Bali

We arrived in Bali on Sunday night and have settled in very quickly. We are staying at Villa Kubu (http://www.villakubu.com) and it is lovely. Our villa is probably as large as our apartment - and it has it's own pool. Life is good in Bali....

We can easily walk to the shops and the beach and have gone to the beach every day. At sunset it is amazing; the sun is bright orange and just sinks beyond the horizon. There is also a daily football game on the beach with some quite serious players and Jack watches with great enthusiasm and lots of comments. I think he hopes that they will invite him to play if he goes often enough.

Today we went to the kids' beloved Waterbom, the water park that made such an impression on them when we were here at Christmas. I think they went down the "Splash Down" 20 times today. I joined them twice on the thrilling, straight vertical drop and that was quite enough for me. I took a movie of the kids going down which I am sure all of you will get the opportunity to enjoy at some point.

Philip called me from Lhasa this afternoon and said that he had gotten there safely. He continues to be a bit nervous about the whole thing, but felt comforted by the fact that none of his fellow trekkers seemed to be in better shape than he is. Tomorrow he starts for base camp and the adventure really begins.

I have finally figured out how to upload images - Sam and Jack are desperate for everyone to see Splash Down!