Jimbaran

Our last 4 days of the trip - it's been amazing and we're a bit sad that it is coming to an end. We knew the trip was about over, so the goal was to do some surfing (Justin), shopping (Stacie) and enjoy some beach time (both).



Here is a little place called Dreamland beach.

Here Justin is at Dreamland, checking out the waves. It was a bit too blown out and choppy to surf this day.

One of the highlights of our trip was sunset dinners on the beach at Jimbaran - a 5 min walk from our hotel. It was absolutely stunning, and the fish was fresh off the boat. Wow.

The sunsets here aren't too shabby.

Here's Kuta beach, where Justin was doing his surfing. We'd heard that this area was kind of nuts, but we actually enjoyed it. The shopping up the road in Seminyak was great, with stylish boutiques and Indonesian prices. Justin spent a couple hours each day here riding the waves. At sunset it gets absolutely packed with folks wishing the sun good travels as it sets into the sea.

It's been a great trip, and now we hop on a plane for the long journey home.

Paradise found

After the arts, crafts, dances and hills of Ubud we decided to head to quiet East Bali to enjoy the ocean. We landed in a town called Candi Dasa. We had dinner in a warung (small restaurant) right on the ocean - it was quite nice and the food was good.


Our hotel was out of this world! Candi Dasa itself didn't offer all that much, but our hotel - wow. We had a private villa with a thatched roof, a beautiful hardwood deck, and a koi pond. After dark it was like being out in the jungle - frogs croaking, crickets, a huge lizard in the pond, and other wildlife everywhere. We enjoyed just hanging out on the deck all eveing with nothing but a mosquito coil to keep us company.

We were here for 3 days, and each day headed about 20 minutes up the road to a tiny port village called Padang Bai. It had a great feel to it, and several amazing beaches just a 5 minute walk from town. The pic above is Blue Lagoon and we just absolutely loved it - enough to spend 2 full days here. It's a very small beach with a couple of thatched restaurants up behind it. The water was a cooling 86 degrees. The snorkeling was mind blowing - amazing coral, fish everywhere, sting rays, eels, and it got good just 50 feet from shore.

No, Justin isn't dead, just floating around while he puts his mask and fins on. He spent a LOT of time in the water here. :)

Sunset in Padang Bai, with all the local fishing boats on shore.

If we were to do it again we'd definitely stay right in Padang Bai. So far this is our favorite place in Bali.

After a couple days playing in the water we headed back towards the main tourist area near the airport for our final 4 days. We hired a driver and had him go the long way - up a steep, tiny, pot holed road up in the mountains. The views were stunning. The rice paddies were carved out of really steep hills, it looked like you'd need mountaineering skills to farm some of the places. The picture above is looking way down towards Padang Bai.

More rice paddies, they're literally everywhere.

This is near Sideman, up in the mountains. Another little farming town. There are 4 million people in Bali, but they're scattered across the island in village after village. It's sometimes hard to tell where one village ends and one begins. You're never very far from people here, even out in the hills.

A little more Ubud

We've spent a week total in Ubud, and have had a chance to enjoy some cooler mountain weather as well as a few other tastey morsels...


Our second cooking class of the trip gave instruction for making balinese food for special occassions including weddings. The food we made was the best food we've eaten in Bali. As it turns out, you don't travel to Bali for the food. The balinese get by on rice, beans, and a little bit of vegetable. The food in Ubud was several notches better than other parts of Bali with outstanding ambience.



A popular way to spend an evening is to see a traditional balinese dance and music performance. Zoom in and check out the dancer's eye - they do some weird things with their eyes during these dances. It's a little disturbing.

Justin took a bike tour through the rural areas of Bali and took a few pictures of the local feel. Every little village has 3 temples - and it's only 1km or so between villages.

This is the kind of thing people do for a living. Woven bamboo for ceiling and wall coverings. Lots of manual labor, and almost everything made has to do with tourism.

Terraced ride paddies everywhere - the countryside is really beautiful.

Justin's bike tour ended just as a deluge hit. More rice paddies from the restaurant at the end of the bike tour in absolutely torrential rain. Just witnessing a tropical rainstorm is great entertainment - as long as you're not caught out in it!