Bali

One of the weirdest things for us upon our arrival in Bali was the realization that neither of us had ever set foot in the Southern Hemisphere. Combined, we have been on the earth for 59 years, but somehow neither of us had ever been in the southern half of the world.  We will also now remain in the Southern Hemisphere for pretty much the rest of our international travels.

Aside from allowing us to check "Go to Southern Hemisphere" off our bucket lists, there was a ton of cool stuff in Bali.  We spent our first three days in Ubud, which was kinda of like the Indonesian version of Fairfax (or Berkeley for those that are unfamiliar with Fairfax). There are Yoga studios and vegan restaurants and it has a more laid back vibe than you typically find in an Asian city. We spent our first day just walking around the city and took a trip to the Monkey Forest, which is home to over 300 monkeys.  The monkeys just kind of roam free and you get to walk through the forest with them. We were pretty careful since we had heard stories of the monkeys stealing people's backpacks, phones, wallets and cameras and there is an average of three monkey bites per day. We stood back and watched as other people fed the monkeys, which usually consisted of someone offering one banana to a monkey and then another monkey sneaking up behind them and stealing their whole bushel. Pretty entertaining overall.

      Mama and baby

  This monkey was really enjoying himself

      Trying to keep a good distance 

The next day we woke up at 2:15 to climb Mt. Batur for the sunrise. Mt. Batur is a volcano that is the second highest mountain in Bali at a little under 6,000 feet. The climb in the dark was really cool, as we could see down to all the lights on in the little villages surrounding Mt. Batur. We arrived at the top in time for the sunrise, but unfortunately the fog rolled in so we couldn't see too much.  We did get some nice views in the light on the way back down.  After we left Mt. Batur we went to a coffee plantation where they make Kopi Luwak, which is the most expensive coffee in the world. The coffee is made from beans that have been eaten by Luwak cats. After the cats are done with them, the beans are washed (so they tell us anyway), peeled and then processed to make the coffee.  We couldn't really taste the difference and I think it is really more the novelty of it that makes it so expensive. It was very much needed though after the 2:15 wake up call and hike.

     At the crater's edge

     We made it to the top! 

    View coming down from Mt Batur

    Mt Batur from below

    Rice terraces at the base of the mountain

    On the way down

 Coffee and tea tasting- my fav was the coconut coffee

       Luwak

    The most expensive cup of coffee- not too impressed

Our last day in Ubud we went rafting on the Ayung River. It was a really spectacular river canyon.  Very lush with steep walls and tons of waterfalls flowing into it.  The river was narrow and rocky, but there were some big drops and decent class three rapids. Our guide was excellent, assuming that his goal was to hit every single rock as hard as possible.

    Getting ready to raft the Ayung River

    Ayung River

    Waterfall along the river- I got photobombed!

We left Ubud and headed towards the beach.  The two main options for the beach were Kuta (19 year old Australians, tranvestite protitutes and drugs) or Sanur (lots of Nordic people in their 70's). Even though it probably makes for less interesting blogging, we headed to Sanur. Our hotel in Sanur was excellent and we even got an upgrade (cue upgrade dance). We spent one day just relaxing on the beach where the equatorial sun gave us some punishing sunburns (not surprisingly all the elder Nordic people on the beach with us had skin that looked like really old footballs).

    Sunset at Sanur Beach

    Full Moon on Sanur

    Bryce enjoying the upgraded room

The next day we took a glass bottom boat out to the reef and went snorkeling, which was really awesome. Saw bunch of familiar fish (morish idols, angelfish, parrotfish) and a bunch of new fish as well. We took a boat ride to turtle island, which is a turtle rescue place and got to feed the turtles and then we went parasailing, which was also really fun. 

     Snorkle Selfie

      Really cool coral reef not too far below

      Not sure what type of fish this was but it looked like a trumpet fish

     Exploring the depths of the sea 

      Up close and personal

     Green Sea Turtle

      Being swarmed by sea turtles 

              Last night in Sanur

We ate tons of good food and really loaded up on seafood when we were out at the beach. You can sit right on the beach and have a delicious seafood dinner with drinks for under $20. We will definitely miss how far our money went while in Bali, Thailand and Laos.  We will miss the amazing food, friendly people and beautiful scenery as well.  There are, however a few things that we aren't missing about Asia quite so much since our arrival in New Zealand:

- The Air: Once you get outside the cities it is fine, but the air pollution is crazy. There are so many cars and motorbikes on the road and I don't think that emission standards is really a thing.

- Lack of Sidewalks: Some places had them, but a lot of the time you are just on a street.  Usually a narrow street with cars, buses, motorbikes, other pedestrians, dogs and maybe someone who just set up there motorcycle fruit stand. The biggest problem with all that is that it can make it difficult to explore places on foot, which we really like to do.

- Humidity: We spent most of the time we were not inside an air conditioned room sweating like crazy. In Ubud our room didn't have AC and I think we probably lost ten pounds of water weight every night.

- Constant Solicitation: You want taxi? A Massage? Come look in my shop? Heroin? New kidney? I respect that people gotta hustle to make a living so it's hard to complain, but let's just say that we won't miss it. I think I might even try it when I'm back in the states. You want cash flow? Balance sheet? Heroin?

So that's it. One whole month of our trip, one whole month in Asia. Don't think we could have had a better time and looking forward to our month in New Zealand.

Lots of love,

Bryce and Gina