The moment I've been waiting for! BEACH!

So when you think of Bali, what do you imagine. Beaches, blue water, incredible marine life, relaxation. Well we haven't done any of that so off we go to Amed!!

Now in Bali the taxi drivers are know as the "Mafia" and they go absolutely ballistic if they see tourists using Grab. Like they actually have fights and screaming matches in the streets over it. So Grab, especially in Ubud, is not very common. However neither is public transport and the taxis charge an absolute fortune to go very short distances. So we ummed and ahhed about the best way of getting to Amed and decided to try grab. We booked the grab and the driver instantly rang Will. He said just wait in your homestay and I'll message when I arrive. We were pretty nervous so we did as told and it was perfectly fine! The driver happily told us that is was all ridiculous and pointless as they sometimes have to fight and it's literally over just £1-3. He said he had lots of friends in Kuta who are security guards in clubs and that they have offered to support him if he ever needs. It's crazy! Anyway we had a lovely drive round the coast of Bali and within 2 hours we were in Amed. Wow its so beautiful and oh my goodness the view from our homestay!! The homestay was on the beach with a roofterace facing the sea and the ginormous volcano, Mount Agung which recently had a phreatic eruption (explosion of ash and smoke but no lava). Its much much hotter hear than in Ubud which is in the mountains,but also has a refreshing coastal breeze. So we read our books for a while on the roof terrace to start off the day. Then we found out we wouldn't về able to book any more night so we quickly headed out in search of another for tomorrow. Luckily we found something quickly, not on the beachfront with a roofterace but very affordable and owned by a lovely family. We then headed for lunch and the food was sooo scummy but soo big!

Next stop on our to to do list was to find a diving centre. We have NEVER dived before and I am super super excited to try. Will is very nervous but I know we will be OK. So we went to a couple of diving centers got quotes and then headed back to the homestay, via the shop for a beer, and chilled out on the roof terrace reading our books, chatting, admiring the view and finishing off by watching sunset. Finally we headed out for some yummy veggie curry dinner, read our books some more and went back on the roof terraces for some star gazing (did not realise you can't see Orion's belt, mind blowing). We saw Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto, the Crux (Southern Cross) and various other beautiful flickering stars.

(Apologies if this is boring for you but ah well) Now I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but the one thing that I love about travelling is the time you have, you have time to think, to reflect, time for yourself. So more recently we have been taking it easy, lying in if we need to, going to bed early if we want to, reading our books more and in the recent months have decided to dedicate time each day to core strength exercises and stretching for personal wellbeing. We both have slight problems when we walk lots (him in his foot and me in my knees), as we LOVE hiking we wanted to try and increase our muscles in the required areas and stretch everyday. At first we started quite light but now my exercises are getting pretty tough. Sit ups, crunches, cobras, planks, squats and stretches everyday but now in the triple digits eek! It's really tough but we are both definitely feeling stronger and more flexible from it which is amazing!! (Please don't expect me to come back super skinny as that's not my goal haha). Anyway enough of that back to normal blogging 😋Read more