We had a really nice last few days in Australia chilling out round the lagoon in Cairns and catching up with people we'd met at various points on the East Coast. One of the highlights of our time there was definitely going on a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. We got a free introductory dive included with the trip but to be honest we were all pretty relieved that it was only an introductory one as scuba diving is actually quite hard to get your head around! We spent the rest of the day snorkelling and taking about 5 million photos with the underwater camera that we'd hired for the day! We had a close call when we were certain we'd seen a baby shark but as usual, we were over-reacting and it was just a VERY big fish!

We then flew from Cairns to Darwin and then Darwin to the lovely Bali. As soon as we stepped out of the airport we realised that it was going to be VERY different from Australia. A man from our hotel picked us up and we had a few near death experiences driving around the crazy streets of Kuta but eventually we arrived in paradise...aka our hotel for the next four nights- The Green Garden. Stepping into our luxury air conditioned (11 pounds a night) room felt like heaven after months of dorms! We awoke the following morning to take full advantage of the huge free breakfast put on by the hotel (you would think we'd never been fed) and then set off to explore Kuta. It didn't take long until we got distracted by the hundreds of stalls and so we indulged in a spot of retail therapy and practised our bargaining technique to perfection.

The second day in Bali we went on a full tour of the island stopping at temples, Tanar Lot, traditional markets and a monkey forest. We also visited nearby Ubud and it was really interesting to see the other side of Bali apart from Kuta. We were a bit baffled by the amount of people who wanted to take our photo but our guide explained that people from Jakarta who were visiting Bali rarely see Westerners.

For the rest of our "holiday from travelling" we spent our time chilling out at the crazy Kuta beach, doing yet more shopping and pampering ourselves with facials and massages (a bit extravagant for the budget, I know but at 2 pounds a go it would be rude not to!). Halfway through the week we moved to our second place of accomodation- Gora Beach Inn. It was an absolute bargain at 3 pounds a night and although it had none of the luxury of our previous accomodation and we encountered a few friends of the cockroach variety, it was still a nice place. Going out in Kuta was definitely different to anything we've experienced on the trip so far. The night pretty much centres around people buying beer and vodka and then drinking it on a set of steps in the centre of Kuta- a bit trampy perhaps but when in Rome...!

After eight days in Bali we flew to Singapore. Our flight didn't get in until about 1.30am so we decided to save money on accomodation and have a night in the airport (!!). Perhaps not the best idea we've ever had seeing as we woke up to a gaggle of Indian tourists taking photos of us but it was an experience nonetheless. We then caught the LRT to Chinatown and checked into a hostel we'd been recommended to by one of our friends from the Kiwi Experience and as soon as we arrived we bumped into the girls from our Fraser Island trip!

Because we only had one full day in Singapore we decided to make the most of it and hit the sightseeing straight away. We began walking around the city and began to notice that there seemed to be helicopters everywhere.