Bali holiday!

Bali holiday! We have had a surf, sun and sand filled delightful Bali holiday. However, I do not encourage you to look up that song on YouTube (under Legend Bar) unless you are prepared for a very inappropriate tune. It was a little bit of a shocker when the band played it. Other than that song, the Legend Bar is our new home. Packed with Australians, who are rancorously drunk by 9, friendly waitstaff (Krys even got married to a cute one), and an Indonesian cover band with thick accents who do a great version of ACDC's To the Top. "It's a long way to the shore, if you wanna surf some mo'", it was a nice place to spend an evening.

Bali has been more of a "vacation". I have been enjoying the beach and have gotten a bit of a tan while reading my book and watching the surfers. Speaking of surfing, Nathan and Krystal have been taking lessons and can now consistently stand and catch a wave on their own. They are quite proud of their accomplishments. I did one day of lessons, but really don't enjoy the giving up of control to the powerful waves and prefer to feel the force in the shallows. The undertow was incredibly strong at times, once in a while it could take your feet right out from under you.

Bali is an interesting island. It has become very touristy, cheap and crass. (I think catering to a crass tourist crowd) I didn't enjoy the first couple of days, because I felt like I was just in Jamaica, or a resort town in Mexico, but the special parts of the island are there if you look hard. The people of Bali are mostly Hindu and evidence of their devotion to their faith is everywhere you look. Superstition surrounding money and times of day are ingrained into the culture. It is said that there are more temples and shrines to the Hindu trinity gods than there are houses on the island. Daily, or even up to three times a day individuals pause and present an offering. Flowers, incense and rice cover the streets. Meant to appease the spirits, their more animistic belief is that everything is connected, on a spiritual level and the smallest interaction can have a profound impact later. I liked it.

We took some times to visit some of the more famous temples around the island. Grand and beautiful grounds and outsides, once you walk through the gates, which are piled and pointy, but with smooth insides like bookends that look like they could snap closed at any second, as long as the magic word was spoken, there's not much to them but vast empty space inside. You could visit some of them as long as you are dressed in a sarong and not menstruating.

Two of the temples we visited were filled with people-habituated-jerk macaque monkeys. I love monkeys. But these ones wanted to climb on you, steal your stuff, and demonstrate they were the dominant males. Still fun to watch. Not really fun to be climbed on top of. Two temples were perched by the ocean, providing nice photos, and a sunset filled with lots of other tourists to watch.

I really enjoyed our quick stop off at some UNESCO heritage listed rice paddies. I did not realize that a UNESCO designated heritage site could be privately owned. It was neat to do a precarious tramp around.

Another highlight of this part of the trip was something I never thought I would do. We stopped at a coffee and tea farm and got to try a taste of 15 different cups of tea and coffee. So much fun to read the descriptions of the medical benefits. My body was confused because I drank both relaxation and stimulation brews. We forced Nathan to down the one that is good for your prostate. Part of this event was I also got to try a cup of Luwak coffee. This is the special coffee that is processed by travelling down the digestive tract of a civet. The best coffee berries are chosen by the civet who eats and digests them, then the seeds are "harvested" from his poop. They are cleaned a few times, roasted, and hand ground using a giant mortar and pestle. Not actually half bad, I think I will stick to Tim Hortons though.

One day we took to do some white water rafting. The rapids were only level 1and 2s, with maybe a couple 3s thrown in, plenty adrenaline filled for me, we did raft right over a small waterfall. I think Nate and Krys were disappointed it wasn't more intense. The most wonderful part of that trip was the dramatically gorgeous scenery we floated by, rice plantations, green green jungle and spectacular waterfalls. A few, by the fact that the rock was eroded by the water, we could go right under. The fall was not so much a surge, as rain falling from overhanging vegetation, the drops sparkled as they fell down. Bali was beautiful, and I recommend it if you are looking for a nice vacation, with lots of beach and relaxing time, and not much else.