After 9 days travelling from Manchester to Jakarta, then overland through Java to Bali, today’s been one to kick back and relax. We’ve travelled nowhere – unless you count walking around the town of Ubud, which is where we’ll be based for the next week and more. The bags can finally be unpacked for a while.

Admittedly, I’m still waking up at 06:00 every morning. For some strange reason it’s my built in default every time I come to Asia. It’s different for Dawn as she’ll still be in the arms of Morpheus for several hours more if allowed. I have to be careful so as not to disturb her – which means always leaving the sound off on my laptop for a start!

Once we finally got our acts together not long before noon we went for a stroll along the famous Monkey Forest Road in search of sustenance. It was also a chance for me to see just how much has changed since I was last here in 2017 (short answer? A lot). Having dodged monkeys and dodgy pavements we ended up at Bumi Bali, a large restaurant and bar which is sheltered from most of the traffic noise. The attentive staff soon served dishes we’d ordered from the Balinese section..

Replete, we worked off the food by exploring further as I rediscovered some old haunts whilst mourning the loss of others. To Dawn’s eyes it’s all new, so the effect was rather different. Having stretched our legs we retreated to our hotel where I couldn’t resist trying out the pool. Dawn tried an alternative relaxation outlet and used the hotel’s massage service. Dee tells me they’re very good. Well, she certainly came back relaxed, which us what matters.

After returning to Bumi Bali for our evening meal we’re now relaxing at the hotel before another hard day of doing nothing much at all. We’ve earned it. Hopefully, I’ll have loads of pictures from this trip added to my Zenfolio website tomorrow. Watch this space…

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