We spent three and a half weeks in Bali - relaxing, swimming and partying with a bit of sightseeing. It was a bit like a holiday within a holiday; after all the rushing about it was a chance to get our breath back before we hit Australia where we knew we would have to start thinking about doing some work. We had a lot of fun inspecting hotels and villas and ended up staying in five different places while we were there because there were such lovely places to stay we wanted to try them all: two in Kuta and then three at the next beach along, Seminyak. The first place we stayed was the worst of the lot and doesn’t really deserve a mention but the next four places were a real treat and one or two of them almost made us forget that we weren’t at home they were so comfortable.

There are lots of songs that have followed us around Asia but the one that has been the biggest hit is ‘Whenever, Wherever’ by Shakira. I don’t know what people at home think of Shakira but the title of this song seemed very apt to us travelling folk and since we haven’t been able to get away from it it’s become a bit of an anthem for us - in the end I had to buy the album!!!

As well as the partying in Kuta it was a nice place to stay. Busy, lots of shops and some nice restaurants such as the well-known Poppies which is a hotel that has a lovely restaurant in a garden setting - the steak and Mexican coffees tempted us back three times. We stayed in a nice hotel in Kuta, Hotel Barong. It was just a holiday hotel really and didn’t have a lot of character but it was very comfortable and had two nice swimming pools and a lovely swim up bar.