So these posts have been a long time coming. How has it been almost a year since my honeymoon?
Anyways, I'm finally getting through all our photos from our trip. I can not believe how much my life has changed in one short year!
Anyways, if you would like to come along with me in my recaps, then be prepared for a ton of photos. (Oh, who am I kidding... that is pretty much every post...)
Back in May 2012, Geoff and I took May off and traveled to Korea for a wedding and then flew straight to Bali for our late honeymoon. We usually try and non-rev (aka, catching open seats on flights- a perk of working for the airlines) but since this was our honeymoon and we had planned out our trip, we actually bought tickets.
We said goodbye to our friends, boarded our flight, and landed in Bali. I researched a ton before our trip and found all our hotels off reviews on Tripadvisor! I figured since we had a week, we wanted to see as much as the island as possible while not moving hotels every night. We decided on 3 nights in Ubud, 2 in Pemuteran and 3 in Sanur. This was a little ambitious and a lot of driving (little did I know I would be pregnant and car sick- oops!) but well well worth it.
Ubud was around a 2.5 hour drive from the airport. We arranged for a car to come pick us up through our hotel before we arrived. (This is totally the way to get around Bali!) He had water bottles waiting for us and off we went. We had a few choices on where to stay in Ubud. We could stay right in the town where all the restaurants and shops were or a little farther out. Since this was our honeymoon, I opted for a more "romantic" feel to our first hotel, staying at Puri Sunia Resort and it was probably my favorite place I have stayed at yet. :)
It was easy to decide to stay a bit outside of town because our hotel had a shuttle that ran every hour into town, which was a quick 10 minute ride away.
Our hotel offered a free welcome foot massage, yoga sessions, morning walks through the rice fields, a pool, had a restaurant which we ate breakfast at each morning. They had a few different items on the menu for breakfast but these banana pancakes, along with a plate of fruit or fresh juice were my favorite. YUM!
Since I was pregnant and in the beginning stages of morning sickness, we didn't do as much as we had originally planned. Which was ok! We spent some quality time relaxing by the pool and taking a nap each day, which is a great way to spend part of a vacation.
The first afternoon we headed right to the market in the middle of town.
There we found lots of people selling all sorts of touristy knick knacks but also some really cool artwork. There is a painting I really wish we could have bought but trying to talk with the artist on how to ship it to the US didn't get us anywhere. Ubud is known for it's artists. They have so many people who make all sorts of beautiful metalwork, beading, paintings, etc. I absolutely loved the feel of it.
After we had bought a few things, we headed out to find a place to eat lunch. There were heaps of restaurants around and so we just popped into one that looked good. We tried basically a sampling platter or 'Balinese tapas'. I was so excited that most of the places around Bali had tons of choices of fresh squeezed juice combinations. I remember this one had ginger in it... so good!
After sitting outside to eat, we decided to walk to the Monkey Forest. The walk was along a road with tons of little shops, it was almost impossible to window shop because the sidewalks were not even at all. Once we got to the beginning of the Forest, we bought our tickets and got ready to go in. What I had read about the Monkey Forest cautioned not to bring any food or extra bags into the forest because the monkeys would try and grab them. They were NOT kidding. Geoff was carrying a plastic bag with our gifts from earlier in it and in the parking lot he got attacked by a monkey... it was pretty scary actually. Once we had everything secure, we headed inside.
We saw this monkey with a baby and followed them around. It was so cute. :)
It was pretty fun in the Monkey Forest, however, I highly recommend bringing the littlest amount with you in there...
The next morning we got up early to go on a Rice Field Walk from our hotel. We had a tour guide and walked the streets around us, all over the rice fields, past a school and back to the hotel.
When we got back, we had worked up quite the appetite. I had read about a place right in town that had crispy pig and I knew Geoff would be down for that. We had to go at the beginning of lunch because they sell out each day in a few hours. We made the drive into town and feasted on some pig and coconuts. Just like in Thailand, coconuts were readily available and drinking the water straight from the source was not only tasty but made us feel so tropical.
That night we went to a kecak fire & trance dance. There are a few of these around the town each night of the week, so we just picked one that our hotel recommended and got tickets. We had dinner across the street and headed in to get seats once we saw people starting to sit. It consisted of dances along with chants and a big fire finale at the end.
Our last full day we booked a cooking class in the morning that took up the majority of the day. It was so much fun that I'm giving it a full post. :)
Next time we go to Bali, I think I would want to spend a longer time in Ubud to be able so take an art class or two and more importantly some yoga! We had a wonderful time here and I really hope I am able to come back some day.
Next up... our cooking class!
No comments:
Post a Comment