Singapore - Changi Airport

We arrived to Singapore's 'Changi' Airport from Bali and had a 13 hour wait for the flight to Australia

Still, I can think of worse places to spend 13 hours....

This is the butterfly garden at the airport

It whiled away an hour or so and is very tranquil

We hadn't slept much and arrived here at 6am, so were very tired

Some of it just seems like a dream now..

Like the rest of Singapore, the airport is high tech with the latest stuff everywhere

There's a free movie theatre....

Swimming pools, sun loungers on the roof....

Gyms, free charge points for phones and gadgets....

Restaurants....

Shops....

Massaging chairs....

A free tour of Singapore, if you're waiting for 5 hours or more...

103 inches of viewing pleasure for sitcoms, documentaries etc.  We've been to cities with less to do.....

Indonesia - Bali - Ubud

Ubud is the cultural place in Bali.

On the way there, Paul and his Mum stopped off to see how textiles were made and went to a silversmiths home to see silver and bought a necklace and ring

There's loads of temples to go around

And a monkey sanctuary

The carvings are everywhere

Some quite big

And old style buildings

With lots of history

You had to cover up going in some of them

Most of the Balinese are Hindus

They say the Royal Palace is probably around 1000 years old, but they don't know and things have been maintained as they go along so nothing looks too decrepid

Except maybe the public phones, but aren't they everywhere?

The King's wife had died earlier in the year.  They'd already had the funeral.  It took 2 months to build a house upon which to cremate her.  2 months after that, another ceremony was due and lots of workers in the palace were preparing

With some help.....

This is the public main entrance to the palace

On the corner of the palace, a lookout can be positioned

I look like that sometimes after a heavy night on the town...

Not a path you wanted to meet a fat person on!

Indonesia - Bali

We briefly went to Kuta, Bali before going to Lombok, the next island, then back to Bali again 10 days later.

his is Kuta Beach where the surf is mega - apparently..  It's mainly a party place, full of Australians on holiday, like the Brits do with Ibiza

When we went back, we went to the much quieter, Sanur.  It's not often I've been getting a drink at the 'Cat and Fiddle', in the 35 degree heat and looking at a palm tree

Of course, the real reason for going to Sanur, Bali was to meet Trish and Kelly.  They arrived safely...

whoops, I mean...

These are the rice fields on a trip we went on going up the Batur Lake in the crater of Batur Volcano

Took a while for Trish and Kelly to get used to the hawkers who would swamp you as soon as you got out of the car in any popular tourist spot

This is in the crater of the volcano and the rocks are from the lava flow duing the last major eruption in the 1920's.  It has minor eruptions regularly, the last being 2000.

Our guide took us to a restaurant to eat, overlooking the lake and Mount Batur, stunning

The crater is a fair few miles across with the lake making up perhaps a quarter of it

It was the best view we had in Bali

The volcano was formed around 25 thousand years ago

Just ask Trish if you don't believe me...

It was here that Trish and Kelly were looking for fruit and clothes to buy, but unfort there was no one around selling them.

On the way back, we went into a fruit/veg farm, with bees and coffee plants

They have a very expensive coffee in Bali, called 'Luwak Coffee'.  The Asian Palm Civit, mongoose like, here, is one of many who pick the oldest, most tasty coffee cherries and eats them.  The bean inside the cherry pulp survives the digestion tract and is picked out, cleaned and roasted.  The bean is a lighter colour and gives a smoother coffee

It was tres cute

Firstly the bean has to be separated from the pod with back breaking pounding

This is how they traditionally roast them, keeping the beans moving, so as not to burn

The finished product them looks like the familiar coffee we know

You had to pay for the Luwak Coffee, but they gave you 6 other types of drink, including hot choc, other coffees and teas for free.  The Lewak was 60,000 Rupiah, around £4.  In London you'd pay about £50 per cup, so we thought we might as well get it cheap while we had the chance

The guy on the left was our driver, called Sila.  He was very nice and really made the trip, showing up stuff we'd never have seen otherwise

The view whilst drinking the coffee was pretty good too

One thing the Balinese love is kites.  On the way up to the volcano we saw about 20 young lads carrying a massive one up the road, bigger than a double decker bus, causing the traffic to stop.  This is a more modest size one on Sanur Beach which was being launched

Kelly chose this beer specially..

Another beer Kelly found an affinity with....

Us enjoying a meal and a few drinks

After a hard day at the beach, Kelly found time for another drink..

We went to Kuta Beach, so they could see the place.  The beach is much wider and you get the sun all day, it being west facing

It also meant we could set and watch the sunset

Which was beautiful

This ship got stuck on the reef at Sanur 5 months ago and doesn't seem to be going anywhere

Sanur beach was good, but smaller and not as sunny as Kuta

Kelly went all cultural and found a temple

A Hindu Temple

A local, waiting for us to finish dinner

On one of the days, Paul and his Mum went for culture in Ubud and Kelly dragged me off to go horse riding

It was ace.  Galloping (trotting) along the deep surf (shallow pools) was very relaxing and serene (scary and terrifying) - I loved it!  I had one of those moments when everything in the world was fab.  My horse was Anna, who was massive, even though it doesn't look it here cos taken higher up.  She was very good and did everything I commanded (who ran when I didn't want her to and stopped when I was trying to run).

This is Kelly on 'Merlin', who always wanted to go faster than Kelly wanted to go

The volcanic black empty beach went on for miles

On the way back we had dinner at a 5* spa resort, which was the poshest place I've been in all year

We met up with the cultured pair later on..

Kelly showing us she could take the heat

Our last night together was a sad one

It was fab seeing them both and made me feel a touch homesick

And this is where they'll retire...

This is where a few girls where I worked went to charm school

One of the Hindu statues in a roundabout at Sanur

The back shows the Swastika which is everywhere here.  Though it's often associated with the Nazi's in Europe, in the Hindu Religion it represents who you should live your life.  On the cross, the upwards line points to God and shows you should pray.  The left and right pointing lines shows you should be good to your fellow man, the downward pointing line shows you should be good to animals and nature.  If you follow this, you will lead a good life and will be reincarnated into a better life next time

One of the restaurants we ate at

Again the swastika is part of the brickwork at our hotel