bali: seminyak

we headed down south to the crashing waves of seminyak after our stint in the bamboo treehouse. 

i loved the mellow agenda with lots of time to relax by the pool. the waves were too dangerous to swim in the ocean...the riptide was intense both days we were there.

on vacation, you get to wear slippers to the pool.

and that was bali.
i'm hoping we'll get to repeat "lawlers in se asia" again someday.
it was so fun to have them on our turf!

bali: ubud

ahhhhhh bali. 

some people love this place, and some people think it's way too touristy, but we adore it.

we had time for one load of laundry between cambodia and bali, then we were back on a plane. the airport has been renovated since we were there a year ago because our first stop was for mint chocolate chip milkshakes at cold stone.

when we were perusing balinese villas for our group to stay in, we came across green village--multistory villas made entirely of bamboo in the jungle overlooking the ayung river. kind of an upscale swiss family robinson thing. it looked too good to be true in pictures, but as cliché as it sounds, it was even better in person. we're planning our next family reunion here.

we arrived to chilled glasses of fresh coconut water. "from the tree just there," the woman said.

our villa looked out onto the jungle, and the six-story villa across the river.

when i say everything was made of bamboo, i mean everything. the architecture was gorgeous.

we ate breakfast here each morning. banana pancakes are a must in bali.

we played games in the natural pool, and realized we were sharing the water with many frogs too.

we paid a visit to monkey forest to play with the "monks" as sage calls them.

the boys all had monkeys crawling on them at the same time...kind of.

we browsed the stone market for the perfect sculptures. sage would walk up to a sculpture and say, "cuuuuute" then put her arm around it.

we started one morning with massages and pedicures, and finished every night with a game of rook.
when in bali... 

i didn't love that we had a few too many creatures sharing our living space, but the coolness of this place outweighed my bug phobia. i wish i'd taken photos of the bedrooms. we woke up to the dreamiest sunrises.

we hiked through the tegalalang rice terraces.

an epic jump

we went to an elephant reserve, and for once i felt like these animals were treated well.

i took about 78 photos of this 14 day old baby with her mother. the baby swam with her mama, and her legs were still a little wobbly as she came out of the water.

we rode elephants! my experience turned a little crazy when my elephant got spooked and began trumpeting, backing up, and rocking from side to side. i almost fell off at one point and was so thankful nate had sage with him. but once again, it's asia. no liability or safety precautions, remember? i didn't die, so it was all good to my elephant driver. i'll admit it was cool to hear a real elephant trumpet sound. it was loud!

we visited the baby one last time and fed her some bamboo before we began our drive south to the beach.

we could have all used another week in ubud.

bali: uluwatu

we spent our last day in bali near the southern tip of the island.
the waves were pretty big at dreamland beach, so we settled at padang padang beach.

the sand was soft, the sun was hot, and lunch consisted of magnum bars. perfect.

after the boys got some surfing in, we went to check out uluwatu temple, situated on a cliff above the ocean.

the trip was a balanced mix of relaxing and doing, and the company couldn't have been better. 

it's always a good idea to leave while you're having fun, and we all agreed we could have done a few more days.
i guess that means we'll have to come back here someday...

bali: harvest moon

in the village of lodtunduh is a cluster of villas that look out onto the endless rice paddies. 

we stayed at the harvest moon villa...incredible, serene, relaxing, and the perfect backdrop to this fun trip with matt and belize.

the villa was both indoor and outdoor, including this bath tub in its own koi pond. sage loved it.

at night, the boys would fill it with hot water and we had our own hot tub.

we waded through the rice paddies on skinny little trails and watched the kids come parading out with their kites. apparently, it was excellent kite flying weather while we were in bali because the skies were constantly filled with colorful kites.

breakfast was made in our villa every morning by a sweet crew of people who seriously never stopped smiling. such happy people! banana pancakes, scrambled eggs, toast, fresh tropical fruit, and papaya, watermelon, pineapple smoothies.

our last night in ubud, we had a cooking class at our villa with wayan suriani.

 she laughed at how outgoing we were, and giggled incessantly when nate messed up the balinese pancake he was in charge of flipping.

the best dish we made was mie goreng. those noodles melted in my mouth.

 

these green crepe-like pancakes are colored with crushed duan sugi and pandan leaves, then filled with a mixture of toasted coconut, cinnamon, and brown sugar. uhhh yum. 

belize was the master scribe and carefully wrote down each recipe. 

now if only i knew where to pick pandan leaves in singapore...

after the women cleaned up the kitchen, they chopped up banana leaves and cooked an egg. they quickly prepared twenty offerings for the gods. wayan told us that her mother said to always bless the kitchens she cooked in. belize and i went with the sweet women to the villa temple, and all around the kitchen and property as they placed these offerings to bless and protect. 

staying at harvest moon made all the difference in our trip. we'd definitely recommend it!