After wonderful two (two too short!) weeks travelling with my brother , a bali virgin around the island we had some interesting adventures. We did (Jubawa Homestay - Pemarutan) Menjangan Island (wonderful snorkelling and bailing the boat as fast as the waves were awashing into the boat) , (Villa Agung at Anturan (Lovina) full moon ceremony, Mengwi temple still had large spectacular colourful rice offerings on show, Ubud (Sama's Cottages and a 35 km bike ride to the beach and back - coming up on the gradual gradiant to Ubud requires mostly low gear!), Padang Bai beachfront has been 'cleaned up' and now has 3 hotels with swimming pools and newly built warungs at Blue Lagoon - getting rescued from underneath a balinese 'scrum' when a man went into a trance at a community street dance performance and landed on top of me) and a pub crawl in Padang Bai, sailing at Candi Dasa, surviving a return visit to Besakih Mother Temple - last visit was in 1980, seeing the spectacular scenery of the Sideman area - a real must for those who want to see what I consider one the best rice terracing areas in Bali, Sanur (Besakih Hotel and sailing in Sanur) and seeing the reaction of my brother when we finally got to Kuta, made for a very varied and interesting trip. We ate at warungs that specialised in different types of dishes en route with our driver Nyoman (Alex) Oka and also revisited a few favourite restaurants as well as experiencing 'new' ones I hadn't been to before. At S & S on Friday night met Whoopee, Anniswan, Chris and Bali Bob and Smudge, and Sammy and Suzie are well. Still unpacking bag and finding out what teen Sam has been up to while I was away (going to motorbike school and got his motorbike licence while mum's away!). Please ask any questions and I'll try to answer them as soon as I can (or email me) ... will do JBR's as usual, hopefully it won't take me as long as usual. Saw 15 tourists at Menjangan, none at Singaraja until we got to Ubud, quite a few there, mainly european/asian tourists, 20 on white beach at Padang Bai, 18 at Blue Lagoon at Padang Bai, quite a lot at Sanur and Kuta saw the most I have seen since Jan 2003. Hardly any rain, other than on the 31st December when some rain (nowhere near a tropical downpour) and very windy for 2 days, only a few drops yesterday, not humid at all. Jetstar plane was basically full capacity on way over and also coming back.