Bali

Sanur beach behind hotel 

I have been putting off going to Bali for a variety of reasons, but decided I better go soon so that I didn't put it off too long and never go. Especially since I am living in Indonesia and it is so close. It is less than an hour flight from where I live and it would be silly to not go while I am so close.

Temple at hotel 

We had Thursday and Friday off May 9 and 10, 2013. Thursday was a religious holiday and Friday was mid-term break. I went with a few friends and one of my friend's birthday was that Saturday. They moved our flight to 6:00 a.m. on Thursday morning so I had to leave my house by 4 a.m. to get to the airport in time.  I have never flown to any other places in Indonesia so it was interesting. The flight didn't actually leave at 6. We went through the boarding gate and then walked down these steps and outside and had to wait for a bus to come get us and drive us to the airplane. We had booked our tickets through a travel agent instead of the internet and their English was very limited. (I would have preferred the internet, but one of the other people wanted to do it this way.) So, I thought we had booked seats at the front, but we had to sit in the second to last row from the back. The back is my least favorite place to get sit because I get sick easily at the back of planes and I didn't feel that good having gotten up at 2:30 in the morning.

ARMA

Luckily the flight was very smooth and I felt fine when we landed. We also didn't crash which was good, because the day we had booked our flights a plane and overshot the runway and crashed into the ocean. We stayed in Sanur. We got to the hotel and only my room was ready because it was like 8:30 a.m. and check in wasn't actually until 2 p.m.We dropped everything off in my room and my roommate decided to take a nap while the rest of us went to get some food to eat.

After getting some food I went back to take a nap while others went to swim or take a nap. I slept for about an hour and then went up and down the beach looking at the different stalls and buying some gifts to take back with me. Once I got back my roommmate was finally up from sleeping so we walked down the beach for dinner while the other three people went to dinner. (There had been a bit of a problem between two of the people, so we had to split up most of the time.) My roommate and I walked quite a ways down the beach at at at Minami and had Sushi. After that we looked at some of the shops. I bought postcards to send to people. Then we went and sat on the beach. I like to sit on the beach at night to look at the stars and clouds and listen to the waves. We sat out for quite awhile and then we went back to the room. I went looking for ice cream while my roommate when to bed.

Friday morning we got up and three of us went to Ubud for the day while the other two went to the water park. First we went to ARMA (Agung Rai Museum of Art)  musuem and resort. The art did not really appeal to me ( a few pieces were ok), but I loved the buildings and the grounds. It was very beautiful there. After we had lunch there we went to the Monkey forest. I think monkeys are cute, but the people weren't very nice to the monkeys and I definitely didn't want them to climb on me or take any of my stuff.

Charlie

 Luckily they left me alone. After that we walked to the center of town and looked at as many shops as we could. We spent lots of time going back and forth because we would see something but want to think about it and then walk back if we decided we wanted to buy it. We didn't get very far up the street. We went to dinner at the Three Monkeys restaurant. Before we got to the restaurant we stopped by this Inn that has a fruit bat that lives there. His name is Charlie. My friend had stayed at that place before and had seen him. Supposedly he has something wrong with him, but he seems content to live there and people don't bother him. He does leave to go hunting and to fly but always comes back. At the Three Monkeys restaurant, I had an interesting pizza. It was caramelized onions, blue cheese and dried figs. It was ok, but I am glad I tried it. After dinner we walked to this one spot to watch Legong dancing, but they didn't have a show that night, so we backtracked to the Palace in the center and watched it there. It was really good and I really enjoyed it. After that we headed back to Sanur. There was lots more that I would have liked to have done in Ubud, but there was just not enough time. After we got back my roommate and I went back and sat on the beach. I stayed out much later than she did.

On Saturday morning I got up early while my roommate slept and joined the other people to travel to a jewelry store that had nice silver jewelry. We were there for a couple hours. After that we went back to our hotel. My roommate was still sleeping, so I joined one of the other ladies for lunch as it was her birthday. We walked back down to Minami and had sushi again. I tried Sake for the first time. After that we kept walking down the beach. Apparently there are some hotels that let women go topless on the beach. Then we walked back into town and stopped at some shops my friend had seen before but had been closed. On our way back to the hotel there were all these people dressed in white and lots of them were sitting on the beach. Obviously there was some sort of ceremony going on so we stayed for awhile and watch. My roommate got up during that time and went back to Minami to read while I got ready for dinner. We all went to dinner together as it was my one friend's birthday. We went to an Italian restaurant, Massimo for dinner. It was very, very good. There were between 5 and 10 other birthdays that night. They kept turning off the lights to bring out cakes and sing happy birthday. My friend didn't want that so we didn't do it. After we got back I wanted to sit out on the beach one last time but it was too crowded and noisy.

On Sunday I basically got up and got ready, packing my bags while my roommate slept. We didn't all fly down together so my roommate's flight wasn't until later. They had moved the rest of our flights up from 5:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. After I finished packing I wrote my postcards and then went and sat out on the beach. We had to take two different cabs as we wouldn't all fit in one. So, I left with two of my friends and then my roommate and my other friend took another cab shortly after us.

So, overall it was a nice trip and I am glad I did it.