Bali

After hiking and adventuring in New Zealand I flew to Sydney to see all my friends and of course the babies (that aren't so babie-ish any more). It was a really fun week of catching up with friends and hanging out with Taylor and Ripley, who just got new kittens. Can you imagine anything better than babies and kittens? Neither can I.

LOVE BABIES LOVE KITTENS JUST LOOOVEE

Saying goodbye to all my people there was hard. I really don't know when I am going to see most of my friends (or the babies) who live in Sydney again.

From Sydney I flew to Bali. While in Bali I have been going to the beach, sweating a lot, going to the pool, getting sunburned, doing yoga, meditating, eating delicious food, meeting new friends, sweating some more, dancing, I went to a few temples (but not too many because they are all the same, but not the same, but mostly the same), I hiked a volcano and I went to a silent retreat. It is really hot here and really humid and did I mention really hot. The food is really good. Delicious fresh tropical fruit and veggies. Mango juice anyone? Yes please, all day, every meal. Tons of hippie, foodie people come to Bali, especially Ubud so it all vegetarian and super healthy and gluten free and so much more.

I am excited because this is the first temple I went to see

Number one temple on Trip Advisor in Bali. Tanah Lot. One word. Underwhelming.

Tanah Lot. Did I mention it was a million degrees? Celsius.

 

Sunset in Ulu Watu

Me and Georgie. A friend I met in Ubud

So many rice paddies

Rice paddies

I did a sunrise hike on Mt. Batur. The sunrise was awesome. It was not awesome getting up at 2am but it was worth it.

Sunrise at Mt. Batur

I love sunrises

Can you see all the lava?

The rim of the crater

I went to Gili Air for a 5 days, which is a small island about an hour and half east from Bali. The island is small enough that you can walk around it in a hour and half. While there I met some really cool ladies, we would have dinner together most nights. Also I went to the beach, sweated a lot, went to the pool, read my book, didn't get too sunburned, did yoga, and went snorkeling.

A little piece of paradise

Snorkeling trip

We saw TURTLES

The pool

Looking toward Lombok

Gili Air

I went to Bali Silent Retreat for 4 days. The retreat is about an hour and half drive from Ubud in the middle of rice paddies in the middle of nowhere. It is so nice and beautiful there. The food there is the best food that I have ever had. Seriously, it is so good. All of the food is grown on the propriety or sourced locally. Local like the villagers come kitchen to sell there products. I really can't explain how good the food is. But also I don't want to because its annoying when people describe meals they have eaten. The chef gave a talk about his philosophy and then next morning we got a tour of the gardens. This is the website New Earth Cooking if you are interested. It's a silent retreat (so no talking) but it was actually quite noisy when I was there. A village close by the retreat was doing a cremation ceremony which apparently means blasting terrible music over a loud speaker pointed towards the retreat. It was still really nice, yoga and mediation classes were held twice a day.

It rained the first day

Sunrise

The dinning room and hang out

Rice paddie during the garden walk

Tea making station

Fresh herbs for tea

The buffet

View from the dinning lodge

Fire house

The women's dorm

During this jungle walk I got bitten by like a thousand mosquitoes

Jungle

Dam. Lots of mosquitoes

Its pretty right?

View of yoga and meditation tent thingy