After a few Guinesses with Richie (My new roommate) at a Clapham Junction pub, we made our way home on Bus 35 at approximately 10.45 p.m. I was scheduled to meet Zoe who was finishing off what she needed to pack at our Ferndale Rd house. The next morning, we were due to embark on a long journey to Bali, Indonesia to meet my family for Christmas and to enjoy a 10 day break from the bitterly cold weather. We were very excited to see everyone and to be able to wear shorts again.

In a previous entry, I explained how we came to find out that the last tubes run until midnight. For this reason, we decided to catch the last tube to Victoria St Station and then get a connecting shuttle service with National Express to London's Stanstead airport. This would be the quickest & most cost effective way of getting to the airport. It only took approximately 2 hours 15 mins to get to the airport, the only problem being that we were only expected to depart for Bali at 8.30 a.m. After walking around aimlessly, window shopping all the airport shops that were closed, we found a small spot amongst hundreds who were doing the same thing we were! There were people everywhere, but we used our jackets as pillows and made ourselves each a bed on the cold floor! After a few hours of boredom, I gott stuck into a tub of Ben & Jerry's Phish food (Ice-cream)! Something was needed to keep me interested!

The journey to Bali is a long one! After leaving our front door, it was 8.5 hours before we had even taken off for the first leg of our journey to Kuala Lumpur Maylasia. The flight from Stanstead to KL was 13.5 hours! During this time, I had little sleep and started to get very restless! We then had a 5 hour wait at KL before a 3.5 hour flight to Denpesar airport in Bali. Zoe said at one stage my eyes were red and I was rocking back and forth like a wild man at KL airport! In total, the trip took 30.5 hours! I was absolutely shattered by the time we arrived in Bali.

I was very cautious going through customs and made sure that I examined my bag thoroughly for any tampering before I picked it up! Bali is notorious for the death penalty for drug smuggling and although I think that Schapelle Corby is guilty, she denies ever taking drugs into Bali, but believes that airport workers used her bags as a transit tool! I didn't want to take any risks, and was even relunctant to let Zoe go to the bathroom before clearing customs! I visited the CBA ATM and drew a modest 1.5 mil RP ($150) and we made our way through customs. My heart sank when we were pulled back by a customs official for not having completed a declaration card! We had obviously been sleeping when the flight attendants were handing them out!

After the long haul, I was in little mood to negotiate a taxi fare with a hundred people that wanted to drive me to the Balisani suites in Seminyak. This showed in that I overpaid, agreeing to pay RP 150,000.00 for 2 people for a half an hour journey! I thought that this was an o.k deal, however my dad got away with RP 85,000.00 for 3 people to the exact same location 3 days later!

Zoe and I were shattered by the time we had arrived at the Balisani suites. After a quick look around, we watched a movie and fell asleep at about 5.00 p.m. I was awake at midnight, watching T.V with chronic jetlag! I guess that can be expected with an 8 hour time difference between destinations!

I woke Zoe up at 7 a.m! I wanted to get to the Buffet Breakfast a.sa.p! I was starving! The breakfast had all the usual and more, and needless to say that I was a very happy customer having only paid $75 per night! I made sure I got all the value for money I could at the breakfast table!

We had 3 days to kill, relaxing and soaking up some sun at the pool before my dad, mom & Dust were due to meet us! during this time, I was notorious for putting things on the room account at the pool and forgetting to sign off the tab! At the end of the trip, I would get surrounded at all exits by a number of staff that got to know me as Mr Rex! At the end of the day, our never ending tab that consited of lunches, beers and milkshakes totalled $50! What a bargain!

It was great to see Dust waving over the verandah at us while Zoe and I lay at the pool! Once again, I left the pool without signing off the tab and made my way to meet my family! It was great to see everyone and give them hugs! We had so much to catch up on and we did so over a few beers, cocktails and peanuts at the pool bar! Every now and then inbetween the singer trying to get my mom to sing a song and a hotel rep trying to sell us a bicycle tour or a cooking class, we could get in some conversation!

After drinks, we made our way up to the restaurant for dinner! The next day we were leaving Balisani suites and heading for villa Alum Dumah in the Balinese Jungle!

We were greeted the next day by Nyoman (Our driver) after we had expolred the streets of Seminyak. He drove for what seemed to be an eternity into the sticks and eventually we found ourselves in rural Bali! I was starting to wonder whether the pictures online were all a sham!

The car finally stopped and we were greeted by Iluh (Manager & Chef), Ketut (Cleaner & Assistant) & Putu (Garden Maintenance & Lights On/Off Consultant).

The villa looked like nothing from the front! It was a car port walled with plants and vines leading to a square doorway. That was all you could see! Was I wrong!

After making the 100 step descent once passing through the door, we were in amongst the jungle! The entire property was naturally walled by lush, green fauna. There was a running river at the base, with the villa elevated on the slope. We were amazed by the villa! Ultimate 5 star luxury and entirely open plan! When describing an open plan home, there is often a limitation to the number of walls used to separate rooms. The villa had absolutely no walls! We were sheltered by an impressively large thatched roof supported by bamboo. This meant that we would sleep outside, go to the bathroom outside, shower outside etc... It was an awesome experience! The first night Iluh prepared vegetable spring rolls with a chilli dipping sauce followed by an indonesian style chicken curry! I can't remember what was served for dessert, because at that stage my dad and I had consumed an entire 1l bottle of Jack Daniel's. We are not big drinkers, but the bottle was there and it was only right that we should finish it to celebrate being together! Dusty's music was pumping and my mom and I tore up the dancefloor! Apparently the night ended with me saying that i'll leave my coffee for the morning. I then carried my parents bag to their room and made my way to bed! I woke up in the morning not having the faintest idea where I was! All I could here and smell was Fig (Indonesian Pig).

Depite having him nearly kill us on the narrow roads of Bali on numerous occasions, having a driver was great! We explored Seminyak, shopped at Kuta, visited Carrefour Department store etc... We had the idea to do secret santa with a limit of RP 50,000.00. This didn't amount to anything, because everyone kept exposing who they were buying for and couldn't make up their minds what to buy! After the first night, I was relunctant to drink again! Instead I purchased a few DVDs which entertained us in the evenings at our jungle retreat. I got the Cove, Social Network, Karate Kid, Other Guys, Wall St and a few others!

Zoe woke me up one evening in fear of the river rising due to the massive downpour! She thought my parents were going to be washed away because their room was lower than the rest of the villa! In fact, it was quite funny to see her react in the wild after her famous fear of "slithering". In the end, she did quite well, only freaking out twice. Once, when she heard breathing noises coming from the room while the rest of us lay watching a movie and the second time when the whole villa was infested with flying ants during a storm!

One day, we made our way to Ubud. There were are variety of stores and restaurants in the area, but more famously a large temple and monkey forest! It was pouring with rain, and we had 3 umbrellas between 5 of us as we made our way through ankle deep water to see the monkeys! We had bought bananas to feed them. Zoe freaked out as they approached her and threw all her bananas into the face of one poor monkey. A large male then attacked Dusty by grabbing his shorts thinking that his yellow camera was a banana! After seeing 2 twin baby monkeys, I was keen to get out of there before contracting rabies! It was lunch time but first I needed to negotiate the price of a new tee-shirt as mine was drenched! We also ended up with a raincoat each, which will probably be valuable in London!

Iluh was Indonesia's Masterchef! Ever morning we had either a banana smoothie or freshly squeezed pineapple juice, followed by a choice of fried eggs, bacon (Fig) and toast, omelettes or banana crepes! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day after all and it was accompanied by a big fruit salad every morning with fresh exotic fruits!

We usually ate lunch while out for the day, but I definitely rate her gourmet burger a soild 10/10.

Dinners were amazing and included Chilli Con Carne, Spaghetti Bolognaise, Beef Redang, Fried Salmon and mash to name a few! Desserts were even better with chilled lime cream, fruit with ice-cream and the Cointreau flavoured ice-cream served in a hollow orange! I indulged and I am paying the price now! In fact, I have just joined Fitness First to combat the KGs I stacked on!

We visited Nusa Dua on one of the days. We were lucky to experience some sun during Bali's wet season and spent the day tanning and swimming in the sea. Nusa Dua is lined with a number of high profile 5 star hotels. Dusty met a nice asian girl who wanted to take a photo with him so she could pretend that he was her boyfriend! That was a big highlight of my trip!

That day, we had lunch at the Westin hotel where we booked to come back for a Christmas Day Lunch Buffet! After the beach, we made our way back home via the Bali Connection Department Store where we each found an item to purchase.

Christmas Day was awesome! Never in a million years did I expect to spend Christmas with my family (Especially not in Bali)! That made my Christmas but it didn't stop there.

My dad navigated his way around the Westin's security to speak to the big boss about using their deck chairs on the beach. We were given a beach hut that could fit us all in! We spent the day swimming and feeding the squirrels. While we relaxed, we ordered Bali Coladas and I accidentally ordered the Go Chocolate Nuts. I thought it was a drink, but it turned out to be the biggest ice-cream sundae in the world! Not the best idea before a buffet lunch!

At lunch, I went overboard! There were prawns, mussels, avocado and I can't even remember what else because I went into food coma! The main meal consisted of Turkey, Ham, Ribs, Seafood Kebabs, Prawns and a lot of other things that I couldn't even manage to try! I needed to keep room for dessert! There was a massive selection! I think my amateur error was that I was washing my meal down with Bintang, but before I knew it I couldn't move! I definitely had to wait half an hour before swimming! We topped off the day with a few waterslides at the hotel and a swim in the pool!

Zoe and I left on Boxing Day at 5 a.m. Our new driver, Gusti was very reliable and didn't drive like the vehicle was stolen! After yet another teary goodbye, we were on our way for the repeat journey back to freezing London!

My parents flight to Brisbane only left at midnight on the 26th! They managed to beat us home!

Im off to the gym now to work off the post Christmas blues!