Infiniti pool, Surfing, Yoga, and BBQ Fish....BALI!!!

Bali was like a double edge sword depending on which town we stayed in. On one hand there were beautiful beaches, mountains and scenery. And on the other hand there were crowded streets and too many touts selling anything and everything under the sun. It is a little unfortunate because the people there are just trying to make a living, but it got tiresome being hounded endlessly on the street.

One of the towns that reflects the first statement is Kuta. We ended up heading a bit further north to Seminyak which had some nice shops and cafes, but lacked in the beach and character department. After just one day we ended up booking two nights at Blue Point Bay Villas on the southern tip of Bali. One of the reasons we booked this particular hotel is because Shaun had insisted on staying at a hotel with an infinity pool before leaving Southeast Asia. This place delivered! The infinity pool was two hundred feet up on a cliff overlooking the ocean. We spent most of our time either in the pool or the surrounding deck. From here we could look down at the surfers catching waves or watch the sun set behind the clouds while drinking a beer and listening to Bob Marley on loop.

The second reason we chose this place was because it was close to Jimbaran Beach which is renowned for its seafood feasts directly on the beach. The one thing that we didn't realize was that Jimbaran Beach was too far to walk. So we ended up renting a motorbike for $4/day. This was all well and good until we had to drive in the rain and Shaun had a very minor accident by 'nudging' another motorbike in front of him. After this run in we drove to all the surrounding beaches including Panang Panang and Dreamland Beach before eating lunch on "small" Jimbaran. Note to others visiting Bali - the seafood on "small" Jimbaran is MUCH cheaper and just the same as that sold on Jimbaran Beach. The feast we had was UNBELIEVABLE! It included jumbo prawns served with 6 different homemade sauces, spicy greens, a bucket of white rice and fruit for desert. It was so good we made a pact that we had to return before leaving Bali.

Our next destination, and perhaps one of our favorites of the entire trip was the small mountain village of Ubud. We booked a hotel in advance which was located slightly outside of town up on the ridge overlooking the rice terraces. It was a very nice setting however it lacked some in the hygiene department. When we returned home from dinner the first night we had some unexpected visitors in our room that left a little surprise on the floor next to Rayanns bag. This was a little too much for us to handle. A quick side note should be that after spending 2 months in very budget accommodation we were now willing to pay a few extra dollars to not have to deal with this sort of thing.

So the next day we did some bungalow searching and found a little place called Samas Cottages. It was conveniently located right in the middle of the town and was nice and clean. We called it home for three nights, and could have easily stayed another three. We walked around town for a while on the day we moved into Samas and ended up buying a couple of tickets to a cultural fire show put on by the locals. As we were buying the tickets from a nice street vendor the sky opened up and it began to pour on us. Thankfully the ticket vendor had an umbrella handy and offered it to us while we went and got lunch up the street. We decided on the first warung (cheap food restaurant) we saw up a side alley. It ended up being some of the best and cheapest food we got in Ubud. The Nasi Goreng (fried rice), mie goreng (fried noodles) and lumpia (egg rolls) were all very good.

After drying off and changing into dry clothes we headed over to the fire show which had to be moved inside because of all the rain. This did not affect the outcome at all, as about a hundred local performers put on an unforgettable show. One of the highlights had to have been that all of them would sing and hum each making a different sound for the entire show. But when all of their different sounds came together it was like listening to a concert. I still find myself humming their songs to myself.

Now that we had a motorbike for the next few days we decided to visit the outlying volcanoes located on the island. We bit off a little more that we could chew as our first volcano was very tricky to find and not very well marked. We ended up driving nearly to the top of the volcano only to come to a dead end. About half way up we were flagged down by this old priest who was sitting by a prayer area. He started giving us incense and flowers and having us pray before throwing some water in our faces. This was all fun before he told us that we couldn't leave until we paid him a 'donation' of $10. He was not happy with the $5 donation we provided. Greedy old man!! Another highlight, or lowlight I guess you could say was on our way down when the brakes on the bike went out! The road was extremely steep and we weren't going to chance riding down without brakes. Sooo, we got off and began walking the 200 pound bike down the mountain. Not fun. But after about 10 minutes of being dragged down the street holding onto the bike the brakes decided to start working again. Cautiously we got back on and slowly made our way back to town. The trip was not in vain though as we did climb to the top of the temple that we located at the end of the road and got some awesome views of the volcano and great country scenery.

View of the rice fields



View of the volcanos behind us

 It was to bed early for the both of us, which has been our moto the entire trip. We had to be ready for our 'relax day' which began early in the morning with Yoga class at 7am. The yoga studio that we went to was set back off the road in a quiet garden setting. Apparently it was one of the more popular ones in town as our class was full with around 15 people. The yoga that we chose to do was a name that neither of us can remember, but was supposedly one of their beginner types. Shaun did not think so as there were some pretty intense poses throughout the morning, challenging even the advanced yoga goers in the room. Once we completed our yoga session we went back to Sama Cottages for a quick rest before heading up the street to our second activity of the day: a spa afternoon. The spa we chose was located directly on the river so when we got our massages the sound of the running river put us right to sleep. After the 2-hour long massage/yogurt therapy/flower bath we lounged around the facilities which included steam rooms, saunas and hot/cold pools. We hopped between all of the pools for about 2 hours before we were completely water logged and called it quits.

Massage chairs

We headed off to the small port town of Padang Bai, mainly because it was the primary port for ferry's leaving for Lombok. Surprisingly, we ended up really enjoying the beaches & hospitality that the small 2-street town had to offer. On the day we arrived, we decided to head to one of the 2 beaches in the area - blue lagoon. It was only a 15 minute walk from town and the beach boasted some of the best snorkelling on the island! We spent the afternoon swimming, exploring and sun bathing until our hands and feet were pruned from the water. The following day we headed to the "white sand beach", but not after we took a walk to the black sand beach first. Unfortunatly, the black sand beach was one we could enjoy from afar, because the mid-day sun made it too hot to stand/walk on the beach. The white sand beach however, was walkable and swimable. Here we posted for the day under a tree while we body surfed the majority of the afternoon. Since Thailand barely had any waves on it's beaches, we were ecstatic to be doding the waves in the water.

White sand beach, Padang Bai

That evening we took the recommendation by the locals and ate a small warung by the side of the street called "Margaritas". Here we tasted some of the best seafood and local Balinese dishes yet. Margarita herself was one of the nicest Balinese women we have met yet. She explained how she had only been open for a year and was trying to make some money so that her daughter could go become a veternarian. After leaving Padang Bai, we agreed that we could easily do another couple nights there the next time we return!
Link to pictures:  https://picasaweb.google.com/rayann.torres/Bali#

We also posted some additional pics in the Northern Thailand album and posted the album from Bukit Luwang. Enjoy!
https://picasaweb.google.com/rayann.torres/NorthernThailand#
https://picasaweb.google.com/rayann.torres/BukitLuwang#

Needless to say, it was extremely tough to say goodbye to Ubud :(