Sydney - all I have to say is awesome city - we stayed in the RAC club's overseas cousin and it was about 200m from the Opera House overlooking the park - by this stage Erin has high expectations as to what is to come... damn....
As we were only here for one night we were intending to have a nice dinner overlooking the harbour (which we managed) and then meet up with Shane (which we failed as he got stuck drinking at his accommodation ;-)
We then exited SYD and headed on a 7 hour flight up to Jakarta.
Jakarta is an interesting place to start as it is cheap but we could stay in a decent (ish) Western hotel whilst Erin becomes accustomed to being stared at for having blonde hair.
We took the opportunity to wander around the city centre and went to the Central gardens, the Jakarta Museum (has some nice artefacts from the pre-English and Dutch times) and also has an ancient remains beleived to be the missing link in the evolutionary chain between upright man and monkey.
We also went to a proper Indonesian market where Erin was introduced to negotiating 1.01 (Indonesian style) - needless to say that tears ensued but a smile was had when she got the bargain she wanted - two nice modest (Muslim country) Indonesian shirts. We also decided to see how the other half lived so snuffled out the Gucci store in the "posh" designer building. Cab ride - $2!
On reconfirming our flight that was supposed to leave on December 31st and get us to Kupang on West Timor, I discovered that there was no flight (despite having paid for it) and we ended up seeing the New Year in Jakarta-style...
Booking with another company this time (Air Asia - nice one! no wonder you are the best Low-cost carrier in Asia) we ended up in Bali on January 1st. Slightly out of plan and nowhere to stay (and also finding that all the Ozzies had a monopoly on accommodation we headed into Ubud (Bali's answer to a spa resort) rather than Kuta (party hangout). Our villa couldn't be nicer - air con, view overlooking padi fields and little geckos that come and say hi whilst you are having afternoon or morning indonesian coffee (strong).
We visited the nearby Monkey forest where, just as one of the monkeys was trying to eat its way into my shorts to get my wallet, Jo and Jules from New York bumped into us!!!! Random!!!! so we had lunch with them in the middle of Bali!
We then spent the afternoon walking to the nearby Elephant Temple and cave - very hot and humid out but very random to see how the Balinese people in ancient times carved out some pretty big caves so that their priests could sleep and meditate in them.
It was all too much to take in so we went and got massages (for $8 for an hour) - the only nasty bit about this for Erin was that they may have been using some chemicals to rub her down that seem to have reacted slightly badly with her hair - so today I am now traveling with Kermit the Frog! (update on hair will be forthcoming)
Last night we went to a fantastic Balinese dance performed by the local dance troupe and this morning we went to a Balinese cookery class - Erin now has no excuses - haha! although she did dart off to the toilet pretty quickly so I'm guessing there may have been an aftershock! oops!
The current plan is to head to Lombok for a bit of diving on the Gili Islands so we may head there tomorrow or the day after (whichever day of the week that is anyway).
Hope you are all well - email us if you get bored.
A & E
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