We took off the month of August from our normal workaway routine and spent some time in Bali.

We spent a few days in a resort on the shore and then moved to their sister resort in the jungle.

The shore resort was beautiful with lovely pools, statues and structures.  We even took a cooking class.

 

There was a Koi pond out front where you could feed them.

We saw a traditional show on Bali culture in the hotel during dinner one night.

 

We went into town a few time to get a feel for local cuisine and town vibes.

 

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The sister hotel was a few hours away.  It was very quiet and relaxing.  The hotel gave you the feel you were in a modern  Bali temple.

Our room was great.

The main pool was beautiful.  It was an infinity pool that looked over the jungle.  It even had a swim up bar.

    

The spa was gorgeous.  It was very inexpensive and one of the most relaxing spa experiences I have ever had.

The resort had a cool place to do yoga in the morning.  It is called the birds nest.  It is made of bamboo and sits high above the jungle.

   

There is also a very nice bamboo walk through the jungle.

 

There was also a pair of otters that live at the entrance of the resort.  They were so cute and quite the hams.  (I didn’t know otters lived in Bali).

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We decided to hire a driver and tour guide to take us to some temples  and a few other places.

1 – Temples…

 

2 – the beach…

 

3 – A working rice patty field (you can see some of the workers in some of the pictures)…

  

This is called a love nest.  You can sit in them and have your picture taken.

    

You can also ride a tandem bike very high above a patty field (if you dare – I did not).

4 – a beautiful waterfall hike with some cool rock carvings…

5 – a local who carved beautiful statues

6 – We went to a small touristy area where they make Kopi Luwak coffee.  If you remember the part of the movie “The Bucket List” where Thomas tells Edward that his beloved expensive coffee is made from the droppings of a cat like animal in Indonesia, then you have heard of Kopi Luwak coffee.

The coffee IS made from partially digested coffee beans eaten and digested by a civet (related to the mongoose).  The bean is not fully digested so it is washed, shelled and ground into coffee.

Mike gave it a try, and then…

YES, we tried the coffee.  It is very smooth and had a wonderful taste.  It has very low acidity.  We did buy some and took it to our family (who loved it), but we will not buy it again because we found out the civets are not treated well.

Then we meet this lovely fruit bat.  His nails were digging into my fingers but she was so cute.  Really, her face was adorable (she has a piece of papaya in her mouth).

and a spider carrying her baby (yes it was very big)

Along the way we followed a funeral of a high chief (they parade the body to the burial site)

and many locals who have a mini cafe that they drive around on their motor bikes (they are quite thrifty)

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We had a good time touring Bali, swimming at the resort, eating the local food, etc.  The people of Bali are very very nice, but we did find lots of places were very dirty.

Well off to the next part of our “mini” vacation… South Africa (bucket list item).

Till then…

“The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination.” Unknown