{Gili Air, Lombok, Indonesia Pictured above}
It’s no secret, my husband and I love to travel, and now that we have a 14 month old, it is definitely more difficult, but with a little modification, our daughter Sailor will be right there with us. We even took her to Italy when she was 7 months old…. more on that trip later :)
So by far, my favorite vacation has been our month long trip to Indonesia. We flew in to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia… and from there traveled allover Bali and then later took a very long, scary, bumpy boat ride to the Gili Islands (which is pretty much the middle of no where). They only have a generator to power the island for four hours a day, and no cars, only donkey drawn carriages. Ha, seriously.
While in Bali, we stayed in Kuta for a few nights (would not recommend), it’s the biggest most populated americanish city in Bali… and it’s filled with a bunch of Aussie Surfers.. the Balinese thought we were Australian the whole time we were there… and lots and lots of trash in Kuta, Sanur, Candi Dasa, Ubud, The Gilis (my favorite… it is where we got engaged), and finishing off in the very expensive Nusa Dua.
{Welcome drinks in Sanur at Swastika Gardens}
Sanur is famous as the source of some of Bali’s most powerful black magic and home of the most feared sorcerers and most respected healers… Like Wayan in Eat, Pray, Love… ha the book was the reason we went to Bali in the first place! When we planned our trip, as well as during, our travel bible was The Rough guide to Bali and Lombok… you can see it here. Seriously the best travel book out there!
The next place we went was to Candi Dasa… we took a taxi and along the way there were beautiful rice fields (sorry I don’t have a picture)…there isn’t a whole lot there, but it was gorgeous nonetheless. We stayed at Kalapamas in Candi Dasa… it was the perfect location off the road and the food was great.
{Kelapamas Bungalow in Candi Dasa}
{view into the garden of our bungalow in Candi dasa}
{view into the garden of our bungalow in Candi dasa}
Food in Bali is really good, but after a month of eating Chicken Satay… you get a bit hungry for American Food… I hadn’t eaten at a Mcdonalds in like 5 years and when we got back to Kuta, I seriously walked in and ordered a cheeseburger.. no lie, (there was even a Starbucks! Which is also why I didn’t like Kuta, and is why I have no photos of the area….Don’t get me wrong I love my coffee, just not after I traveled 32 hours to get away from America for a relaxing vacation!
While in Candi Dasa, we found out there was going to be a Royal Cremation Ceremony in Ubud… and apparently this only happens like once every ten years… so we headed out and stayed in Ubud for a week, which was awesome. Ubud is the type of place where the granola-ish, type people are… the expat, yogi, vegan type. If you ever want to go on a Yoga retreat in a far distant land… Ubud is the place to do it! (Ubud was probably my favorite place on Bali, and it is also home to the monkey forest… pictures below).
{preparation for the Balinese Cremation Ceremony in Ubud, Bali}
So while prepping this post, I came across and awesome article about the exact ceremony we went to!! Sooo excited… you can read it here, and the pictures are amazing, it said there was over 250,000 people there and we were two of them!
The member of the Royal family as well as many other deceased Balinese (who couldn’t afford their own cremation ceremony), were put inside of the bull, which was later set on fire.
{Balinese Cremation Ceremony in Ubud, Bali}
{Balinese Cremation Ceremony in Ubud, Bali}
{awesome Buddha.}
{Balinese Cremation Ceremony in Ubud, Bali}
(I took all of these photos, however the next 4 were from Boston.com’s article)
The bull was so big it was hitting the power lines!
{the end of the ceremony}
The next day, we went to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sactuary… to relax after the chaos of the cremation ceremony….
{the awesome monkey forest}
{Trevor chillin’ with the monkey…. and no it is not a zoo, they are very wild}
{seriously tho…. they are wild….. and dangerous, even though it is drinking a soda}
{this monkey jumped on me when it saw that I had food… I used to think they were cute… but after it hissed and showed all of it’s teeth while on me, and after reading the signs saying they can potentially have rabies… we got the heck out of there!}
Next up the looooong boat ride across the “treacherous Lombok Strait”, to the gorgeous paradise of the Gili Islands (We used the gili Cat to Gili Trawangan and then found a small boat to take us the rest of the way to the least populated, Gili Air. You can read more about the Gilis here. I booked all of our hotels while in Bali because communication is sometimes difficult. And since there isn’t power all the time in the Gilis I had to wait until we actually were on Gili Air to find a beach hut to spend our week in.
{one of the boats we had to get on to the Gili Islands}
{oh yes, this boat ride was worth it}
{sooooo worth it, best snorkeling ever}
{Did I mention we lived off fresh pineapple that a lady walking around peeled for us….?}
{or that this was the view from our beachside cabana?? That is Mt. Rinjani in the distance, a very active volcano on Lombok we were literally in the middle of “The Pacific Ring of Fire”}
{or that we were engaged here at this spot…?}
{and then married here 7 days later?}
{Pictured above Nikko Bali resort Nusa Dua}
Sorry about the quality of the “scanned” photo below…
{oh yes, and I even got to design my own custom handmade wedding dress}
No wonder this was by far my favorite vacation.
Good Bye Paradise, we will meet again.