Hej!,�

Terima kasih (Thank you / Tack) for popping in and checking up on us!�

We're now on the beautiful island of Bali in Indonesia. Been here almost two weeks but time flies on this island and so far we've only managed to visit Kuta (remember that place Camilla, Budski & Lina!) and Ubud, which we are currently in.

We arrived in Kuta after leaving Australia and auntie Suzie & family with a few tears in our eyes. The beach, our great hotel (with a/c, pool and room service!) and shopping in Kuta soon cheered us up though, although the constant hasselling as soon as you take two steps outside of your hotel was properly getting on our nerves. It goes something like this:

1 A&J steps out of hotel.

2 Guy on street asks "Transport?", meaning "do we need a taxi/motorbike service or do we want to rent a motorbike)

1 A&J says "No thank you" and begin to walk away.

2 Guy says "Yes! Taxi yes!" meaning "Oh you're walking away, that must mean you do want a taxi service from me!" and keeps on repeating it too...

1. A&J are a little further down the road and happens to just glimpse into one of the stalls along the road that sells everything from sarongs and t-shirts to dvds and chop-sticks.

2. Guy or girls that works in the shop says/shouts "Yes! Have a look please!"

1. A&J weren't really interested in the item in question so decline the invitation and keep on walking.

2. shopkeeper insists we have a look. Everything we then may glance at he/she feels obliged to tell us what it is "Sunglasses, yes!.... t-shirts,yes! have a try!.... watches, YES!" (like we couldn't identify what we were looking at) ..All in the space of about 5 seconds.�

And it goes on and on in a similar fashion as we walk down the street... Transport?! Sunglasses, yes! TRansport! Yes! Yes! TRansport!�

May not sound like the worst thing that can happen to you, and it certainly isn't, but when you're asked a million times whether you need "transport" or not in the space of 15 minutes and when you feel that the only place you can look at without being almost pushed into a shop to look at something is the ground, then it's kind of driving you crazy!� But hey, we're meant to be in paradise right, so I'll stop complaining now. But if you've been here, you'll know what I'm talking about!! (isn't that right girls!) I've (Agneta) got a love/hate relationship with Kuta, it's a good place to spend a few days at, there's plenty of sun and great cheap food.��

Camilla, Lina & Carin - I've been back to the pizza place where we had some great food-� remember that place? It's still great!!� :)�

After about a week in Kuta (time flew) we moved on to Ubud. It is a charming little town in the jungle about 1,5 hours drive north from Kuta. It is an artist's mecca and the roads a full of art galleries, art work shops and silver jewellery shops. Very nice, and we spent a whole day walking around looking at art without even getting anywhere near through it all!�

Two days ago we went on a Bali Eco and Educational bike tour around the neighbouring landscape. It was a great trip with very varied stops and our tour guide Darma was very knowledgeable. We got picked up at 7.30 am from our hotel and after a further trip up north had breakfast in a restaurant with fantastic volcano and lake view. Truly stunning. We then stopped off at a coffee plantation (this is before we even got on the bikes) and on top of the coffee making process leant what coffee, cinnamon, vanilla pods and saffron actually looks like when it's not in the supermarket! Very interesting!!

When we finally got on our bikes we knew it was going to be an easy ride. The leaflet had had one very appealing word on it in the description of the tour: DOWNHILL! yep, for the next two and a bit hours we had a great tour and 99% of it was basically downhill! It was great (agneta especially loved it !). We stopped by a local family compound and got to see how they lived and their family trade (making bamboo carpets), strolled on a rice field and saw how the rice was collected (our guide proudly told us that now they use GM crops they now have three harvests a year instead of two). We also stopped off and saw local craftsmen at work carving ornate doors, as well as getting an introduction (and actual practical clothes show) by our guide of how to dress properly the balinese way in a sarong etc when visiting a ceremony at a temple! It was a great outing and the day ended with a visit to the Monkey Forest Sanctuary in Ubud after we first had been treated to a traditional balinese feast for lunch (including smoked duck, satay chicken, rice, noodles, sweet & sour veggies). The Monkey Forest Sanctuary is a temple area in the jungle by central Ubud which is heavily populated with monkeys. To keep them from terrorising the people of Ubud and stealing their food and anything else they can get their hands on, they are fed daily at the Sanctuary. That still doesn't keep them from trying to take anything they can from visiting tourists! A girl in our tour group quickly lost her water bottle to the cutest little monkey, but we were advised by the guide not to confront the monkeys and try and take something back as they then can be very temperamental.

After the fun but very long tour (didn't get back until 5.30 pm) we had a quick dip in the pool (luxury we know but we couldn't resist!) before we went out for dinner. Had only planned a quite night but in the end we stayed up 'til 2 am after we ended up drinking with people from our hotel as well as the owner of the bike tour company, whom we ran into on the street, and some random locals. We both lived to regret the drinking the next day, as the local drink Arak Attack (a rice wine-ish drink) proved very prone for hangovers!

What else is there to say about Bali and Ubud... there are a lot of fantastic handicraft here, it is definitiely the place to buy furniture for the home! Some streets and areas are completely full of them, and it's fantastic quality!�

Also forgot to mention Ulu Watu, a temple where we went to see a traditional balinese dance show. The temple is situated at the southern tip of� Bali overlooking the ocean from this massive, impressive cliff that plummets straight down into the water. The Kecak dance performance started at sunset, and it was a great show with an absolutely stunning background. Recommended if you'd ever go here, for a bit of culture and spectacular scenery.

We extended our Indonesian visa whilst we were in Australia, so we got two whole months to travel around before we fly to Singapore. We'll go to the northern beaches after this and will do some diving there, as well as on the east coast. After that it's time for Lombok and the gorgeous Gili islands.

We'll try and keep up with the updating as we go along, but internet might be quite slow or nonexistent at places. We haven't been able to put any photos on recently either, so that's why there's only one each in the Oz and Indo photo folder respectively. But we'll do it as soon we can!

Take care, love you all!

A&J, xxx�