Kasia on her travels: Finding Nemo (again)

I am writing this ode to Bali sat in Siem Reap in Cambodia, full of a stinky cold whilst sweating like a goodun in the heat. Now I've painted that beautiful image for you I shall proceed to ramble on, in the usual fashion.

The month on Bali went all to fast for my liking. In a recent exchange on FB I declared it my favourite place on earth. It is so far anyway. It truly is a magical island paradise, as long as you avoid Kuta that is. My last few days, ignoring the one before I flew out that I spent in cacky Kuta were an absolute joy. I made my way to the North of the Island to a small village called Pemuteran to do some more diving. It was quiet, gorgeous and there were baby turtles. Hooray!

The diving was excellent, on my first dive in Pemuteran bay I saw TWO white tipped reef sharks. Simply AMAZING. The divemaster did the shark sign (you know hand on head like fin) and I laughed out through my regulator thinking it was a joke before realising there were two actual, real, live sharks right in front of us. WOW. They were actually rather cute and being very lazy just hanging around on the sea floor, lurking. I lost count of the other types of fish I saw but it did include Nemo again, he does get around. Then on my day trip to Menjangan Island to dive the Menjangan Wall I saw lots more firsts, eels, barracuda, a shoal of open jaw baby tuna, an octopus and Pygmy seahorses to name but a few. The seahorses were seriously tiny and so cute. I was also followed by a large and very curious Bat fish. Which also kept making me laugh. All in all, excellent diving and I definitely want to go back there and do more.

On my last day in Pemuteran before getting back in a mini van to go up over the mountains I went to the turtle hatchery on the beach to release a baby turtle. I'd been along a couple of days before to see them and found out if you turned up early enough in the morning and made a small donation you could release a baby turtle into the sea. It really was a very special and cool moment to watch the little dude take his or her first tentative steps towards the water and then swim off into the big blue. I immediately wanted to go back and release all the babies!

So now I'm in Siem Reap ready to go all Tomb Raider stylee at the temples but right now I'm missing Bali. Missing the amazingly friendly people, the beauty of the country, the joy in the temples and the offerings, the lovely chilled out vibe that just is Bali and also the Frangipani. They were everywhere and very often tucked behind people's ears, men included. It always made me smile. Ah lovely Bali I WILL be back, soon I hope.