Bali is an amazing country with some of the most beautiful scenery we have ever seen. Once you get out of the tourist trap which goes by the name of Kuta (sarong? One dollar! Morning price... massage? Watch?), it's great and the people are kind and friendly.
We spent two days diving at a place called Tulamben up on the East coast of Bali - great diving - Conrad is now a qualified Open Water diver so we can dive together! My group did a night dive on a ship wreck which was a little spooky but great once we were safely back on shore! We saw all sorts of beautiful things including a huge barracuda which swam really close to us.

We then decided we had to leave Kuta and hired a driver (how posh does that sound?!) to take us around Bali for four days, Conrad got talking to him on the beach and he seemed nice so we went with him. Conrad's instincts were right, he was a great guy, Conrad started calling him Denes (pronounced Dennis) the Dad and he showed us some fantastic places in Bali and managed to find us clean, cheap and friendly accommodation every night with beautiful views too.

One day we woke up at 3.30am and trekked up Mount Batur (a volcano which last erupted in 1994) which was a pretty steep climb but SO worth it for the awesome views ... see pictures!

Another day we visited a holy sanctuary which is a tropical forest with three 'hidden' temples and it is absolutely full of monkeys who are totally unafraid of humans as they know they won't be harmed. It was pouring with rain (warm, tropical rain) so we had crazy umbrellas which Denes lent us and when we sat down for a minute, some monkeys came to shelter under our umbrellas!

Yesterday (our last day) we went for an amazing jungle trek to a waterfall and then across the rice terraces. It was a long, sweaty trek but again, well worth it.

We are now in Sydney, having arrived early this morning. Time to get used to very different prices - in Bali, one English pound was 19,000 rupiah which meant life was pretty cheap.

Hope you enjoy the photos - you will see a few pictures of stray dogs, this is because they are everywhere in Bali (running on the roads, sleeping at temples) and they are treated with total respect by the people and live in total harmony. Bali is 80% Hindu and they strongly believe that animals should only be killed when necessary for food and never be mistreated.

Anyway - have a look at the photos and see what you make of it! We would strongly reccomend Bali to anyone - sunshine and scenery in bucketfuls! :)