Bali

It's hard to blog, knowing I'll be home in 6 weeks!

For spring break Michael and I went with five friends to Bali.

The travel time was longer than our other trips we've taken. It was 12 hours in the air. We flew Etihad which is a nice airline and very comfortable. Each flight was delayed so we didn't have any layovers. We arrived at Uns Hotel in Kuta Beach Friday night. The town is pretty touristy, especially for surfers. The beach is okay-a bit of trash, but we were just happy to be at the beach! The restaurant right beside Uns is The Balcony, where we ate every meal. Their margaritas and seafood was delicious! Most of our time was spent by the pool getting sun.

On Tuesday we went white water rafting. It was our first time, so we didn't know what to expect. The guides just give you a helmet, life jacket and paddle and walk you down a steep 400m to the river. Before we got in the raft, we had to learn the commands: forward, back, and my favorite Boom Boom!! That means your about to hit a rock-lean in the middle of the raft so you don't fall out. I was terrified most of the way. We would come to a part of the river with rapids, paddle hard, and then relax a few minutes before the next rapids. That's when we would look around and realize we're in a beautiful jungle!

When it was done they fed us soup, fried rice, egg, prawn chips and fried noodles. I ate every bit of it! 

We slept the whole was back!

After Kuta Beach, we headed to Ubud. If you've read Eat Pray Love, you know all about it! Michael found a beautiful villa a little bit outside of Ubud in the middle of rice paddies.

We spent more time by the pool, got massages, visited Monkey forest and took a 40km bike tour down a volcano. The bike tour was my favorite part!

 We started by visiting a coffee plantation. We learned all about Luwak coffee which is special....the coffee beans are eaten by little mammals called luwaks, digested and collected again.

The coffee after it's been eaten. 

We all tried it. It just tasted like coffee, but apparently it can be  pretty expensive in the states. 

The bike tour was all downhill, through villages and rice paddies.

The photos don't do it justice! It was the brightest green I have ever seen!

This part was towards the end and was my favorite-palm trees on both sides. 

After our adventure, we had a home cooked Balinese lunch..more like feast! It was delicious!

Michael and his friend stayed a few more days. They went to a small coastal town called Tulamben. They rented scooters, went to a cockfight and lots of diving. Michael said the diving was nice. They dove two wrecks, a couple of reefs and a wall- all shore dives. And old Balinese ladies carried two sets of equipment on their heads down the beach...including air tanks.


Bali was never on my list of places to visit, but I'm glad we went.