September 3, 1015-September 13, 2015
Bali, Indonesia and Seoul, South Korea
Travel:
We woke up bright and early Thursday morning to get ready
for our long trek to Bali. We had packed
the majority of our things the nights leading up to the trip but had some last
minute things to do. Around 9:30, Joe’s
dad arrived to take us to the airport.
He had already picked up Rox the day before so we sat down and relaxed a
bit. Josh and Caroline came a couple
minutes after Jim did. Before we knew
it, the house was locked up and we were heading out the door to the
airport. We had a 12:15 flight so we hit
the road a little before 10 and didn’t hit too much traffic. After getting all checked in at the
international terminal we took the train to Terminal E for our departure. We had about 30 minutes before boarding so we
caught up on emails before heading off.
We were seated pretty far back in the plane in a row of
4. All of our flights this trip are via
Korean Air. The leg room is quite a lot bigger than the Delta international
flights so we were excited (especially since there are two tall guys
traveling). We got settled in and before
we knew it we were off! After some
drinks we were all settled in and acquainted with our area. A guy a couple rows in front of us had the
cutest puppies, although when he went to the bathroom they would go crazy! About two hours in it was time for our first
meal experience. I wasn’t sure how I
would react to the meals since I have some issues eating on planes, but I was
pleasantly surprised that the food smell was completely different since they
were serving Asian food. Josh I enjoyed
some beef and noodles, Joe ate the bibimbop (an Asian stir fry type meal), and
Caroline had the chicken and rice. All
of it was fantastic! After enjoying the
meal it was time to watch some movies!
They had quite the movie selection to entertain us but after two movies
it was time to turn to the magazines.
The time passed quickly and after a couple more drink rounds it and
about 8 hours into the flight it was time for meal number 2! This time around Joe and Caroline enjoyed a
different kind of chicken and rice, Josh braved the fish and potatoes (he
wouldn’t recommend it!), and I had noodles with cream sauce. After dinner time it was time to sleep the
remainder of the flight. In not time we
were landing in Seoul, 1 hour early from the original arrival time! I guess the pilot flew fast!
Once we landed in Korea we waited in line for a bit to get
through a little security line before finding our gate. Since we were flying with the same airlines
it was not too far of a walk to our next gate.
As we settled in for about a 2 hour wait we all got caught up on the
world (yes we were all on our phones the second we found out we had wi-fi) and
found out the yellow jackets had won their first home game! We all cleaned up a bit in the bathroom and
brushed our teeth before starting our next leg of the trip. This flight was about half as long as the
first so we were excited for the 7 hours.
We failed to hear any of the boarding calls for our flight (we were
sitting 1 gate over to avoid all of the people) and luckily Caroline happened
to look up and see that people were boarding and the gate was almost
empty! We packed up our stuff really
quick and got to the gate right at final boarding call! We had another row of 4 seats on this flight
so we sat down and got settled in! We
enjoyed a snack and drinks right away and then settled in to some reading and
movies. About 2 hours in it was time for
a meal again! This time Caroline and
Josh got yet another variation of chicken and rice which they did not enjoy as
much as the others and Joe and I had beef and noodles which were very
tasty. They topped it off with a
wonderful ice cream for dessert! After
wrapping up the meal we all took a couple hours to nap since we have been
sleeping on and off for the past 20 hours.
With about an hour and a half left in the flight they turned the lights
on and brought pizza and bananas for snack time. Before we knew it was time to land and we had
survived the 14 hour and 7 hour flights!
We walked through customs pretty quickly. We were lucky that our bags were literally
the first 4 bags out! That meant we had
little to no lines walking through customs.
The airport looked like a regular airport and fairly large as we walked
through. Once we exited the secured area
there were large lines of people holding signs for pickup! I have never seen that many before! We found our guy since he was holding a black
sign instead of the standard white one and then we were off to his car and off
for the 15 minute drive to our hotel.
For the first 3 nights we are staying at The Villas, Seminyak, which is
near the beach. We checked in fairly
quickly then were escorted to our villa.
We had originally booked a two bedroom villa but they upgraded us to a 3
bedroom villa! We walked through the
door into paradise! We got the tour of
the three bedrooms, all including a HUGE bathroom, patio, and bed area. We also had an open space that consisted of a
living room, dining room, and kitchen area.
The third room was separate in a pool house type feel. We decided we would keep that one for when we
were rinsing off from the pool. We also
had a fruit basket that had the most amazing fruit, half of which I had never
seen before. We snacked on the fruit and
enjoyed some drinks before calling it a night around 2 AM. Of course, since we
had slept on and off the past 24 hours we weren’t too tired and Joe and I
finally got up and moving around 6AM to watch the sun rise.
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| OBSESSED with the fruit here! |
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| 3 bedroom villa with a pool! Thanks for the upgrade :) |
Day 1
We woke up at 6 and enjoyed some relaxing time by the
pool. I walked around and took some
pictures of our villa and rooms while Joe answered some emails. Josh and
Caroline got up around 7 and we hung out until breakfast was served. The chef comes to your villa to cook if you
would like and we opted for that! We all
ordered different things from the menu.
Joe ordered the Indonesian breakfast of Mie Goreng, Josh got eggs
benedict, I ordered the homemade Bircher Muesli, and Caroline ordered the
traditional breakfast which was eggs and pastries. The chef and assistant arrived at 7:45 to
cook breakfast at our villa. After about
30 minutes breakfast was served.
Everything was amazing!!! Joe’s
was an Indonesian noodle with some vegetables and with rice chips. We were all so amazed by breakfast that we
all ordered it for tomorrow’s breakfast.
After breakfast we got ready for the day then ventured out to
explore. We aren’t right on the beach in
Semenyak so we started the walk knowing the general direction of the beach. It
was about 9:30AM and the town was bustling.
There were scooters everywhere and we were amazing by the crazy
drivers! We are glad we weren’t on the
streets and had a driver the whole trip.
We enjoyed walking through the city then spent a little of time at the
beach before turning around and heading back.
Once we got back the boys swam in the pool a bit and enjoyed some local
beer that they bought at the convenient store across the street from us. Once they got dried off and dressed it was
time for lunch.
We headed to Bo & Bun, a place somewhat close to the
hotel. There we enjoyed bulgogi fries
(fries with ground meat on them) and then Joe ordered 18 hour pho, Josh had pad
tie, and Caroline and I enjoyed the chicken basil wok meal. It was all so good, but Caroline and my meal
was perfect! After lunch we headed back
and got ready for the second half of the day.
At 1 PM Made, our driver for the week arrived for the day. We did
introductions and then hit the road. The
first part of the day was the beach tour.
We started at Nusa Dua which is a new beach. There was a nice relaxing beach that wasn’t
too crowded, but the main feature is called Water Blow, which is an area where
the waves crash in the rocks and it is a beautiful site to see. After that we headed to Pandawa Beach which
seemed to be more of a local beach. They had a boardwalk that was very busy and
everyone wanted us to sit under the “brella”.
We ventured to the end of the beach and enjoyed walking by the water. We spent about 40 minutes there before
heading to the last beach, Padang-Padang beach which is the beach where eat
pray love was filmed. The beach was
absolutely stunning with rocks sticking out and huge waves. The walkway to the beach is supper narrow
stairs and we met our first monkey there.
Once you get to the bottom of the steep stair pathway the beach opens
up. This is where all of the Europeans
come to sit! The beach isn’t all that
big so it looked crowded with everyone there.
The water is beautiful at all of these beaches, but the prettiest at
Pandawa Beach. After exploring there a
bit we headed to our last stop of the day.
The highlight of the trip was the Uluwatu temple. We arrived before 5 and walked all the
pathway. This temple sits on top of a
cliff and is stunning. The water has
eroded away huge cliffs for a very scenic view.
The waves were huge below and the water was so blue with super white
waves. After walking around there we sat
down for the last part of the day, the fire dance show. This is a traditional dance that tells a
story with fire. The view is spectacular
as you sit in the arena that opens up to the view of the Indian Ocean. The sun set throughout the majority of the
show which lasted about an hour. It was
interesting to see part of it be quite traditional and then the end seemed
entertaining and modern. Once the show wrapped it was dinner time.
We headed to Jimbaran Beach for dinner. This is an area on the beach that is lined
with restaurants that set tables on the beach to face the water, lined with
candles, and is known for the fish. As
we watched the fire dance we saw all of the boats coming in for the day with
all of their catch to be cooked up for dinner.
Per a suggestion, we ate at Made Bagus.
You walk through a very warehouse type building where they have the fire
going and are cooking and then it opens up to a beautiful beach. We were seated right away and ordered soon
after that. Joe and I ordered a combo
meal for two that had fish (not sure what kind), clams, calamari, prawns that
were all a sort of BBQ flavor but not as sweet, more smoky. With that we got a side of Indonesian spinach
which was sautéed. Everything was very
much my taste and we enjoyed it so much!
Josh ordered a seafood platter to and enjoyed a lobster tail, fish,
prawns who preferred the fish to be deboned but loved the flavor. Caroline ordered chicken sate which she said
was good but plain. We finished up
dinner and headed back to the hotel.
After some showers and a bit of relaxing we were all in bed and asleep
by 10 after a long day! We were ready
for a good long nights sleep before heading out for another day of exploring.
Day 2
We woke up around 7 and relaxed by the pool a bit before the
cooking crew arrived at 7:25. They were
done around 7:40 so we sat down and enjoyed breakfast before getting ready for
the day and meeting Made at 8:30. We
hopped in the car and drove for just under an hour to get to our first even. We
went to a village and watched a Balinese morning dance performance. They do a really good job writing out the
story line so that you can follow what is going on. It is normally a story about their gods,
kings, and spirits fighting (good vs. evil).
We enjoyed this performance a lot more than we had the previous fire
dance. The music was all very
traditional music played in the background and this story line was a little
easier to follow. Once we wrapped up the
dance we headed to Tenganan ancient village. This is the oldest village in Bali
and still very much runs like one. The
villages like this are all owned by the community so nobody owns property, but
they all work together to make the village run.
We learned about different crafts like the drawings on the wood boards
that were done by scratching on palm leaves then staining them with burnt
macadamean nuts, painting on egg shells, and their traditional scarf weaving
techniques where they hand die the threads for a year before they can even
start! We then got to go inside the
temple and learned about how they are preparing for an offering ceremony in
about a month. It was so neat walking
through the incredibly old villages. We
made a quick stop for lunch at Lotus Restaurant near the ancient village. We enjoyed a spring roll for an appetizer
then Joe had Be Pasih Sambal Matah which is Mahi Mahi steak marinated and
grilled and served with turmeric rice and vegetables, Josh had green chicken
curry, Caroline enjoyed some noodles with chicken and vegetable, and I had
chicken skewers with fried rice and egg and some vegetables.
After the village we headed to Ujung Garden. This is one of the most stunning gardens I
have ever seen. There are flowers
everywhere and as well as pathways around the waters and over the waters to
little buildings and gazebos. We loved
walking around and exploring the area, looking at the flowers, and were in awe
or the beauty. Once we wrapped up there
we headed to Tirta Gangga. This is a
temple that we had been looking forward to going to. It is over the water and has steps that you
walk across to that are floating in the water to reach the temple. We made friends with a puppy there that liked
to join us in our pictures and follow us around. In the water we saw some of the biggest coy
fish that looked like they were hundreds of years old! After that it was time to start the trek back
home. We stopped at the Sidemen rice
terrace on the way home and saw a beautiful view of some rice fields along with
red peppers growing. We also stopped at
another rice field that was filled with water where they were harvesting some
of the rice from the small section to spread out along the patty. It took about 3 hours to make it home (we
didn’t realize we had gone that far!).
To wrap up the date we went to Merah Putih which was recommended to us
and is a traditional Indonesian restaurant.
We ate this meal tapas style and ordered two large plates and three
small plates. For the small plates we
enjoyed some octopus, quale, and duck that was prepared in a traditional way,
and for our large plate we had pork ribs and pork belly with some rice. All of it was amazing, although the service
was quite slow for our taste. We enjoyed
some drinks but after browsing the desert menu it was all too contemporary for
us so we headed back to the hotel. We
got back around 8 and relaxed for a bit before hitting the bed pretty early!
Day 3
We were all up well before 7 after a long night of
sleep. After eating Asian food for the
whole day yesterday, we all opted for a pancake breakfast this morning to be
made in our villa. We got up and relaxed
for a bit before starting to pack up our stuff to head to the next hotel. We had a full day ahead of us so it was nice
to have a couple hours to relax, eat breakfast, shower, and get packed. The pancakes were a nice change of pace from
the food we had been eating, and at 8:45 we headed to check out then hit the
road at 9 for a fun filled day!
We started the day at Tanah lot temple. We came at the perfect time because it was
low tide. When it is high tide in the middle of the day you cannot get to the
actual temple. Since it was low tide we
could walk a lot closer to the temple.
We started by walking around and then we got blessed a monk (we believe)
so that we could walk up the stairs and get a better view of the temple. You put water on your face then they put a
thumb print on your forehead with rice.
We wondered around the cliffs a bit before heading out. Our next stop was the monkey forest which was
my favorite. We went to one of seven
monkey forests in Ubud. You buy food for
the monkeys (peanuts) and feed them. The
monkeys are literally everywhere! We had
a good time feeding the monkeys initials. I wanted to hold a monkey so we
tricked one into jumping on me with food.
Two jumped on at once and had a bit of a fight off my back but then one
of them won. I fed that monkey then Joe
did the same. We walked around a bit
more and saw a snake and the bat area before heading back to the monkeys. There Josh and Caroline got a picture
together. Josh then tried to get another
one on his back and got some action! The
two monkeys that jumped on them had a little too much fun together and had an
accident on his shirt. It was VERY entertaining
to say the least and luckily all of our luggage was in the car so he had a
change of clothes. Joe and I held one
more monkey before we headed out. From
there we headed to Jatiluwih Rice Terrace. This is the largest rice terrace in
Bali. We drove around for a while and
then found food. We ate at Billy’s
Terrace Café where they had an Asian buffet.
Although it was not our favorite food, it feed us and got the job
done. We then started venturing through
the rice terraces and learning about way rice grows and how they harvest
it. It was so fun learning all about the
rice. From there it was time to head to
a view of two of the 4 lakes in Bali.
They call it the twin lake view because it is a look out over the two
lakes that are separated by a thin strip of water. From there we headed to Munduk which is one
of the largest water falls in Bali. On
the way there we stopped to look at the local coffee that is the most expensive
coffee in the world. The coffee beans
are eaten by a cat and then pooped out.
Seems gross but its super expensive everywhere else besides here. We also saw how cloves grow which was really
cool along with some other spices. The
walk there and back was quite beautiful and gave us a good warm up for the Mt.
Batur hike. From there we headed to our
last stop, Pura Ulundanu Beratan temple.
We were super excited about this temple and were a bit disappointed. It
was obviously beautiful, but because it is dry season there isn’t any water all
surrounding the temple like we believed.
After walking around there for a bit it was time to head home.
We headed back and got checked into our hotel. Here they did not have two bedroom villas so
we got two one bedroom villas with pools that were adjoined by a wall. The rooms are a bit smaller than what we had
at the first place, which was huge, but beautiful. We have an outdoor shower, bedroom, sitting
area, and a bathroom with a tub. We got
settled in and then headed on the shuttle to downtown Ubud to fine some
dinner. Josh and Joe really wanted to go
to this restaurant called Luxe Café.
After a not so wonderful experience with the driver (he spoke no
English) we headed on a trek to find the restaurant. The driver pointed both directions when we
asked him where we were heading so we started off in the wrong direction. After about a quarter of a mile we realized we
were going in the wrong direction and then found the right street right where
we got dropped off. We walked down that
street for about a mile and realized we were lost. At this point in time I was quite grumpy and
tired and not so excited to still be walking around when we had to get up at
2:30 AM for our hike. We finally made it
back to our starting point with about 30 minutes to spare so I convinced
everyone they could only eat chocolate cake for dinner. After a beer and chocolate cake we headed back
to the hotel on the shuttle and packed up for the next day before heading to
bed.
Day 4
We got a wake up call at 2:30 AM ready to hit the road. Our hotel packed up some fruit and pastries
for our guide to carry and then Made picked us up. It was about an hour drive to get to the
bottom. We met our guide and started the
trek. The first part was quite easy for
about 30 minutes. After that it was
straight up for an hour. By straight up
I mean super steep!!! Luckily there were
almost built in stairs which I thought made it nice. We made it up in about an hour and half which
our guide said was one of the fastest hikes.
We made it to the top and broke into our breakfast while waiting for the
sun to rise. For everyone that wants to
hike, it is cold up there. We thought
cold for Bali was not so cold since its always hot and sweaty here, but it
means really cold and windy! We were
frozen at the top! The hike started cold
but after we got moving we warmed up and even took off our light jackets. When we got to the top we quickly bundled
up! The sun rose a little after 6 and it
was BREATHTAKING. We were very lucky
that there was no fog or clouds in the sky so we had a perfect sunrise with
views for miles! The sun rose quickly,
and before we knew it it was time to return.
We saw the crater first and then headed down a different path to get
back to the base. This was nice because
there are a couple hundred people that hike the mountain every morning so we
did not have to deal with the crowds.
The hike down was a bit intimidating and we were slipping and sliding
everywhere but we survived the hike down and were one of the first people back
even though we took the long route.
After the hike we headed to the natural hot springs to relax
a bit and enjoy what they believe they have healing powers. It was a bit uncomfortable because there were
all guys and Caroline and I felt a bit weird but it was a good experience. After that we headed to “breakfast” a
restaurant, Kintamani, that had the most breathtaking view of Mt. Batur. We sat outside and started with tea and
coffee, then enjoyed some fresh fruit, and wrapped up with fried rice. Made (our driver) joined us and we loved the
conversation with him! We have really
taken a liking to him after spending a couple full days with him! After breakfast we headed to our last stop,
the Holy Spring Temple which was one of my favorite temples although it was not
on our original list. It was really neat
to see the people bathing and the process of going from one spout to the
other. Made does such a wonderful job
walking through these places with us and explaining every tradition, ritual,
and answers all of our dumb questions.
After walking around the area and seeing the irrigation system, the
blessings, etc. it was time to head back to our hotel. It had been a VERY early morning so we were
ready to relax by the pool for the second half of the day.
We went to the main pool for a couple hours and opted out of
staying at our rooms. The main pool has
a beautiful infinity edge that looks onto the forest and down onto the
river. At the pool we enjoyed some
drinks and a pizza for a snack. After a
couple hours at the pool we headed back to the room, cleaned up, then headed to
downtown Ubud. We walked around a bit
and explored downtown in the daylight before settling down for dinner. We ate dinner at Clear, which was a
restaurant I really wanted to go to because it is their “healthy eating”
restaurant. Although Caroline and Josh
didn’t enjoy what they got, Joe and I loved everything we ordered. We started the meal with nachos and a hummus
plate that had zucchini hummus, black bean hummus, and red pepper hummus on
it. Then I ate a feta quesadilla and
some stuffed mushrooms, Joe ate ahi tuna with wasabi mashed potatoes, Josh
ordered a sushi roll and was surprised that the rice wasn’t rice like in
America but actual sticky rice, and Caroline ordered pesto pasta that had a
certain spice in the sauce that wasn’t very good. We wrapped up there before heading back
towards the city center. Before heading
back we had to stop by Gelato Secrets and enjoyed some sorbet and gelato. I loved my passion fruit and guava gelato
flavors and the others got variations of chocolate and enjoyed them! Right before the shuttle arrived we watched a
religious processional through the main street of Ubud, then headed back to the
hotel at 7. We were all so worn out from
the day that we headed straight to bed!
Day 5
Since we went to bed before 8, both Joe and I were up by
4:30 AM. This was OK for Joe since he
could get caught up on emails for a bit before heading out for the day. This morning we decided to head into the
restaurant for breakfast to see what it was all about. Since Josh and Caroline weren’t up yet Joe
and I headed to breakfast around 7 AM.
Breakfast was fantastic! We
started with juice, which was really a smoothie. I ordered jack fruit and honey melon and Joe
ordered banana pineapple and both were absolutely fantastic! For breakfast I enjoyed an omelet with
sausage, spinach, and sun dried tomatoes and Joe got French toast with
caramelized bananas. Both were good but
Joe’s was definitely a winner! They also gave you toast with three different
homemade jellies, one was strawberry, one was a pineapple citrus type jelly,
and one was a guava and something else jelly and all were fantastic. We finished up breakfast and tea right about
when Caroline and Josh arrived. After we
wrapped up breakfast we all settled in by the pool for a couple hours and read
and relaxed. We had a long couple of
days so this was our relaxing day. We planned to head to downtown Ubud at 10:30
but our plans were changed when we realized the shuttle did not leave
then. After learning the shuttle was not
until 11:30 we went back to our own pools and relaxed while the boys drank a
couple beers that they had purchased at the convenient store a couple days
earlier. We hit the road just before
11:30 for Ubud.
We arrived at the city center and walked to lunch. Lunch was at Bebek Bengil which was
recommended to us by Made the day before.
They are known for their crispy duck.
We all ordered the Bebek duck which is half of a fried duck, fruit,
salad, and potatoes or rice. We enjoyed
our meal a lot and the restaurant is absolutely beautiful. After lunch we headed about a half a mile
down the road to our spa! We had booked
a spa package the day before at Shangrila Spa which was also recommended to us
by Made and had great reviews on trip advisor.
We booked a 4 ½ hour package and it was phenomenal. We all went in different orders but I started
with a sound table to start which was literally a table that had a musical
instrument below it that was almost like a xylophone. They played that below you and I assume the
vibrations relax the muscles in your body.
After that it was time for the reflexology portion. The foot and leg massage was amazing and it
was relaxing to have a cold lavender towel on your head. Those two took about forty five minutes. From there it was massage time! The first 30 minutes were the head, neck, and
shoulder massages and then the next hour was the traditional Balinese
massage. This was a total body massage
that literally put me to sleep a portion of the way though it because it was so
relaxing! After an hour or so they did a
salt scrub for 15 minutes before you showered off and cleaned up. After showering we all met up again and
enjoyed an amazing mint relaxation tea and fruit before wrapping up the last
two hours. The next forty five minutes
were spent getting a pedicure (you could get a mani or a pedi) and then the
last part was an hour long facial. The
facial was so many steps I am not even sure I know what all they did! All I know is that at one point it smelled
like chocolate and the lady said it was a mask with cocoa beans. Although parts were a bit painful, we all
came out with skin as soft as a baby’s bottom and glowing skin all over.
After wrapping the massages we headed to dinner at Siam
Sally which is a Thai place. We found
out they had happy hour until 7 so we ordered some drinks and appetizers to
start. We ordered some chicken dumplings
and spring rolls that were both amazing.
After that it was time for the main course. The guys ordered cashew chicken and pad Thai
entrees to split, I had seafood “drunken” noodles, and Caroline had some
chicken fried rice. Besides the fly that
Caroline found about halfway through her meal in the fried rice the dinner was
absolutely amazing! I loved the pad Thai
the most and ate a lot of that since I didn’t absolutely love the sauce on my
noodles ( I ate all the seafood out!).
From dinner we walked about a mile to desert at Carmel which was
amazing!!!!!! We all got different mini
cakes, everyone else ordered some variation of chocolate while I ordered a
guava cake and all of them were amazing and looked super cute! Once we wrapped desert it was already 8 so it
was time to catch the shuttle back to the hotel and head to bed. Although it was a relaxing day, we really
felt like we deserved a day where we weren’t quite as busy (plus with the spa’s
being so cheap we had to take advantage of it!). Tomorrow is another day with Made so we
called it a night once we got back to the hotel so we could get up and going
early the next day!
Day 6
This morning we still woke up around 5 AM which has become
quite a trend. After a couple hours in
the room and spending some time getting ready we headed to breakfast around
7:30. Although the hotel we are staying
at is beautiful when it comes to the views and the room, I am not sure that we
would come back. Breakfast is delicious
but customer service is lacking a lot, and as for amenities, there isn’t an
iron in the room and the hair dryer barely works. For a high end villa it just doesn’t seem to
live up to the standards when it comes to anything beyond a stunning view and
nicely up kept rooms. For breakfast
today I got mango juice, Joe got pineapple, Josh got apple carrot, and Caroline
got orange. For the meals we all enjoyed
toast and jelly while I ate the banana crepes, Joe and Caroline got pancakes,
and Josh ordered eggs benedict. All of
it was quite tasty and we had no complaints.
After that we headed up to the main area to meet Made.
Today we were exploring the art villages. We started with the gold and silver smith
village. The first stop was at the
modern jewelry place where we saw how the silver was made. After exploring the store we went to the more
traditional place and viewed the jewelry and saw some pieces being made. After some heavy negotiation I purchased a
simple silver chain so that I can put my pearl from Fiji on it and have fond
memories of our 2015 vacations! After
those we went down the street to a local compound. Throughout the villages there are compounds
that are fully walled off areas that house a handful of families. Made walked us through the compound and
explained the location of all of the places and the significance. All of the compounds are laid out the same,
with the oldest member staying at the front of the compound and the temples and
kitchens always found in the same area.
From there we headed to the painting village. I was so excited to visit the painting area
and explore the beautiful art work. Let
me tell you, they are talented! At the
first place both Joe and I and Josh and Caroline found paintings we loved. After closer examination we found that they
were a bit dirty and could not be cleaned.
From there we headed to the next place that was a bit more upscale. Josh found a painting he thought would be
perfect for his mother but found out it was $3500. Although everything is negotiable here, that
just wasn’t even close. Beyond that one
painting, we didn’t find anything that peaked our interested so we were off to
the next one. Here, they had a lot of
beautiful paintings. Each of these
places had about 10-15 rooms that had paintings all over the walls and stacked
on the floors. It takes a while to
wonder through all of them but most of the rooms have specific styles so you
can skip some areas. We were looking for
more floral paintings so it made it a bit easier. After much thought, many paintings looked at,
and A LOT of negotiation by the guys, we both walked away with stunning
paintings made by the same artist! I am
so excited to put our first real painting up in our home!
After the purchases it was past 1 so it was time for
lunch. Lunch was at Bu Oka which was the
best suckling big in the area. Suckling
pig is the local meal here and we were told we must eat it before we
leave. We all ordered the special which
came with rice and “fresh vegies” (these are long beans sautéed with some other
things), pork roll, fried meat, sausage, and pork skin. Although all of it was fantastic, the pork
was so juicy and tender! We were all
very impressed! From there it was time
for cooking class! We attended cooking
class in Payuk Bali. We arrived a bit
early so we sat down and had some tea before the class started. We started by putting together a traditional
offering basket and making an offering.
We learned that a family makes an average of 25 offerings in a day! From there we learned to make coconut oil and
coconut milk from fresh coconut! Oil is
made by grating coconut and then mixing in a bit of water. You bring that water to boil then skim the
oil off the hot water. You boil the
water again and then the water should all be evaporated and a clear coconut oil
should remain. It should be completely
colorless. For milk you put a lot more
water in and when grating the coconut you do not include the shell. After mixing in the warm water you strain the
coconut mixture with a cheese cloth and you get your coconut milk. Fresh coconut milk is only good for a day
before it gets sour.
After that demonstration it was time for cooking. In the class we made three sauces, peanut
sauce, Bombu Bali (their basic sauce for everything), and Sambal Ulek (their
spicy sauce). For the soup we made Soup
Ayam which is a chicken soup. We also
learned to make steamed rice which is how it is traditionally done in
Bali. You initially team the rice, then
you soak it in water, then you steam it again.
It is quite a process! For the
entrees we made Chicken Sate, Pepes Ikan (steamed fish in banana leaf), and
Ayam Bumbu (Balinesian fried chicken that was spicy). For a “salad: we made Sayur Urab which was
vegetables in spicy coconut sauce, and for desert we made Kolak Pisang (braised
sweet potato in palm sugar gravy). The
class started with dicing all of the ingredients for the whole meal. From there we steamed rice. After that we had to make the sauces. All of these were hand ground and took quite
some time and some muscle. We did not
finish the grinding, this was done by the helpers, but we did quite a good
job! After that we prepared all of the
chicken. From there we had to make all
of the sauces that had been ground into paste.
After adding ingredients like coconut oil, coconut milk, salt, pepper,
etc. and sautéing them we made all three of the sauces. After the sauces we made the spicy
chicken. Following that we made the
skewers that were later grilled. From there
we finished the entrees by making the chicken and wrapping it up in the banana
leaf. We finished by making the soup and
the salads which were pretty simple and finally the desert. After we cooked we sat down to eat! My favorite was the chicken sate with the
peanut sauce as well as the fish in the banana leaf! I wasn’t a fan of the soup, salad, or desert,
but that was just because of my taste!
We had such a blast doing the cooking class for 4 hours and the staff
was incredibly friendly!
After dinner Made took us back to Carmel where we all got
new deserts that were different from the night before. Joe got a tiramisu mouse, Josh got a
chocolate dome while Caroline got a chocolate cake, and I got an ice cream
bar. We also got a cheesecake to share
since that was the bakers favorite. All
of it was AMAZING!!! We are obsessed
with this place! After that we headed
back and hit the bed before 9 PM! We
were shocked that our time here was coming to an end and we would be packing
everything up tomorrow morning and enjoying our last day!
Day 7
Today was our final day in Bali before heading to
Korea. Our plan was to sleep in this
morning, but shocking, I was up again at 5.
During the night we were all woken up by the only rain storm since we
had been in Bali, and let me tell you it was pouring! The rain didn’t last long and we were back
asleep in no time. After waking up and
writing and catching up on emails and Facebook for a bit I started packing up
our room. We were shocked at how many
dirty clothes we had collected over the past week! I finished up packing and then we all headed
to breakfast around 7. I ordered mia
goring, Joe got the ham and cheese breakfast sandwich, Josh and Caroline got
the French toast, and we all enjoyed some fruit smoothies. After wrapping up breakfast we got in our
swimsuits and headed to the pool for a couple hours. Around 11 we headed back to the hotel and
spent the last hour showering and getting everything together to leave.
At noon we headed to downtown Ubud with Made. We started the afternoon with lunch Naughty
Nuri’s which is a their famous BBQ ribs place.
It is a small restaurant and probably the most run down from the ones we
have been at but the food was amazing!
The guys got ribs with potatoes while I got noodles and chicken and
Caroline had a BLT. We spent the next
four hours walking the Ubud market. This
is the largest market with local crafts for sale and it is huge! We loved seeing all of the scarves, jewelry,
wood carvings, trinkets, and paintings.
We worked our negotiation skills (by we I mean the guys) and ended up
with what we believe are wonderful deals!
We walked away with some gifts for our parents and some more art work
for our home! We are in love with the
art work here! After finding everything
on our wish list we headed out to the last stop. Bali Pulina is known for making the most
expensive coffee in the world, the coffee that cats eat and poop out. We walked around and saw the cats, learned
about the process of how the coffee is made, saw other fruits and spices
growing, and then had a tasting. They
brought out a flight of about 8 teas and coffees that we got to try! We loved trying all of these unique flavors
even though Joe and I are not coffee drinkers!
Here they sold it for about 400,000 IDR for 100g, which is much cheaper
than anywhere else in the world, but still super expensive, especially for us
non-coffee drinkers! From there we
headed back to the market. Joe had
fallen in love with a painting and after leaving he realized he really wanted
it, only to find out they closed at 5 and we were about 45 minutes late. I guess we will just have to come back! From
there it was time to start the trek to Seminyak. Our flight was at 1:45 AM so we had a bit of
time to kill. We went to dinner at Bo
& Bun which we had gone to earlier in the week. It was an easy choice since we didn’t have
reservations. We ordered bulgogi fries
and some Asian tacos for appatizers then Caroline got cashew chicken, I got pad Thai, Josh got chicken and basil, and Joe had lemon grass pho. Everyone was very pleased with their
meals. We wrapped up dinner around 8 so
Made took us to a villa in Seminyak that belonged to his boss as a rental that
was currently vacant to get showered and relax for a couple hours. The house is beautiful with a pool, outdoor
kitchen, and three bedrooms! Maybe we
will stay here next time around J After relaxing for a bit we headed to the
airport around 11. We arrived around
11:30 and got checked in. When we
checked in Joe and I got a pass for the lounge so we headed there for about an
hour. We snacked on some food and
deserts there and Joe enjoyed a beer. We
got to the gate right on time and boarded just as we got there. After boarding we settled in and were ready
for the overnight flight to Korea.
Day 8 – Seoul, Korea
We arrived in Seoul right after 9 AM. We all slept pretty well on the flight so we
were ready to spend the day exploring all that Seoul had to offer. Jae, a friend of Joe’s had put together a day
trip for us since he was very familiar with the area! Since we had checked our main luggage all the
way to Atlanta, customs was quite simple and quick to get through. As we walked out of the door to get to our
hotel shuttle, we saw the shuttle was about to pull away and got on the shuttle
to the Best Western right by the airport just in time! It was a short 3 minute ride to the hotel
where we dropped off our luggage, got changed, then hopped right back on the shuttle
to get to the airport for the train to Seoul.
The train ride is about an hour to City Hall which is where the heart of
Seoul starts. We found the train station
at the airport fairly easily and found the train waiting to depart right as we
arrived. Talk about good timing!
After the train ride we arrived in Seoul just before
11. We all decided we were absolutely
starving so we started wondering around to find some food. This is the first time that we have traveled
that we felt completely inept when it came to the language. The language barrier is huge since we have no
idea what the symbols even mean! After checking
a few restaurants to see if they have an English menu and getting rejected we
finally found a spot. I couldn’t tell
you what the restaurant was called since it was all in Korean but the waiter
did a great job trying his best to explain to us what we could order and how
much it would cost us. Joe is familiar
with Korean food thanks to Jae so he was able to do most of the translation
after he heard the name of the food.
Josh, Caroline, and I opted for the crispy fried pork while Joe got a
shrimp soup. Everything was absolutely
fantastic and I split the soup with Joe since his was so good! After we finished eating we were ready to
explore. Joe had been attempting to find
Myeongong for lunch since that was Jae’s recommendation but he got turned
around a bit when we arrived so we had to figure out where we were. Our first stop was the Gyeongbokgung
Palace. We arrived just in time for the
changing of the guards ceremony which was really neat to see! After the
ceremony ended we strolled the palace a bit.
The place is huge! We finally
made it to the back corner where the temple is found. We sat down and relaxed for a bit there
before heading out to the next stop. Net
we went to Insadong which is a traditional and cultural district. We wondered around there in awe or all the
amazing street vendor food and crafts area.
After wondering there for a while we made our way to the Cheonggyecheon
Stream which is a river that flows through the heart of Seoul. We walked down the river a bit and wondered
our way to Myeongong where we found more street vendors and shops to
browse! We did a bit of gift shopping
there before we decided it was early dinner time. We had seen so many good street vendors that
we decided we would want to try those, but first we needed some Korean
BBQ! We had found a street full of
Korean BBQ on our stroll through Seoul and had dropped a pin where we needed to
go so we made our way back to the street.
Along the way we stopped by the Catholic cathedral which was huge!
For dinner we enjoyed flank steak and pork belly at the
Korean BBQ place. The waiter helped us
with the grill and told us when to flip the food. Joe was experienced in Korean BBQ so he
coached us through all of the little side bowls that they brought out and let
us know what was what. We also had some seaweed
soup and some kimchee soup which Joe ate most of. The guys enjoyed two beers before we started
wondering around again. This time we
wondered our way back to Insadong where Caroline found her makeshift Christmas ornament
and the guys enjoyed a waffle with ice cream from the street vendors. All of the vendors ranged from 3000 to 4000
won for the most part. After we wrapped
up in Insadong we headed back to Myeongong since we thought that food was
better. The next vendor was a place that
served sausage on a stick, some which were stuffed with fish cake (we
believe). I thought they were fantastic although
I am not sure the others were onboard!
Last, they went to a stand that had wraps to finish up the night. After about 14 miles of walking, we were all thoroughly
exhausted and ready to head back to the hotel!
After getting lost a bit we finally found the metro stop (thank goodness
there is free wi-fi just about everywhere in Korea!) we finally sat down to do
the jumper train to the main one that took us back to the airport.
The guys wanted to try and take the “fast” train but after
an unsuccessful trip out of the gates we had to ask the train guards to let us
back in through the gate without purchasing another ticket so we could make it
back! We finally got to the train and
were all exhausted and ready to sit down.
After about an hour we arrived back at the airport where we caught the
shuttle to the hotel. The hotel shuttle
leaves every 30 minutes so we waited a bit but not too long! We were shocked at how cold and windy it was outside
while we waited for the shuttle, we were not prepared for the cold! Once we got to the hotel we got checked in,
enjoyed some complimentary drinks, and were off to bed in no time!
Travel Home
The travel home was uneventful. Security was quick and once we got to the
airport we enjoyed some Dunkin Donuts! Can
you tell we are missing American food? We
got settled in for the almost 13 hour flight!
We all thought we would be sleeping but none of us seemed to be able to
sleep except for Joe. We read some books, watched some movies, and ate similar
foods as the flight to Korea. Josh would kill me if I didn't add this in here, but he is the champion in tetris. Very last minute he beat Joe's high score so for this trip we have to give him the gold medal. We arrived
around 9:30 AM in Atlanta and after getting through customs we were met by Joe’s
dad to take us home. We were greeted
with water and biscuits, what more could we ask for! Now that is a welcome back to America! We were sad to see vacation come to an end
but also ready to get back to reality!
We hope that this is the first of many vacations with the Andrews clan,
and I don’t know about them, but we had the best time! There really isn’t much we would have changed
about the trip! The weather was perfect
and sunny the whole time and the company was even better!
Summary
- Go see Bali...it is beautiful, cultural, bustling, and fantastic!
- In Bali book Made. He without a doubt made our trip what it was...
- Depending on the day and what you do he ranges from $40-50 a day which for a 12+ hour day is VERY reasonable
- He is also your tour guide
- He has awesome food suggestions
- He knows a million fun facts
- He helped us put together our whole entire itinerary
- He priced out every activity for us so we knew what to prepare for for the trip
- He has great English
- Book a tour here: http://www.galihbalitours.com/
- He is awesome...you won't regret it!
- Get out of your comfort zone! As Americans we are use to certain foods, cleanliness levels, etc. In order to experience the culture you have to get over your fear or a bit of a dirty kitchen, toilets in rural areas not being clean (an normally without toilet paper), restaurants not quite up to the US standards when it comes to looks, but it makes the trip authentic and worth it
- Temples
- Still not sure what a temple is, some are underwhelming, some are overwhelming, but all of them were a cultural experience!
- Visit the monkeys, they are the best (in my opinion!)
- Hotel number 1: The Villas - Bali
- http://www.thevillas.net/2013/index.html
- WORTH EVERY PENNY
- We got a sweet upgrade
- Maybe not the vest views but the hotel, amenities, etc. were wonderful!
- Hotel number 2: Villa Semana
- http://www.villasemana.com/
- Wouldn't recommend it
- The hotel and the views were breathtaking
- The hair dryers are the worst thing I have ever seen and there is no iron in the room
- Most of the staff does not speak English and don't seem too happy/nice
- Are not accommodating at all with the shuttles, etc. even though we had 4 people and a car full. You must get dropped off in 1 area even if you pass the location you would like to go to in Ubud, which just seems strange to me.
- Don't miss out on a spa day...they are so cheap it's a must do!
- Explore foods from all different cultures!
- DO THE COOKING CLASS
- We had the best experience and it was VERY reasonably priced!
- So much to see with so little time, we enjoyed hopping from one place to the other and got to see so much of Bali!
- If you are in shape enough, hike Mt. Batur, but be warned, it is cold, and it is not the easiest hike you have done!
- The 24 hour layover in Korea was well worth breaking up the flight and allowing us to see Korea
- Korea has great food :)
- If you want to know how much we spent, etc. just let me know!
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