The Beautiful Paradise: BALI

As I was going through our pictures, we have a GIANT gap between mid-January to mid-April, but it only took me a split second to remember why: that was the BUSIEST, CRAZIEST four months of our lives. I will not recap here, but needless to say, despite a few highlights with our amazing friends, we were in DESPERATE need of respite due to the operational tempo at both of our work places (it doesn't help that I was covering two full time positions, and three other positions part time, NO JOKE).




Anyway, the GREAT news is this craziness inspired us to commit to a vacation with our Okinawa Besties, the Figueroa's! And Bali found its way to the top of the list. Here are the highlights!

We had a chant going the whole trip: "BA-LI, BA-LI, BA-LI!!!"

Day One: The Spa.

The spa we found (on Trip Advisor, where else?!) was amazing. It was out in the middle of rice fields, super cheap and super wonderful. We tried ear candling for the first time and actually liked it!

After the spa, we spent the remainder of the day in downtown Ubud, which included a walk through the monkey park. Of course, you're not supposed to touch them, but what could I do if I just happened to be near one and it wanted to be held? :)

This is what I mean by "downtown". It was dangerous for pedestrians AND drivers. The way they handle the roads and traffic in Bali is INSANE.

We found an amazing Cuban restaurant for dinner and I caught this stunning, picture of Jose and Drucie impressing us with their incredible Salsa moves! Joel can do the Sloppy Swish and I can only do interpretive dance, so we are not even close to the same caliber as them in the dancing arena!

The next day, we took an amazing bike ride through the mountains and through the oldest Balinese community on the island. That's actually a volcano in the picture!

This is gross to our American sensibilities, but the Balinese people in this community believe that their children will grow up and stay close to home if they hang their placenta in a coconut in the forest for one year.  In addition, they will not let their child touch the floor for a year! They are always being held, in a chair, or in bed.

Still at the beginning of the ride here, so our bums weren't sore yet, LOL.

Somebody's happy to have FRESH guava!

A local Balinese man carving items to sell in town.

Joel looks so cute, but sadly this is a fighting cock.:-/

So beautiful!

The bike ride ended at the Elephant Park where we were crowned by a local.

The second half of the day involved a rafting trip - it was the Fig's first so we let them sit in the front.



Taking a break with some cool rock carvings along the river.

Day three involved a city tour with our own, personal driver, Gusti. He was very informative and drove like a crazy Balinese man (like everyone else on the road, LOL).

We stopped at a coffee plantation and Drucie helped with the roasting.

We sampled all types of coffee and tea... to include the Kopi Luwak coffee.

I fell in love with one of the domesticated Luwaks!

There are so many famous temples in Bali, that I cannot possibly remember all of their names. But they were all gorgeous, old, picturesque, stunning, etc. etc.!

The tide was out so we were able to see this temple up close and personal (with everyone else and their mother apparently - it was busy!)

Photo bombed by a kiddo, LOL

On our return, we passed a ceremony in action. It's incredible what these women can balance on their heads!

Day four involved a dive! It was a shore dive to a sunken ship and It. Was. So. Cool!

Hangin' with some rays...



All three of us have different diving styles, LOL

"Hey, buddy..."



We caught sight of a barracuda!

If you were wondering where Drucie was while we were diving, well, THIS is where. :)

Our magazine ad pose. Who wants us to be their models? :-p

This temple required us to wear wraps around our waists, males and females. They were provided at the entrance and totally didn't match my outfit that day, he he.

Stunning cliffs and a perfect day for site seeing!



We spent so many fun nights having dinner out in Ubud. There are so many delicious restaurants that we wound up hopping from one to another to another and having a course at each so we could enjoy as many as possible!

Our last night, we spend at Urbana (a restaurant we liked so much we went twice!)



The Urbana staff made this for us - they treated us like royalty and were so excited to see us when we came back the second time.

We would go back to Indonesia in a HEARTBEAT. Thank you, Bali, for the memories at such a needed point in our lives. And thank YOU, Fig's, for being such wonderful friends - we have had some amazing experiences together!