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.