Hi all. Sorry for the gap between posts here. It seems the hostels WiFi doesn’t like our website and so doesn’t let us post anything. It’s no bother, just it happens to be one of those things that causes me to find the closest brick wall and bang my head against it.

Anyway so it’s January still. I’m sure at home it’s cold, wet and miserable outside, high streets are packed full of people wearing their brand new coats and jumpers they got for Christmas, and A&E departments are packed with patients suffering from ‘pointy bit of umbrella to the eye’ syndrome which can hit anyone when they least expect it. Well you’ll be surprised to hear a very similar scene appears here in Bali. It does rain, quite a lot. The locals do still wear coats and jumpers even though it’s boiling. And anyone from, what we can work out, Japan or China, walk around under umbrellas. You know like Michael Jackson used to. Or Vampires do.

We were saying to day that we have really learnt a lot about how different cultures and nationalities live their lives. Not just those who live in the countries we have visited, but all those we come across. And the Eastern Asians from countries like China and Japan have probably taught us the most. Never before had we heard of Sun Lotion with Whitening agents. Face masks with snail slime and salmon ovaries to give you that frosty, pale look. And as I said, umbrellas in the sunshine. Oh and of course walking out in front of you and stopping for a chat. Is there anything more infuriating than that? I think not.

Anyway we have really enjoyed our time in Ubud. It’s a pretty busy place with scooters flying around everywhere, but yet not as crazy as the likes of Kuta or Seminyak. There seems to be a local community here that don’t force themselves and their children to solely live for tourists. Kids want to grow up and make something of themselves. Police are present and act to keep order on the roads and punish locals just as they do tourists. Not actively seeking out those not from these parts and pressuring bribes from them. There are just as many locals walking around doing their daily routines as there are tourists. And those that are tourists are not ALL Australian either. In places like Kuta and Seminyak you’d be forgiven for thinking you were in a strange part of Australia. But here it’s much more multicultural.

We have spent most of our days having breakfast at the hostel before heading into town for some exploration. Yes you read that correctly. We are actually making breakfast. It helps that it doesn’t finish until 11 though. We have visited lots of the bars and restaurants around, that we can afford, and found the ones we like. Soph is particularly fond of the one with bunny rabbits bouncing around freely in the garden. Thank you Lydia Bell for that recommendation. I can give or take a bunny to be honest. If it’s there I’ll say hello, but I won’t be making any chit chat with it. Soph on the other hand loves it there, as you can imagine.

We popped back to the monkey sanctuary too as I reckon it was probably my favourite place of the entire trip so far. I never realised I had such a love for monkeys, but I really can’t get enough of those little guys. They’re running about without a single stress in the world. Jumping on people’s heads and showing off in front of the cameras. Eating more bananas than the probably would in the wild. But we did have a sad moment today when we saw a mum carrying around its baby, not breathing. She was acting like she really didn’t know her baby was dead. Trying to feed him and get him to cling on to her. It was extremely sad. As you can imagine it was too much for Soph. For me, it was one of those things I really didn’t want to see, yet couldn’t stop watching. Just like when I saw that dog on Seminyak beach.

Outside of monkey forest and bars we have also managed to visit the Ubud temple. Voted on Google as one of the top must sees of Ubud. We came to the conclusion upon visiting this temple that perhaps none of these apparent voters have ever been to Thailand. Or anywhere with a temple. There was  simply nothing there. Some building that perhaps looked a tad like a temple but nothing more. It was barely bigger than the temple on the side of my head. It took us approximately 30 seconds to see every inch of it, look at each other slightly confused, and leave rather underwhelmed with the whole thing.

Our time in Ubud hasn’t brought with it any odd photo requests from locals but it has included some children asking us some questions for their school English project. When answering where we like in Bali we said Ubud above all others. Just like any local would do about their home town, they replied with a very shocked and confused ‘WHY?’. For us we reckon it’s the much more relaxed atmosphere. The fact not everyone is vying to con you or grab you off the street. That people are nice and respect no for an answer. It’s definitely been the nicest place we’ve seen in Bali.

And today really brings an end to our time on the island. I am writing this in the evening, doing everything we can to avoid packing our bags. But by the time I get to post this it will be tomorrow and we will be about to leave for the island of Gili T.  A tiny little island with no cars that attracts all number of travellers to enjoy its paradise beaches and warm seas. You may remember we have attempted to get there before. New Years Eve. Another card lost in an ATM. Panic. Everything as  of right now, and remember I’m writing this the evening before, is all good. So fingers crossed by the time you all wake up, we will be there.

So we will be picked up at 7am by our bus before catching a speed boat to the island. We’ve also managed to get return tickets for cheaper than the one way ones we cancelled on New Years Eve. So perhaps it was meant to be that we lost that card. Well done me ay. Well done me….

Thanks for following x

P.S. We have been unable to change our flights to Perth too. So we will be returning by boat from Gili T to Bali on the 14th to then catch a flight to Perth on the 15th at 13:30 (Bali time) with Virgin Australia. Then for the sake of those who don’t have Facebook to keep up with our updates, notably my Grandad, (hi Grandad) we will be flying from Perth to Melbourne at 23:40 (Perth time, same as Bali time) on 21st with Tiger Air. Add it to your calenders. Or calendars. Never sure which is right.