BALI, the most amazing, fantastic, best place ever and leaving us wanting more!

We couldn't decide if we should name this post "Bali, the most amazing/fantastic place" or "Bali, the best place we have ever been" or "Bali, leaving us wanting more?" It was a toss up so we went with all three! Well the good news is after every horrid trip there is always a fantastic trip and Bali was just that, where as Tioman island we can quickly begin to forget. We booked this great trip with a few of our new Singapore friends, Katie, Quinn, Crystal, Merry and Fred! I feel like I should also add our driver as part of the group, Made. We grew to love his Sean Connery/Balinese accent as he took us all over town explaining things. He said he learned to speak English from watching movies and his favorite was James Bond, that explained it all...

So we haven't quite decided on how to show all 1200 of the photos we took and describe all the things we jammed packed into our week so we will do our "Best of Bali" and if you want to see the Full Bali trip in photos you will have to come to Singapore to view them!

So here goes...our week of Highlights in Ubud, Bali

The Villa Saraswati Staff :)

We arrived at our fantastic (I might use this word a lot in this post) 4 bedroom villa with a surprise welcome from our staff! Yes that's right not only did we have a 4 bedroom villa all to ourselves in this tiny yet wonderful town called Ubud but the villa came with staff. I mean I read the small print when I was booking but I didn't really expect there to be a whole staff just for us? It was amazing to say the least, not to mention that our room had two showers - an indoor and an outdoor one, I asked Jason if we could have an outdoor shower some day in SF, he said yes, I'm holding him to it even if its 20 degrees out! The first night we ate in and were blown away by our chef, Miss Made's cuisine! She made a Balinese style fish and fried duck...yum...I think we all took at least 20 photos of the presentation before sitting down to eat. I think I will insert some Bali facts here for the inquisitive mind:
Quoted from the one and only book, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert:

"There are only four names that the majority of the population give to their children, regardless of whether the baby is a boy or a girl. The names are Wayan (pronounced “Why-Ann”), Made (“mah-DAY”), Nyoman and Ketut. Translated, these names mean simply First, Second, Third and Fourth, and they connote birth order. If you have a fifth child, you start the name cycle all over again ... it’s totally possible (indeed, quite common) that two Wayans would marry each other. And then their firstborn would be named, of course: Wayan."

I'll let that one sink in a bit and move on to the next morning when we went off to explore the town of Ubud, a town in the middle of Bali that is best described as a mecca of artistic expression, or you better do art, make rice or get out.

We toured the windy, jungle streets that were dotted with one gallery after another and landed at the bottom where we found the Monkey Forest Sanctuary. Monkey's were the highlight for us but a little bit of a fright for others. These deceivingly cute long-tailed macaques were aggressive and it probably didn't help that when we entered the Forest they offered us bananas to feed them. No fewer then 2 seconds did they notice we had the bananas and were begging, tugging on Jason's pants, crawling up us to get them! This video will give you a good idea.

And some photos:

Hey got any bananas up there for me?

He must have been one of the smallest babies we saw, his eyes were still blue!

And maybe they could still smell the bananas on Jason after he had distributed them all or maybe its just that babies and animals will always love Jason (Or because he says he is the Beast Masta) but this little guy took a liking to him and crawled right up on him and began rolling his rock in his hand and checking him for bugs. It was pretty incredible and for a slight moment the monkey seemed cute and sweet.

This is by far my favorite monkey shot - I thought he was dead but no just relaxing

Another video of this secret river spot we found :):

After a long day with the monkey's we headed back to the villa to enjoy the pool and my outdoor shower :) Here is a picture of it!

Here are some photos from our trip to the Ubud marketplace and to another one of my highlights of the trip, meeting Ketut Liyer, the famous healer and medicine man. We got to practice our newly found skill of haggling at the marketplace and I got to pay $25 to hear my fortune read outloud in front of 20 tourists at an ancient, toothless but merry Balinese healer's house, and not only did I pay for that fortune but my friend Katie paid for that exact same fortune. Funny that he predicted we would both live until we were 100 and that our lips were both sweet as sugar and that we were VERY pretty, almost rehearsed on repeat over and over again. But alas, he was "VERY happy that we came to see him and he did tell me someone was VERY in love with me", but I predicted that before he read my palm.

Offerings that are everywhere in Ubud. They place them on the ground of storefronts too and sometimes they get stuck under your shoe...I hope that's not bad karma

Whats another country without a Vespa photo...

Ketut Liyer

Handmaking Jewelry

Another highlight of the trip was the bike ride we took with one of the locals, Wayan, across the rice paddies and little villages and a coffee plantation, where we drank the most expensive coffee in the world, kopi luwak, you have to check out what this is! It was an unforgettable 9 mile bike ride that seemed much longer considering the 90 degree humid heat, but truly a remarkable experience.

This darling old woman that allowed us to have breakfast at her house before our bike ride

Dad this ones for you! Take a look at that stone work!

Every stalk of rice is planted by hand one by one...makes you not want to waste one piece of rice ever again!

Two school girls telling their Mom about their day

Some locals along the way...

Women out in the fields

Here is a video of of me filming on the bike:

The last days were filled with temples, Balinese dancing and finding that perfect piece of art to take home to remind us of this fantastic journey. I think Jason had a hard time choosing which painting he liked most, ok I did too, which is probably why we ended up with 4 pieces of art! Our friends probably found the best deal in town when their art dealer decided that beer made art even better and popped open a few in the gallery with us!

Tanah Lot temple

Katie and I got blessed...rice on our foreheads and a flower

Jason snapped this fantastic shot of this little girl striking a pose as she sells postcards

Women are seen all over town carrying these huge loads on their heads!

Jason blessing everyone with holy water before they entered the Temple

Gunung Kawi Temple

Stray dogs are everywhere in Bali

Tirta Empul - is said to have magical powers

Jason's great shot of Gunung Agung, the volcano

a wood carver hard at work

Our artist, Jito Saputro, and our ONE of our four paintings!

Legong & Barong Balinese Dancing

We have decided that we will retire to a rice paddy some day, or maybe just to a 4 bedroom villa in Ubud with an outdoor shower.

Ski 360

Today Jenna and I decided to head out to East Coast Park in Singapore to roller blade along the coast and admire the beautiful view of all the freight ships off the beach (sarcasm). Of course it was super hot and we were as sweaty as can be. After stopping at the Tawandang Brewery for a tasty beverage we continued on and found Ski 360. This place was great. There is a cable going all around the water that has the ski rope hanging from it. So no boat, just lots of sun and salt water.

I've wake boarded a bunch back home so given the heat, I thought I'd give it a go. Jenna wasn't wearing a bathing suit so she had to take a pass this time. To sum it all up, I've found my new past time in Singapore.

Unfortunately Jenna didn't bring her 70-200mm lens so she couldn't get in close and capture all the jumps, rails, places to do tricks but she got enough to capture the moment. If she was really smart, she wouldn't have been taking shots of me, rather she'd have captured the locals doing some crazy jumps and tricks.

If I go enough, I'll get my own equipment...

Ah the city...

You start from sitting on the edge. Next time I'll try starting from the the blue spot. Standing with a jump into the water.

I'll hit that jump next time.

So my form isn't that good... hey, its been a while. I land 2 out of 4. Only thing I didn't like about this place is the long swim back to shore depending on where you eat it.

Dear Long Beach Seafood,

Could you please refrain from having my food stare back at me...Oh and give me the recipe to your crab. Thanks!
love, Jenna

Last night we went for some of Singapore's renowned Chili and Black Pepper Crab. SO yummy!! With the meal we ordered fried rice with salted fish and half way through eating it I was like Oh my god those little black specks are eyeballs!! Jason tried to make me feel better by saying it was strategically placed black pepper but it didn't work. It was incredible...the smallest little fish I have ever seen just peering back at me in my rice.
Speechless... and just had to share!

Chingay Parade and Update

The Chinese New Year festivities are still going on here! I think they are coming to an end, but I'm beginning to think it might be a year round event, we even saw a lion dance again last night. Last weekend Jason and I decided to check out the "final" parade to celebrate Chinese New Year, The Chingay Parade.

Since we haven't blogged in awhile I'll give you some more of an update on what we have been doing here, even though we don't have the photos to match :). I have been working with a local photographer here in Singapore, Yu Hsin of TinyDot Photography, and he has been taking me along on all his wedding photoshoots, whew it is not easy photographing in the 90 degree sweltering heat and being creative! Luckily he does all the posing, I just get to take it all in and find other artistic angles. I also met a lot of nice Aussie women the past few weeks and I met a nice South African girl who is here with her husband who is Danish. Looks like we will have friends all over the world soon!

Jason is enjoying the job at Roche, even though he has an hour commute to the other side of the island and his bus leaves at 6:40am! He says it is like working for a totally different company since there are so many differences. He got his first Singapore haircut yesterday and I think its the best haircut he has ever had (except from Sara of course)! Although the guy sort of scared us in the beginning when he jokingly said they only give one haircut at the salon, so you want a buzz cut yes? Wouldn't that be the day that Jason gets a buzz cut! Oh and I almost forgot that he probably got the best head massage he has ever got either by an Asian man :)

We have both had challenges in the clothing department. I went to buy a pair of shorts and when I asked for the next size up they said I had reached the max, it was an XL! (Talk about a confidence booster). Jason's bunny suits (his white suit that he has to wear on the manufacturing floor) looks more like capri pants and a 3/4 sleeve shirt when he is all suited up. I guess we will have to play more tennis (which we have been doing, despite the heat) and eat less yummy food (which we can't seem to get enough of).

Ok more to come soon! Here are our Parade photos:

Probably the most dangerous thing we have seen here! Firecrackers 2 feet away from us with debris flying near our eyes and probably over 100 decibels in sound!!

I think this little guy was commenting on the fact that Jason had the same glasses as him :)

AND...whats a parade with out Storm Troopers right? So random...

The Singapore Flyer - a ferriswheel that moves super slow to show you all of Singapore. You can even rent it out for dinner or a wedding in the boxes! Want us to do that for our wedding?