Bali in pictures

T and I spent a delightful Christmas and New Year in Bali. Here's a recap of the holiday in piccies, with the exception of Ubud, where all our pics were taken with T's Blackberry, which got swiped by someone not very Christmasy.

Sanur and Tulamben where we became certified PADI Open Water Divers. Took 15 years for me to get round to this.

After Sanur, we were supposed to climb Rinjani mountain, but I stubbed my toe and-was-sure-it-was-broken (still is), so we went to Gili Islands instead. Tough change in plan. To keep up the "activity" component of the holiday, we became "Advanced" PADI divers. Saw a shark, and became attached to squids. I am now a squidatarian.

Christmas day was spent on Gili Air, recovering...

...and making friends with fish.

Next stop, Ubud. PIC STOLEN BY UNCHRISTMASY PERSON. The pic that would have gone here would have showed the rice fields, temples, trendy bars, getting massages, riding around on a Vespa and the Maya Ubud hotel.

Puri Jimbaran. Days spent swimming, bodyboarding and drinking mango mojitos.

Uluwatu. Where real surfers go, and wannabes watch.

Travel tips for anyone who might want a second opinion after TripAdvisor.

Sanur: Stay at Hyatt Bali which has pretty standard rooms but delicious brekkie. Learn to dive at Crystal Divers.

Gili Tranwangan Island: Dream Village is the place. Run by an eccentric Italian with a pet monkey. Learn to dive at Trawangan Dive.

Ubud: Stay at Maya Ubud, which is cheaper than the Four Seasons but with the same comfort and joy. Eat at Ibu Oka for the best suckling pig on earth ever.

Jimbaran: Splash out at Puri Jimbaran. It's not cheap, but it has deals on its website. Drink their mojitos and chomp up their pain au chocolate in the morning. Dine off the fresh lobster and snapper at any of the Warung on the beach.

Paradise in a not-so-remote spot

Hong Kong is so close to nature, yet it's so easy to forget it's there. The other day I was walking round Central, the originally named centre of the financial district, and had the most terribly sore feet - the humidity here seems to give you blisters from even the tamest of shoes (aka my loyal flip flops). As I'd already gone into two coffee shops to recover from endless hours of flat hunting, I decided to venture 5 minutes from the roaring traffic into Hong Kong Park.

Hong Kong Park

Now, at first glance, the park is nothing to write home about. But, upon sitting still on a bench in the Tai-Chi quarter, which seems to be a popular siesta spot, given the people sitting/leaning around me; an unconscious backpacker, what looked like a banker (given his pink shirt, crisply ironed suit trousers and incredibly pointy shoes), and a snoozing granny, I noticed that I was surrounded by birds. And these were no ordinary birds - parakeets, green parrots, budgie type things, midnight blue pigeons with white spots on their heads.. you name it, every tropical bird was there. Even those white ones with the yellow hairdo that walk up and down the branch sideways. I've only actually seen those birds in cages and noted how they do that odd walk, like they're making sure not to fall. Well they do the same in the wild. There's also an aviary, but I gave that a miss.

Carp and Birds

The other paradise next door is Lamma Island. Half an hour ferry from Central and you're suddenly on what looks like a Greek island. I have to admit that we went at night, and so all I can say is that it looked like a Greek island in the dark. It was so nice to get away, though, and it made me realise how little time we take to really take a break - even if it's for a minute.

I've noticed that the Hong Kong locals are always taking small breaks - sleeping on the bus, rolling their shoulders while driving, doing Tai-Chi on their terraces (I have a full view of our ancient neighbour every morning as she does her morning rituals)... I've left that long behind, and think that checking my emails on my phone is a break - wrong!

The neighbour's morning routine

So, now when I'm feeling frazzled, I'm going to try and sit still for 15 seconds, close my eyes and think of nothing... shouldn't be too hard!

I hear you can get into trouble for pulling pics from the web, so thank you http://members.shaw.ca/alanjstewart/taichi.html for the tai-chi pic!