Alam Indah Ubud

Please note that this entry is by only Jack (Jack) Today Katharine, Alex, Dad, and I woke up at 3 o'clock in the morning to watch the UEFA Champions League semi-final between F.C. Barcelona and Manchester United. It was a dull game with no goals scored, and I caught up on some sleep because I had to get up an hour after the game to walk into Ubud for my Chinese class. Now, I thought, why couldn't I miss this one for once? Oh yeah, I said to myself, I kinda sorta missed the last one. So I grab...

(Jim) Since we arrived in Bali, a lot of our time here at Alam Indah has been spent in the pool, which lies right below our Gardenia Suite. Yesterday Amy decided to walk to the library in the heat of the day. The kids and I stayed at the hotel and went for a swim. When we got down to the pool, most of the chaise lounges were taken up by the group of French tourists who had arrived the day before. The adults were dozing in the sun, smoking or reading. Two pre-pubescent French teenage girls wer...

(Alexander) I was walking along just about to get to the Monkey Forest entry and Suddenly a monkey ripped a Hole in my Manchester United Shirt (and I was Drinking some apple juice). I Think that monkey wanted my apple juice as much as me.

(Alexander) We watched soccer in Bali. the first game we watched was Man U play FC Barcelona in Camp Nou, Barcelona.and then we watched Man U play Chelsea (man u stands for Manchester United by the way) and then we watched Man U play FC barcelona and it was a 1:0 win for man u and that, sob, means, sob, Man U go, sob, through, sob, in the Champions League. (Jim) I think we may qualify as real football fans now. Last night I set an alarm and we woke up at 2:30 a.m., walked through the darkened...

(Jim) Amy's bible for our trip has been Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert's bestseller about a newly-divorced American woman who spends a year traveling, learning about pleasure (Tuscany), spirituality (India) and balance (Bali). I think that I may write my own book about our trip. I will title it, Eat, Walk, Sweat. I read once that the world's worst pickup line is, "You don't sweat much for a fat girl." I've never been much for pickup lines, so I can't vouch for that particular ice-breaker ...

(Jim) This is one of the more bizarre experiences of the trip. Jack and I are here in the nice, modern Internet Highway place in central Ubud, Bali. It is quite late at night. I have a conference call in a few minutes, and the internet is down at our hotel, so we came into town. Jack wanted to come with me, ostensibly to keep me company, but really to play an online tank battle game. Sitting across the table from me at the laptop station is a skinny fellow who looks like he is in drag, very s...

(Katharine) On Thursday me and dad did a bike trip down the volcano. We were late to be picked up, and the group was very far when we and another couple started. Then we passed lots of kids, waving, shaking our hands, high-fiving, and saying 'hello'. Then we stopped at half time and met the other group. They had already been there 20 minutes. And then we started again. We had been biking for 17 minutes when I sprained my ankle. I was pedaling down when my foot got caught in the wheel and I fe...

(Jim) When we booked our hotel, one of the first questions we asked was whether they had internet. Being online is crucial to my ability to keep up with my business back in the U. S. They assured me they had a 100 MPS connection. Which is true, in a sense. The same sense that I am still a size 42 Long and the 2007 Philadelphia Eagles were a Super Bowl team. In other words, the intention and some portion of the necessary capability exists, but the result falls short of the expectation. Both in...

(Amy) Bali is a tough place to describe adequately, as everything feels nuanced. So instead of trying (because no one does it as well as Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love), I would rather just post random thoughts. Bali seems almost like a separate country from Indonesia. Most Balinese people practice a form of Hinduism and are tolerant of other faiths. They also feel that everything revolves around the larger community, so no one pushes you to buy anything from them specifically. We were ...

(Amy) Bali is a place where you just don't let many things get under your skin, because the place is too beautiful and the people too kind to waste time being unhappy. But we had an experience the other night that I can't seem to shake. The five of us were sitting at Napi Orti, a small outdoor sports bar of sorts, watching a Manchester United soccer (okay, football) game with about thirty other people. The crowd was about half international and the pockets of conversation were diverse and int...