So our final destination and 13th country was Bali, after a night stop over in KL where we caught up with Ferdi and picked up all our things. We also did a bit of shopping and went to Best Friends and their fish spa, where we had a great time having our feet nibbled by fish! It was such a weird sensation to begin with but once you got over the initial tickles, it is nice actually. It just looks strange to have hundreds and hundreds of fish around your feet :o) We then had reflexology and our feet were as good as new and sooooo soft! We had a good flight to Bali and grabbed a taxi to the hotel, once we had our Indonesian visas, and we had chosen a really nice place. It's new and we had a small apartment with a kitchen so we can be 'at home' and I can cook again. It's a bit of a walk to the centre of Seminyak so we hired a scooter for the week to whizz around and it was only 20€ for the week...bargain! For the first few days, we had a nice routine of Max surfing early in the morning, me sleeping and doing breakfast for the hungry sportsman and then sunbathing for most of the morning and early afternoon, before a whizz on the scooter to see new beaches, shops and Carrefour supermarket ( I love Carrefour...reminds me of when I lived in France) We also decided to take an island trip which was really nice. We had a full day visiting Batubulan where we watched a traditional Barong and Kriss dance before heading to Tohpati village to see Batik weaving. We then visited Tegenungan waterfall. Then we visited a wood carving place in Mass and a painting house in Batuan and we found a really nice painting that we bought for our bedroom at home - abstract and orginal and amazing that we both liked it!! From here, we drove up to Kintamani where we had a great Indonesian buffet and had great views of the volcano and crater lake. We then headed to Ubud and stopped for a drink before heading to the Wanarawana monkey forest where there are about 200 monkeys dying to steal bananas from you. I remember them being pretty rough with you from the time I came in 1995 so we didn't buy any fruit and watched other people being jumped on instead :o) From here, we took a trip to Tegalalang rice terraces which were really pretty before going to Goa Gajah (Elephant) cave where Max had to wear a sarong- hahah. The green really suited him :o) And then we headed back to Seminyak where we relaxed all evening and worried about getting home on Monday, given the volcano that has erupted in Iceland and is spewing ash all over Europe. Quantas has no flights in or out of Europe and we may be stranded!! For what we thought was our last full day, we spent it trying to find out how we could get home as we found out our flight had been cancelled and Quantas are an absolute joke. They tell you nothing and pay for nothing and their customer service desk is terrible. We are very frustrated and upset as we were so looking forward to going home after such a long time and now all my plans for wedding dresses and seeing my friends and family has been screwed up :o(. The next day we had all bad news from my Dad as he had spoken to Quantas in London so we decided to stay in Bali instead of going to Singapore and sleeping in the airport. Singapore is the pits to be stranded in so at least we have cheaper accommodation and a pool here! Fingers crossed we know more soon. As the weather was overcast today, to match our mood, we took a trip on the scooter and found another surf beach called Canggu. It's difficult to get to but looks a good spot to come back to. We also headed to Carrefour and got stuck in a monsoon shower on the way home and arrived at the hotel like drowned, indecent rats as all our clothes went see through and figure hugging to say the least :o) We spent the evening eating chocolate to fix our moods and watching CNN to see if there was ANY good news from the volcano....and the answer to that was NO :o( The next few days were depressing as we have a flight but 3 weeks from now! I then got Peter and Shell on the case as I can't return to work as planned and finally some good news came though and we have a new flight for 29th April, so just a week to wait, via Osaka in Japan and then to Amsterdam so woo hoo - we owe a lot to our very good friend Peter :o) For the last week of our trip, the weather was very up and down so we passed the time watching TV (we only have 3 English channels), reading books, playing sudoku (but I am rubbish and Max is the master), sunbathing, whizzing around on the scooter, going for a Balinese massage, surfing and generally wishing the days away so we can get home and see everyone again. On Wednesday 29th April, we finally got the plane from Bali to Osaka in Japan and then finally got the flight from Osaka to Amsterdam and we were on home soil - yipeeeeeeeee. In 10 months, we have visited 14 countries, driven ourselves 38,000 km and flown tens of thousands of miles on 26 different flights. We have travelled by plane, train, car, 4x4, helicopter, tuk-tuk, scooter, cyclo, boat, bicycle, quad bike...and miles and miles by foot! We have spent 5 days and 0 nights away from each other in over 300 days :o) I have read 65 books and Max has read........less :o) We have had an unbelievable time on our trip and we have kept healthy, very happy in each other's company and very happy that we have been so fortunate to have been able to see, do and experience everything that we have over the last 10 months. There have been moments of homesickness but nothing that would have made us change our plans. It would have been nice at some times to pop home for Sunday lunch with the family or a dinner at the Bistro with Penny or to see the Wright Family and see how big Matilda has grown but these were fleeting moments and we knew we would have plenty of opportunity for all that when we got home for good. This has been a great pre-marriage 'test', which many people referred to before the trip, that we have passed with flying colours. Having spent 10 months with Max, I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him, experiencing new stuff as we go along...however, I don't think we will get the opportunity to do this again until we are of 'Grey Nomad' age and have a Travel King caravan in the backyard :o) It's difficult to remember everything we have experienced so I am so glad we have this blog and our thousands of photos to keep the memories with us for the rest of our lives. While writing this, I have just had a quick think as to some of my top moments on this trip, and here they are in no particular order: 1 Karijini National Park and Max proposing under the waterfall at Circular Pool, Australia 2 Eating the best vanilla slice ever at Otto's cafe in Hahndorf in the Barossa Valley, Australia 3 Undertaking the Tongarriro Crossing and celebrating our 20km mountain hike in the Chateau, North Island, New Zealand 4 Taking a helicopter flight over Fox Glacier and landing on the glacier in the snow...while wearing t-shirt and shorts, South Island New Zealand 5 Visiting Angkor Wat which really should be one of the Wonders of the World, Cambodia 6 Learning about the very recent history of Cambodia and just how much the country suffered and visiting the humbling 'Killing Fields' 7 Visiting Porto and enjoying it's beauty, culture and characters on an open top bus, Portugal 8 Going to the campsite bathrooms for the first time and hiding my toilet roll in a bag as I was a little embarrassed in the early days!, France 9 Taking the elephants for a wash in the river near Luang Prabang - such a unique experience, Laos 10 Visiting the very beautiful villages in the French and Spanish Pyrenees and having little dreams about owning a house in a country village and making home made pies and jams!! 11 Revisiting Chambery and Pont de Beauvoisin for the first time since 1997 and seeing the bars, schools, shops and apartment I used to live in, France 12 Catching up with friends along the way in France, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam...... The list would be endless if I continued to think back on the last 10 months. All I can say in finishing this blog is thank you to Max for being a fantastic travel buddy, thank you to those who have put us up during the time we have been away, thank you to those who have read this blog, sent us emails and texts to keep us in touch with those who matter the most and thank you to all the countries we have visited which have opened our eyes to beauty, new cultures, wide open spaces and new experiences.