Crazy Monkeys and Inspiring Rice Terraces

We spent our first day exploring the Seminyak area, which is where we stayed the first three days of our trip. The next day, we hired a driver to take us up to Ubud in the center of the island. Ubud is the artistic center of the island, including surrounding villages known as "the painting village", "the stone village" and "the woodcarving village." There was SO MUCH stuff I wanted to buy. So much beautiful furniture, mirrors, and awesome art pieces that I would have to ship home. Here's to hoping that one day I can take a buying trip to Bali and send some great pieces home. 

In Ubud, we spent the morning at the Monkey Temple. This place felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie--so cool! And just like the monkeys we experienced in Kyoto last Thanksgiving, these monkeys were drama. We had so many ridiculous things happen in the short time we were there ha. One stole our friend's iphone and went running off in the temple with it, so a worker had to throw rocks at it to get it back. Another one ripped off our friend's little travel hand sanitizer and started drinking it. The warning sign really was accurate!

^^right before he peed on Victor, luckily not on the baby^^

^^this was when four year old Stella tried to stop the monkey from taking something, and he did NOT like that!!^^

^^one also tried to reach down my shirt, trying to get to a food source haha^^

After we drove up to some of Bali's famous rice terraces. Sounds lame, but seriously, they were so beautiful! We had lunch at a little cafe right on the edge of them, and it was one of my favorite moments of the trip. The food was great and the view was so beautiful. 

^^fresh waternelon juice! I inhaled this stuff all week^^

^^a great nursing view^^

^^I bought this hat from a farmer working in the paddies, and I loved that Victor wore it around, and wore it on the plane rides home to not get smushed. Everyone was complimenting him :) ^^

It was a great day but it was HOT! As soon as I got back to the villa, I jumped in the pool. I think I did this everyday though haha.