At Melbourne airport I saw three Customs and Border protection guys questioning closely two muslim women. They were looking at passports and other documents and went on for 20 minutes or so. I thought they were being over officious so I complained to the Virgin check in staff, not much response there. Later the women boarded my flight and I was thinking, gee I hope they searched them.

 Driving through Denpasar was quite a shock . Where were the people? Where were the streel vendors? Where were the scooters? Having only one other country to compare it to left Denpasar trailing in the wake of Vietnam, not that VN is what you might call an upmarket country. Parts of Denpasar looked like the rundown parts of Saigon with a fair sprinkling of crumbling weather stained buildings. The traffic moves a lot faster here as there are a lot more cars compared to VN.
We made our way through the suburbs towards Ubud and the city faded away and rice paddies and banana trees made thier appearance. My driver told me they grow bananas, mangoes, avocadoes and rice. Surely more than that but thats what he came up with. A short stop at a supermarket to buy some gin. Bombay Sapphire is a lot more expensive here. So on the reccomendation of the young Balinese sales guy I got Robinsons for $17 a bottle. I asked him twice if he had tried it thinking about the alcohol poisonings that abound here and he said he had. I'm still allive and healthy so it must be ok.
If I can upload photos, which is proving problematic, you can see I'm in a pretty nice place . The man I was recommended to owns a few villa's and the eatery pictured, Bagyu's Cafe just a few yards away. I had Nasi Goreng for lunch and it bore no resemblance to dishes of the same name I have eaten in Oz. In other words it was wonderful. Tonight I ate at a Japanese Warung (their name for a hole in the wall cafe). The Japanese lady came here on a holiday and fell in love with a Balinese and now lives here. I had a dish there of tempura chicken, it was ok but she couldn't explain the menu so I only got a small helping, oh well a meal and a Bintang for $5.60 is ok.
Had a foot massage by a lady named Martini, she was Hindu. My driver from the airport was Muslim.
Did I say it was hot here? Had a dip in the pool and the water is about 20 degrees which feels cold but when you get out within 10 you are sweating again.
Very tired after getting up at 5 this morning so this will do.