Sunday, January 4, 2009

A white sandy Christmas

This year Clark and I decided we were going to go to Bali for Christmas and New Years. We are so close to all these Asian countries that we would be stupid if we didn't travel on this side of the world while we are here!

We arrived in the city of Kuta and had beautiful weather all week until the last day when it seriously rained cats and dogs but then we headed over to another city called Ubud for the rest of the time. We stayed in the Matahari Bungalows during our Kuta visit and enjoyed the beach-surfing, massages every night, white water rafting, pool, haggling with the locals for souvenirs, eating- seriously the best steak and Mexican food we have EVER had, and scuba diving-yes I blew chunks 5 times on board but maybe that is because there was 12 foot waves (and yes I never get sea sick-EVER)!



I was a little nervous being in Bali around the holidays because a few years ago there were Bali bombings in Kuta itself, however, we were safe the whole week- except when Clark couldn't hold on to the surf board and it knocked me in the thigh leaving a HUGE bruise...



Next we headed to Ubud (Tepi Sawah Villas) where we enjoyed our wonderful villa overlooking the rice paddies and volcano. yet again the great food-mmm suckling pig, visited the monkey forest, got massages, layed out at the pool, drove around with our tour guide to a clothing factory, a silver and gold jewelry store (yes I got some stuff) wood carving facility, art shop, a spice and herb garden, a volcano, the pure water temple, and the rice paddy fields.





The great thing about Bali is that its so cheap and you can haggle with everyone. The sad part is the people over there do not have a lot- so if you ever have a good tour guide, driver, or waiter service, tips are always nice to give.

If you ever head to Bali check out these great places to eat-

Kuta:
TJ's- California-Mexican
Havana Club- Cuban-the best steak EVER
Mama's-German
Rosso Vivo- Italian (pizza and pasta) and its overlooking the beach which was beautiful
Bamboo Corner- cheap local food
McDonald's- sorry no breakfast menu in Bali- also there main dishes are fried chicken! still good!!

Ubud:
Ibu Oka- suckling pig-mmm
Cinta
Pizza Bagus
Cafe Warung- enojoyed our wonderful new years dinner here



All in all we had a wonderful time in Bali and highly recommend it to everyone! I'll post some pictures on here but the rest can be found on my Facebook

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

love the shot of you surfing. looks like you guys had a splendid time in bali.

Em Levy {orange + barrel} said...

What a fun trip!!!!

Lizzy said...

This looks like the perfect Christmas!!

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