Saturday 19th January 2008

Nikki still wasn't feeling very well when we woke up this morning - but she's a little fighter and so we went on our day out anyway. We ate our breakfast and then walked around the paddy fields to meet our guide. After quite a long drive North out of Ubud we came to our first stop, in a place called Mengwi, where we visited the Royal Family Temple. We didn't get to go into the temple, because in a few days time there is going to be a big ceremony - which they have to prepare for.

After looking around the temple our guide, Agung, drove on to the next place, which was called Bedugul - and was situated in the crater of an extinct volcano! Here we got to walk around the beautiful Botanical Gardens and then visit the Ulun Danu Temple - which is on the edge of Lake Beratan. Both seemed like the most peaceful places on earth.

This afternoon we drove further North until we reached a place called Gitgit - where they have the biggest waterfall in Northern Bali. Agung stayed behind and me and Nikki went off for an hour to find it. On the way along the path we passed loads of stalls trying their best to sell us things - we did fell sorry for them, so on the way back to the car we bought a few little things. The waterfall was very nice and we sat there for a while, just catching our breath and enjoying the scenery before walking back to the car.

Next, Agung took us to a place called Lovina where we got to visit the black sand beach and have some lunch. When we were told it was black sand we weren't expecting much, but it was actually quite pretty and the sea was lovely and warm. Unfortunately, we didn't have our swimming stuff so we could only walk in and not swim. It didn't matter though - because we were starving, so we went and had a pizza and some beers instead.

It was starting to get late now, but we continued to drive around Northern Bali. First we stopped at a place called Banjar, where we got to visit a hot spring (which turned out to be really hot and we couldn't stay in there for long) and then a place called Munduk, where the farmers harvest coffee. We couldn't see much because its the wrong time of year, but we could see the young beans on the trees. After visiting these two places we drove back to Ubud - which took an hour-and-a-half (or so i'm told, I slept most of the way).

We got back to Ubud at 7.30pm and collected the laptop from our hotel and then rushed round to the internet café to speak with Katie on Skype. She had a fun birthday, which was good, but I think it wasn't a particularly good signal because we didn't get to talk for long... stupid internet! When we'd finished and then dropped the computer back, we went for a meal in a really posh restaurant near our hotel. I really enjoyed my meal, but the portions were a bit 'poncy' and over-priced... can't really complain though - the total bill was only Rp107,000 (about £6 ha ha).

Beautiful, beautiful Bali!