and haggling till the sun came down, literally, we stumpled upon a place called Ayu Cottages and went inside to haggle away with the proprieter. The place was nothing spectacular but due to being a 'lovely couple', (he told us this!), we got a relatively good deal on a room with air con for our last two nights in Bali, despite the smell of gasoline coming through the air conditioning unit and the mental French guys directly next door who spent the whole night smashing a polystyrene box.

We did have time once we had got used to being in a loud place again, to get out and catch a glimpse of the sunset down on Kuta beach with an ice cold Bintang. Kuta beach itself, despite the chaos behind you, is actually a pearler of a beach. 12kms of sand and frenetic surf makes you realise what all the fuss is about. Which is why waking the next morning we decided to make the most of our last 'day in the sun' for a while and spend our day tucked away on some corner of the beach. We had a great day. Innterspersed by me being whacked by mammoth waves and popping into the amazingly cold air-conditioned mall that is placed, bizzarely, on the beach. We also, like every other place we went to in Bali, got pestered by sellers about once every 2 and a half minutes. They never give up and try to sell you anything from sarongs, ice-creams to errr, harpoon guns! One woman got very close though, circling us for a few seconds she then started to touch my face and tickle shell's feet before quickly getting out her tweezers and making quick work in pulling ALL of the hairs out of my ears. The woman was literally insane. She even told me I looked like a monkey. Cheeky bugger.

In the afternoon, sat in the heat of the mid-afternoon sun, we started to summarise our time in Bali. I'm glad it's my turn to write as I get to conclude our time here:

Let's get one thing absolutely clear, the place has been amazing. Never before, despite the appaling southern traffic, the constant bombardment of sellers and the irritating dogs, has a place been so unbelievably friendly. Given the choking traffic chaos, the amount of people essentially selling the same thing and the obvious over reliance on the tourist dollar, the people are amazing. Not once in three weeks did we see even one person even get slightly angry. Something which living in the UK, is hard to imagine. Anyway, here is our joint quick summary of each place we visited:

Sanur-If goldilocks had three bowls of porridge, this would be the middle one. Relatively bland but a great beach and some good restaurants.

Ubud-Cultural, peaceful, bohemian and infested with rabid dogs!

Lovina-Quiet, cheap and laid-back (perfect).

Padangbai-Scruffy port town with confused bus loads of teenagers en route from Kuta wondering why they are in a hot Dover.

Gili Trawangan- bloody paradise that in about 10 years will be manicured, concreted and sold to huge resorts. For now, with horse and carts being the only means of transport....bliss.

Kuta-If your an 18 year old backpacker or your nickname is Gonk and your from Brisbane then this is your heaven.

We loved every second.

Anyway we are off to Singapore now before flying onto Hong Kong.
Tommo xxxx

Chilling on Gili T....

So after the excitement of my birthday we still had another 2 days of fun ahead of us on the beautiful island of Gili T. We decided to make the most of the warm sunny weather and spend our days lazing on the beach in an attempt to top up our tans. It's a hard life!
Having splurged our money for my birthday, we had to keep spending to a minimum for the next few days and kept our eyes open for cheap places to eat. What a mistake! We ended up with grey vegetable soup and stale bread for our lunch and fatty chicken satay sticks with rice from a night market stall. All in all pretty nasty and not enjoyable in the slightest. What we lacked in food we made up for in Bintangs and biscuits, classic stuff hey!
The following day, lessons learnt and ready to enjoy our final day, we set off to the beach and hired some snorkelling masks and fins. I can honestly say I think that it was the best £4 we have spent so far on our trip, snorkelling is amazing! I can't believe that we've never done it before. Tom was straight in with his snorkel and fins to suss out the best places. He was gone for ages and came back with a huge grin on his face, deperate to take me in and show me. It took me a while to get used to using the snorkel, I was not a natural by any means! I mean really, having a mask squished tight to your face and clamping your mouth around a piece of plastic that hundreds of people have used took me a while to get past. You can imagine how frustrated Tom got with my cleanliness issues! Anyway, once in the water and able to breathe with the snorkel thing without freaking out, we had an amazing time. The water was crystal clear and filled with schools of fish of every colour possible. I wish we had had an underwater camera to use to show you what we could see. I'm not a fish expert so I can't tell you exactly the fish we saw but I recognised lots of them from Finding Nemo! Seriously though, we did see squids, lobsters and huge schools of bright blue fish that swam right beneath us. Truly awesome!
So after a hard day snorkelling we took some time to chill out on the beach. Suddenly we were surrounded by a group of Lombok school children asking us to sign their exercise books and have photos taken with us - fame at last! They were full of questions for us too asking where we were from and why we had come to Lombok. Soon their teacher appeared, honestly the most laid back person I have ever met! It turns out that he and three other teachers had brought 100 of their students to the Gilis to meet the tourists (that's 4 teachers to 100 children!!) He was loving using every cheesy English turn of phrase at the end of every sentence he spoke. For every phrase he used (eg. 'sound as a pound brother') he high fived Tom as a seal of approval. Good God! Aside from this, he was a lovely guy and we agreed to meet him the next day to talk to the rest of the children so that they could practice their English and meet people from England. The kids were really sweet and bombarded us with questions and flashes from their cameras. The boys spoke to Tom about their favourite football teams (they are obsessed with the Premier League) and even told him that he looked like David Beckham! The girls chatted to me about their favourite music, films and books. They loved looking through the books that we had in our bags from the beach, especially our Lonely Planet guide for Bali and Lombok. We left with promises of a personal tour around their school in Materam and the area should we ever go back to Lombok.
For our last evening on the island we had one final splurge and ate at a seafood barbeque. They had a huge bbq outside the restaurant with a huge fish counter where you could select the food you wanted and then watch it being cooked! You could then choose from an amazing salad bar and fill your boots basically. Tom was in his element, as usual when it comes to food! We ate red snapper and a seafood kebab, which totally made up for the dodgy food we had the previous day (thank god!)
Sadly, we had to leave the following day and I honestly can't put into words how truly horrific our boat crossing was back to the mainland, other than I thought we were going to die! I never in my life want to be on a boat that gets pummelled from all sides by huge waves so that it almost tips over. Or have the sea disappear completely from beneath the boat so it hangs in mid air, then crashes down so hard that it almost gives you whiplash. Do you get the idea? Add to that the fact that a similar boat (all be it a much smaller boat but still) capsized a few days before in bad weather, killing many of its passengers, then you might just get my mindset during this trip. We were both sweaty messes by the time we got off the boat and heaved oursleves up onto dry land in Padang bai. Who would've thought we would be so pleased to be back there?! No sooner had we stepped off the boat, we were then ushered into a mini bus and set off to the Benidorm of the island, Kuta, for our last 2 days in Bali. How much more excitement can we squeeze into 2 days?
Lots of love Shell xxx

Welcome to paradise...

At last we have reached the promised land! Although we were stuck in Padangbai for three days in the end. After originally planning to leave for the Gili Islands on Tuesday it wasn't until Thursday that we were allowed to leave after extreme swells in the Strait of Lombok had caused even the health and safety unaware Balinese to cancel all travel. Apparantly the aforementioned Strait is one of the deepest stretches of water in the world and although it only measures around 25 miles across, it is actually the official dividing line between Asia and Australasia. Due to it's depth it can create some monstrous waves, on these particular days of about seven metres! On the Wednesday we even boarded the boat and powered on up around the south-east corner of Bali up until we saw around ten fastboats coming towards us. The captain switched off the engines then told us we would be going back to Padangbai 'to rest', we arrived back having been on the water for forty minutes and felt dishearted to be back yet again, in a place we didn't want to be. Shell even heard some Aussie surfer dudes talking about the swells lasting for three days. Things didn't look promising.
Back on dry land we made a decision to book another night in the room we had as although it was incredibly noisy it was, more importantly, clean and cheap (around 130,000 rupiah-9 pounds). We were told that if we stick around for a day there may be a chance that the boat would be leaving tomorrow, however small that chance may be. Although we decided that we woud wait we also checked out the slow ferry that leaves from the same port. An altogether different proposition by the standards of the fast boat we paid for (72,000, one way to South Lombok, rather than 1.2 million for both of us to go return on the fastboat! £85) it was a scruffier side to the port than we imagined. Lots of bleary eyed lorry drivers and a hell of a lot of noise and disorganisation. It would be a real challenge to get to the Gili islands this way if this is what we had to do tomorrow if the fast boats were cancelled again. The ferry itself takes six hours instead of one and goes to a port called Lembar, in south Lombok (the Gili's are in the north-east). You would then have to find a means of transport from Lembar to Sengiggi, the main coastal town and then again onto Bangsal, the main connecting port to the Gili's. After arrviving there we would have to wait for a boat that doesn't even think about leaving until every last seat has been filled. Bangsal itself is apparently a bit of a horrific place to be too. So...faced with the grim prospect of an epic if not interesting journey, we hoped and prayed that tomorrow would bring inclement conditions. It did.
Although at first we were adament that the same things would happen that had happened the previous day, the boat did in fact keep on going. Preparing ourselves for the worst though (in more ways than one!) we kept quiet and gripped on for dear life. At the halfway point the water stopped being choppy and started being extremely rough, pumelling the bow of the boat every few seconds, I hung on as if I were flying. But after a journey that seemed to get progressively worse the closer we got to the Gili's we managed to get there in one piece, even though the seas all around the islands looked, and sounded, like a hurricane had hit them. On dry land I left Shell with the bags once more and went in search of hotel that wouldn't break the bank but would be slightly better than some of our most recent rooms, as it was Shell's birthday the following day. After spending an hour and looking in so many rooms and bungalows that they all merged into one I decided that I would make the walk back to Shell and haggle with the owner of the bar we sat at to try and get one of their rooms as they looked really nice, really big and airy. In the end, after a tense round of negotiations managed to get him down from his starting price of 450,000 rupiah per night to a slightly more affordable 250,000, with air con and private outside shower area, beautiful. The only downside was the location right in the middle of 'party zone', a fact made even clearer that night when we got back shattered at half nine to be met by Dance Anthems 98 in all it's glory. You were even waiting for Judge Jules to break in and say 'Come on kids, you've gone Pete Tong!'. In the end we shoved our ear plugs in and went to sleep. Rock and roll.
So to Shell's birthday, we woke early and went for breakfast, free with the room, and munched on eggs and fruit. Once finished we headed to the beach, a beach so sublime that it wouldn't look out of place on any Bounty advert or indeed, Wish You Where Here, I have the theme tune in my head this morning. However, we were stupid in more sense than one today. Firstly, we had run out of suncream, and in place like this it cost at least ten pounds for a tiny bottle. Secondly, we had used the suncream that we had left, designed for faces, for the rest of our body. Thirdly, we stayed in the sun pretty much all day, forgetting in the process just how strong this equatorial sun can get. The result, unfortunately, was two people with horrific sunburn. In the end I went to buy said expensive suncream so due to our stupidity and fear of blowing budgets we ended up with two sunburnt carcasses and a small pot of, seemingly, liquid gold.
Despite this Shell had a great day. We ate some fantastic food, spent the day on the powdery white beach and frolicked in the warm sea. We also spoke about the previous night's sunset. Something so spectacular, I think we would struggle to find something equally beautiful anywhere else. As the sun set on the sea, out of nowhere Bali's tallest volcano, Mount Agung, appeared as the sun dipped behind it in almost perfect unison. What a beautiful place this can be. Much love, Tommo xx
p.s, we are having trouble finding anywhere fast enough to put the photos on at the moment but we will try and get them on before or during our stay in Hong Kong, only four days away!

The dirty south...

Although Shell's blog entry was as insightful as ever I don't think anyone could do justice in writing just how bad I felt on Monday morning. After eating what I thought was a very tasty, if not mouth-numbingly hot Beef Rendang, I knew almost immediately that something sinister was afoot. As a trio of young Balinese dancers started to dance at the front of the restuarant three figures became six and then nine. I was seeing triple! I then started to sweat and felt as if my brain wanted to cease it's position of being inside my skull. We paid quickly and ran back to the hotel where somehow I managed to sleep until five in the morning when I woke with the feeling of absolute death in my stomach. It is safe to say that at some point on Monday morning, and this is without being melodramatic I swear, I thought I was having a heart attack, I thought the buggers had poisoned me.

Anyway our plans to travel to Padangbai had to be revised and the poor old cleaner had to swiftly change my sick buckets every now and again. On the plus side the great haggling deal I got with the taxi driver still stood for Tuesday so at 12 the following day we got picked up from the hotel for our long journey around the coast to Padangbai, through some of the most remote parts of the island. The driver we had was another good bloke, they are all good blokes, who smoked incessantly and stopped every now and again to tell me to get out and 'take photo'. He wanted nothing in return, could you imagine an Aquacab driver pulling up outside say, Canoe Lake, and demanding you take a photo before driving on? They truly are a remarkable people.

So before arriving in Padangbai I was kind of hopeful of a bit of a travellers rest, a place where that timeless backpacker vibe lingers in the air and in some parts this is true. In reality though it is like a scaled down, tropical version of Dover. The people seem that little but more unfriendly, the sales patter stops being 'would you like' and starts being 'you want' and even more hawkish than ever and the beach, although asthetically lovely, is actually very dirty. Still, a few nice places can be found. One, a place called Topis Inn, is your atypical backpacker, alternative lifestyle cafe. It even had a 'travellers' book where you could jot down any tips or what you have been upto. I wrote a page. Should Southsea suddenly have a splurge of 'travellers' sometime soon, that would be my description of a place that is definitely the next Bangkok.

So to tomorrow and our over-priced ride across the waves to the Gili Islands, apparently a place so stunning that dolphins cry. It is also a partying mecca where 'shroom' milkshakes are the norm. May have to teach these kids how to party.

Disclaimer-we won't be partaking in any narcotical fix, the Bintangs are strong enough. And drug use carries the death sentence in Indonesia. That would be inconvenient.

Tommo xx

In Love with Lovina...

So four days on and we are still loving our time in Lovina. The beaches are beautiful, the people are friendly, the food AND beer are cheap - why would we want to leave? Our accommodation is cheap and pretty basic and comes free with geckko poo on your sheets (we think they're living in the thatched roof!) There is also a huge pool which is a bonus as the beach is a no go area in the day because the black sand gets much too hot. We have spent most of our time relaxing by the pool and trying to outdo each other swimming lengths - Tom is winning at the minute, he is far more of a water baby than I am!

Yesterday, we went out on a traditional boat dolphin watching. It was such a fantastic experience! We met the captain of the boat at 6am down on the beach and helped him push the boat out into the sea before jumping in. Safety doesn't seem high on their agenda here so we had no life jackets, just a small wooden boat and our hands to cling onto the side! We sailed out for about 20 minutes and as we did so, we were able to see the sun rise from behind the mountains. It was worth the money we paid just to see that. Now the reliable Lonely Planet guide warns that dolphins are not always spotted so we tried not to get our hopes up - but we were in luck. Never in my life did I expect to see as many dolphins as we saw in our two hours on the boat and they were so close, swimming and jumping out of the water. It was truly amazing! They were much too quick for my camera and I ended up with beautiful photos of the sea but nothing else. Tom managed to take some video footage of them which hopefully shows you just how many and how close they were.

Having made it back on dry land, we went in search of breakfast, as the breakfast at our hotel consists of 2 pieces of toast and some very watery coffee - yum! We then made our way back to the pool to enjoy the early morning sun and met a couple from New Zealand who had just arrived. They were really friendly, which makes a change from the other guests here! We sat around the pool chatting and they gave us lots of tips and advice for when we travel to New Zealand. They've even given us their number and email so we can look them up when we get there - lovely people.

After having a mid afternoon nap (I could get used to these!) we headed down to the beach to see the sunset and dodge the evening traders with 'special sunrise prices'. We got talking to one local man who lived up in the mountains. He was selling necklaces that his family make from sea shells and coconut shells. They were beautiful and he told us the hiistory behind each and what each of the colours meant. Such a lovely man and we felt bad haggling the price of the necklace but we really wanted to buy from him. The necklace will give us protection according to this man, can't be a bad thing when travelling the world and being so far away from home.

We then went in search of food and found a restaurant which had live traditional dancing. The children dancing were so cute and looked so colourful in their traditional dress. There is more dancing on the beach tonight as a welcome for some round the world sailors, so hopefully we can see the adults and children dancing together. Tom decided in the restaurant that he wanted some 'hot' food to eat so ordered a beef rendang whilst I stayed in my comfort zone and ordered a chicken satay (the hot here is really hot). Needless to say, Tom found his curry pretty hot and but as soon as he had finished began sweating and having double vision - quite worrying!! So we had to pay pretty quickly and head back to our room. Tom has not had a great night and has spent most of it on the toilet with his head over the bin - a classic 'Bali belly' travellers diarrhoea/food poisoning if ever you've seen it! So Tom is still in bed whilst I'm sitting in the sun writing up our exploits for you all to keep you all up to date! He is feeling slightly better now by the way in case you're worrying, all thanks to some antibiotics and rehydration sachets all should be fine!!

Tomorrow we are heading down the coast to a place called Padang bai. It's another seaside town and is the main ferry port between Bali and Lombok. We would like to head over to some islands before Lombok called The Gili Islands. There are 3 tiny tropical islands and are described in Lonely Planet as 'a vision of paradise'. Sounds like a perfect place to spend my birthday to me!! Shell xxxx

And so to the North.....

So after 4 days spent in Bali's cultural capital, we decided to head to the North coast of the island to the sleepy seaside town of Lovina. The cheapest mode of transport turned out to be a local shuttle bus, which the very helpful staff at Warsi Bungalows booked for us. It was advertised to take 3 hours, leaving at 11am and would take us across the hills and mountainous volcano areas down to the sea. We were really looking forward to a leisurely drive taking in the fantastic scenery - oh how wrong we were!! The journey began being squashed into a mini van with our bags and those of it's other passengers - 3 very loud French couples. Tom and I were sandwiched in between them all and as you can imagine Tom very quickly began to lose patience and pulled out his ipod and headphones to drown out the noise! I think at one point I could even see a vein bulging on the side of his forehead!! They didn't speak very good English so I resigned myself to trying to understand what they were all talking about (A level French was a very long time ago but I could still make out some of their conversation).

After about an hours driving, we stopped at a coffee plantation to admire the views and to taste the coffee - 'all free' he assured the bewildered looking passengers in the car. So we wandered through the plantation with the driver and found ourselves stood next to two cages which contained the infamous mongoose that creates very expensive coffee. It is fed coffee beans which it eats, ferments in its stomach and then poos out! The coffee beans are then collected, and ground down for drinking. Sound delightful stuff hey?! The poor things were very scrawny and had no water to drink. So thirsty were they that we watched one drink its own urine. One of the French guys that was with us had his water bottle so we filled up the containers. The driver continued to tell us that we could sample some of the coffee if we wanted down on the terrace - none of us took him up on his offer! However, we did try some amazing teas (ginger, coconut, lemongrass, vanilla). Tom put his haggling skills to good use and bought some ginger tea. Then we all piled back into the van to continue the journey.

As we approached the area surrounding Mount Batur, our van was stopped by the police demanding money from each of us to pass along the roads. At this, the van was filled with loud, angry French and English voices telling them we had already paid for our journey and we were not going to pay anymore. It turned out that one French couple were actually staying in the town near Mount Batur and for this reason they had to pay money to do so, the rest of us did not have to. This was met with cries of 'corrupt bastards' from who else but Tom and the French guy behind us reiterating this by repeating 'corruption' (say in a French accent) over and over again! So we dropped them off by Mount Batur, taking some amazing pictures from the van window, as we continued on towards Lovina. By this point we were 3 hours into our journey and were not even close to Lovina!

We continued on through the mountains for another VERY hot and sticky 2 hours before we eventually reached Lovina. The driver pulled off the main road into the driveway of a hotel and told us we could all find rooms here. However, this hotel was a fair distance from the main part of town and not where we wanted to stay at all. The driver refused to drive us anywhere else and out came our bags onto the floor as he parked up the van. After looking at the map, our only option was to walk back up to the main road and along it towards the centre. Not happy is an understatement! We made our way towards one of the guesthouses in our 'bible' (the Lonely Planet guide!!) and Tom went in to suss out availability and prices. It was too expensive so Tom set off on a mission to find somewhere whilst I slumped down in a heap with the bags. Ten minutes later Tom came back with a fab deal on somewhere to stay (some more good haggling was done!!) and a new friend in a local captain of a boat.

So after a fairly sticky nights sleep in our thatched bungalow, we've had a super lazy sunbathing day to try and start off some sort of tan! We've made it to Happy Hour, drunk some cheap Bintangs and eaten some more amazing food (a huge Indonesian sharing platter). I think we could get used to this!! Shell xx

Same, same but different...

So after another tasty concoction next door to 'Havanas' at a place recommended in the guidebook called 'Jus bar' of tuna sate and milkshakes, we rose at 6 in the morning the following day to be greeted by our eager taxi driver Wayan. Just as a side note, he could have only have been called any of three names as all Balinese boys are only ever called Wayan, Nyoman or Catuk, in respective order that they were born.

So off we went after quickly eating and slurping our next installment of fruit before our longish drive north to Goa Gajah and then onto Gunung Kari, a temple of Indiana Jones magnitude. First stop Goa Gajah and the driver had provided us with two incredibly fetching sarongs to wear as entering any sacred temple site without sarong would, apparently, be incredibly disrespectful. Although I did see around four French men wandering around in denim, but they are you know..French. The complex itself was quoted in the book as being 6,000 rupiah to get in but had miraculously catapulted to 15,000 rupiah which, although it had some discernible features, was a tad over-hyped. Although the remains of various spiritual figures were impressive they were only worth a half an hour visit before we dodged past the souvenir stands and now compulsory stray dogs and into the comfort of the Toyota mini-van, the only car the taxi drivers drive. It's all about economy apparently although they look like the automotive equivalent of corrective walking shoes...

Onto Gunung Kari and again passing through the fifty or so stalls selling essentially the same products- wood carvings, weak lemon drink, paintings of the devil, that sort of thing, we ventured down the two-hundred and seventy steps down into a spectacular cauldron of temples, fountains, incense, and statues. It basically looked like, if you are up on your Indiana Jones, the set for the Temple of Doom. Visually stunning it also smelt amazing. Basically a mixture of incense, wood smoke, humidity and fresh water. After three hours circling temples, pretty much all to ourselves due to the time it was time to head back to Ubud for the sanctity of a cafe and a chill out.

After a much needed rest bite back on the terrace of our homestay catching up on reading we woke the next morning early to get to our pre-booked Balinese cooking class. After we arrived and introduced ourselves and sat down we were then told to follow our chef, Catuk, to the market to snuff out the produce and introduce our tepid western pallet's to Balinese spice. The market was phenomenal, literally no space was wasted with something happening everywhere you looked. As we headed down into the lower level things became even more chaotic. After sharing his knowledge about some amazing produce we headed back to the school after about an hour to prep the spice paste, involving about thirty ingredients, that is so integral to everything the Balinese cook. The whole day was a blast, we learnt six dishes and shared our final product out after each with the other twelve students. We both went up in front of the class to both mix and plate food. I have definitely got the taste for my own show, imagine that! Shell conquered her own chicken demons in front of the class by hand marinading twenty chicken thighs with the spice mix. A great day's work.

Tomorrow we roll on up to Lovina on the north coast to hopefully try and work up a bit of a tan. As we are now entering the start of the low season we are hoping we can wangle some money off our hotel too. Ubud though, like a less aggressive but bigger version of Southsea or Brighton with it's eclectic mix of shops and people, we will miss. For the past few days it has supplied us with some amazing food and given us a much different feel for the island we are so quickly getting used to. Tommo xx

Where are we now??

more...

Keep double clicking to zoom in further, Friday we will be heading north to Lovina on the north coast to a village called Kalibukbuk. Check it out. Stay in touch xx

Eat, Pray and Ubud...

So after four good days getting to grips with the Balinese 'ways' we descended, thanks in kind to a stormer of a taxi driver (more of him later)into the chaos that was Ubud at 1pm in the afternoon. After dropping our bags off at the deserted and eerily quiet homestay (essentially a room in the grounds or building of a family home) Pondok Krishna, we veered back onto the main road and into Ubud. After the dual successes of being named Conde Naste Asian City of the year in 2010 and riding high from the Eat, Pray, Love explosion our expectations, much like anyone else turning up in Ubud for the first time, were to be initially dampened. Half expecting a small community of spiritual healers, backed up by a number of artistes, what you actually get, on first impressions, is a really crowded and sweltering hot Brighton or Camden. Initially put off by excessive and at times incessant exhaust fumes and traffic we decided that our mood probably wasn't being helped by our lack of food so being at the cross section of Monkey Forest Road and the main road we stumbled unexpectedly upon a really famous Warung (small, local restaurant). The Warung, called Ibu Oka, was apparently so eponymous that islanders say the suckling pig, is the tastiest on the island. It didn't disappoint. Shavings of lusciously moist and tender pork accompanied with spicy sausage more reminiscent of black pudding, deep fried tenderloin and most amazingly of all, the most amazing crackling you could ever possibly imagine. Apparently this has been a local favourite for over thirty years and by looking at the queues that had formed outside and then down at clear plates it wasn't hard to understand why. Although according to locals the prices have increased almost fivefold in recent years, the price was still only 80,000 rupiah for two massive banana leaves full of pork and beans and two soft drinks (about £5.80).

From our pork-tastic heaven, we headed south down Monkey Forest Road feeling calmer and more at peace with Ubud and we were rewarded almost instantly with something resembling the Ubud of your imagination. The road, similar in ways to Edinburgh's Royal Mile (in an Asian way), carries on for almost that distance whilst being peppered almost incessantly with boutique shops, local warungs, trendy restaurants and bohemian cafes building to a climax down towards the Monkey Forest. After agreeing we would return the next day we cut through a side roadand onto the road of our homestay through rice paddies and most depressingly of all, rubbish. It is a disturbing and depressing sight to see such a naturally beautiful land be abused in such a way. According to our driver, who I engaged in an animated debate about politics, the Indonesian government, based in Jakarta on the large island to the west, Java, demand extortianate taxes from the Balinese due to their obviously healthy tourist profits, but recieve inadequate services in return. Unfortunatly for Bali this means a greatly strained tourist economy without the infrastructure to support it, such as rubbish collection. Another major issue, the enormous number of transport touts, could also explained. The Balinese are incredibly spiritual people meaning that ceremonies and offerings play a central part to everyday life, upto 25% of their annual earnings can go on offerings alone. This coupled with three ceremonies per day means that holding down a stable job can prove incredibly difficult, especially as Bali becomes even more Western-centric in outlook. All of this means that jobs that used to be filled with local Balinese are now being filled with workers from the surrounding islands such as Lombok, Flores and Java who are predominantly Muslim. To survive, most Balinese men have no alternative but to turn to taxi-driving as their sole means of income. A fact made evident by the masses of men who constantly ask you whether you need 'transport' or 'taxi taxi boss', Shell seems to have the rebuttle sussed, they don't understand my 'no ta mate'.

Anyway, that night we ate at a place called Havanas, our first non-Balinese fare of the trip. The restuarant, top pick in the guide, was apparently reviewed in the New York Times quite recently. Although a tad expensive for our modest budget, we gorged on tapas of mini quesadillas, empinadas and spicy beef filled potato croquettes, all for 100,000 (about £6). On the way back we stopped for bintangs at a place called The Shisha Bar overlooking the famous football field. Whilst the live band played Fleetwood Mac and Lighthouse Family covers we watched three mental artists painting both impressionist and surrealist murals, Karl, well up your street. Clarky, if you ever read this, you would absolutely love this place.

In the morning, we rose early and sat outside. I again had an awful sleep, meaning I both felt and looked like a cross between Percy Sugden and Claude Greengrass. As we sat we felt increasingly confused about the set-up, essentially, would we get breakfast? Never one to be shy, I went in search of food and found a fridge that I thought was for the guests. As I rumaged through I was collered by the owner and kindly escorted out of the family kitchen and back to my area! Within five minutes he had returned though with fresh papaya smoothies, plates of lavish fruit and green banana pancakes. (He's still a strange bloke).

After breakfast we walked to the Monkey Forest where, for 40,000 rupiah between us, we could spend as much or as little time as we wanted being threatened by rabid macaque monkeys (everytime I say that I hear Alan Partridge). In the first ten minutes we saw a monkey wrestle a bottle from a bloke's hands then unscrew the lid, neck the lot then through the bottle away like a teenage rioter. Another went routing through a womans bag, found her sunscreen, then proceeded to eat the lot. Strange beings but Mr Darwin, I think your early theories are justified when comparing this with say, Commercial Road-Portsmouth on a Saturday afternoon....

From there we went to find cheaper lodgings and after three failed attempts found a cracking place called Warsi's bungalows, where I currently write from the porch overlooking the rice paddies, for 200,000 per night (£14). From there we dropped by Art Cafe where, and we are both in agreement, we had one of the nicest things we have eaten anywhere, not just in Bali. It was essentially a veggie burger but with an incredibly moist Butternut Squash and chickpea pattie, heaps of fresh salad and a dollop of thick garlicky houmous. Quite honestly, other-worldly. Also not a bad meal yet in seven days.

After lunch and suitably nourished we headed for Campuan Ridge, a walk in the guidebook that states 9km and slight climbs. In reality this would turn out to be 10k through Balinese country and villages, chased by stray dogs and onto deathly main roads. But, alas, we survived, and were rewarded with the most stunning place I have ever had a beer. A place on top of the ridge, in a hut propped above water, overlooking rice paddies. Bliss. And after writing for a good hour now I must stop but this is such a beautiful spot, you can understand why people book a couple of nights and end up staying for a year. We may linger.... Tommo xx

Horizontally challenged!

After two days spent 'acclimatising' two doors down at the relatively sulubrious Puri Sading we have now spent the past two days, three doors down at a place called Flashbacks. Despite the name conjouring up images of Vietnam War Vets lounging on armchairs the place is immaculate, (all for 265,000 rupiah-£18 per night). In all honestly, despite it only being four days into our trip, I have not felt as chilled as I do right now for six years. The last time being sat on a sun lounger in lushly green surroundings in Greece. Yesterday was spent turfing our increasingly heavy rucksacks the distance of about six Mini Cooper's to our current residence, the aforementioned Flashback's then lounging around the plunge pool (see photos above) and then making our way down to the shopping fortress that is Hardy's, a place so bustling with cack it would not feel out of place on a wet weekend in Skegness. We went with the intention of buying a plug adapter, since the one we brought with us is as much use as our Mosquito net, another dud. What we didn't realise, and were rightly castigated for, was that to buy anything electrical we would have to inform one of the thousand employees so that they could write you out a piece of paper quoting your intention to buy said product. Once you had peroused the other multitude of items in the store, cheese donuts, chocolate made from bark-that sort of thing, you then paid at the checkout where the checkout girl shouted something about electrics and one of the employees came rushing over with our plug. A rather strange if not laborious process?! I also, after searching through what was essentially a mountain of clothing items, bought a pair of swimming shorts that after inspection back at the hotel, could actually stand up on their own.

Last night we ate at by far the best restaurent we have eaten in and it goes by the name of Swastika Restaurent. That's right people, Swastika's, but not a fascist in sight. In contrary the food was unbelievable, basic chicken sate taken to the next level gently simmering on the table straddled across hot coals. I opted for the Barbecued chicken 'Balinese style', a delicious plate full of Chicken thighs devoid of bone and a plate full of semi-hot, garlicky sauce to pour atop. We shall be going again tonight.

Today started off slowly, after a terrible night's sleep and feeling let down by the fact that I couldn't watch Match of the Day this morning via the Beeb's website due it not being available to resident's outside of the UK. We then ate our free breakfast of delicious homebaked bread topped with fresh tomato and freshly brewed coffee and then followed that by walking down to the beach area for a walk. What started as a stroll turned into a three hour amble due-south through some of the nicest sets of villa's and resorts you could imagine. Passing through the hoards of sellers who can all still remember our names and relationship status we reached prime 'honeymooners' territory and wasted no time in lapping up the manicured beaches and photo opportunities. From there we dodged the rabid dogs and made our way back to the hotel to collect our bags and mangoes to return to the beach for a bit of beach action. Despite the constant threats of invading rabies we had our first proper beach session under the midday sun. It was also the first time we acknowledged how lucky we are to live this lifestyle, it is bliss. From the beach we headed back to the plunge pool for bintangs and to email as many Ubud homestays as possible in preperation to learn how to cook Balinese-style and dance like a bit of a twat. Ubud tomorrow! Much love, Tommmmmmo (thanks Claire!) xx

1st day in Sanur

So here we are, in Bali! I can't believe that we're actually here and enjoying some sunshine at last. We've had a fantastic first day starting with an amazing breakfast, which turned out to be included in our room price, which was a bonus when we went to pay (must read the hotel details properly!) So we set off in search of the white sandy beach and we were not disappointed, it was beautiful! Warm sea, blue sky and colourful boats bobbing around. We soon attracted lots of attention from the locals, especially one lady called Maxine who loved my 'beautiful white skin'! We were followed along the beach by everyone wanting to sell us something, drive us somewhere or give us a massage. They all wanted to know whereabouts in England we were from and it seems that they are only interested if you live near Manchester (they are all obsessed with Man U!)

We managed to find our way back from the beach but only after admiring the amazing luxury hotel resorts along the beachfront (our budget will totally not stretch to anything remotely like that!) We decided to spend the rest of the day enjoying the sunshine and making the most of using the hotel's pool, which we had all to ourselves - bliss! It's such a shame that we have to leave this hotel tomorrow but have found a fab hostel called Flashbacks to stay in for the next 2 nights and we don't have to carry our bags too far, which is a bonus! It's also cheaper to stay in which means there will be more money in the budget for some ice cold Bintangs (a beer which I actually like :) and some more awesome indonesian food! We tried the infamous Nasi Goreng for lunch today and it was yummy.

So after a super lazy day, we're now off to the beachfront to find somewhere to eat and chill out to the sounds of Bob Marley with an ice cold Bintang. I just don't know how we're going to cope for 10 months!! Shell xxxx

Salam from Sanur!

Believing is definitely something we needed to do when planning and saving for this trip and for the moment at least, things are mightily sweet. After the constantly draining rounds of goodbyes before we set off on Wednesday the flight itself seemed to stir up memories of flights when I was a child. Gone were the constant flashes of explosions in the sky and impending doom to be replaced by surges of excitement for the months ahead, that and a valium induced haze which certainly took the edge of things! Qantas were amazing though, amazing food (roast shoulder of lamb served with fresh veg and new potatoes and a breakfast of scrambled eggs, toasted muffin, bacon and real stewed beans), constant snacks (twix ice-cream, fruit, cookies) and the unbelievable array of entertainment. In fact one of the options you could choose was to watch footage of the flight from the perspective of the tail, bearing in mind this was a huge double-decker it was seriously impressive, especially when you could almost shout at the pilot to tell him to straighten up as he came in to land at Singapore.

After deliriously wondering around Singapore airport for an hour or two it was time for flight #2 over to Bali. Now the safety briefings at the best of times at the start of a flight are nowadays rarely listened to but this was incredible. The plane, from the moment they sat down, was the loudest most raucous gathering of people I have ever heard. It was as if a massive fox had been let loose in an Indonesian Chicken pen, rendering the safety announcement, quite predictably, useless. Still the in flight meal option of what was essentially a large 'chocolate' bomb gave the whole thingh yet more surrealism to soften the blow of being surrounded by hens, one of them quite literally.

So we landed, got through 'customs', (small men with sticks) and got a taxi with Indonesia's own version of Paul Daniels, with a speech impediment. He seemed to say every third word as if had lost his bottom teeth, meaning that pen and paper, alas, was the universal language on this journey! Anyway after battling the hideousness of South Bali's roads we found ourselves in Sanur at our hotel. Sanur, locally, goes by the moniker, S-nore, which is slightly offensive given that when we ventured out for dinner we were treated to not one but four live bands in a small vicinity, beats the crap out of Southsea nowadays!! In the end we ventured for a cool looking place over the road and had a sharing platter of Balinese treats which was mouth-wateringly beautiful followed by two Bintangs, the local beer. Whilst we ate a young Balinese quartet played songs for the crowd and took ANY requests. They were amazing for four late teens/early twenties guys and just topped our first night off with another hint of surrealism as they thrashed out ny request of Roxanne!! Tommmo x

Leaving do's and Engagement!

So after 8 and a half years I finally did the deed and asked 'the question'. For years and years I have, rightfully or not, made it abundantly clear that marriage did not bother me and that all things marriage related were just designs to make companies money and give people predictable photos. In some ways this is true but to me marriage to Shell is something quite different. I used to hate the concept of marriage but have grown to the idea over the past couple of years as Shell and I make more and more exciting plans together, it just seems so right.

So after weeks of procrastination and over-thinking I decided that I would ask her at our leaving do with our families and ask her dad, Tom, the Friday before at our leaving meal. My ultimate failing sometimes is my ability to over-plan everything, leaving me in a delicate state when things go slightly off-kilter, but what has in the past been my weakness was on this occasion my ultimate attribute. Everything worked perfectly, I got a good hour with Shell's dad to pluck up the courage to ask him, then with the knowledge safely shared between us we then proceeded to drink the house dry of all drink, leaving Ben, Shell's sister's boyfriend belting out Catholic choir songs at 4 in the morning. We then had a perfect day at our leaving do, shell's mum put on an incredible party for us folk and I found the right time to stutter out those immortal words to Shell halfway through the day. I could have picked a plethora of beautiful places to do it over the next few months but when faced with the prospect of sharing the news with family and friends, it was a complete no-brainer. The weather had been intermittently shit for the whole day until we came outside shinking the champagne glass to be met by brilliant summer sunshine just for as long as we made our announcements. Half an hour later we were met by the incredible sight of a striking double rainbow literally over the house. You cannot be fooled by coincidence or hints of fate but for a couple of hours it was as if signs were literally begging to be believed.

So to our leaving do back in Pompey, and what a bloody night! I can safely say that I have never exerienced drunkeness like that. It makes you slighty emotional, with no hint of over sentiment, to think how many close friends you have in this world. What started as a leaving do, ended in a very messy engagement party and once again, right down to how I wanted to make the announcement, everything went perfectly. Having your friends kidnap you from the bar and then throw you 6 feet in the air twenty five times will both stay with me and haunt me forever! Our band played a few classics which was in turn followed by the once-again-brilliant impressive Lex on the decks belting out soul and motown classics to resounding success. Tommo x