bali batik...

forgot to share the photos from the batik gallery...


totally fascinating!

"it looks like a screensaver!"

we watched couples retreat right before we left singapore and this quote kept popping into my mind when we got to sanur beach. i really don't have much to say about this part of our trip, except that we had a traditional balinese couples' massage for like $40 total (where hot hot hot spice mask is slathered all over your body and left to dry) the massage part was fantastic...but my skin didn't find the mask all that relaxing. Boone loved it, though.

the photos just say everything else...







everything except about the food. so, sanur also has tons and tons of small warungs, or food stalls along the beach. we drank bintang beer and sampled some piping hot roasted corn on the cob. (one slathered in butter, the other in sweet chili sauce. again, i tried something a little too hot for me).







it was a perfect beach vacation unlike any other i've ever had. if only destin or pensacola would get some seafood stalls or bars on their beaches...

seeing the sights...

our second full day took us on a tour of bali... i think almost everyone who hires a driver and doesn't give explicit directions goes on this trip. not only did we see all of the temples, but we also visited some rice terraces (since the region isn't flat, they've got to grow rice in stairsteps. eat your heart out, mississippi delta)




we visited a peak where we could see the volcanoes...


and had lunch there. ;)


we drove through coffee and fruit farms next to teeny villages and visited a fruitstand to try fresh balinese oranges (see below) which actually tastes like a giant lime, mangosteens, and something else that tasted like a giant grape but looked like a porcupine.


and we visited a lovely waterfall and made some adorable friends.



it was a great day... and the next day, we went to the beach! i still can't get over that all of this was on the same island.

holy moly...

the first morning in ubud we wandered into a temple to check out the architecture. no one was around and it felt sort of strange to walk into a holy place without being invited. but later that night we went back to the same temple to see a traditional kecak dance and fire trance ceremony, which were both incredible.





i ended up sitting next to the most adorable couple from malaysia on their honeymoon.. in fact, as BEAUTIFUL, gorgeous, idyllic as bali was, i almost enjoyed all the travelers we met more. earlier in our hotel we met a couple from new zealand who were on their way to india to visit their daughter who had founded an organization there like this one. he was also an energy healer and had imported organic vegetables to NZ before his retirement. after we hashed out the oil spill and economic crisis with them, the topic turned to aliens and having children.

we also had three taxi drivers named norman and met this guy when we went down to the beach... apparently he's a pretty big deal in the world of tropical architecture. he was 32 sheets to the wind when we met him sitting in a local bar in sanur. he told us stories of bob dylan, the eagles, surfing in hawaii, and his multiple indonesian wives. we thought about inviting him to dinner since we were enjoying his stories so much, but he seemed pretty content to sit and drink with the locals in the place (who he said were in the balinese mob). The day before we met him we'd traveled around the island with one of the normans. first we visited pura titra empul, a holy spring where local people bathe.




then we came across the temple at gua gajah, or the elephant cave... not only is it a hindu temple dedicated to ganesha, but also is the site of a destroyed 11th century buddist temple.


inside this cave where little crevices for meditation.

our "guide" who slept above the cave and also claimed to be a guardian of the site led us to the site of the Buddhist temple. it had been destroyed and covered by a rice field until the 1950s when it was rediscovered. gua gajah was my favorite spot on the island... the combination of the green moss, lush trees, bodhi tree, and flowing water really gave me the feeling we were in a holy place.

bali hai...

if you've read the book "Eat, Pray, Love" by elizabeth gilbert, then you've heard of our first stop in bali.... ubud. it's a small artist community/village filled the the brim with galleries, hindu temples, tourist villas, and beautiful vistas. in fact, THIS was the view we had out of the front door of our cottage.




gorgeous, right? i couldn't get over how green and cool everything was around the village. then just up the path to the lobby you came across this small place to make offerings (small spots to make offerings are EVERYWHERE in ubud)

see? one of these was outside of every single shop door, and you had to sidestep them if you didn't want to crush them.

more on the temples and offering places later... ;) stay tuned!