Home...

Gosh, well sorry, it really has been ages since the last update and there was a very good reason for this. We were going to fly to Singapore to renew visas and then decided that actually it seemed silly to pay all that money for just a few extra weeks and so we decided to move our return flights and come home a few weeks early...but we didn't tell anyone so that we could suprise our family and friends.

We left Bali and flew to Hong Kong, we were only able to stay 1 night there and then the next morning flew out bright and early to Heathrow. Hong Kong was amazing and super efficient. The hotel was great and Sam loved the fact that there was a remote control panel which did everything, radio, lights, curtaing, heat etc.

We arrived in Heathrow and were picked up by Jess and Al (who were in on the whole thing) and they drove us to Leeds where we suprised my parents. After a couple of days getting over jet lag (and them getting over the shock) we drove to Bristol and dropped Sam with his Dad. We have spent the last few days moving back into the house and settling back in.

We are all very happy to be home. It has been amazing travelling together and we have enjoyed every day (well, pretty much every day) and have amazing memeories which will carry with us always. Probably it will take a while for it all to sink in, particularly for Sam, but I think we have learned alot, about the world, about each other and about ourselves.

Thanks everyone for following theblog and your support along the way. I would definately recommend that this is something that everyone who has ever dreamed of travelling does (especially with a child). It's a truly amazing experience but...it's lovely to be home and if there's one thing travelling the world has taught me it's that I have the best friends and family ... literally in the whole wide world.

Over and out...Ruth Will and Sam xxxx

Sorry it's been so long...

Well it has been a long time since the last update, this is mainly due to Jess and Al being here and then moving back to Legian to meet up with the Vallenders. The past few weeks have felt more like being on holiday than travelling the world. It was brilliant to see Jess and Al and very sad to see them leave. I'm glad they came now and not in the middle of the trip because I think it would have made us pretty upset to have said goodbye to them knowing we wouldn't be seeing them again for months but as it is it's only a few weeks.

Sam had an amazing time playing table tennis with Al and his departure was softened by the arrival of the Vallenders and he has had an amazing time with them, spending a day at the water park, wandering the streets buying gifts and videos, eating loads of bad stuff...the usual 13 year old day to day activities.

We are all starting to wind down now as we think about heading home in a few weeks. Next week we will fly to Singapore and then back into Bali for a couple of weeks as we need to renew the visa. Half of us is really excited about coming back (I think Sam is even looking forward to going back to school!!) and half will be really sad to leave behind our nomadic lifestyle. I could quite happily move on to China or somewhere and spend another couple of months getting to know the country but there you go...instead it's homeward bound and there's lots of exciting things to look forward to when we get back.

It's a quick update today as yesterday I managed to get the dreaded Bali Belly and spent the whole day on the loo (lovely) actually it wasn't too bad as we have heard horror stories of people vomiting and sweating and shaking etc and fortunately I was spared all that. I now have anti-biotics and rehydration sachets which have made me feel much better and now I just feel a bit weak and pathetic...Will try and get back into the updating swing for the last few weeks and will update tomorrow.

Jess and Al

Well we have had a lovely time in Sanur with Jess and Al. It's strange being on holiday with people as we have been away for a year but not 'on holiday'. We have had to re-train our brains to think actually it's ok to spend more than £3.50 on lunch, it won't bankrupt us, but it's a hard habit to break after being so careful with money for so long. So we are allowing ourselves to splash out and last night had dinner and spent £5.00 instead (it nearly killed us!!). I'm kidding, it's been brilliant to lounge around the pool, playing ping pong and chatting about stuff. Jess says it's like we have been in the Big Brother House, as we have no idea what's been going on England and that side of the world generally. On an evening we have been partaking in a few cocktails (and beer for the boys, and milkshakes for Sam) and then we go out for dinner. We are usually in bed by 10pm and feel really guilty about making Jess and Al go to bed so early (until we found out that they want to go to bed that early).

We have had a couple of touristy days. Yesterday we went to the water park and Sam, Will and Al went on all the rides whilst me and Jess found sun loungers and had a lovely massage, bliss. Then we showed them the delights of Kuta and all the crazy people trying to drag you into shops. Jess is tryingto get her head around the bartering system but hates it because she feels like she's robbing people, I keep trying to say that it's what they expect you to do, it's all part of the system, but she still hates it. Anyway, they are both relieved we are staying in sleepy Sanur instead of Krazy Kuta. Today we went to Turtle Island which is a turtle sanctuary. Some bits were a bit suspect, we went to one place where there were big pools of turtles, and you fed them sea weed but the people had you cornered and kind of made you buy souvenirs, it felt really awkward, but we bought something from them anyway, it was a shame because it took away from the experience of seeing the turtles and you didn't learn much about the conservation so I'm not sure just how much good they are actually doing, or weather it's just another way to extract money from tourists (but maybe I have just become a bit cynical.) After this we went to see a temple and that was brilliant because everyone had to wear sarongs...yes, even, Will, Al and Sam and they looked hilarious.

So it's been great having Jess and Al to stay. Next step is to look for some cheap flights to Singapore for our Visa extension, probably around the 15th July. Hopefully we will fly out and then back into Bali the next day.

Pic attached of Sam surfing in Balian.

Sanur

Finally we are in Sanur with Jess, can't believe they are finally here. They had a great flight and weren't too jet lagged when they arrived so we went to a warrung and had squid and cocktails. A drink I have been looking forward to for months.

Sanur itself is like a quiet Legian. Much more touristy than Balian but not as busy as Legian. The hotel is as you would expect. A big complex with two pools and a spa. The rooms are nice and big and quiet on a night time. We don't have breakfast included here but if you walk to the beach, which the hotel backs onto there is a walkway and this is studded with more warrungs. Breakfast in the hotel costs more for one person then for three meals in the local places.

Sam is super excited to see Jess and it was great for us because throughout the trip he has remained fairly quiet about his adventures and so we weren't sure just how much he had absorbed but last night we couldn't shut him up. He told them about the Macchu Picchu, describing the journey in great detail, and the time he caught a fish and cooked it and ate it himself in Dongorra, which is just North of Perth, and the time in Corindi when he learned to skate board and on and on...even the waitresses came to listen... and then he showed everyone the magic trick he learned in Nicaragua and told of the time he showed it to the Japanese surfing team. And me and Will thought, well, maybe he was taking it all in after all.

Today will be spent lounging by the pool reading books, playing table tennis and water polo and perhaps a spot of yoga.

Picture of our beaautiful balcony in the Beach House at Balian.

Leaving Balian

Well, you can all rest easy, we are not about to be arrested and thrown into a Balinese prison. I called the passport office today and hurrah, the passports are in and ready for collection tomorrow... and as if that wasn't enough, we are on our way to Sanur tomorrow to meet up with Jess and Al. Sam as you can imagine is the most excited child in the world. Will is also very excited, but can't stop thinking about what he is going to do when we get back home, build houses, build vans etc etc... The other good news of the day is that we weren't savaged by mozzies last night. Our bed has a temporary kind of mozzie net (with a few holes) but the spare net we brought came in handy as we rigged it above the bed.

The balinese cottage we are in now is gorgeous. It's constructed from bamboo and beautiful Balinese wood with a kind of thatched roof and it overlooks the pool. It also has a little open aired hut to the side, kind of a platform and you can sit cross legged on cushions and play a traditional instrument which looks a bit like a glockenspiel and is called a gamelan. Sam sits there cross legged and plays amazing tunes (well kind of amazing and kind of cross legged). Sadly we had our last yoga lesson with the lovely Maureen today. It has been really nice learning a different style of yoga (she teaches Hatha yoga which is less intense that the yoga we do in Bristol) and has been brilliant for keeping us chilled and opening up our hips!!

So all in all, we will be very sad to leave Balian but are equally looking forward to our new adventures in Sanur and catching up with Jess and Al.

Pic attached of the gorgeous Sammy.

Subconscious working overtime...

I don’t know if it’s because we are on the home straight but I seem to be visited by moments of ridiculous anxiety at the moment. Let me give you an example. When we drove to Balian, Sam kind of hiccupped in the car, ‘was that a hiccup?’ I asked. ‘No, It was just a strange sort of noise,’ he replied. Of course I spent the rest of the journey convinced that he had developed tourets due to the trauma of being taken around the world... obviously he doesn’t heave tourets and hasn’t madeany more strange hiccupping sounds.

Last night I woke up at about 3am and started worrying about the passports (which are still with the agency who are renewing our visa). Our visa was due for renewal yesterday and last nights thoughts went something like this: ‘I bet they’ve lost our visas and passports...that means we are now over our visa period and we have no passports. What if we don’t get our passports back and they have lost them and then they will charge us £100 per day per person for overstaying. Perhaps then we will get put in Balinese prison...then all our friends and family back home will have to go to the media to get us released...no, don’t be silly... but what if they do? I’ll call the British embassy and meet them. They will have a nice cool, air conditioned building and I will drink tea with the official and explain our situation...but he will be corrupt and make us go to prison unless we pay a massive amount of money to them. Then we will miss our flights home and have to pay for new flights but we won’t have any money... and maybe they will give us a temporary passport but they won’t let us use it in Hong Kong and aaaaaarghhhhhh.....

As you can imagine it was a restless nights sleep and with the light of day came Will’s logic which seemed much more reasonable. That we had taken them to a reputable agency and he was sure it would be fine. And, if it wasn’t then we would deal with it at the time. Rather than worrying about it now. So there you are, although I am cool calm, chilled and collected in Bali, there seems to be something bubbling under the surface in my subconscience. Perhaps it was watching Bowling For Colmbine before bed, which was a brilliant and disturbing documentary. Sam was riveted and was surprised by a) the coverage of the plane flying into the twin towers which he hadn’t seen before and b) Just how stupid George W actually is. It was good to watch with Sam as he had some perspective on the documentary having met an American in Guatamala who sleeps with his gun under his pillow and having seen the devestation that the US has inflicted on Central and South America first hand.

Tonight is our last night in the Beach House and we move to another villa by the river for the next two nights. This is also two bedrooms but is built in a more traditional style and the bathroom is partially open air...hmmm open air by the river, I think it could be a mozzie fest...still there are nets over the beds so we should be ok. Only three days now until Jess and Al arrive.

Peaceful

It's difficult to describe how gorgeous Balian is. We have been here for nearly a week now and the days are just flying by. The hotel is run by a lady called Tati (although hotel is the wrong word to describe this place as it's more a series of cottages) she is a gorgeous, welcoming, silver haired Javanese lady who is obviously adored by all the people who work for her. In fact we love it so much here that we are not checking out tomorrow but have booked to stay for an extra week. Perhaps if I describe the walk to the internet cafe it will help you to experience the place.

Leaving the house you walk out onto a windy road which is probably about 2k and winds up to the main road. Along the way you pass banana trees growing on the side of the road with kites attached to them to scare of the birds. Behind the banana trees are terraces of rice fields just like you see in the films and men and women work in the fields wearing the pyramidal straw woven hats. As you walk up the road there are small Balinese houses each with a little offering of flowers and incence burning outside. The Hindu offering to the gods. And the people here are so gentle and each one greets you with a Hello and a wide cheery smile. It highlights even more the contrast between the busy streets of Legian and the peaceful village life enjoyed here. It feels incredibly safe and welcoming and you get the feeling that if you stopped to chat people would invite you in for a drink in their homes. Every so often a motorbike passes driven by an 80 year old and his family or a 14 year old and his brothers and sisters. They don't go fast so even that feels quite safe. And of course all of this is punctuated by tall palm trees and the occassional fat looking cow standing in the field.

Our days are steady. We have breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruit and then Sam does his school work. After this we walk the 2 minutes to the sea and Sam has a surf - the swell is pretty big here and he is doing really well. Then me and Will go to yoga for an hour and a half and Sam watched a DVD in the house. After this we are usually starving and go to 'Toms Garden Cafe' for Balinese food (my favourite is the fish curry). It's a great place to end the trip and I would recommend everyone to come here.

The picture attached is of a monkey sat on the temple wall that we went to in Uluwatu at sunset. Only 7 days til Jess and Al get here....