Land of Gods, Celebrations and Offerings

We returned from Bali this week and the kids seem to have a hard time adjusting back to this time zone. The Balinese remain a humble people with people dressed up making offerings to the Gods and taking part in traditional ceremonies all over. Despite the huge western influence they still manage to keep their traditions alive. We had a lovely driver for a number of days from Ubud called Aka. It makes for a much more relaxed holiday knowing you are in safe hands that are not trying to rip you off constantly or to take you on a ride. We began in Ubud with relaxing experiences and true luxury helped with lovely pools and Balinese gardens, and jungle animals on our doorstep (well OK some inside our doorstep too). Then on to Lake Bratan and Lovina where the volcanic pumice lays over the beach and swelters in the heat of the day. Saw dolphins and great snorkelling with Charlotte including a national park in the far North West. Rubbish remains a huge issue for the Indonesian to deal with especially at the national park. We did our bit though collecting a whole basketful from the water. Travelling south we stopped at Munduk high in the mountains to enjoy a refreshing drink in the cool with spectacular views that would only otherwise be seen from an aeroplane. Down to Depassar we visted a local shopping centre and seemed to hit the childrens shoe dept area before visiting an orphanage dedicated to a lady who died in the Bali bombings years ago. The orphanage had numerous western visitors but they appreciated the milk, fruit from the mountains (driver got much better price than when they saw us) and rice (they have enough stock for years really). The orphanage was really well run and all the kids well fed much different to the one we visited in Ho Chi Minh City. We then had a couple of nights in Kuta (the western shopping area in reality) but stayed in the locals area just an alley walk down from the start of the westernised area. Kids had great fun at a local rides centre (so cheap when you base it on their currency). And found a terrific little restaurant highly recommened on trip advisor Guris Guris (lime lime) for our last delicious dinner. Will sorely miss those banana shakes, mixed fruit drinks and the banana or pineapple pancakes for breakfast. Breakfast at Alam Jiwa saw us through until afternoon tea with gorgeous fruits and coffee to boot. Girls telling me home has the 'boring breakfast'... have to agree with that. Grandpa had a ball and mentioned to him that most people his age if still going would be sitting up in a nursing home talking of their ailments rather than chasing dolphins.....haven't downloaded the pics yet.

Pertinent questions

Lotus has been trying to work out the Santa thing lately. Questions in the car: Do reindeer have tails? Ans: yes little one like a deer. But how do they fly when they don't have wings? Ans: (tough one) it is magic Another time: How can santa come to our place as we don't have a chimney? Ans: It is magic he comes down the heater flu. This kid is going to have it worked out well before I informed her sister - and at this rate it might be next year even before she goes to school!!

More pics

Shanghai - beautiful pics abound

But they don't show you how many tour groups squeeze down the tiny streets that lead to the Bund. This was an in your face culture shock after coming from the West.

Where to begin... we are home

More pics castle / Warwick

It would have been good to have used the Ipad to capture what it was like in the dungeon. Given I was racing through the castle (8 hours sightseeing of England before departure) I was often the only one or first into an area of the castle. Check out the pull the cord toilet (now if you went to China people take pics of the squat toilet). Speaking of which Charlotte's school did a tour of China and returned just recently. The Chinese teacher said she went to the squat toilet (pit type) with her IPhone 4 in her pocket... put it this way she now has the IPhone 5 on order after giving up getting the owner to search the trenches!! Eeeck.... Warwick Castle was beautiful and Oxford was beautiful (wish I had more time to do the walking tours) and of course the English countryside greenery near the conference was beautiful, although away from that area it was dryer. Any Merlin lovers would love the tower. Given I have girls that are fearful of fantasy I was a bit lacking in my knowledge but the show was good.

Warwick Castle

The girls would have loved this place although they would have needed to go to the Princess Castle whilst mummy checked out a few of the gory scenes. Got a shot of the playground that was empty.