Cockerels! The noise starts at 5am and carries on and on. Cockfighting is bigger than soccer in Bali. c*** in cages like crab pots were everywhere; apparently keeping them away from the females makes them more agressive. The sport is illegal, but no-one is ever busted. Lazed around the pool for a couple of hours, checked out and went ot lunch. My comedy drink of the day was cardamom lassi - very bitter. The tendering for out our taxi business had been fiercely...

Woke to the feeling of one Bintang too many the night before. We had a trip booked to see some paddy fields, temples and a volcano. Putu (I called him Bootoo by accident) arrived at 930 and off we went North of Ubud. I remarked to him that everyone in Bali smiles. He replied "Smile on the outside even if sad on the inside" without a smile. The paddy field scenery was fascinating - apparently little changed since 11th century. We stopped at the top ...

After the stresses of yesterday we decided to take it easy. Went native for breakfast - rice porridge and nasi goreng (rice based), not to be repeated. One of the big attractions of the town is the sacred monkey forest, so I felt duty bound to check it out. At this point we realized we had no plans for 2 days time so I left A-lo researching (good move as she has come up trumps so far). Lombok was looking likely…. Meanwhile, word was out that a friend of &q...

Ubud and massage Had a mini lie in and made breakfast at the crack of 0900. All the locals seem uber-friendly with smiles and lots of hand together prayer type greetings all round. Fortified with a fruit salad and toast, we decided to spend the morning exploring Ubud's shops, temples, palace and market. Ran the gauntlet of "Taxi Taxi" up Monkey Forest Road, pausing to inspect menus, shop fronts and interesting Balinese temples (which were everywh...

Flight to Singapore was uneventful - took off promptly at 2245. Watched Slumdog Millionaire, although will need to see it again as sound quality a bit suspect......Declined food. Got someway into Quantum of Solace before dozing off. Annelise was away with the fairies…..Woke and flicked through the channels before refreshing my memory of Kill Bill 2. Decided to watch Bond properly however just as some kind of desert hideaway baddie base was being destroyed do...