We're coming home...

We have had a nice time in Bali, although not as good as it was last year. Sometimes difficult to sort travel arrangements without being ripped off.

Weather has been good. We had a lovely day in Ubud. We went shopping in the market and then had the most gorgeous indonesian food ever at a restaurant called 'Nomad'. Then we went off to a spa. Chris had a massage and spice bath and I had an Avocado Hair Creme bath and had a manicure. 2days later and ive wrecked my nails playing frisbie!

Judge Jools was a no show (hmmm supicious tactic to pull the crowds) but we had a good night out drinking - only spoiled by the large numbers of prostitutes touting for work!

Today was spent playing in the sea on Bogie boards in huge crashing waves - great till they pound you into the sand!

Chris has been ill this week and we have found the cause. There is some really odd dirt in the seawater - like a chemical or oil. Its yellow and concentrated and goes all the way up seminyak beach by the 5 star hotels. Not nice at all.

Anyway we begin our 30 odd hour journey home tomorrow and we hear the weather is still quite cold in the uk!

Looking forward to seeing you all again.

Belated Happy Birthday to Dad for yesterday.
Congratulations to Steve on retiring today, oh no i mean being made redundant today.
Branwen - I hope you are enjoying Mother hood!
Happy Birthday to Nan for monday.

lots of love
Anna and Chris

last Destination - Bali

Hi
We had 10 fantastic days on Gili Trawangen, really good island to chill, dive and party (not me in bed my 9pm most nights!). We will definately return there. The fish life was fantastic and I even ate 2 freshly cooked fishes - Red Snapper! Saw lovely sun rises and sun sets there. Enjoyed playing frisbie with the local kids. It was also nice to be away from all motorised transport other than boats of course.

on 12th may we caght a new speed boat back to Bali. It was great until you had to keep your eyes closed because of all the salt waster spraying in your eyes! Got sunburnt and mayb a bit of heat stroke too!

we then travelled to Tulumben to dive the wreck. Got a bit conned by a dive centre there who had promised us a good price to dive there and menganen island. As a result we didnt get to do the sunrise dive we had planned - but still managed to dive the wreck before other divers reached it for the day. The wreck was fantastic full of life - baracuda, pigmy seahorse, stonefish , bumphead parrot fish and many more. As a result of the bad dive company we didnt continue our journey and so we took a car to Seminyak - 5-10mins from Kuta.

We are staying at a hotel called Kumala. http://hotelkumala.com room A6.

Today we have been enjoying the beach and pool and have started shopping in Kuta.

We may take a trip to the craft village of Ubud and poss stay overnight in a spa hotel.

Also Judge Jools / gatecrasher is playing on the 18th so we may have a good night out clubbing before we return.

Lots of love to you all

see you soon
Anna and Chris

to Gili Trawangen

Hi
We left Bangkok on 1st may and flew to Bali. There we took a flight on a propeller plane to Lombok.
We stayed 1 night there in Sengiggi - nice hotels - awful town!

We took a taxi to the harbour in Bensal. There you are supposed to be able to catch a public ferry to the Gili Isles for 70pence but its a kind of scam as you have to wait for 20 people which apart from first thing in the morning never happens. So we chartered a boat with a japanese couple for about 3 pounds each person.

We are staying on Gili Trawangen - the largest of the 3 islands. It has themost night life and dive centres. the others are more dessert island feel.

We are staying and diving with Manta Divers. The rooms are gorgeous and we are finally splashing out on a nice room for 25 dollars a night. It has a stunning outdoor bathroom.

Diver centre is great - its not one of the major dive schools over here.So far we have done 6 dives and have seen white tip reef sharks and black tip. lots of turtles and frogfish too. Fish life is plenty but the corals are in a bad state - there are beaches here made purely of dead coral.

Diving has now become a bit currenty so we are doing drift dives - not so easy on the photography but good fun.

Hoping to stay here a little longer and then return to Bali and dive, shop and rest before coming home.

Congratulations to Steve and Rach who are getting married today.

Its nearly Nan's birthday so im looking forward to seeing you then Nan.

Karen - how was your holiday?

lots of love
anna and chris