Beautiful Bali - Part 2

One afternoon we had tea at the cafe and watched girls make offerings made out of flowers, moss and some kind of leaves. They gave these to the guests. We have seen these offerings and other kinds all around the resort and in the town of Ubud. Since we don't share the same belief, I put them on the window sill in our villa to be admired only for their beauty.

Ubud is known for their hillside rice fields. So we chose to go on a walking tour led by the resort activities guide. It was a small group of about six people. He led us through a couple of small villages, remote country homesteads and vast rice fields. There should have been a waiver form for all of us to sign by stating that this walk was advanced, crazy level. Walking through the village roads was a breeze, but then we found ourselves traipsing through muddy, slippery, extremely narrow hillsides with steep drop offs and nothing to hang on to except the person in front. People in our group were working as a team to help everyone get over these hills. There was someone in front reaching a hand to help me up the hill and a hand pushing my rear from the back. (It was Kevin, so that's OK). Anyone else would have been thrown off the cliff! One guy in front of me started to slip on mud and slide down toward me. Great!! I was bracing myself for impact and being thrown off the hillside falling into thick brush and pigs. Thankfully, he caught his footing just in time.

Chicken peering at us from above

 Sure-footed villagers working on steep hill

Bravely walking across another bamboo bridge

Rice fields

 

There are dogs roaming all around Bali. These dogs are property dogs, not pets. They guard houses and property from intruders. They roam around freely, but stay close to the owner's property, while looking homeless and skinny. They tugged at my heart strings. It started to rain, just to make our walk even more wet and slippery, so we all ducked into a rice field shack for cover. A puppy was there and didn't know what to do about all of us invading his territory. He let out a howl-like, squeaky bark but quickly stopped when he discovered Kevin's shoes. He started licking his wet shoes over and over. This little guy had plenty of water, with all the puddles around, and a bowl of white rice to eat. It was time to move on before he got attached to Kevin, or vice versa.

There are scooters and motorcycles everywhere in Bali. That is the common form of transportation. Families of three or four people would ride on one scooter. Most of the houses we passed by on the road had a combination ramp and stairs in front. The ramp was for driving their scooters up and down from their property. Very clever.

We walked by what appeared to be a small school or group assembly of some kind. I noticed a few girls looking at us, and I waived to them. A bunch of them waived back. These people are very friendly. I noticed that most of the people have serious expressions on their faces until I caught the eye of someone and smiled at them. They would always flash a big smile right back.

Gated entrance to a residence or temple

We went into the touristy town of Ubud to look around and do some shopping. We made the mistake of bringing two large umbrellas with the resort's name on it. All the taxi drivers spotted us and bugged us continually about wanting to give us a ride back to the resort. How it works is that there are salesmen all over the streets offering, or actually harassing, passerbyes their taxi services. If you're interested, you tell them where your going and they give a price quote. These taxis are not metered. You agree on a set price, then they call for their taxi driver to come and pick you up where you stand. That's great if you want to go back to the resort. But we just wanted to walk around for a few hours and shop. They still aggressively approached us at every turn, especially with the Ubud Hanging Gardens umbrellas. That won't happen again.

Restaurant overlooking a temple

Since we arrived at Bali, we have been eating authentic Indonesian food, and really enjoying it. But when when came upon this Starbucks, we had to stop in and get a latte. Yum! I've never seen a Starbucks with a gong in front. Pretty cool!

There are some really nice handcrafted things available in Bali. Hand carved wood, jewelry, batik sarongs, Balinese puppet dolls, etc. There are also some serious bargains. The street market is rows upon rows on many streets of everything imaginable. We almost collapsed from heat stroke while wandering through these market stalls. Haggling is expected. I'm not all that comfortable with haggling, but I had to pick up on it quickly if I wanted to pay a fair price for something. 

One thing I did pick up in Ubud was a nasty stomach bug. I guess I ate or drank something contaminated. I got so sick that night, which was the night before we went back home, and was nauseated the whole day traveling home. Yuk! I'm glad it happened the last day instead of at the beginning of our trip. Lesson learned! I will never drink anything with ice or that doesn't come from a bottle while traveling out here. I was also told to stay away from salad and produce that is washed in tap water. It is safe to eat peelable fruits, but no fruits with the skin. It's also a good idea to brush your teeth and rinse using bottled water. No more iced tea for me on trips!

Hand carved Balinese dancer mask

We had a great trip in Bali and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, friendly people and delicious food. We even learned a few words in Bahasa, the language spoken in Indonesia. Terima kasih (thank you) for reading my blog post on Bali. Have blessed day!

Beautiful Bali - Part 1

I know that quite some time has gone by since Christmas, but this is my chance to finally talk about our special time in Bali, Indonesia. We stayed at Ubud Hanging Gardens the week before Christmas. This was our first time ever visiting a place in December wearing flip flops and shorts.

We chose a resort in Ubud, which is in the mountains and some distance away from the beaches. We wanted a mountain top, jungle experience with the monkeys. When we arrived at the resort around midnight, we were warmly greeted by the staff wearing Indonesian sarongs and embroidered tunics.  We were taken to our small villa by a hillside venicular. This fun little mode of transportation carries guests to different levels at the resort. Villas, main pool, restaurants and gift shop were on different levels.

Front entrance view looking down toward gift shop

Venicular

Entrance to our villa

All the villas have their own infinity pool for private swimming, and the view from the pool was nothing but dense tropical foliage as far as the eye could see. While swimming one afternoon, we did spot a monkey high up in a tree near us. We didn't have any bananas to entice him to come down.

Our pool looking toward cafe

View from our pool

Kevin relaxing under hut by pool

Inside the villa was an elegant bed surrounded by white mosquito netting. I thought the netting was a romantic touch. I quickly found out that it was there for a reason. I saw mosquitoes trying to get in every night, and other little creepy crawlies hanging on the outside staring at us like we were a tempting blood meal. It got pitch dark in the room like no other darkness I ever experienced. So, when I was tempted to get up in the middle of the night to visit the loo, I thought twice about leaving my safe little shelter in the netted cave. In the morning, all the little creepies were gone. Where they go....I don't know. I don't want to know.

Bed with mosquito netting

View looking toward the pool villas

Backside of our villa

Infinity pools overlooking temple

Relaxing at the resort lounge

We learned about a walking trail on the resort property that we decided to embark on. We love hiking. No problem, we thought. Well, it started off easy by riding in the shuttle which dropped us off at a temple where the trail started. We walked onto the temple grounds, and this little old guy came out of a dark and mossy corner and greeted us. I think he was the temple guard or a relic who lived there. He attempted to give us a history lesson on the temple. There are many Hindu temples in Bali, and this one was right on the resort grounds. Men and women need to wear sarongs (long, wrapped skirts) when entering a temple. Before we left for our walk, we got a lesson on how to put on a sarong from two resort staff members. Tying a sarong is involved and the steps are different for men and women.

Temple view from resort

Entrance to temple

Resort view from temple

We started our decent down the slippery temple stairs to the beginning of the "trail". The little path was covered with wet leaves and moss and was hardly noticeable. We felt like explorers from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". So we walked on grabbing tree branches and using umbrellas as walking sticks to keep us from tumbling down overgrown, spider web infested cliffs. We walked down very steep stone steps on a narrow winding path. We passed several little shrines with remnants of moldy fruit and soggy flowers left as offerings by villagers. It was quiet and creepy trying to get down the hillside.

When we thought our hiking adventure was coming to a close while approaching the resort, we spotted one more challenge.....a super narrow bamboo bridge hanging over the river. We had to cross it. No turning back. Thankfully we both have good balance and don't have trouble with heights. I was a little tense, carefully crossing the bridge with only one handrail, while envisioning jungle people blowing poisonous darts at me from behind. But all is good. We made it alive.

Kevin claiming victory after crossing the bridge

While recovering from our jungle hike, we relaxed at the deck watching local village girls perform Balinese dance. They were in training for professional dance when they get older. They were all so cute, but the girl in pink and white quickly became my favorite to watch. She had such expressive eyes and a pretty smile.

Tune in next time for Beautiful Bali Part 2...

April Already?!

It's already April and so much has been going on here. I'm sure that's pretty obvious since my last post was in January! I have some serious catch up to do. My Mom was really tired of seeing the Christmas page and asked, "Now...when are you going to do a new blog post??" It's much more relaxing for Mom to read everything that is going on in our lives than listening to my speed talking. I've been known to wear people out when I get excited talking about something, and go on and on without breathing. So, sit down, relax with a cup of coffee or tea, and enjoy the relaxing written word.

Kevin has been extremely busy with project planning at his work. He's gone out to lunch and dinner a few times with his managers and team to unload some of the stress. He's been asked to face new eating adventures head on, like fish head soup. He hasn't tried it yet, but was told that he needs to eat the eyeballs. Nothing goes to waste. That's disgusting!!! But people seem to like it. One company lunch outing celebrated the Chinese New Year salad toss. There were many large round tables with about 12 people each. Ten courses were served, and the first course was a large salad which everyone tossed together. They all reached into the bowl using over sized chopsticks tossing all the ingredients into the air, over and over again. The salad tossing ritual is only done during Chinese New Year to "gather prosperity" for the upcoming year.

Salad bowl before the tossing action

Some salad tossing action                                                                           

I've been going to Pilates reformer classes twice a week since December and I really enjoy it. I would love to train at a Pilates school somewhere and become a certified instructor when I return home someday. My Mom loves that idea. Private lessons! The Pilates studio is located in the central business district close to Kevin's office. I walk by some interesting buildings near the studio. There is a Chinese temple that people place burning incense sticks by the entrance. The incense has a really strong smell that's a little too much for me. I have discovered that you miss a lot if you don't look up. I was waiting for my bus one day to go home, and looked up across the street and noticed an unusual, massive apartment building that looked like a Borg space ship. (OK...so I'm a Star Trek fan)

Inside the studio

Seng Wong Beo Temple
 

 Massive apartment building (center platforms are walkways with gardens)

I was recently invited to join someone for an hour long aerobics outdoor class. I thought no problem. I've done aerobic exercise before. (oh boy) There were about 100 people in an outdoor pavilion overlooking the Singapore River. I thought this looked like fun. I knew I was in trouble when I was already feeling the heat and humidity before we started. The workout was intense choreographed aerobics and kickboxing to loud, upbeat music. Tourists were walking by taking our pictures and watching. I never sweated so much in my life! I should have been given a T shirt saying, "I survived the aerobics/kickboxing insane boot camp!" It was a great heart pounding workout, but I think I'll stick with Pilates for now.

I have also been busy with weekly Bible study and ESL (English as a Second Language) ministry for women at our church. I have been helping with interviewing new students by testing their English comprehension and placing them in the appropriate English level. Over 200 women are taught English and Bible stories each week. There is no cost for the English classes and childcare, and no advertising is done. They seem to hear about it by word of mouth, and new ladies join every week. There are long waiting lists for almost all the levels. I just started to teach my own class of 19 ladies who are mostly from Japan, Malaysia, China, and Korea. It's a new and exciting challenge for me, since I've never been an ESL teacher before.

Adorable pictures of our pampered pooch