Bali

Ah it feels nice to be back in Asia! Despite how touristy Bali can be, it is still wonderfully cheap after our travels in New Zealand.  We can live like kings again with lovely Bali-style guesthouses, platters of nasi lemak, and five dollar massages.  Every day is "Treat Yourself" day here.

 After a long day of travel from Auckland, we arrived late to Bali and decided it was best to stay the night somewhere close to the airport.  We ended up staying in Kuta which has been described by some as a "tourist hell-hole" but it had its perks.  If you can manage to ignore the various touts and motorbikes racing through the winding streets, you might enjoy the well-priced souveneir-shopping, the tasty mie goreng, and the relaxing Balinese massages.  The locals are actually really friendly too and their culture is quite fascinating.  We loved seeing the daily offerings being placed throughout the streets and with the constant burning of incense, Bali does tend to smell a lot better than many other Asian destinations!

On our first day in town, we hit the beach and were surprised to find that the beach is not quite what we expected.  In our minds we had pictured Bali as some sort of island paradise with impeccable white sand beaches leading out to a beautiful ocean that you might splash around lazily in.  Although the beach here is great for surfing, it can be quite dangerous to swim in and is not quite as picturesque as we imagined.  Who knew?

Nasi Lemak

Kuta Beach

On our second day we headed for Ubud, the cultural center of Bali.  Still quite touristy, but also very enjoyable especially once you walk a bit out of town into the beautiful green rice fields. We stayed at a homestay called Rumah Roda off a quiet street and were able to enjoy a typical Balinese dinner buffet prepared by the family.  In fact, all of the food that we tried in Ubud was great but the best meal was probably the babi guling (suckling pig).  We went for lunch one day at Ibu Oka where they bring in two pigs daily for lunch and carve them up at the front of the restaurant for you.  At other restaurants, you have to order this meal a day in advance but Ibu Oka is packed every lunch hour and after tasting some of their pork, you can see why.  I can't really describe how good it is, but I can say that we ended up going back the next day as well. 

Second pig of the day has arrived...
Its head was promptly chopped off

One night we decided to go to a Balinese dance show at the Ubud Palace.  It was a great show and we really enjoyed watching the dancers somewhat jerky movements and constant shifting of their eyes. 

Yoga is really big in Ubud as well so I managed to join some yoga classes in a studio overlooking the rice fields.  It doesn't get much better than that, unless you follow up your yoga with a nice massage at one of the many spas around town.

After Ubud, we made our way to the East coast to catch a boat to the Gili Islands in Lombok.  We decided to stay on Gili Air which we really enjoyed.  You can walk around the island in about an hour and it has a nice relaxed feel to it with no cars or motorbikes.  When you are walking around the middle of the island, you really feel like you are in an exotic place walking by cows, chickens, and local rural life while hearing the call to prayer throughout the day.  We also did a day trip to Gili Meno which was even more relaxed and had a great beach to laze on.

Cows grazing outside our bungalow

The beach on Gili Meno

After the Gilis, we chartered a private boat to Nusa Lembongan.  No, this was not a luxurious experience, and yes, we are happy that we made it there alive.  Luckily the sea was calm and we had no issues arriving to the island in our tiny boat.  After trying unsuccessfully to shake off a persistent tout, we found a nice place to stay with a great view of the ocean.  The main industry on Lembongan is harvesting seaweed which made for some interesting sights around town.  You can watch the locals bringing in seaweed from the ocean and drying it all around the streets before it is exported. 

Our boat was the yellow and blue one...

Ocean View 

Devil's Tears

We spent our last night back in Kuta before catching our flight to Chiang Mai.  You'll have another post from us soon!