Bali

Unfortunately none of the following photos are my own. My camera battery has died and I misplaced my electrical outlet converter. Hopefully this will be remedied ASAP. I do have very similar (some better) photos that I can show you when I get home : )




My two weeks in Indonesia have gone by much too quickly. There is so much to see and do here (as I am realizing seems to be the case everywhere I go) and things here are so cheap, I could travel here forever. Unfortunately I only planned two weeks here, so I crammed in as much as I could, and left plenty to do when I come back.

I started my trip in Bali. An island with gorgeous beaches, beautiful Hindu temples, a fascinating culture, and BIG CROWDS of tourists! I spent three days on Bali before moving onto the island just east called Lombok, and three days was more than enough.

I stayed in the town of Kuta, on the southern part of the island. Kuta is a mass of tourists, tourist shops selling phony name brand merchandise from Arnette Sunglasses for $3 to Billabong swimwear for $5, massage parlors, over a million scooters and motorcycles, and narrow streets that wind around for miles.

There is a gorgeous beach as well, and the vendors know the tourists will be there trying to escape the shops, so they bring the shops to you. You can even get a massage right where you are on the beach. It probably won't be the best massage ever, but it'll only cost you $5 if you bargain well.


I spent one day on Bali taking a tour around the island. Some friends I met in Darwin , Austalia were also in Bali and we hired a car to drive us around for the day. We went north to the town of Ubud and visited the sacred monkey forset. The monkeys are wild and EVERYWHERE! Some are tame enough that if you sit down with a banana in your hand they will climb on your shoulder or back and take the banana from you. It was really a beautiful spot to vist, even if the monkeys do freak you out a little bit.




From the monkey village we traveled further north to a town called Bedugul up in the mountains near Lake Bratan, home of the famous temple Ulun Danu.

Here I also tried my first bite of real Indonesian Food, Nasi Goreng. This is a dish of fried rice and a few vegies like carrots, chilis and water cress, topped with a fried egg and on the side a couple slices of cucmber, maybe a tomato, and a crispy shrimp cracker.I really liked it!
From here we traveled back south to the most photographed temple in all of Bali, Tanah Lot, which sits on a large island just off the beach. At this temple you can actually pay a donation and be blessed at the temple.

This is a quick recap of three short days. I hope to soon have my battery chanrged so I can post the Lombok portion of my trip with photos of me in these amazing places.