Beautiful Bali

Hello from Bali, Indonesia! 

We arrived in the evening at Bali's airport a few hours ahead of our Seattle friend and fellow traveler, Susan. When Susan arrived we headed straight to our first destination, Ubud. Ubud is known for its tarraced rice paddies, so we were all picturing a rural sort of experience. What we found was an active town, very much set up for tourists. Ubud has tons of restaurants, a big market, and over 130 massage places! 

We stayed at Jati Homestay, which consisted of several hotel-like rooms within a family compound. The compound is owned by an artist family, so there was beautiful art everywhere. Art is a big part of the culture in Bali, and everywhere we went we saw statues, paintings and wood carvings.

The population in Bail is mostly Hindu, and there were offerings to the gods on the sidwalks and everywhere. There were also tons of flowers everywhere. 

Flowers in Bali.

A tranditional offerring placed on the ground in from of homes and businesses every morning.

Ubud is the home of the Monkey Forest, a temple area full of monkeys. The locals at the Monkey Forest sold bananas to tourists and encouraged a lot of interaction with the monkeys. Upon arriving at the forest, a monkey grabbed and bit a bottle of water Mary was carrying. So we stayed a nice distant away. We witnessed a lot of very irresponsible tourism, like people handing trash and water bottles to the monkeys. The monkeys were cute, but it was a shame to see how much the tourism there shapes their lives. 

Monkey & banana.

Many of the monkeys had babies. We saw a lot of monkey family life! They group together.

Statute & offering outside a temple in the Monkey Forest.

Susan, Kendra & Mary on the bridge to one of the temples in the Monkey Forest.

Two monkeys.

Statue on top of one of the temples.

After the Monkey Forest we walked around town for a bit, checked out the markets, and got a massage. Balinese massages are amazing. We have had many massages on this trip in all different contries, and we agree Bali is the best. In many of the other places we have been, the massages are somewhat painful while they are happening, but you feel loose after. Balinese massage, while possibly less theraputic in the long run, feels good while it is happening. Its a nice way to mix it up from the bruise-inducing Thai massages!

Walking around town in Ubud in seach of our massages.

Susan & Mary pre-massage with the scrubs and oils.

On our second day in Ubud we hiked to the rice fields. It was really hot and humid, but worth the sweaty climb to see the countryside that Ubud is supposed to be all about. It was very beautiful and relaxing. We had lunch in an organic restaurant with an amazing view. 

A little friend we met on our walk to the rice paddies.

View of Ubud from the top of a hill on the way to the rice paddies. 

On the road through the rice paddies.

Rice & Palms.

There were ducks all over in the rice paddies. 

Rice, up close.

Balinese crepe at the organic restaurant in the rice paddies. The crepe tasted a bit vegetable-ish. Banana in the middle with shaved coconut and palm sugar syrup on top. Not bad.

Religious symbols in the rice paddies.

After our tour of Ubud, we hired a car to take us up north to Bedugul. In many of the countries we've travelled, we've found drivers get kickbacks when they bring their passengers to certain tourist attractions. We told our driver we wanted to go to Bedugul, and stop at one hot spring along the way. He ended up taking us to a silver factory/store, a painting house, a wood carving house, and a coffee plantation along the way. Unexpected detours, but it turned out to be a nice little day tour.

Jackfruit! The wood carving place had lots of interesting fruit trees. We were more excited about the trees than the wood carving.

Mary's favorite fruit: mangosteins. Not yet ripe, one just coming out of the flower.

The luwak coffee plantation. Luwak coffee is a Bali specialty. Luwak, or mongooses, supposedly eat the best coffee berries, so the coffee makers let them eat and then pick up their poo. They clean the undigested coffee beans out of the lewak poo and make coffee out of them.

The nocturnal lewak, resting from a long night of eating coffee beans and pooping.

Finally, a unique food we DID try! Susan & Kendra at the luwak coffee plantation.

Self explanatory.

Susan at our lunch stop, getting up into the mountains and rice fields of north Bali.

We finally made it to the hot spring! 

Bedugul is up in the mountains/large hills, near Lake Bratan. Lake Bratan has a beautiful old temple on it that is often featured on postcards and tourbook images of Bali. We stayed at a bed and breakfast type pleace called Strawberry Hill, which featured an organic strawberry farm. It was about ten degrees cooler than Ubud, and really beautiful. The flowers (which are amazing all over Bali) were especially beautiful in this region.

Breakfast at Strawberry Hill.

Our little bungalow.

Guests at the hotel were allowed to pick strawberries in the organic strawberry farm! Mary excited for strawberries.

Bedugul flowers.

We walked about 2km down a winding road to get to Lake Bratan. We walked through town, which was very small with a little market. The lake and temple were beautiful, with lots of people in the traditional lace clothing of the area. 

Mary & Susan in front of the Lake Bratan's famous temple.

A man worshiping inside one of the smaller temples in the complex.

Outside the temple.

Kids in formal dress playing at the temple playground.

In front of lake Bratan and the temple.

We spent our last night in Bedugul playing darts in the hotel restaurant/game room/bar. It was very fun and relaxing. We got up early the next day to finally hit the Bali beaches! We took a car down to Sanur, a sleepier beach area than the more famous Kuta. We wanted the relaxing expierience. Unfortunately, Susan had some food poisoning our first day there which made the day rough for her, but we still managed to go to the ocean for a bit and check out a spa. The spa scene in Sanur is not as good as Ubud, but there are still a lot of options. The beach is a bit rocky, but incredibly warm and calm due to a natural or man made barricade. The waves are crashing hard on some distant barrier, but the part for swimming closer to shore is like a bathtub. 

Kendra & Susan at the beach in Sanur.

After a final day of beach and pool, Susan had to head back to Seattle. We had a few more days in Bali, so we took a day trip to Dreamland Beach and Uluwatu. Dreamland Beach is on the west coast of Bali, the other side from Sanur. It was completely different, with huge crashing waves and smoother sand. There were tons of surfers who were fun to watch.

Cliffs above Dreamland Beach. To get down to the beach we had to walk down some precarious stone stairs. 

Kendra jumping waves at Dreamland Beach.

Uluwatu is a famous temple on the southern tip of Bali, which was once only used by royaltty as a place of worship. It is on a huge cliff and the waves crashing up against the cliff are truely magnificant. It is known as a place to watch the sunset, so we made sure to get there in time for that. The only downside was the presence vicious monkeys, but we managed to escape unscathed.

Uluwatu Temple.

Sunset at Uluwatu.

Our pictures do not do Uluwatu justice because the connecter from our camera to our iPad broke and we had to resort to iPad pictures. Our iPad is old and the camera is not great, so hopefully we find a solution shortly! The sunset was really lovely. On our last full day in Bali, we woke up at 5:30 to see the sunrise over the ocean. It was definitely worth the early wake up.

Next stop: Perth, Australia!

Singapore Sling-ing

Hello from Singapore! 

We hit the ground running for five packed days of sightseeing. We met our friend Susan from Seattle here on our first full day. Susan is traveling with us through Singapore and Bali. We are having a great time! The day she got in from her international flight, we dropped off her stuff and headed straight to Marina Bay to check out Gardens by the Bay and the Marina Bay Sands hotel.

Kendra & Susan at Gardens by the Bay, in front of the "supertrees" and dragonfly lake.

Close view of supertrees!

In the park there was an exhibit called the Cloud Forest. It was really impressive- a huge man made waterfall with four levels of gardens and information. The focus was conservation and green living.

Waterfall in the Cloud Forest.

The three of us in front of the wall garden.

After the Cloud Forest, we walked over to the Marina Bay Sands hotel. It was very pretty and fancy. Attached to the hotel is a big high end mall. We had an amazing meal at the food court. The food in Singapore is so delicious, easily the best food we've had on this trip. We were told the "hawker food," food sold in food court type arrangements, is delicous and cheap. That proved to be true. The blend of cultures here- Chinese, Indian, Malay, and more, has left Singapore with diverse and delicious food options. 

Marina Bay Sands.

Amazing handmade noodles and wontons from a hawker stand.

After dinner, we stumbled upon an incredible light and water show on the bay. It was so beautiful. Water was sprayed up to create a sort of wall, and images were projected on to the water-wall. It created beautiful, 3D-ish, vibrant images.  

*

Water and light show in Singapore.

 *This is an image pulled off of the internet. Our camera is nowhere near good enough to capture things like this in the dark, but it was too cool not to have a picture.

On our first full day in Singapore, we explored Chinatown and Little India. The population in Singapore is mostly Chinese, and the Chinatown was very fun to walk around. There was great food and shopping. 

Spotted at a healing shop in Chinatown. Use is unclear. 

Delicious traditional style coffee shop in China Town.

We spent most of our time in the Buddha Tooth Relic temple. It had a Buddhism museum, worship areas, and gardens. It is called the Tooth Relic temple because it is home to the left canine tooth of Buddah. The authenticity of the tooth is disputed, but it is housed on a solid gold stupa sorounded by gold tiles. No photos are allowed so none were taken, but you can't see the tooth anyway because it is tiny and surrounded by so much gold. 

Mary & Susan at the Buddha Tooth Relic temple in Chinatown.

Inside the Buddha Tooth Relic temple. 

Kendra & personal Buddha as determined by birth year. 

In the Orchid Garden on top of the temple.

After the temple, we walked around and Susan tried out a fish spa. We have seen a lot of fish spas during our travels, but the one in Chinatown in Singapore is supposed to be the best, with the best kind of fish. It was fun to talk to to some locals there and learn about life in Singapore. There are outrageous fines for all kinds of things, from chewing gum to littering, and they talked about how restrictive that can be. They also said they have no freedom of speech, and sedition can land you in jail from seven to twelve years without trial. 

Susan surviving the fish spa!

We went for dinner in Little India and shopped around for a bit. The clothing was lovely and the food was really good. 

Little India.

Mary checking out the clothes.

Our third day we spent almost the whole day at the zoo. We're not normally huge zoo people, but the Singapore Zoo is supposed to be one of the best in the world. It was definitely cool. There were several areas where animals roam free. When we first walked in three monkeys crossed the road in front of us! There were very few visible fences, and walking through you're eye level with the animals, and they are kept in by trenches and hidden barriers. 

Mary & polar bear friend.

White tiger.

Road crossing monkeys.

Mary, Susan & Zebras.

We learned from some backpackers on the road that Wednesday is ladies night in Singapore, and various bars offer special deals. We ended up going to Ku De Ta, which is located on the top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. It was a great opportunity to get to the top and see the view of Singapore from above!

Inside the Marina Bay Sands hotel for ladies night.

Panorama of Singapore from the top of Marina Bay Sands.

Our last major city tour day was spent at the Singapore Botanical Garden and Orchard Road. The Botanical Garden was lovely, full of tropical plants of all kinds. There were themed gardens, including a ginger garden and a historical garden.

Tropical plants & bird in the botanical garden.

Walking through the garden.

Creepy old looking trees in the history garden.

Susan & Kendra at the garden gates.

From the natural beauty of the gardens we went to Orchard Road, an insane retail hub with tons of malls and shops. From high end to to cheapy stores, It seemed Orchard Road had anything you could ever want.

Kendra in front of one of the many, many Orchard Road malls.

From Orchard Road we went to the old colonial district and checked out the Merlion, which has become a symbol of the city. It was really beautiful. The architecture in Singapore is generally cool and interesting- there is always something fun to look at. 

 Us & the Merlion.

Singapore theatre.

We finished off the day with Singapore Slings at the Raffles Hotel's Long Bar, where the drink was invented. The hotel and bar were very interesting, built in the old colonial style. The drinks were really sweet and pretty tasty.

Birthplace of Singapore Sling.

Kendra & Susan with Singapore Slings.

For our last full day, we ventured off the main island to Pulau Ubin. This island is supposed to be what the main Singapore island looked like before it became so developed, and it is basically a jungle with some wetlands and few shops and places to eat. We rented bikes and went around the island, eventually getting caught in a huge monsoonish downpour. It was fun to bike and see some nature!

Mary biking in Pulau Ubin.

Beach view.

Next stop: Bali!