last day

We are just sitting around waiting for our driver to take us to the airport! I cant believe the trip is over, it went so quickly. Yesterday and today we just took advantage of our vacation and were extremely lazy. It was very nice . We're anxious and excited to get home and back to real life ( and I think our stomachs would appreciate our normal food!).

the flight home is actually shorter by 2 hours ( hurray!). Hopefully it goes as smoothly as our trip out here. We both decided to not go into work on wednesday so we could have a day to recover/adjust to the time difference.

Here are some observations about Bali:

1) the people here are so nice. As a tourist you never feel unsafe or like you are intruding, they are always friendly and smiling even in the worst traffic.

2) the food here is very vegetarian friendly. I never had trouble finding something delicious and vegetarian on a menu. I wish America was like this!

3) Everybody here smokes. I mean, EVERYBODY. Its funny because the brand of cigarettes here is "L.A cool" and nobody in L.A would ever be caught dead smoking in public!

4) The big american brands here are KFC, McDonalds, and Oreo's. They are very popular and dominate a lot of the advertisements here.

5) Traffic rules are really more of a suggestion here. Almost everybody rides scooters and it can be quite chaotic during rush hour.

6) There are lots of stray/wild dogs that are roaming the streets. The balinese people seem to treat them fine, but they are not domesticated pets.

7) The food here does not have any cheese/dairy in it! We realized this on about day 7-8 when we were just feeling so "blah" and were craving american food. I admit we headed straight to the hard rock cafe and ordered nachos that day. They were delicious. We are ashamed.

8) Nobody here really "tips". Dining at even nice restaurants, there was no tip line and nobody expected or asked for one on any of our excursions/tours.

9) There is extreme poverty here. However, unlike some places where you feel like you're in the slums it just seems like a way of life here. People seem very content and spiritual and somehow that makes the poverty seem not as bad.

10) The pollution seems to be getting bad here. Trash is piling up on beaches/water/streets and there seems to be no concept or concern for keeping things clean. We did see some fires in backyards/sides of streets which lead me to think that the balinese burn their household trash so maybe its just the tourists, but its very sad.

11) The hardest thing about staying in the Villa was the language barrier between us and the staff. It was hard to express to them what we wanted to do or eat because they weren't very well versed in english. It was definitely interesting and I think good to get outside of our comfort zone for a little bit but it was frustrating at times.

12) Nowhere takes USD. We're used to traveling to mexico or the Caribbean where everywhere will accept usd but not here! We had to stop several times to get our money changed which was not hard as there are money changers everywhere.

13) Bali was a great place for our honeymoon. It was the perfect mix of tropical relaxation and exotic cultural exploration. This is the first time i've ever been anywhere this culturally different, and I'm glad I picked Bali. The culture and people here are beautiful and simple and it was enjoyable getting to see that.

Shopping and Dance performance

Yesterday we decided to go shopping for some mementos to bring back to the states with us. Our driver dropped us off in Kuta and we walked around for about 2 hours. Kuta has everything from fake purses to gorgeous linens. We ended up getting a really cool indian looking table runner and 6 placemats as well as these really comfortable shoes by Sanuk which have a flip flop base but are actual close toed shoes. Maybe this will help me wear close toes shoes more. probably not!

At night we went back to the Uluwatu temple for their dance performance. This was so cool! I didnt get many great pictures but the entire performance is done at an ampitheater that overlooks the ocean. The performance was at 6pm, so it was perfect timing to watch the sunset.

We love balinese food, but 9 days of meat with sauces and rice can take a toll! We were just craving some american food. Namely, Cheese. The balinese really dont use cheese in anything and I think we both really missed it in our diet. Our driver took us to a "warung" that is popular with the surfers because of its pizza. We got a whole pizza, garlic bread, and a piece of chocolate cake for 50,000 Rupiees ( equivalent of like $5.00 USD). We brought it back to the villa with us and ate it in bed while watching " I am Legend". It was nice to have a "normal" night like we do back home on our vacation.

Today is the last day of our honeymoon! We originally had planned to go back up to Ubud and do a bike tour through the mountains, but at the last minute we decided we'd rather just spend the day totally relaxed at our villa. So we ordered 3 hours of spa treatments! We have to leave for the airport around noon tomorrow and then we'll begin our long trip home.

I cant wait to see Finnegan!!

cruise

Yesterday we took a sailboat to the island of Lembogan about 2 hours away from Bali. The cruise started out fine. We opted to take a gorgeous sailboat which took a little longer to get to the island but was more upscale and not as huge as the "fun boat' carrying about 200+ people. That was a mistake! About 20 minutes into the cruise I felt myself getting a little dizzy. Then the weather started to get really bad just as we were hitting some huge waves. For the remainder of the trip my sole focus was the horizon and making sure i didnt need to use the barf bag. It was not very fun or pleasant. By the time we got to the island, we found nice chairs by the pool and promptly passed out. The island was very pretty, but the cruise ended up taking us to their "beach club" which reminded us a lot of the cruise ship beach clubs in the carribean. We'd skip this excursion if we could do it all over again. There were tons of kids and a huge group of tourists all wearing the same outfits. Needless to say, I insisted we get a spot on the high speed ocean raft for our return trip. At about 4:30 we left the island and had a very nice and quick ride back to Bali.

For dinner our chef made us "tumeric rice" with prawns, fried bean curd, potatoes, and sauteed green beans. This was one of the best dinners we've had here ! For dessert was a coconut crepe. So good! We get to take a balinese cook book home with us, so maybe i can try to recreate some of these recipes back at home. We've never cooked much rice but after this trip I think we have a new appreciation for it.

I think the hardest part about being away from home for this long is missing your normal diet of food. We Love the balinese food but i think tonight we'll have him make us pizza or something simple! We have become big fans of toast for breakfast. They sell loaves of toast here with the crust already cut off. Genius!

Rock bar was as cool as i thought it would be! It was very crowded though because apparently there is a 400 person wedding at the resort this weekend. Yikes!! The resort was so gorgeous, i would love to stay there! The rooms start at $700USD so maybe in another life! For now we are just content to drink and eat there.

After rock bar we went to dinner on the sand at the resorts seafood restaurant. Chris had surf and turf and i had amazing tuna! We've also become obsessed with Lychee's on this trip and had many lychee mojitos and bellinis last night. I'll definitely be continuing this trend when we get back to the states!

Today we're off to an island cruise. There is a small island off bali called Lembongan. We are sailing over there on a sailboat and will spend the day at a small beach club there. Once on the island we can snorkel, go banana boating, and explore the local villages.

I cant believe we only have 3 days left here! I thought i'd be ready to go home by day 10, but really I think we could stay another week.

Just some recent pictures....

Uluwatu Temple, Padang Padang, and Jimbaran Bay

This morning we went to the Uluwatu temple. This is one of the most gorgeous temples on the entire island and its easy to see why! The temple is perched atop a cliff with crashing waves below. The temple is also inhabited by tons of monkeys! We had to remove our sunglasses and make sure our bags were closed because apparently these monkeys have been known to steal things. They looked pretty cute to me. We also saw about 8 puppies and their momma. It was cute but kind of sad since I just recently learned that the dog population in Bali isnt very well taken care of and lots of them have rabies.

All people entering the temple must wear a sarong and sash , which were given to us at the front. We are so glad we came in the early morning when it was still quiet and empty. Apparently the temple can get very crowded with tourists.

Our driver told us about a secret white sand beach close to the temple called "padang padang". We climbed down the many steps to get to the very tiny but beautiful beach. This is where a scene from Eat, Pray, Love was filmed apparently. We stayed here for about 1 hour watching the surfers. I think the secret is out though because we saw quite a few tourists mixed in with the locals.

For lunch we decided to head to Jimbaran bay for their famous seafood meals. We had an amazing meal right on the sand. I tried to ignore the smell of fish, but it was quite strong! Chris had prawns and I had an amazing vegetable and noodle dish. The food here is awesome and great for vegetarians.

Tonight we will be heading to Rock Bar at the ritz carleton. I've been looking forward to this for some time, the bar looks awesome. It literally hangs off a cliff. If the Ritz is anything like the St. Regis, I'm sure we're in for a good time. Tomorrow is our cruise to the island of Lombok, right off Bali.

Yoga and Shopping in Seminyak

This morning we started off the day with a Yoga class at Prana Yoga in Seminyak. It was a very tough class! The already sweltering room left chris and I drenched about 10 minutes into it. We started off the class with some very intense vinyasa's. The instructor went so fast - but it was great! The middle of class was spent stretching and doing core work. The last 30 minutes were spent only on breathing. It was interesting and great at the same time! I would love to find a class like this in LA when we get back. The Prana complex is really gorgeous and has a very moroccan vibe to it. After yoga we walked around the shopping town of Seminyak. They have very upscale stores and boutiques. Most of it was far too expensive for us to buy ( similar to prices at Bloomingdales) ,but I really enjoyed looking at the unique high end styles and designer clothing. It is so interesting and I would love to come back to the states with some of the unique pieces. Chris ended up finding a very soft shirt at " Pegasus" which will be a nice reminder of our trip. After spending the afternoon in the village of Seminyak we retired to our villa for the remainder of the day. We decided to order in sushi for dinner. Sushi in LA is much better:)