BALI BALI BALI

In case you thought you'd had enough of the Asian countries, I have one more for you, Indonesia. We arrived in Bali on Wednesday (12/23) just in time for the rush of holiday travelers. Most of the the tourists that come to Bali are from Australia, so many people were surprised to hear that we came all the way from America to Bali for Christmas. hehe. Since Beth and I had been coming off a long travel day/night in Malaysia, we checked into our hotel, napped, then went to dinner. We had a reservation for the next 2 days at a very nice Resort for Christmas and wanted to rest up for the occasion.



For Christmas Eve and Day we spent most of our time enjoying the amenities of our resort (Rama Beach and Villas). We ate like kings and loved the holiday Balinese performances at the Christmas Eve Gala dinner. Relaxation and comfort is exactly what we needed before continuing on the rest of our trip.

Merry Christmas!

A pool view on Christmas Eve.

On Saturday (12/26) we made our way to the Bukit peninsula. Particularly known for its big waves, this place attracts surfers from all over the world. We came to see two things: wave riding and Uluwatu, a temple on the side of the cliffs that line coast. Beth had reserved a room at a place called Chocky's. This was one of the only places left to stay in the area due to the massive influx of holiday travelers. We took a long cab ride towards Uluwatu and had a very difficult time finding Chocky's. After many failed attempts with asking the locals where this beach side "hotel" was, we finally got ahold of the owner by phone and he gave us directions. The hotel is literally sitting on the beach and the access to the main road is about 1/2 a mile straight up a cliff. Oh well, nice leg work out. We were apparently the only ones staying at the place and when we arrived the owner gave us the loft that sits right over the beach. The room itself was not one to admire as it was very much open for critters, guess the mosquito net would have to do.

After settling in, we asked the owner to take us to the Uluwatu temple. Every night at 7 pm there is a show called the Kecak dance, which is a spiritual Balinese dance with many men formed in a circle, making all sorts of silly noises. Half the time they look like they are goofing off making these noises, and the other half looks they the are dance fighting.

A view from our room at Chockys.

At the Uluwatu Temple. Sarongs and sashes were required to enter. Notice Beth HAS her sunglasses in this picture.

HAHA. This monkey stole Beth's sunglasses (as you can see). If Beth had only listened to the guard at the front gate who said, "don't wear sunglasses, the monkey will steal them from you."

I love this picture. I snapped this while walking to the Kecak dance. I didn't realize how chill this guy looked until review my pics later. So cool.

The Kecak dance. The noises the make sounds like someone saying "kechack"

over and over again really fast.

Another mischevious monkey at sunset. This time he got some girls scrunchie.

Upon return to our hotel we were informed the power would be out half the night. Beth was NOT happy. After a couple cocktails using our headlights to watch out for critters the power came back on and enabled our fan to work - thank goodness.

The next morning we were very happy to be alive and were excited about our trip to Ubud, the culture capital of Bali. We hit the road around 9am and arrived just before noon. We were staying at a place called "T houses" which were basically a bunch of Balinese style houses that were rented out. Everything about this place was amazing. We had our own house, kitchen, outdoor shower, and swimming pool for 45 Us Dollars a night. Also included in the price was a few pets consisting of frogs in the kitchen and foot long geckos in the bedrooms, and breakfast (a maid came into to cook banana pancakes and eggs, right in front of us, at our place).

Our outdoor seating area at our house in Ubud.

Beth doing some sort of Yoga pose, I think.

A sunset view from our back yard.

We had three full days in Ubud and spent most of them relaxing and exploring the nearby towns by motorbike. One day we went to the acclaimed monkey forest where there are literally thousands of monkeys. They are all well trained and will do just about anything for a piece of food, or your water bottle. The following day we took the motorbike about an hour north to Mt. Batur to see the crater of the volcano. You can certainly see all of the solidified lava flows. Three days was definitely plenty of time on the bike. We were looking forward to tomorrow, our departure to Australia. We capped of the evening with a visit to a spa, a fish spa. What were we thinking. Our friend Adam said this was something we HAD to do. Hmm, not so much.

At Monkey Forrest in Ubud. I loved this little fella's hawk.

Beth found a huge Komodo Dragon.

At the Rice Terraces.

Another one. I found these baskets of grass quite heavy for this little man. Well, that could be because I am withering away and have zero muscle.

A night at the Fish Spa. Hundreds of tiny fish snack on the skin of your feet. The first 15 minutes were complete hell. This is not for people with really sensitive, tickelish feet, like me.