Greetings from Bali!

We are back home again after our two weeks holiday to Bali. It took me a few days to come around and organize all my photos from the trip, but now thats done, I can write my next post!

So, Saturday 19 January we left China, changed plane in Seoul and flew to Denpasar, Bali. We arrived early Sunday morning (02.00). We had booked a hotel in Kuta, just 15 minutes drive from the airport. It was Hard Rock Hotel, and we liked it so much that we decided to stay there the whole holiday. 

The weather was warm, around +30 degrees celsius everyday, and humid. Kuta is a small town that have grown quite a lot in the last decade, and it has become the tourist - centre of Bali. Totally filled with Australians, even if it now was low season...

We did not have that many plans for our holiday, relaxation was the main goal! We did however do a few trips around the Island, and the main impression of Bali is that I would warmly recommend it for others!

Some of the things we did and saw:

- Met my cousin Linda. She had been on Bali for almost two months, and we spent her free days of her voluntary work with YWAM there with her. ( You can read all about her adventure with YWAM in her blog:  http://moedlinda.blogspot.se ) She showed us around Kuta to her favorite places to eat and shop, and we spent some fair amount of time in the hotel pool... It was absolutely great to meet her again after 1/2 year, and I'm happy to have got some quality time with her on Bali!!! 

- Diving and river rafting. Together with Linda we also went diving one day to Tulamben, and river rafting another day. But more about that in my next post. I can't fit all the pictures in just one post, it would become too long... ;-)

- Lake Bratan, a lake between the volcanos in the middle of the island. Up in the mountains it was much cooler, which I thought was nice. In the lake is one of Bali's most beautiful Temples, the Pura Ulun Danu Bratan. It is the temple for the Goddess of the Lake, built 1633. It is a temple with many small 'houses' or shrines, and two of them are very beautifully situated in the water. Most of Indonesia is muslim today, but Bali is Hindu. This is visible everywhere, with about 10,000 of these small temples on the Island, and people offering to their gods everyday everywhere. Statue of gods, devils, spirits and so on is all over the place, most of them quite nightmarish in their appearances.

- Tanah Lot, another temple in the water, but this time at the coast. The temple is built in a rock at the coast that is only reachable when the tide is low. It is said to have the most beautiful sunset in Bali. 

- Ubud, a town 1h drive from Kuta. It is an interesting town, that has become something of a cultural centre of Bali. Here you can watch the traditional dances of Bali, go to museums with old balinese art-craft's, buy paintings, sculptures, carvings, etc etc... When we were there they did not have any performances, which was a little sad. It would have been interesting to see, even if the music in my ears is totally horrible... We visited the museum, and watching their old art is like watching nightmares in different settings. A few pieces showed the old everyday life of the people, and they were nice to study. We also visited a woodcarving centre, and man they are good at carving! Beautiful sculptures, wall pieces, and furniture in wood. 

In Ubud we also visited the monkey forest, another temple in the forest which has become a sanctuary for the monkeys of the Island. They are considered holy, and people come there to feed them. In connection to the temple there is also a graveyard, and just when we were there they preformed a burning ritual. Everybody was dressed in their best traditional clothes, and it seems more like a party than a burial. When we asked about it, they told us that the burning ritual is a ritual to help the spirit of the dead to travel to the next level/life which is supposed to be a good thing, hence the party!

- Eating. It felt like having a two week feast... We ate both great western food and local. Fu yung hai, Babi guling (suckling pig, the most tender meat ever!), Nasi Goreng, ribs, seafood, you name it!

- Shopping. Well, when you can buy new summer pants for only €4, a bag for €2 etc, it is hard to resist... And it felt good to be able to shop some clothes that are actually big enough... (Here in Rizhao the biggest they have is L and rarely a XL, and that is an european S or small M. I need an european L, I wonder if that would be a local XXXL if they had it?!? ;-) )

- Beach. A couple of times we walked on the beach. As it was low season there were not that many surfers to look at. I was also surprised to see how filthy the beach was. Almost totally covered in plastic crap that had been washed ashore. Such a pity!

- And a few days we just spent at the pool and in the pool-bar. It was suppose to be a holiday... Our hotel had the biggest pool in Bali with a very nice pool-bar in the water (only access was to swim there), a beautiful SPA with some of the best massages I have ever had, and, well, you get the picture! ;-)

But now I have rambled on too much already, the pictures will tell the rest of the story!

Kuta Beach.

Kuta Beach.

Hard Rock Hotel Pool with the pool-bar to the right. Disgusting, isn't it?!?

A day at the pool with some sangria to quench the thirst.

My beautiful cousin Linda and me.

Normal traffic in Bali. 2 lanes = 6 lanes in Bali. Cars in the middle + scooters on each side of them and this both ways. Interesting!

Petrol station for scooters. The same bottles all over Bali, which means that someone have been drinking a lot of Absolut...

Mini shrine, with fresh offerings to the gods every day. Every building had its own.

Shopping!

Doorway to city temple.

Tanah Lot.

Monkey forest. Hmm, she should have hold her hands against her mouth instead of be screaming. And where is the one that won't hear?

The two shrines of the Temple of the lake goddess that were build in the lake at Lake Bratan.

Babi guling two ways.

Entrance to the botanical garden. It was the wrong season for it, so there were not much to see.

Rice fields. We saw rice in all stages of growth, from newly planted to full grown. The big terraces that were still covered in water were very beautiful. Unfortunately I did not get any decent photos of those.

A post about the diving and river rafting will follow soon!