Eat, Pray, Love

We were excited to hear that Julia Roberts is here filming the Bali scenes for the movie version of Eat, Pray, Love. I absolutely loved this book and would call it a very entertaining must read! We have seen her security a few times but no sightings of her yet..

Bali Fun Facts

Population: 3,151,000
Average Winter Temperature: 80° F
Average Summer Temperature: 80 °F
Most Precipitation: 28 inches
Highest point: Mount Agung at 10,308 feet
Bali is one of 17,508 islands that make up Indonesia
The island of Bali is home to six volcanoes and lies on two tectonic plates
There are more temples than there are homes
More than 80% of population in Bali are Hindu

In Bali there are spa's everywhere. You can get an hour massage for between $4-$18 dollars depending on how fancy the spa is. If you aren't taking advantage of that on a daily basis you are crazy!

Goodbye Jimbaran

Day 5 we say goodbye to Jimbaran bay and the very friendly staff at our villa. Heading a bit north to Villa Blubambu, our home for the remainder of our stay. This villa is in the hip metropolitan area called Seminyak.

Into the groove

Finally by day four we are feeling pretty good and adjusting to all the new sights, sounds and smells! Ben has been surfing everyday and since we are staying at the south end of the island we wanted to take advantage of a couple of the surf/beach spots that are close. Uluwatu is a beautiful small white sand beach with a famous wave that breaks on the reef that can be easily seen from the beach. You park at the top of a 200 foot cliff and walk down these crazy paths they have built into the rock. There are warungs and little shops along the way, its pretty cool. Climbing down with a baby was interesting but once you get down to the beach it is so worth it!

Have I mentioned that traveling around Bali with Coco is like being with a celebrity?? We get stopped and surrounded by Balinese people, both men and women, all of them wanting to hold her and ask about her. They love babies here very much and Coco ham's it up when she is getting attention like that. She smiles and says "hi" to everyone. It is really cute, she is definitely not shy.

Coco and her fan club :)

That night we went back up to Uluwatu, this time to the temple to see the famous Kecak and Fire Dance. This temple is one of the most famous and spectacularly placed temples in Bali. It was built in the 10th century and stands atop a sheer cliff rising 200 feet above the Indian Ocean. It commands an amazing view of the ocean breaking against the base of the cliffs below, and a totally unforgettable sunset. At night they perform this special dance, they are basically acting out the Hindu Ramayana epic story. There are no instruments used, instead there are about 30 bare chested men sitting in a circle chanting, almost beat-boxing. It is trance-inducing and very cool. Coco was enthralled along with the rest of us. She watched the entire show and didn't even get scared when the bad guys came out with their crazy masks or when they started kicking around the fire and ash. It was so much fun and very entertaining.

Official Tourist Activity

Day three we still wake up at the crack of dawn and are all ready for a nap by 8:00 a.m.! We decided to get one really touristy (is that a word) activity out of the way and go to the Bali Safari Park. It was actually really fun, they had a baby orangutan and baby tigers there. You could actually hold both and have your pictures taken with them for a fee. It was good to venture out a bit and see more of the island.

Things I had forgotten about Bali:

How crazy HOT it is here

How wonderfully kind and sweet the Bali people are

How many scooters there are and how crazy the traffic can be

What the rains are like... total DOWNPOUR

Mosquitoes :(

Time change...

So as I'm typing this it is 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday here in Bali and 6:35 a.m. on Tuesday in Utah. That is a HUGE time difference especially for a 14 month old to figure out. It did take us a good 3-4 days to really adjust. The first night we (well Coco followed by Ben and I) were up at 3:30 a.m. looking at each other wondering what to do until the sun came up! We decided to walk down to the fish market since it opens at sunrise. What a site! So many interesting fish and people.
For the first 4 days we were staying in Jimbaran Bay, a beautiful community set in a small bay on the very south end of the island. Several of the fancy hotels are located here (Four Seasons etc.) taking advantage of the beautiful white sand beaches, calm water and great fresh seafood. Jimbaran is actually know for the fishing and seafood restaurants on the beach. There are probably 50-100 warung's ( local cafe, usually family owned and operated) set up along the beach with tables right on the sand. They have all kinds of live fish, crab, lobster, shrimp etc inside the cafe. They have you choose the actual fish you want before they cook it up for you & serve you ocean side. Its such a perfect set up to enjoy sunset and dinner and a great place for us to ease into Bali (if that's possible)!

Pool time after dinner... Trying to cool off!

Walking on water

Whirlwind Adventure!

Venturing down to the beach to catch sunset on the day we arrived

Sorry I have taken so long to post anything!! It has been a crazy first week full of all kinds of adventures for our little family. First things first, the flights were better than I was expecting... Our itineary was SLC-San Fran (2 hrs) depart 9:30 p.m. San Fran-Taipei (16 hrs) depart at 12:05 a.m. Taipei-Bali (5.5 hrs) depart at 9:30 a.m. Arrive in Bali 2:30 p.m. Saturday the 7th. We almost had to post-pone our trip when Ben realized the day before we were supposed to be leaving that his passport was going to expire in January 2010! They won't even let you on the flight, let alone into Indonesia unless you have 6 months or more left on your passport. We were both in a panic and Ben ended up taking the first flight out in the morning to San Fran and was at the passport office when it opened to beg for a rush passport renewal so we could catch our midnight flight. Well, anyone that knows Ben knows he can talk his way into almost anything and this was no exception, he had a new passport in hand by 3:00 p.m. that day! Coco and I jumped on the SLC-San Fran flight alone and meet him at the airport. We were feeling very lucky that it all worked out. Coco stayed awake until we got on the flight in San Fran and then feel fast asleep in her car seat. It was definitely a very long 24 hours of travel but for the most part it was fine & Coco did great.

We arrived on time, with all of our luggage and most importantly our sanity! We were tired but very excited to start our adventure!

Jimbaran Bay Villa

These cute boys were surfing/body boarding on pieces of styrofoam. They were following us yelling "Hello Baby" to Coco :)