DAY 12: Island Paradise!!!

DAY 12 was what we'd been waiting for for a long time: blue skies, lots of sun, beautiful sand and crystal clear water! It's what Bali is all about right?!

We took a small boat over to Nusa Lembongan Island in the morning (south of Bali), arrived around 11am and checked into a darling bungalow style hotel called Bungalow No. 7 on the water! My room is the one closest to the ocean... It's about 25 feet from the water!

We dropped our bags in our bungalows and grabbed some lunch at the on-site restaurant.

Then, after our belly's were full, we jumped on our scooter and rode around the island, stopping at lots of different places, like this one, where the water shot up from under these rocks!

Then we found Mushroom Beach! It was exactly what we'd been waiting for and dreaming about! Yes, that's me, laying in the SHADE! The sun was sooo hot, I couldn't help it!

Since I couldn't bare laying in the sun, Aaron taught me how to float on my back in the water... It was perfect, because I could get tan, and be in the water all at the same time!! :)

After going to the beach, we jumped back on the scooter and continued our quest around the island! We saw a sign for "Underground house" and intrigued, we turned the bike around and headed for it!

The house was built underground using only a hammer, chisel and intuition as guidance. It took 15 years to complete this incredible labyrinth, which includes a bedroom, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and sacred meditation room.

This was our tour guide, through the caves... He definitely grabbed me in the dark a couple times... not sure if it was on purpose or not. I'd like to think it wasn't, but I'll chalk it up to the experience!

We decided to head over to a smaller island called Ceningan Island, which you can reach by a very narrow yellow wood slatted bridge! As we entered the Island, we saw these guys playing volleyball and waved hello. They motioned for us to come over and play, so we stayed here for a while, playing a little game of bump the ball with them!

Then we jumped back on the scooter and headed south. We came to a REALLY steep hill, and as we were going up, there were a bunch of high school aged kids on scooters coming down. So that we didn't crash, Aaron pulled over to the side of the road... but because the hill was so steep, every time he would hit the gas, we would go backwards, down the hill! Luckily, there were two young guys behind us who got off their scooter and gave us a little push... and the rest is history!

That is how we met these two! Nyoman (19) and Kadek (17), two boys, native to Ceningan Island! Their families are both seaweed farmers... They wanted to practice their english, so they offered to show us around the island.

First, they took us here to the Blue Lagoon, which was perfectly named! It was some of the bluest water I've seen to date!

Aaron and I standing on the cliff at the Blue Lagoon.

Then, they asked us if we wanted to see a beautiful view, which of course we did! so, we headed up the Tsunami trail to the top of the hill on the island, where we could see all of Bali and Lmebongan Island. We hung out here as the sun was setting and talked about living in Indonesia, religion, family, etc...

We all rode the scooters down the hill and stopped here at Kopi Break Cafe for some dinner. This is the ONLY restaurant on the island and it happened to be owned by one of Nyoman's friends... which isn't surprising, considering there are only 300 people living here!


We hung out here for a while with all the locals! :)


When we got back to Bungalow No 7, we grabbed our towels and headed for the beach in front of the hotel to watch the end of the sunset and the lightning storm in the far off distance! It was beautiful!!

We have a date with Nyoman and Kadek today to jump of the yellow bridge connecting the 2 islands! I've never jumped off a bridge! Nyoman said he would jump with me and hold my hand while we jumped... so look out for my next blog! You just might see me jumping off a bridge! (Don't worry mom, it's only about 12 feet from the water!)

DAY 11: Waterfall, Water Palace, and Kite Flying!

DAY 11 was perfect!

We started the day by checking out a waterfall that Aaron found a picture of online! After asking about 10 people for directions along the way, we finally arrived, and it was DEFINITELY worth it! We paid .50 cents to enter the area, grabbed some snacks at the small stand at the top of th mountain and then began the 171 stair decent down to the river where the waterfall fell into.

It was a bit of a task to get close to the waterfall. There were lots of slippery rocks, deep and shallow water, and mud to get through before getting there... but once again, it was WORTH it!

Oh, and I guess I should mention that for the first 45 minutes or so, we were the only people there! AMAZING huh?!

Next to the waterfall, there were tall cliffs with cool spring water coming from bamboo holes into the river. The landscape here is like nothing I've ever seen! It's almost magical!

After the waterfall, we took the scooter to the famous Puri Saren Agung (Royal Palace, Water Palace) It's only about 150 feet from the place we were both staying at. This was the palace of the kings of Ubud until the 1940s and some royal descendants still live there to this day. These are the doors leading to the palace.

And this is inside the palace. There were a bunch of rules about what you had to wear to enter (and if you were "menstruating," you WERE NOT ALLOWED! I snapped this picture from the left door, which happened to be open (lucky for us!) This was, hands down, the most beautiful Palace Temple I've seen yet.

Most of the statues of Hindu gods are wrapped in this black and white checkered cloth. I'm not sure the significance... I'll try to ask someone before I leave.

These young Balinese boys were fishing in the small pond in front of the water palace. Believe it or not, under the masses of Lotus flower lily pads, there were lots of fish!

When we had seen every nook and cranny of the beauties of the water palace, we headed over to the Art Market to buy a kite to fly over the rice paddies! This handmade, hand painted, one of a kind Balinese kite was only $6.00! It came with a ball of string, which Aaron kindly wrapped around a water bottle so we could actually fly it! Don't be fooled by the bored look on his face... he was definitely as excited about kite flying as I was!

We decided to ride the scooter through the small towns and rice fields on the outskirts of Ubud, and try to fly the kite behind us, but there was ABSOLUTELY no wind, so it basically either flew in wide circles between the air and the ground, or just drug behind us while we, and the locals all laughed! It may not have flown, but it made for a really funny experience!

Aaron was trying to compensate for the fact that he's holding a butterfly kite!

After flying the kite, we stopped by the monkey forest once more to say goodbye to our monkey friends... The only food we had were rasberry mentos, so we bit them in half and would give one 1/2 to 1 monkey and the other 1/2 to another. Believe it or not, they LOVED them! Go figure, huh?!

The sun was going down and we were starving, so we stopped in at this charming restaurant on Monkey Forest road and had a drink and the most delicious food, all for about $5.00!

It was definitely an adventure packed day with lots of laughter and beauty!