hello dahling, nice hair dahling!

we're on holidays! finally! woo hooo

we got in to denpasar early on wednesday after a nightmare surrounded by screaming babies in all directions flight. ross picked us up from the airport and we (and by we i mean our driver) navigated through crazy bali traffic back to our hotel. we had banana pancakes for breakfast (jess will tell you more about them later) before heading off to explore legian. ross is pretty brown and therefore hassled less by the locals than us translucent aussies. he also spoke enough bahasa to not only impress us but haggle as well. we had nasi goreng for lunch and some ice cold bintangs.

on thursday ross hired a car (mainly for surfing) and drove us to tanah lot. there are temples on the cliffs and one was on an island that you can only get to at low tide. we watched a few people crossing when the tide was coming in and i dont know how they managed it with long white dresses and baskets on their heads! after tanah lot ross wanted to show us his favourite surfing beach so we packed in to the car and went off.

after some wrong turns we were completely lost. the road we were on dropped into the ocean and ross was still pretending to know what he was doing. we stopped the car, got out and ross realised that we were exactly where he wanted to show us and he had been parking a kilometre down the beach for no reason. we decided to celebrate this with a drink at the restaurant there (bintang of course) and had dinner.

ok well ange has left probably the most important element out. the food. the food here is so delicious and amazing that i can't stop eating so you should all expect to see me rolling home instead of walking in eight weeks time. firstly the banana pancackes, of which we have consumed horrendous amounts are delicious! and they are so simple but i can guarantee we couldnt make them the same. i actually just ate one about 20 minutes ago.

another one of my favourites that we have eaten lots here is the nasi goreng. we have tried lots of places but my favourite is at this tiny little place around the corner from where we are staying. its run by a family and they are so lovely, as are most of the people on this island. anyway, the food there is unbelievable and i cant believe that we can eat till we might explode and pay less than a beer would cost at a pub back home.

the third day we were here we decided (on cams advice) to go white water rafting. oh my god it was so much fun!! we had to go on a bus ride for about 2 hours and then we were all suited up with life jackets and helmets - which was so exciting because it meant there might be danger- and we went down all these steps. and they werent just normal steps. there were hundreds and hundreds and they were really steep and they were in the middle of a jungle and there was no guide in sight. at the end we were very relieved to see the guides at the bottom having a smoke and waiting for us, but when we stoped everyone couldnt stand properly because our legs were shaking like crazy from the stairs! anyway, we sat in the raft got some instructions and were on our way.

the river is absolutely beautiful. i was a little bit worried about getting the water in my mouth but then he said, FORWARD!! and gael - who was sitting in front of me - went forward very enthusiastically and sprayed a whole load of water in my face. this was hilarious and i didnt die on the spot so i figured it was ok. lucky, because the rapids were crazy awesome! we even went under waterfalls and at the end we went super fast over some rocks and ross fell on gael and gael and ross both ended up in the drink. it looked like heaps of fun so we all jumped in and floated the rest of the way down the river with our life jackets.

one little end note, i forgot how much they like blonde hair over here. i think they also like that i am a lot bigger than most of the girls here. i feel like my name should be helga. and that i'm a giant from the mountains.

they LOVE jess!! LOVE HER!! and they think i am a boy. boo.

there is so much more to write but i'll write it next time because we are about to get ready to go to ubud and we need to pack the car.

yesterday we went to geger beach and hired a canoe. we went swimming to cool down and realised the water is just as warm as the air. we chilled out on the beach drinking bintang and tried not to get sunburnt. for dinner we went back to the ombuk cafe (at ross' favourite surfing spot) and ate lots of yummy food.

i've been really impressed with ross' driving; the roads here are hard to navigate, AND he seems to know where to go, even when he's lost and it takes us two hours to get there.

after ubud we go to mu's resort near uluwatu for some relaxing before heading to KL and then cambodia.


xx


ps. this internet is really slow, and we have to check out so we will add photos in next time.