February 28 Eric and I took it to Bali, Indonesia. We added a new city and I added a new country to the list. Eric took a couple days off work and we headed out. We arrived in Bali about 11 or so I think went through the airport where you have to buy a visa on arrival and for some reason you have to pay this fee in US dollars, but the currency in the country is not USD...go figure. We knew this ahead of time and were prepared, luckily. Made it through the long customs line and finally out of the airport. We grabbed a taxi and were then in awe of the driving there. It was ridiculous, worse than Malaysia. Many of the roads are little two way, one lane roads that barely seem big enough for one car, let alone two and there are motorbikes coming from everywhere (again, worse than KL). A lot of the motorbikes are tourist as well, making them even worse drivers on the bikes because they aren't used to it. I read a statistic in a magazine that an average of 1 Australian dies a day in Bali, mostly due to motorbike accidents, and it's Australians that die because most tourist in Bali are from Australia as it's an easy destination for them to travel to. I digress, so we make it to our hotel, get checked in and relax for a few minutes as it's been a busy morning/afternoon. I was also about 12 weeks pregnant at the time and looking forward to relaxing (so sleepy in the beginning). Our hotel was about a 5 minute walk to the beach, so we headed that way to check it out and grab a late lunch. We had a nice little lunch at a spot overlooking the beach, once we finished up there we headed back to the hotel to relax by the pool and soak up some sun. The pool bar at our hotel was pretty cool, always people hanging around, which Eric enjoyed since I wasn't drinking. We played trivia and bingo while sitting at the pool bar. We were one right answer away from winning trivia! Bingo was fun too because the guys calling the numbers were very difficult to understand, and they made it even worse by B...ten and three (or B13) and we have no idea which number they are trying to say, B10, B3, B what?? Please repeat!! :) It was all good though, lots of fun. We got cleaned up and decided to walk into the Seminyak area, where we were staying, and find some place for dinner. We had a nice dinner and went back, I was wiped out...pregnancy really takes it out of you, and so does the sun, so I had a double whammy. I don't think we stayed out past 10 any of the three nights we were there.
So turns out I only took once picture on our first day, whoops :/ it's of Eric fanning out the Indonesian currency, Rupiah, which $1 USD = 9753 Rupiah...I think this was 1 or 2 million Rupiah.
Day 2 was packed! A lot of sights and a lot of time spent in the car getting to said sights. We hired a car and driver for the day to take us around, which is so nice to be able to sit back and relax while someone drives you around for the day. Our first stop was a temple called Tanah Lot. It has beautiful surroundings and the actual temple is in a rock formation in the water and can only be accessed during low tide. Tide was in while we were there, so we couldn't go out to it, but we aren't allowed inside anyway, so oh well. We walked around the grounds for a while taking it all in and seeing everything, all while dripping in sweat! Hence the title of this blog, it was so freaking hot in Bali! So hot!! I ended up a little dehydrated by the end of the trip, I thought I was drinking enough water, but I wasn't, so if you are planning on going to Bali drink way too much water! You should probably drown yourself in and that might be enough. I had a headache for two straight days at the end and while we were back in KL. Anyways...Tanah Lot was really cool to see. Take a look for yourself.
After Tanah Lot we hopped in the car and headed towards Ubud, a cultural hot spot in Bali. Our first stop there was Monkey Forest. And don't let the name fool you, it's really forest dedicated to housing and protecting monkey's ;) There were monkeys EVERYWHERE!! We declined to buy food at the entrance so we wouldn't be attacked and I left my snacks in the car so they wouldn't try to get into my bag and steal something out of it...which we heard they did. We can up to the one spot that had a little swimming hole and a couple trees and statues surrounding it, this is where we saw most of the monkeys. They were playing in the water and jumping off the trees and statues onto each other and in the water, just having a great time. They were a lot of fun to watch, most people were gathered here watching as well. When we walked up I had mentioned to Eric to be careful while he was taking pictures not to step on a monkey or anything as he might not be paying attention. So, what happens...I step on a monkey tail while not paying attention and nearly get attacked by 4 different monkeys! I was a little afraid for my life. Teeth bared and coming at me, I backed away rather quickly and they seemed to drop it. It was so scary. I saw the guy that worked there staring at me afterwards and I apologized, he told me I didn't owe him an apology, so I gave a quick I'm sorry to the monkey :/ Glad that was over and I could move on. We left the watering hole and went walking around a little to check out the rest of the forest, it was pretty neat. Almost got attacked by another monkey a little later while we were walking, we weren't doing anything, just walking. But this monkey didn't like us on his path or something, so he swatted at us a little...time to move on. As we were leaving Eric had one monkey jump on his back start swatting at his head for some reason, just walking by, and even opened his mouth to his head a little. Eric was a little afraid he had rabies for the rest of the day after that encounter. Monkey Forest is no joking matter, watch out!
(rough life for this little guy, lol)
After Monkey Forest we went to Goa Gajah, or elephant caves. They were pretty cool, small, but still nice. We didn't stay long here as there wasn't a ton to see, and we didn't pay for one of the guides, so we don't know the whole story behind them either. So here is what Wikipedia has to say about it...
Goa Gajah, or Elephant Cave, is located on the island of Bali near Ubud, in Indonesia. Built in the 9th century, it served as a sanctuary.[
At the façade of the cave is a relief of various menacing creatures and demons carved right into the rock at the cave entrance. The primary figure was once thought to be an elephant, hence the nickname Elephant Cave. The site is mentioned in the Javanese poem Desawarnana written in 1365. An extensive bathing place on the site was not excavated until the 1950s.[2] These appear to have been built to ward off evil spirits.
And here are some of our pics.
Next stop was lunch! Thank goodness, this preggo lady was HUNGRY! Our driver took us to a nice little spot with decent views. It was in the back of some gallery and facing some rice paddies. Ubud is also known for their luscious green rice paddies (the ones at our lunch spot were in the process of getting green), very pretty :)
We made the hour drive back to our hotel after our late lunch and we were able to relax for a little and get cleaned up before heading back out to a nice spot called Ku De Ta. This place is on the beach and known for its sunsets and cocktails. I got neither :( Sunset wasn't great as it was cloudy, but it was still a nice view and nice spot right on the beach. Eric had a couple beers and a cigar and I enjoyed a little glass of red wine. We had a nice place on the deck, so we ended up staying for dinner and just enjoying a relaxing time there, couldn't have asked for a better night. After dinner we stopped by Cold Stone (since we don't have one here), got a little ice cream and went back to the hotel and crashed after the long day in the sun!
Saturday was spent relaxing after the crazy busy Friday we had. We spent the morning at the beach and the afternoon at the pool. It was very nice and enjoyable. I had to stay under an umbrella most of it as the sun was brutal and Eric spent some time at the pool bar chatting it up while I caught up on gossip magazines. That night we went to Uluwatu, another temple in Bali, this one still an hour away and on a cliff side instead of in the water. While there we watched a Kecak show, or fire dance show. It's a story told through acting and no speaking. There are a group on men that sit around a circle chanting the entire time and you watch the story unfold as they do. The story basically is about a princess that gets fooled into being stolen away by an evil king, and her being rescued by her real prince. There was an crazy monkey, and a crazy bird, and an old man, a deer, and a princess and a prince and king. Crazy characters, very good show. After the show we went back to the hotel, had some dinner and hung out at the pool bar for a bit and headed to bed, another long day gone!
Here's a little clip I found on YouTube from someone showing bits and pieces of the Kecak Show. It's 12 minutes and gets a little blurry at times towards the end, but it's not bad.
Here's a couple pics from the temple too, Uluwatu.
Our last day, Sunday, was spent walking around Seminyak a little seeing if there was anything to buy, didn't find anything, but had a nice day before we had to head to the airport. Bali was fantastic, but of course, like all of our trips we didn't have nearly enough time to do everything. Maybe next time Bali. Until then... :)
(our piece of Indonesian art we brought back, all hand carved and kind of tells the story line of the Kecak show we saw)
