Beautiful Bali

I'm just back from a week in lovely Bali.  We had a nice combination of three nights in the  beach area of Seminyak and the rest in the interior of Bali, in Ubud, of "Eat, Pray, Love" fame.   Seminyak is a surfer's beach, with a small area set aside for swimmers and boogie boarders.  Our hotel was a 5 minute walk from the beach down a gang or lane.  At the beach, you are immediately met by young men willing to rent you a lounge chair under an umbrella.  You can negotiate the price and we ended up paying about $5 for two seats for a few hours.  They will also provide you with cold beer, water or soft drinks from their coolers.  Once you are in your chair the vendors start to come.  Men and women stroll the beach with their goods in baskets on their heads, everything from fresh fruit to household goods.  They also entice you with services such as pedicures or massages.  We soon learned not to give any encouragement as they become very persistent in their efforts to sell you something.

A hat vendor.  This reminded me of the children's story "Caps for Sale"  We
just needed a few monkeys!

Checking out the surf.

Our hotel in Seminyak.

Bali is predominately Hindu as opposed to Muslim in Java.  There are temples everywhere and the architecture of the buildings is very different than in Jakarta.  There are also statues everywhere and each morning, offerings are put out for the Gods. Food and flowers will be left on the beach, on the pavement at the entrance of shops or in special boxes on stands on the street. The women are beautifully dressed in colourful long skirts and tops.  Even the statues are wrapped in sarongs and the colours are symbolic.   

Early morning offering.

A statue at our hotel.

A man working in a rice field.

Rice field surrounded by palm trees.

A lotus pond and temple in the background.

On the first of seven terraces of Besakih the Mother Temple.  It is built in the shadow of  Anung Ganung, a large volcano.

Lotus closeup.

The fancy door to our bedroom in Ubud.

Our open air lounge area.

A fire and trance dance.




You don't have to go far off the main roads to see rice fields, especially in the Ubud area.  They are very beautiful and often terraced up the hillsides.  On one long day in Ubud, we travelled the country side and visited a huge temple that was built in the 8th century, and has survived earthquakes and volcanoes.  We  visited a coffee plantation, that also grows cocoa, vanilla, cloves, tumeric, and more.  One of their specialties is the most expensive coffee in the world.  You may have heard of it.  Coffee beans are fed to mongoose (mongeese?).  After going through their intestinal system. the droppings are collected and the beans are dried, washed and ground very finely.  We had a cup of it, but it didn't seem especially good to me and it is much more expensive than Starbucks!  

I feel like I haven't scratched the surface of Bali, so I'm really looking forward to exploring it more in December with Cara, Caitlin, Clay and his parents! Bali is bagus!