R&R3: Bali

After Thailand, we flew to Bali for part 2 of Babymoon 2011!

We spent the first 4 days in Jimbaran, which is a fishing bay about 20 minutes outside of the airport. As a special treat, Aaron chose the most AMAZING RESORT OF ALL TIME for us to spend our time in Jimbaran. We had our own villa. And private pool. And butler. Ohmygod. 

Yes, this was all ours. 

Front of our villa

Smiling in disbelief

This man knows how to pick hotels.

The resort grounds were also gorgeous... it was like walking in a tropical neighborhood! Each of the villas had a moat outside of the main door filled with gigantic goldfish and lotus flowers (you can see one of them below on the right).

Here's a little video tour we made on the last day:

We didn't leave the resort for 4 days. We swam in our private pool, lounged on the beach, got couple's massages, and ate our weight in fresh seafood.

The resort had a huge pool by the beach, but who needs a communal pool when you have one all to yourself?!?!

The landscaping was gorgeous... We especially loved the lotus flowers.

Beware of sneaky husbands who like to take photos of their snoozing wives.

Jimbaran Bay

The pool at night

On our last night in Jimbaran, we had dinner and watched a traditional Balinese dance-- the Fire dance. We were joined by about 8 other couples on the beach, so it was a nice little intimate experience. Things got strange at the end, though. The dancers finished, we clapped, and then they asked if anyone wanted to take pictures with them. Everyone declined. So they asked us again... The dancers looked so expectant! So I volunteered us. Aaron wanted to kill me. It was awkward. I'll admit.

We spent the rest of our time in Bali in Ubud, the cultural hub of Bali. It was fabulous!!! We stayed at another great place with a private villa and pool. We made an interesting connection with the driver who took us from Jimbaran to Ubud-- he, too is expecting his first baby, and his wife and I are due on the same day!

The path to our room

They had a great breakfast...

Here's our video tour:

On our first day, we went to the famous Babi Guling restaurant for lunch. Anthony Bourdain credits this place with making the best suckling pig he's ever tasted. It was pretty tasty, but I've never had suckling pig before so can't really back up that claim.

The flower arrangements in Bali were so lovely... this is just a bowl of water outside of a store covered in a mosaic of fresh blooms.

After lunch, we walked around and ended up at the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, home to hundreds of long-tailed macaques. I wasn't prepared for the sheer number of monkeys that greeted us as soon as we walked in! The trees, walkways, and temples were literally crawling with monkeys. And they were so bad...

While we were there, one monkey climbed up a woman's back (almost pulling her dress completely down), grabbed her sunglasses off of her head, and jumped down. Then, he stood about ten feet away from her and started taunting her with the glasses! He'd throw them on the ground, and when she would try to pick them up, he would grab them and run away and do it all over again. While her friends went to get a staff person for help, the monkey decided to uh... mark his territory on the glasses. It was disgusting and I would have given up at that point and told the monkey to enjoy the shades. But, the staff person came with a handful of bananas and negotiated an exchange with the wily monkey, who happily surrendered the pee-soaked glasses for two bananas.

One little monkey in particular made an impression on us... They tell you not to hide anything in your bag or pockets, because the monkeys will know and go after you. We were smart and heeded the advice. But! This little curious guy watched Aaron as he put his hand in his pocket and decided to investigate further. In less than 2 seconds, he crawled up his leg and perched himself on Aaron's arm!

Aaron thought this was hysterical and told me to take a picture. I, on the other hand, was completely freaked out and started screaming at the monkey, "Get off my husband!!!"

I screamed and took pictures at the same time.

After a few minutes of scurrying around his arm, the monkey decided to investigate the mysterious pocket he saw Aaron reach into. Little did he know that Aaron's last tube of Burt's Bees pomegranate lip balm was in that pocket. Aaron wasn't giving that up without a fight. Monkey business was over. He spun around and spun around until the monkey flew off (it was kind of funny).

Oh no you didn't try to steal my last tube of Burt's Bees!

The sanctuary grounds were peppered with traditional Balinese stone sculptures. 

The next day we took a private driving tour of the northern part of the island. 

We stopped at a coffee plantation tucked away behind some pretty spectacular rice fields...

And sampled the different varieties of coffee:

I rolled Aaron a cigarette (don't worry- this is the first cigarette he's smoked in 20 years :))

Our next stop was the Mt. Agung, one of the many volcanoes on Bali.

And ate a most fabulous lunch overlooking the volcano.

After lunch we stopped at The Temple of the Holy Springs. The water here is believed to have special healing properties for just about everything-- disease, money problems, relationships... you name it, this water can fix it.

Each of the spouts fixes a different ailment.

The trees on the temple grounds are also considered sacred, and they wrap them in sarongs. It gives a new meaning to a tree skirt!!

They also put sarongs on the little statues:

After the temple, we visited the Bali Bird Park! If you're a bird lover, it would be worth the trip to Bali just to visit this place. Imagine a zoo dedicated only to birds. Multiply by 10.

Most of the birds wandered freely, but they also had enclosures with walkways for some of the species.

Right across the street was the Bali Reptile Park. It wasn't nearly impressive as the Bird Park, but pretty cool nonetheless.

Hungry-looking Komodo Dragon

After the monkey incident, I was kind of on edge. I didn't appreciate Mr. Komodo Dragon looking at Aaron like he was lunch meat.

The next day, we stopped at another lovely temple on the way to the Butterfly Sanctuary.

Our guide was very funny. We told him I was pregnant, and he looked shocked! He said "Really!? I thought you were just..."
"Fat?", I suggested...
He responded, "Yes! Pat!"
Thanks buddy. You just lost your tip.

Before we got to the Butterfly Sanctuary, Mr. "I thought you were just pat" took us to another monkey sanctuary. This one also had gigantic fruit bats that you could pose with for a small donation.

We passed on the opportunity to fondle the potentially rabid creatures, but this dad happily signed his 5-year old up!

And then we saw more monkeys. As soon as we entered the park, we noticed a group of staff slingshotting small rocks up a tree. We asked about it, and they told us that a monkey grabbed someone's camera and ran up the tree. Needless to say, these monkeys were no better behaved than the first group. 

One of the strangest things about Bali is that many families traveled by moped, but NO ONE put helmets on their children. Only adults wore helmets. Children as young as 2 stood between their parents legs, head completely exposed. We asked why, and they told us that police officers only enforce helmet-wearing for adults. Hence, no one considers kid-sized helmets. Crazy, huh?

Cute hats don't count as helmets

When we finally got to the Butterfly Sanctuary, it was raining like crazy! Great timing. The caretaker told us that he butterflies don't fly in the rain so we wouldn't see much. Since we were already there and the rain wasn't going to stop anytime soon, we decided to try our luck and go through the sanctuary anyway.

The first stop was the amazing gigantic bug display. They didn't have anything to do with butterflies, but hey, why not?

We didn't realize this guy was a bug for a good five minutes.

We didn't see many butterflies flying around freely, but we had a great time visiting the butterfly nursery, where new butterflies are housed until they learn how to fly (or so they told us).

As soon as we walked in, they covered us with butterflies and moths...

Thanks for placing that huge moth on such a comfortable location. 

Aaron was a little less freaked out...

We drove home after the butterflies and walked through town before sunset. Aaron made a little friend on the street... they concocted a game where the little boy pretended to stab Aaron with his umbrella, and then Aaron proceeded to do an elaborate death dance. The little boy (who was ADORABLE) thought it was the funniest thing of all time. It went on for about 5 minutes, and then we said farewell... the little one threw a fit. I think he could have played the stabbing game all night.

Our LAST day in Bali (sniff sniff) was definitely an adventure! We went white water rafting!!! It was my first time, but Aaron's been rafting on much stronger rapids so he wasn't as impressed. But we both had a great time and managed to stay in the raft for the entire 2 1/2 hours!

Afterwards, we visited the Lotus Temple, which was very close to our hotel. We actually ate dinner there and watched a traditional dance (forgot to bring our camera). It was the perfect ending to a perfect babymoon!