Wednesday 7th. May 2014
We flew out of Adelaide Airport on a direct Virgin Airlines flight to Denpasar. We departed on schedule at 4:05pm and arrived at Denpasar just under 5 hours later. The plane (Boeing 737) was only about half full, so there was plenty of room to stretch out and the flight was uneventful.
We arrived at Denpasar just after 7.55pm local time. It has a very modern looking airport with a steel structure not too dissimilar to the new Adelaide Oval development. We passed through all the various controls without incident and picked up our luggage. As we left the customs area there were many people holding signs with the names of the passengers they were supposed to collect. Our name wasn't among them and after nearly an hour of trying to contact the our driver by phone and over the PA system, we decided to catch a taxi when the phone battery went flat. The cost was Rp 300,000 plus another Rp10,000 for the toll road we traveled on, followed by a Rp50,000 tip when the driver finally found the Komaneka Hotel in Ubud. The numbers are huge, but a general rule of thumb seems to be "cross off the last 4 digits" and you will roughly get the price in Australian dollars. So the all up cost was Rp360,000 which equates to just under A$36.00. Which is cheap by our standards but extortionate by Balinese standards..

After numerous phone calls the taxi driver finally found the Komaneka at Rasa Sayang Hotel, even though we had to walk the last 100metres, as the he drove past it down a one way street and couldn't reverse back. We arrived at the hotel just after 10:00pm a tad flustered in the humid heat of a balmy Balinese evening. We were shown our room, which is huge and quite luxurious. White marble tiles everywhere. The air conditioner works pretty well, although the room is probably slightly warmer then we would prefer it. Went to bed just after midnight

Thursday 8th. May 2014
We woke at about 7:30am and went down to breakfast. The dining area is at the end of the hotel building, which is long and narrow to fit onto the block, and overlooks a swimming pool and some jungle beyond. It is very relaxing.

After breakfast we walked up Monkey Forest Road to the town centre. Found an ATM and took out a couple of million Indonesian Rupiah. We then spent a few hours walking around the market, being politely hassled by the vendors. I bought a couple of T shirts (Rp20,000 each) and Briar bought some tops and a fan.
I paid one dear old lady Rp10,000 for her photo.

I took a couple and they seem to have come out well. I paid another lady Rp5,000 for a series of photos of her. I'm happy with them.
We had lunch (cold carrot soup and a bottle each of Bintang beer all up cost Rp167,900). We struck up a conversation with a young French couple who were curious as to what the Scrubba Bag I was photographing actually did.

After lunch we returned to the market and took a few more photos. I took some nice photos of a grey haired vendor who was sitting alongside his stall smoking a cigarette. But he refused to accept any payment and seemed content with being the centre of attention for 1/200 of a second.

At about 2:00pm we returned to the hotel. It is warm and humid (83˚F and feels like 99˚F according to the internet) and even the Balinese say it is hot. The sky is clear with no clouds but just a gentle breeze.
Had a message on my computer from Yande Ardana, when we returned, confirming our 4:00am start tomorrow.
At about 4:00pm we had afternoon tea alongside the pool. This is included in the cost of the room.

Then at about 6:30pm we went out to dinner at the Havana Cafe. This restaurant was recommended to us by a couple of Australians while standing in the queue waiting to get through customs. Rib eye steak and chips was Rp110,000, a small Bintang beer Rp28,000 and a can of sprite Rp16,000. Then there was a 5% service charge and a 10% tax which brought the bill up to Rp304,920.

Friday 9th. May 2014
Yande was outside the Hotel at 4:00am as agreed. We drove through the darkness for about an hour and a half before arriving at the Ulun Danu Temple complex on lake Bratan, Bedugul. Soon after the sun began to rise and we took photos around the complex and island until about 7:30am

We then headed off to Lake Tamblingam. Here we were paddled out to a pontoon in a dugout double canoe by one of the local women. We took photos of the temple on the lake's edge. At about 9:00am we drove back up the hill to a cafe overlooking both Lake Tamblingam and Lake Buyan. We had a light breafast which included Balinese coffee, which is similar to Turkish coffee complete with grounds in the bottom of the cup.

We then continued our journey to the Git Git falls and took more photos.

At about midday we stopped for a few minutes at a Muslim market not far from Bedugul.

From here we continued past a couple of weddings as we headed to the Jatiluwih Rice Fields. These are spectacular. We were surprised by the young age of many of the motorcycle drivers. Some of these kids hardly looked 10 years old and yet they were riding on the public roads.

We eventually arrived back at our hotel at about 3:30pm. and had afternoon tea to make up for the lunch we didn't have.
Had dinner at the Canti Grill Bar just across the road from the hotel. Shared a large Nasi Goreng and had a small Bintang beer each. All up cost including taxes (21.5%) was Rp220,000.

These and other photos can be found HERE