On the road again...

Well, it's been a crazy start to a new semester.

Bali with Ally & Sally - Went to Ubud for 3 days. It's more in the centre with lots of temples, traditional dancing and rice paddies. Did some white water rafting and a bike tour. The bike tour took us all the way up to see an active volcanoe with a beautiful lake view. We went to a place where they make super expensive coffee ($50 a cup, they use luwak, cute little possum like animals that eat the coffee and the bean is then collected in the...well, maybe you know what I mean). Had never seen how pineapples grow before. And we were invited into a balinese compound. The compounds are where they live as a family...like ALL the family. In-laws and everything. It was very interesting. The balinese are really friendly and relaxed. It's great. The food is delicious as well, although I did have a bit of an upset stomach on our first night in Legian, not so cool.

So the rest of the week was in Legian, near Kuta. Lots of beaching, eating, surfing (Ally and I managed to break 3 fins between us though, it was very shallow :P ), cheap massages and a few nights out. Highlights - Lembonganan Island, it was beautiful and the boat trip was much fun & Balinese cooking class, $10 US for an absolute feast and the balinese food is delicious. So many ingredients I'd never heard of before. Was great.

Was sad to see Sally go home but the arrival in Malaysia has been exciting.

Arrived here with Ally on Thursday. We're in a four bedroom, furnished, air-con (very important in this humidity) apartment living with 2 other guys. James, fellow Aussie (there are heaps of them around, it's ridiculous) and Craig, South African IT nerd. Both lovely. Ally and I arrived first so we got the best rooms. We've even got a kitchen with large fridge, 2 stoves!, microwave, even a TV.

Lots of fellow monashers in Casa Subang (the apartment block, it's in Sunway about 20 mintues out of KL although that is really dependent on traffic). We're literally all over the place. Met a lot of them last night in Chinatown. Had delicious dinner and then went to a beatles bar...yes, they only play the beatles. We have a pool as well, not really convenient for lap swimming though which is really weird because it is absolutely massive so it seems a bit like a waste of space.

Good food places at the Casa to eat at. It's so cheap. Meals with drinks for $3 easily. You can also get free maccas delivery here which I think is a real novelty. Laundromat downstairs is cheap too but I'll refrain from giving them any clothes I really like...they already shrunk a top and some shorts...sooo disappointed.

Oh yes...Quarantine was cancelled. I think the swine flu spread too far in Malaysia anyway so we just have to be careful and make sure we're not sick basically. So O Week starts tomorrow. Looking forward to checking out the campus. Looks a bit annoying to get to. We can see it from our window but there's a massive highway to cross which makes it complicated...we'll see.

If you want to check out photos...http://picasaweb.google.com/alrodriguez87/BaliMayhem#

Love to all

xoxo