Bali deliciousness

As per some of your requests...more food pictures.

Kaidyn drinks his shot of juice??? His rating- 10/10


Ribs on the menu=Kylisha happy


Bali breakfast:




The drink of choice that week (approximate number we managed to drink=60):




Lumpia:



Kylisha tries a traditional Balinese lunch:


Our new friend makes her delicious hibiscus tea (tastes like fruit punch):

Vegetable curry:


This=good:


Amanda's pumpkin and lemon grass soup (Amanda says 10/10):



Crunchy hashbrowns with a tomato salad on top:

Seafood paella 8/10:


These are traditional Indonesian satay. The meat is ground up with spices and then formed around sticks of lemon grass. They are then grilled:


Tiramisu, chocolate yogurt cake and a papaya meringue tart:


Banana fritters (not even remotely as good as the ones in Thailand)!:

7 different kinds of coffee/tea at the coffee plantation we visited. Our favourites were the ginseng and ginger varieties:


This was something Kylisha ordered and really liked. Some sort of sweet and sour chicken:

84. Buy a traditional Chinese dress

Amanda got a dress made for CNY. It was pretty hilarious to go with her to the tailor and watch her try to communicate what she wanted. The man at the store didn't speak a lick of English and there was a lot of gesturing and picture drawing. It all worked out in the end because the dress was pretty much perfect and just needed a few alterations.

Here is a pic of her and her pal Kirsten-




33 down...67 left to go!!

Bali perspectives

During the Chinese New Year holiday we spent a week in Bali. We started out with a few nights in Ubud and then headed to Changgu where we rented a villa. The villa came with a pool, a driver, and a cook who made breakfast for us every morning. It was pretty sweet. During our time there we did a little yoga, had a few massages, and toured around the island. We went to a coffee plantation. We learned how they make batik. We met some amazing people (even bartering in Bali was a pleasure..."Okay, special morning price for you. Good luck for you, good luck for me.") Since our return we've been asked over and over again whether we like Bali better or Thailand better. Here are our perspectives:

Mine:
I like Thailand better. It was cleaner and the food was better. The beaches were better, but surfing in Bali rocked!!! Would definitely go back again though. That is all.

Amanda:
When we first got to Bali we stayed in Ubud and I LOVED Ubud!!! So much!!!! It has this mystical sort of feeling. There were many statues and they were covered in moss. Everything was so green! We saw some traditional Balinese dancing in Ubud and it was incredible. I loved the vibe there and would say that if you had asked me whether I liked Ubud or Thailand better, I'd say Ubud. But, I didn't really like traveling around Bali; the traffic was awful. The water was also rougher which made swimming dangerous most of the time. I was also not a fan of all the poor stray dogs (although, Thailand also had a lot of those). Tough call...but if I had to go back to one tomorrow I think I'd choose Thailand.

Kaid:
I like Bali better because I went to the beach. I liked going to the beach because it was fun.

Kylisha:
I like Bali better. Yeah.

69. Hold a monkey-revised to feed a monkey-

After learning all about the gibbons in Thailand and how the mothers are shot in order to get the babies, we decided holding a monkey (or an ape-like a gibbon) was out of the question (sorry Kaid). But, we had heard about places in Bali where people like us can feed bananas to monkeys. One such place is Monkey Forest in Ubud. One day it was sweltering hot and we decided to check it out in order to escape the heat. It was an interesting experience. There were macaques EVERYWHERE. And, they weren't shy. Monkeys jumped on us (guess how much Kaidyn liked that) repeatedly, and tried to see what we had in our bags.




Amanda made the mistake of switching it up and feeding one a lychee she bought from the market (instead of a banana that they sold there). This resulted in the five of us making a mad dash for the nearest exit. Who knew that macaques liked lychee so much (and were able to communicate with their pals who to chase to try and get one).

One monkey was playing with a lighter and Amanda decided that it wasn't safe for him to have a lighter. She was able to convince the monkey to trade her the lighter for a banana. As the monkey had been chewing on it she should have thrown it in the trash. But, she kept it. When we returned to Macau she found it in a pocket. A health conscious individual would have thrown it away, but she didn't.

This turned out to be a good thing because the next day we took it down to "Fireworks Alley" thinking we could use it to light the awesome fireworks we purchased to celebrate Chinese New Year (stay tuned for this interesting story in another blog)!!








32 down...68 left

18. Visit rice terraces

The rice terraces in Bali are beautiful. Period.






31 down...69 left to go!!

80. Kiss a reptile

One day in Bali our driver took us to a place at Nusa Dua that had "water sports". Kaid really wanted to go snorkeling again because he loved it so much in Thailand. We ended up booking a combination tour that included snorkeling and a trip to a "turtle conservation" place. When we arrived at the place it seemed a bit sketchy. We were excited to see all the turtles, but this place was definitely not the sanctuary some members of our group expected it would be. However, before we got too deep into the "sanctuary" we got a couple of pics of the kids with a couple turtles and Kylisha kissed a little one...





30 down....70 left

67. Bali Beach

We just returned from a week in Bali and while we were there we visited 4 different beaches. The beaches in Bali are MUCH different than those in Thailand. In Bali the water is a lot rougher (which is why there are so many surfers). We also went during the rainy season, so while it only really rained one day (will post pics later so you can see the RIDICULOUS amount of rain), it was pretty cloudy most afternoons. This was probably a good thing, because even with the clouds it was HOT! Here are some pics from the beaches we checked out:

The fist beach we went to was literally crawling with crabs. Kaidyn (as you can imagine) thought this was fantastic and spent the day catching and releasing crabs:


Got the chance to surf for the first time. Watched a couple beginners and figured I didn't need a lesson, so I rented a board and gave it a shot. It actually wasn't that difficult, but it was definitely exhausting!

After a bit of riding I strutted back to the beach, confident and proud of myself. At that point Amanda burst my surfing bubble by telling me I needed to go further out for the bigger waves. I shot that down in about .3 seconds.

It would have been good to know to wear a t-shirt while surfing, because I nearly lost both nipples to board-burn!



Lynn discovered her own talent while we were at the beach: attracting hundreds of beach hawkers. At any given time I could look for Lynn and see a small crowd of people gathered around her. They would be selling her (or trying to sell her) various items or services including (but not limited to):

manicures
fresh fruit
pedicures
sarongs
ice cream
scarves
tattoos
foot massages
bracelets
magazines
necklaces
bric-a-brac
their first born (who incidentally was always named Wayan)

Lynn readily paid good Rupiah for these goods and services to lovely ladies with names such as Tina, Erica, and Lolly Pop. She supported the local economy AND got some great souvenirs and beauty treatments!


One day we went to a beach called Dreamland Beach and it was really nice.





On our last night in Bali we had a sunset dinner overlooking Echo Beach. Here is a picture looking out towards the water. Bali has as many stray dogs as it does people, so it seems fitting that there's a dog in the pic.


29 down...71 to go!!!