Our flight from Darwin to Bali was only just over 2 hours, once in Bali I had to buy a visa to get into the country which cost US$25 then went through customs. Gary did not need to buy a visa or have to wait in the customs queue with his Hong Kong passport, its handy having 3 passports!! After we collected our bags and went through the arrivals gates we were met by a man holding our names, he lead us to his car and drove us the 25-30 minutes to our hotel, Rivavi Fashion Hotel. At the hotel they took our bags, we were handed a free drink at reception as we checked in and our bags were taken to our rooms for us, very nice treatment indeed. The hotel was lovely, really colourful and funky and our room was gorgeous, a huge superking size bed, our own big bathroom was nice we got to settle in such a lovely place for whole 7 days! Gary was really hungry so we headed onto our busy street full of crazy scooter drivers and cars, the streets lined with touristy shops, bars and restaurants. We went to a place called Lemongrass and ordered food and drinks, the meals are very cheap around 5-7 dollars however, the cocktails and alcohol was not as cheap they cost more than the meals apart from local beer which was insanely cheap around 1-4 dollars depending on which one. Then it was bed time we were pretty shattered.

Our first day we were up around 9am, there is a time difference of an hour and half to us which was cool, extra time and bit closer to home, only 8 hours ahead now. I unpacked and sorted our room before breakie. We get free all you can eat breakie each morning from 7am-11am which is cool. The choose was very Balinese, rice, noodles, chicken, rice pudding etc in the hot buffet, there was also cereal, toast, crossiants and fruit. It was very nice actually just not quite like breakfast for me I still prefer eggs, toast and things for breakie not rice and chicken that's more dinner and tea. We saw tables by us getting bacon and eggs and things and it turns out you can get those things if you ask so that's handy to know. After breakie we went for a walk and an explore around, we walked down our street 10-15 mins to the end is Kuta Beach, I was a little disappointed with the beach, it was very dirty, the amount of rubbish coming in from the surf was awful, all along the water's edge was piles of plastic, wrappers just crap. It was a lovely big stretch of beach though, lovely views, good waves and people surfing and deck chairs to hire. We then went for a drink in Beach Lodge a funky little place by the beach, it was very hot. On our way back to the hotel we walked through the markets and popped into some of the shops, there is a lot of surf shops but they were expensive, a little bit cheaper than Australia but still too much money. The markets had some cool things but nothing overly exciting, a lot of I love Bali things. We went for dip in the small hotel pool and chill on the few loungers there it was really nice. Around 4pm after showers and chill in the room we headed out for tea and some drinkies, we found a street just off ours that lead all the way to the end of Kuta Beach and ran parallel to it, had a lot of shops, bar, places to eat and great atmosphere. We went to place called Mamma Mia for Balinese food. We had a Nasi Goreng (Indonesian fried rice), Gary had huge beer and I had 3 for 2 cocktails yum yum, leaving me slightly tipsy haha, enough to then go and put my feet in one of those fish tanks for 20 mins argh!!! Was the weirdest kinda awful thing ever. They had an awesome feed from Gary's feet like there was loads all over him. During this traumatic experience we had a lady trying to sell us friendship bracelets and getting very huffy at Gary for not buying one! We found a bar further down the road called Crusoe's Island had a good happy hour until 8pm $1.6 local beers called Anker and free pool happy days. After a lot of beers and pool we headed back out walked along the shops still open to the end of the road where Hard Rock Cafe was yay! We went inside for a drink but it was crazy expensive so just took photos and left, we walked up to the hotel entrance and asked whether we were able to pay to come to the pool here for a day but unfortunately you have to be a guest grrr! It looked amazing, huge pool area, funky bars and the reception area alone looked awesome would love to have seen the rooms and gone to the pool. We found a Macca's for late night ice cream and snacks before walking home.

Lay in the next morning before going for breakfast, its available 7am- 11am which is quite nice. We had a lazy day today chilled around the pool on the loungers and in the room. We headed out for night around 4pm again, stopping at an activity stall to book up some trips while in Bali a trip to Turtle Island tomorrow and a Balinese Cooking Class on Monday :) We walked along street and went to place called Brewers for tea we had Balinese Sate Ayam meal lovely and shared a 3l tower of beer on our table and enjoyed the live music playing. We had a little look around the shops on our way back to the hotel.

We were up for breakfast next morning before getting picked up outside hotel at 9am for our Turtle Island trip. We drove for an hour to Nusa Dua which is a long beach full of all the types of watersports you could imagine, a very happening place. We were given fins and snorkels kits and put onto a glass bottom boat just the two of and a driver. We drove out to sea and snorkelled for an hour or so, was great visibility could see a lot of small fish like parrot fish, clown fish (nemos) and some lovely coloured corals. It was then a 10-15 minute journey to Turtle Island where we were given a tour guide who showed us around the animals they had there and talked to us about the work they do there. We finally got to see turtles and even hold them, the island is a conservation centre for all species of turtles found in Bali as numbers have dropped drastically. They also had birds such as owls, eagles and bats they had reptiles and monkeys. We sat and had a drink there and a little shop in the handmade store before heading back and enjoying a lovely dinner overlooking the beach and a pool area which we enjoyed very much before our Balinese meal and drink which was all included. Around 1.30pm we were given a ride back to our hotel, we chilled by pool for little while before getting ready to go out for night. This night we ate at a little organic bar on the main street and had western food BBQ for us it was really nice, then we headed to Crusoe's Island, now our bar haha, for beer, pool, cocktails and ended up there till quite late was really good night. We got talking to locals, mainly hookers and played some doubles at pool with friends we made.

Sunday we had a very lazy day around the pool and in our room, it was so nice unpacking and chilling in the room for 7 nights, having our own kettle, bathroom and huge bed instead of bunk beds. We had a nice big telly to which showed movies all the time which was nice, we spent a lot of time enjoying the room, simple things. We were so lazy we ordered room service for our teas having Sate Ayam again watching the original Karate Kid in bed haha, it was lovely. We did pop out later on to go for a drink or pudding, it was raining really heavily so just ran over to a coffee shop across the road and had some pudding before getting cosy in room again.

We were up early next day for our Balinese cooking class, we had breakfast at hotel first and then picked up at 8am Drove in car for over an hour to Ubud a lovely area. The first thing we did on our cooking class was walk down to the local market and be shown the local fruit, veg and spices it was really good experience. Then we returned back to the restaurant where there was a table set out for just the two of us and we started cooking. We were given a recipe book and an apron which we were to use during the class and take home which was lovely, we cooked 6 of the recipes in the book. All very tasty and easy to make, then we made one recipe not in the book, a special dish, we were given two drinks within the price a bottle of water each and a Balinese drink of rice wine which was interesting it was nice but different and also pancakes and fruit for dessert we were stuffed!!! After the class which finished around 1pm we were drove back to the hotel and jumped straight into the pool for a cool down and chill. That evening we walked a different way, we walked along the beach road to see the shops and things in the daylight and it was really nice, there is big shopping centre called Beachwalk had a lot of English shops like New Look and Topshop, had Tony Roma's, Johnny Rockets a good mixture of everything. I bought a new bag and a Roxy Turtle top so cute! We kept on walking up to Hard Rock Cafe and took photos again in the daylight and I bought a pin for my collection :) We continued round to our bar for beer, pool and had some wedges between us we weren't that hungry after our feast at the cooking class. We had a really good night a lot of beers and then a lot of red bull and vodka's. We stumbled back to our hotel, stripped off and jumped into the pool haha oopsie!

Our last day we spent chilling, went for breakfast quite late, then sorted flight details and booked a lounge in Dubai in the room sorting everything for our journey home tomorrow. Went round the pool for little while and had milkshakes in the pool, it was pouring with rain all day today, bloody typical because I had planned to use my last day in the sun to sunbathe and get rid of my white strap marks haha so that did not happen, oh well. Later on we got dressed and went out for the night, we looked around the market stalls again got some pressies and went down a different road to find somewhere different to eat, we found Chaser's a cool bar with good cocktail happy hours ;) We got our favourite Sate Ayam meal again it was all cooked on BBQ's in the bar which was cool and it was gorgeous our best yet yum yum. After food and a fair few cocktails we moved onto our bar for the last few beers and pool of our holiday. We didn't stay too long but it was night to see the staff and say goodbye to our place. We headed back to hotel slowly as looked in few shops for last time before getting back to hotel, decided with it being early and our last night to have a beer at the hotel bar which turned into a shot and cocktail it was really nice and good fun with the staff and others at the bar. Again we stripped and jumped in the pool for our last bit swim before bed.

Wednesday, we were up for breakfast, packed up and checked out and in the car to airport for 8.30am. It was just a strange feeling we were excited to come home, not particularly looking forward to the long journey and also sad and in disbelief that our year was up our adventure was at an end. We got to airport way too early had loads of time there, our flight was 11.55am from Bali to Bangkok, only a 4 hour flight. We had 5 hours in Bangkok but we had to collect our bags and get a shuttle bus to a different airport an hour away, it was quite good journey as able to see Bangkok a bit although it was a bit of a tease we could have stayed there for a couple of days I think haha. We got to the airport, checked in no problem both our bags were less than 18kg so no hassles. We had food and looked around the shops. Chilled in comfy recliner chairs we found awaiting our 8.40pm flight to Dubai, an 8 hour flight. In Dubai we had a 6 hour wait it should have been 7 but we were an hour delayed, we had a look around the shops, got some things in duty free and then headed to our lounge, we had to get a train within the terminal to another part of the terminal and it looked all relatively new it was very nice. The Maruba lounge was nice, not many people in, great choice of food, hot and cold food and drinks, snacks and you could just help yourself as much as you want. The seating was a bit strange they were all like cafe chairs no lounge or comfy chairs to sleep in, I still managed to nap for an hour or so on the not so comfy seats. The time went by quickly and the flights so far had gone by fine, we were both excited about the choice of films and couldn't sleep because we wanted to watch all the movies haha. The last flight was at 7:40am to Newcastle another 7 hour or so flight and that again was fine, we watched movies, the time went a bit slower because we just wanted to get to Newcastle now.

Once we had landed I think we both felt more sad, really excited but knew it was the end of our amazing trip, can't complain as we did everything we wanted and way more, pushed as much as we could money wise, time wise it's been insane. We got our bags and headed through arrivals to my Mam, Dad and Mandy smiling holding a welcome home banner and balloons it was lovely, one of the best moments of being away was coming home to them after so long.