BALI

Selamat Datang! (Welcome)

The first three nights in Bali we stayed in a city called Legian. Legian is just north of Kuta, Bali's largest tourist city. We were in the ultimate location: right on the beach, away from the traffic, yet still walking distance to Kuta. Dinner in Kuta Kuta is amazing! Well, at least the shopping is amazing! I couldn't get enough! There aredoor-to-door shops for as far as you can see. Their wood carvings are expecially incredible! The prices are great, too! (Currently, $1 USD is equivalent to $9,200 Rupiah.) Michael and I got really good at bargaining! If we were only taking a vacation to Bali, I would have definitely packed an empty suitcase just to bring gifts back in.

Joy couldn't get enough of shopping!

Kuta Beach Kuta, (and Legian) also have a fantastic beach! Michael taught me how to boogie-board, and I mustadmit, I am pretty good! I now finally understand why surfers wake up at early hours to catch just one wave. The feeling of "riding a wave" all the way to the shore is amazing! The moment I caught my first wave, Michael nicknamed me "Gidget" - (surfer chick). The only part of Kuta that we did not like were all the hawkers. They are everywhere and are a major annoyance! Michael and I tried many experiments to find out how to get rid of them. Trying to be nice by saying "No thank-you" definitely does not work. In fact, it only makes things worse and encourages them more. Then, we tried adding humor into our response. For example, we sang songs but changed all the words to "No." This didn't work either. It encouraged them as well. Some would laugh, some would follow us and dance, some would join in the singing, and some would even get very angry and almost posture for a fight. The only response we found to work at least half the time was to totally ignore them. This means absolutely no eye-contact, no language, and no head movements. It is much easier said then done - trust us! The only hawkers we somewhat liked where the women on the beach wanting to give you a massage. Michael did this every morning. He would pay $3-$4 and have three Indonesian women give him an amazing massage at the same time. I got a few massages as well, in addition to the best facial I have ever had in my life! The fourth day in Bali we hired a driver to take us to Ubud. Ubud is a city located in the mountains and is an attraction for its art, music, architecture, and dance. We both really enjoyed Ubud and the drive there. We drove through many villages and rally got a feel for the culture. It was really interesting to see the people working on their beautiful landscaped rice-fields.

This picture doesn't do the rice fields justice!

Once in Ubud, we rented a motorcycle and explored the area. It is much smaller than Kuta, but still has tons of shops. My favorite part of Ubud was when we walked to the Monkey Forest Sanctuary right across from our hotel. This charming piece of the jungle is inhabited by adorable monkeys that come right up to you. Michael and I bought a bunch of bananas to feed to the monkeys. Michael tied them up onto my backpack. As soon as we entered the sanctuary, a fast monkey jumped on my back and stole the entire bunch! I don't think that I have ever jumped so high in my life. Michael is still laughing about it to this day. The monkeys loved Michael! * * * * * * * * * Yikes! From Ubud, we headed north-east to a small city called Tulamben. There, we stayed at a five-star resort called "The Emerald Tulamben Hotel." It was the only hotel we have stayed at where you must take a cable car to your room. The resort had everything from horse-back-riding to archery. We even had our very own private servants that did anything we said! stop on the way to Tulamben The major attraction in Tulamben, and really the only attraction here, is the submerged wreck of the U.S. cargo ship, "Liberty," which the Japanese sunk during WWII. We asked for a wake-up call at 7:00 A.M. so that we could get an early dive in, but were shocked when the phone rang at 5:50 A.M.! We later found out that the hotel rings every room at sunrise because you are able to see a beautiful sunrise. We must admit that we were glad to be woken up to see the sunrise because it really was awesome! The only problem was that Michael could not fall back to sleep because he was so excited to the wreck-dive. And you know what that means . . . I couldn't fall back to sleep either! Now - the dive! The ship sunk about 40 meters from the shore, so we simply walked into the water with all our scuba gear on. We swam a few meters, and then . . . all of a sudden . . . the HUGE ship appeared! Not only did we see tons of fish like a white-tip shark, a lion fish, wahoo, jack fish, angle fish, an star fish, but we were also able to swim into many of the ship's chambers. This was the fist dive I ever did that could not stop thinking about even days later. >From Tulumben, we had the choice of returning to Legian, or staying at a nice resort at Nusa Dua. We concluded that we would be bored at Nusa Dua, so we headed back to Legian. We spent the days boogie-boarding, shopping, and getting massages as usual. One night we had dinner at Jimbaran Bay. This is where all the fishermen catch their fish. You actually pick out what fish you would like to eat and they cook it for you right there. We were lucky to chose a night with a beautiful sunset to eat there. Our sunset dinner at Jimbaran Bay Michael and I had a wonderful time in Bali despite all the travel warnings in Indonesia. We would definitely like to return some day and explore some new areas. We are now off to Malaysia. We changed our airline tickets so that we would have three days in Kuala Lumpur instead of just one. Check back with us in a few more days to read about our new adventures!

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