Beaches, Fruit, Elephants, and Fish

This last post of our trip is kind of a random mashup of favorite moments I still want to share. I hope you don't mind the photo dumps these last few days here on the blog. 

One afternoon was spent on Kuta Beach boogie boarding. This beach totally had the city beach feel. Locals swimming, tons of vendors offering everything from drinks, souvenirs, massages, to pedicures. Such a fun evening. 

^^Katelyn and the local paparazzi surrounding her kids ha ha^^

Another favorite moment was going to the local fruit market. It was heaven. Fruit in Okinawa is ridiculously expensive. Like $20 for a small watermelon. Here we bought 2 kilos of juicy mangoes, and kilo of passionfruit, and a watermelon for less than $5. Heaven!

 Victor was also in heaven with fresh coconut for like a $1.50. I'm not generally a fan of coconut water, but it was pretty tasty fresh out of the coconut.

A few afternoons were spent in this lovely cabana, drinking pina coladas while our baby chilled out.



Patang Patang Beach:

One morning we went on an "elephant safari," which was basically just a 20 minute elephant ride. We had never rode on an elephant before so that was fun I guess, but we were a bit underwhelmed. Feeding them was fun though!

 ^^some of the people riding behind us^^

In Jimbaran village we enjoyed fresh fish on the beach that was delicious, and in the evening they have Balinese dance performances. It was a fun way to spend the evening. 

^^our sweet waitress holding J while we ate. This happened a few times. Such sweet people!^^

J is loving it!

Oh Bali, I dream of going back already!

Thanksgiving Day at Tirta Empul

The Tirta Empul Hindu Temple was such a beautiful and peaceful place. People come from all over to be purified and blessed from the fountains that are over one thousand years old. They leave their offerings and use the time to meditate and pray. We ventured up there on Thanksgiving Day and we had such a memorable experience getting our "blessing" from the fountains. 

 Wayan, our driver, decided to join us in the temple and loved holding Baby J. Another highlight of this trip was the Balinese people. They are such kind and warm people.

 Afterward we drove up to a point to see the giant volcano that is sacred to the Balinese.

 And then we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at our hotel (we had switched hotels at this point--using our Hilton points to stay at the Conrad) with our friends the Yanes' who had extended their trip since they were loving Bali too much to leave. We did our traditional go around the table and say what we are grateful for. It was lovely.

 It was a wonderful first Thanksgiving with our sweet little boy. He is such a joy in our lives, and we loved traveling with him. The fact that he is 4 months old made it really easy, but fingers crossed he stays an easy traveler.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

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.