Bora Bora Villas Bali

BALI
We arrived in Bali. A walk from the plane to the arrivals lounge was in beautiful sunshine.

Our plan is to travel around Bali both coast and inland for our two and half weeks here.

UBUD
The taxi to Ubud took 1 1/2 hrs.
Our hotel in Ubud was beautiful. It was a spa hotel set on the steep side of a small valley with a river running along the bottom.

Bali is considered a tropical island and the area we were looked like one. We were surrounded by ...

... quite a change from other parts of Bali where people eagerly want to help you out without you even asking. None the less, we still managed to enjoy our time taking the wrong turns and going down mysterious roads in search of these hot springs.

The mountains in central Bali are truly spectacular and I definitely recommend any visitor and expat on Bali to drive through them. Not only are they gorgeous with the red-tiled villages packed onto valley mesas; embroidered with ...

... well worth it!!!
Tomorrow we are definately going to make the most of the facilities and burn off some of the pancakes we eat for breakfast! (Max in he element munching cakes, Trudy tucking into rice!)
Enjoyed a walk along the shore line and a game of water volley ball in the pool. Not a friendly Aussie in sight just very rich Russians wearing lots of bling or sailors hats!!

... a big bonfire at the end of the procession...oh well, maybe we'll see that next Nyepi Day. The best part of this festival was that it was authentic...it was done by the Balinese for the Balinese, and would have happened regardless of the presence of tourists. It was a refreshing change from some of the "cultural shows" we have experienced elsewhere. Nyepi Day itself was less restrictive (at least for us Fat Yogi inmates) than we had anticipated. Yes ...

... that I would eat because it was a seafood restaurant, but I still enjoyed it . On my second day there, hired a driver to take us around. Unfortunately the car fit 7 people and there were eight of us. But with a little bit of squeezing we managed to fit. Needless to say, it was not the most comfortable day of my life! We started out the day by going to a Balinese dance show. I liked the costumes, but had NO idea what was going ...

... looking for the postcard view that we had seen in the travel books. At the first great viewpoint a young Indonesian girl came to talk with us. She spoke excellent English and after sharing our names and where we were from, we asked her if she was a student. Although she was tiny and looked to be around ten years old, she explained that she was thirteen and had already finished school. By this time her younger brother approached us as well and the little girl ...

... shown how it was done. A delicate job.





Living in the caravan I do not have the space for carvings which I love, or the puppets. I just have to look at my pictures.






I enjoyed my day out with Made, meeting the all of the family. Since I have returned to Australia Made has had another daughter.

One last banana pancake in Gili but I'm sure there will be others. Kat and I are sad to leave our little bungalow on our little island. It's tempting to stay another day despite the local vodka and chickens. Those feathered friends of mine didn't miss their last chance to torment me, at least they're consistent. Upon our first arrival we all wondered how we would occupy our time on the island and thought we'd leave after 2 days, now after 5 days it's hard to depart ...

I have been in Indonesia for about 10 days now and it's been awesome. I determined just yesterday that Indonesia is my 2nd favorite country I have travelled. My heart will always be with Brasil but its definetly a close 2nd. Marijka and I flew to Jakarta to begin our journey on the island of Java. I didn't get to see much of Jakarta but I could see the western influence upon my arrival. Obama lived in Jakarta as a child and it would have been interesting to ...

... stick with jeans?" About a millisecond later, my fantasy ends and reality dictates that the day will just be me and my black pants. I think, if our $3 calculator from the supermarket in Prague is correct, that I've now worn The Pants about 170 of the 284 days we've been traveling so far. I'm developing a really strange relationship with them, because I honestly miss them on the days they stay ...