After five amazing days of diving in Malaysia, M and I jumped ship (via plane) for Bali, a.k.a. 'Sasha's favorite place in the world.' Three years ago, I was lucky enough to visit a great friend living/chef-ing in Ubud with another great friend. Aside from the fact that friend #2 and I both came down with leptospirosis ten days after returning from our travels, it was the perfect two week adventure. In planning this trip, a return to Indonesia was a foregone conclusion; I wanted to share the wonders of Bali and Lombok with M, and continue exploring east to Rinca, Komodo, and Flores.
We arrived in Bali late on March 3 (torrential rains in KL had delayed our plane), spent one night in a mediocre-by-Bali-standards-but-still-very-nice hotel in Seminyak, and then checked into Desa Seni. Cue Bali video log number one:
Desa Seni: Pimp My Vacation
We begrudgingly departed our Eden two days later, feeling thoroughly relaxed, refreshed, toned, stretched, clean, and healthy after two days of nonstop swimming, reading, eating organic produce, and taking yoga classes from lovely Spanish teachers ("Alright, breathe deep, and find your thenter") and something called Nia Dance from a jovial yet Zen African-American man named Saffire ("Yeah everyone, feel the groove and spiral around the room. Oh yes, spiral. Spiral. Spiral." In case you were questioning Desa Seni's hippie cred, the NY Times describes Nia Dance as an "emotional fitness odyssey."). Next up, we took a public bus up Bali's gorgeous west coast and landed in Pemuteran, a seaside town down the road from Bali's one and only national park. We spent a pair of days snorkeling in the park and scooting around on a rented motorbike, but our time there was notable mostly for our accommodation. Presenting Bali video log number two:
Pemuteran: Pimp My Guest House
The only downside of having an enormous garden in your bathroom is that you have also have an enormous garden's worth of insects in your bathroom. Fun fact: cockroaches love soap! I accidentally left our bar on the stones underneath the shower head once, and when I came out, it was writhing with roaches. They scattered when they saw me, but the soap was covered in deep lines and squiggles that resembled ancient runes in miniature, created by their forelegs' persistent scraping. Were they eating it? Is mandarin-mint soap from the Hyatt like catnip to them? I'll never know. A few days later we ventured south to escape the coastal heat in favor of Bali's central mountains, which are spectacularly beautiful. We hiked and motorbiked around a tiny village called Munduk for two days before driving to Ubud, where we arrived just in time for Nyepi (the Balinese New Year) and tried not to get rabies from the primates in the Monkey Temple Forest. On to Bali video logs three and four!
Ubud Monkey Forest: Pimp My iPhone Videos
Nyepi: Pimp My Ogoh-Ogoh
Leaving Ubud is always hard to do, but it's particularly tough when you've been away from home for nearly three months.The thing is, Ubud has a lot in common with the Bay Area, including but not limited to: scenic running routes, an abundance of delicious, healthy vegetarian food, stores selling incense and crystals, and extremely fit young people who only seem to wear tight-fitting organic cotton yoga gear. Knowing how easy it would be to get happily trapped there, we bought tickets to Labuan Bajo, Flores, and flew east on March 15th. For any non Spanish speakers out there, Flores means 'flowers,' and the island was given its name (and its religion - many inhabitants are Catholic) by Portuguese explorers in the 16th century. Check back soon to read about Komodo dragons, giant manta rays, and the reason so many features have been added to Smashadventures recently!
Over and Out,
S&M
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