We drove to Kuta and met with friends who have agreed to be our sponsors - this will mean that we do not have to leave the country (fly) to extend our stay. A fact that I am very glad about!!!! The cost is 550000Rp each - about 30 pounds each. We have also had to change our return flight dates at a cost of 56 pounds in total - so adding this together we have paid out 160 pounds to save on the stress. This means we have also made a good saving financially as it would have cost us about 300 pounds to fly in and out plus another 90 pounds for new 60 day visas and at least a three to four day stop over in Malaysia. So as of the 19th of July we will be here on an Indonesian Social Visa - valid for up to six months.

When we were in Kuta we decided to look for Cathy and Steve as they had emailed to say they could not get a room at the Hotel Lusa and were now booked into Kumala 2 across the road. We booked into Lusa and were lucky enough to get a room. The last few times we have visited Kuta and needed to stay over we have always manage to get a room but it has been a close call as the hotel always seems to be so busy. I enquired about Cathy and Steve at Kumala only to be told that they had checked out that morning and moved over the road to Lusa. I found out their room number from the Lusa staff and slipped a note under their door. Later that afternoon we bumped into the two of them returning from a trip to the surf breaks around Uluwatu. It was so lovely to see Cathy the last time was three months or so ago. The last few times we had spoken were rushed conversations at work about planning for our respective trips. So here we were at long last… meeting in Bali. We all had dinner together that evening and stayed up after for a few beers with Christian a local book seller in Kuta. Then we met up again for a brief time the next day by the swimming pool before Gavin, Tehya and I left for Balian. I gave Steve directions and we agreed to see each other again at Oble’s. I was very excited there was something very special about seeing Cathy again and I was really keen to get to spend more time with them both.