Pure Bliss...

" Following all the rules leaves a completed checklist.  Following your hearts achieves a completed you"

- Ray A. Davis

     My trip planning starts with a list of lists.  Lists of what to pack, what to see, where I am staying, and how much money I will spend.  Add to that lists of back-ups for rain days, if I have time lists, and if my credit cards don't work lists. This trip to Bali was different.  This trip had no lists.  My friend Beth and I booked our accommodations about 2 months ago but other than that I put zero planning into this trip.  If I'm honest I wasn't even really looking forward to this trip because of the fact that I had not plan, I didn't know what to look forward to.  Turns out this trip was exactly what I needed. 

This trip was bliss from the start.  Beth arrived a day before me, so when I arrived she had already scoped out the best place to eat.  

This restaurant had little huts to sit in to eat among the rice fields.

The next day we just explored the city of Ubud and happened upon a temple.  I think Balinese temples might be my favorite kind of temples I have seen on my travels.  

Bali is one of more than 17,000 islands that make up the country of Indonesia.  It is also one of the few islands that is not predominantly Muslim.  93% of Balinese people practice a local version of Hinduism.  Many people in Bali are very devout in their practice of the religion.  Every house, shop, intersection, everywhere has offerings and temples.  Multiple times a day the women of the house or shop put out offerings.  The offerings are small square trays made of palm leaves with flowers, rice, and weirdly a cracker placed on them.  These were put out on the sidewalk or street in front of the building.  

I love how the water beads up on the lily pads.

We found the temple because I saw this symbol and thought it looked weird.  Turns out it was a Starbucks.

Next we went to the Sacred Monkey Forest.  Honestly I was terrified of this forest.  After my last experience with monkeys, and the one that jumped on me, I was really scared one of these monkeys would attack me.

Because they are so used to people they are not afraid to jump on people to get their food.  Any food you have in your bag or on you, they will find.

They are cute when they are far away.

For some reason there were swings throughout the forest.

We are still confused by this situation.  The bigger one would push the little one into the water.  Then fish him out and push him back in.

The whole time in the forest Beth kept saying she wanted a monkey to climb on her and just before we exited the forest she got her wish.

 On our walk back to our house that night we wanted to stop at the temple again to take pictures of it all lit up.  We happened to arrive just as a dance show was ending.  So we took the opportunity to take pictures with the dancers.

Beth had found a glassblowing class online, but unfortunately they canceled on us the day before.  So instead we did a silver jewelry making class.  Beth did so much work on her lotus leaf pendant.  I will be honest and say I did 10% of my acorn pendant.  The teacher did the other 90%. 

I did however cut the leaf out myself, which is my favorite part!

Look how awesome Beth's Lotus turned out!

I really wanted to buy a door fram made out of a tree trunk and tree roots, but I figured my mom and dad would not have appreciated storing that indefinitely.   

We booked a house on Airbnb and it ended up being in the perfect location.  We were in the country so we were lulled to sleep by frogs and geckos every night.  It was an easy 20 minute walk into town across this stunning ridge. 

 Near the edge of town was another beautiful temple.

 If you notice the scary statue on the right has a flower tucked behind his ear.  Not only do the statues wear flowers behind their ears but so do the men and women.  Because of how many temples and sacred places there are on the island, Bali has been nicknamed the island of the gods.  

We spent our week staying in the city of Ubud which is considered the cultural center of Bali.  I love that you can be in the middle of a large, very touristy city and still find that there are rice fields in the middle of it.  Its nice to know that the people are still living their normal lives and the tourists haven't' completely taken over. 

Because the food was so cheap and we were on holiday, Beth and I basically had a food tour of Bali.  Every meal we would have  an appetizer, main, dessert, and maybe a cocktail.  It was amazing.

Why do we not have cool doorways in America! Would it look weird if I built one of these in Wisconsin?

This trip unfortunately did not have my coconut shakes from Vietnam but it did have an abundance of fresh coconuts to drink.

To end our second (and third, and maybe fourth) days in Bail, we went to a spa to have a massage.  I have never been super in love with spas and massages, especially after weird Korean jimjilbangs (think painful massage while in a room full of naked women) but it was something you apparently had to do in Bali.  Am I ever glad I went for it! We went to the fanciest spa I have ever been to and were each taken deep into the jungle into our own private bungalows where we were massaged for 2 hours then scrubbed with chocolate and the took a bath in a bath filled with rose petals.  I have decided that every bath I take from now on must include rose petals. 

It was an amazing first two days and the trip only got better from there.