Indonesia

(Emily) So it's nearly June and we are heading into our second month of travelling, i can't believe how quickly it has all gone. It has however been the most amazing experience so far and I'm sure it is only going to get better. Our next stop is Bali - Indonesia.

Our flight down from KL was a very quick 3 hours, i have to be honest and say that i didn't realise quite how close Malaysia and Bali were but then we all know that geography has never been my strong point. Arrived into the airport, had to get a visa on arrival this time, but it only involved paying 25 USD and getting a stamp really. The geek that i am really enjoys building up the stamps in my passport from all these places. So i say stamp away. Anyway headed out the front on the airport to be greeted by a million taxi drivers offering us transport. Over the last month i have been developing my bartering skills and have to say that i have gotten pretty damn good. So after one guy told us 150,000 (around 12 quid) i whipped the skills into action and managed to persuade him that someone else was offering us a much better price. The key is to suggest a price and then walk away and pretend to go somewhere else they nearly also come back and agree to the price. So after a big of throwing numbers around we agreed on 70,000. Half the original price, we were both very chuffed with ourselves - it was probably still a complete rip off they are very keen on getting as much money out of you as they can. But for a 20 min journey 6 quid didnt seem to bad a price to pay and we were keen to get to our hotel.

We are staying in a place called Segara Sadhu Inn, it's down an alleyway off one of the "main" if you can call it that streets. Hotel is pretty average, clean (ish) but we have a nice balcony and its air-con so we are very happy! Kuta is a really touristy area in Bali on the west coast. We have probably seen more westerners here than we have seen in the rest of our trip.

(Paul) Kuta attracts a lot of surfers, and looking out to sea, you can see why. Long gone are the calm waters of Thailand. This is where the real action is! Saying this, neither Em nor I are surfers, and unfortunately did not take the time to learn. Nevertheless, there were plenty of other activities to keep us occupied.

After 2 days in Kuta, we wanted to get away from the hussle and bussle, and head across to the Gili Islands. Although expensive to get across to them (its takes about a 2 hour fast boat ride over), it is well worth taking the time to do so. The Gili Islands are made up of 3 islands - Gili Air, Gili Memo and Gili Trawangen. Gili Air is the most easterly, is quiet and attracts plenty of families and couples. Despite this, this is where we spent our first 2 nights. Gili Memo is the middle island, and is the smallest. In fact you could run round the whole island in about 20 minutes (a little less than the 45 minutes it took Em and myself to run around Gili Air). We decided to skip this one and spend the rest of our time in Bali on Gili Trawangen, or Gili T for short. And I shall leave it in Em's capable hands to tell you about our time here...