…and Bali as well

When we lived in Asia, one of the first vacations we took was to Bali. As soon as we got off the airplane, I fell in love; Bali sings to me! For this part of the trip we decided to combine something new with our old favorite resort. So first we set out to the town of Ubud, in the center of the island. All of Bali is very arty but Ubud is touted as the center of it all. We would always go there for a day trip and enjoy all the crafts. This time we stayed in a small hotel right off of Monkey Forest Road. Komaneka has several small resorts in the area and each one is quite different. What an amazing place! We had our own little area, with an outdoor sitting area, pool and then a building with our bedroom and bath. It was heavenly…

The hotel provided us with two young Balinese guides and we took a hike in the countryside one day, enjoying the rice padis. The guides were as curious about us as we were about them and we had such a nice time chatting. And their English was quite impressive!

It was so nice to wander around in the country without the crush of tourists and motorcycles and noise. We encountered this darling Balinese native. We could hear the bells of several of her relatives as we walked.

The Balinese have many gods and I do not know the name of this one, but I always enjoy seeing him. Carved wood and stone work is all over the island and so beautifully done.

Every day and sometimes twice a day, the Balinese leave offerings to the gods. Usually it’s a small basket with flower bits in it and sometimes a food treat, but this was an impressive display!

The really big change we discovered about Bali was the food. When we went to Ubud many, many years ago, we were always a bit apprehensive about the food and drink. Now just about everything we ate was carefully prepared and so appetizing-looking. Look at this great presentation of beef rending! Even most places served safe, cool bottled water. Mealtime was really a pleasure. ;-D

What I really missed in the shopping we did were the beautiful Balinese batiks and ikats. I do not need one more piece of any fabric, but I was looking forward to looking. We wondered if maybe the cotton shortage some years ago, which affected the quilting market in a big way, may have had something to do with it. Or that people don’t know what to do with batik sarongs, even though they are beautiful. One store which sold some textiles had this loom set up, but it was very dusty!

The second place we went to in Bali was the Nusa Dua beach area. We always stayed at the Grand Hyatt. Back in the day, it was so amazing and so Balinese. Now I must say, it’s more Hyatt than Bali, but the large grounds are still delightful. One of the things we like to do when we visit there is to see Balinese dancing. The hotel has a night market where you can enjoy an astounding array of food and then enjoy the show. I took a short little video so you can see how magical it is. And by the way, dance is an important part of the religion, and though it is done for tourists, it is a part of their ceremonies as well.

This is the end of the travelogue. If you have never been to Asia, I would put Singapore and Bali on your list. They are very delightful places!

{I tried to do a fancy collage at Picmonkey so there would not be a long string of pictures, but everytime I tried to make one, my computer froze! Probably user error…}