Bali: Day 1

So as you all know, we're in Bali and it's great (don't get me wrong), but it's not really taking my breath away or anything.  Okay, to be totally fair we haven't seen much because Aaron's been feeling really under the weather.  I know Bali is a paradise and online it looks amazing, but my Bali isn't all that phenomenal.  It's no one's fault but our own.  We got a terribly late start yesterday and we ended up just taking a cab to the beach.  We saw some of the town on the way, lots of little shops and restaurants peppered with giant resorts.  The resorts are pretty spectacular, I will say, and prices are pretty cheap for most things (which is nice), but the weather is so unbelievably hot (I know you're sick of hearing me say that) that it's almost not even worth going outside.

Let's go back to the beginning.

I woke up and Aaron needed more sleep time, so I ordered more room service (so far, that's been the most impressive part of Bali for me):

I finally got Aaron up and he was feeling really crappy.  It took awhile to get him out of the hotel and into a cab.  About 20 minutes later (traffic), we were at the beach:

It doesn't look like much, but the sand was soft, the water was cool and the breeze was perfect.  We rented a couple comfy chairs:

and Aaron headed off into the water:

He felt better after a swim (water is so rejuvenating) and wanted to eat, so we went to a restaurant across the street and got Balinese food.

Check out how fancy the sparkling water bottles are:

Oh la la!

We got peanut crusted shrimp:

and corn fritters for appetizers:

Bali is all about presentation.  Even when I order a $2 fruit plate, they're stacked like Lincoln Logs with mint leaves on top.  I'm digging it, I will say.

Yum!

I ordered kuali seafood curry:

It was a very mild curry flavor, not spicy or sweet.  It's made with coconut milk, but I have to say I prefer Thai curry (and Indian curry) to this.  It was good, but kinda bland.

Aaron got some kind of ginger-y chicken with a bean sprout salad:

He really liked it, although his stomach didn't later.

All the food was yummy, Balinese food seems to be a mix of lots of other foods: Indian, Chinese, Thai, but a lot of it leaves me craving those other foods.  Like it's all missing something.  I guess I'm just not used to it maybe? 

We went back to the beach, so Aaron could relax (nap):

 I found some shells, coral pieces and seaweed:

COOL!

There are planes going by constantly (but far enough away to where you don't hear them):

We watched the sun set:

Now that was spectacular.  The sky was so orange, I couldn't believe it.  Awesome.

Then we walked towards town for a bit:

This guy was in Straight Outta Compton!

I guess he's performing here tomorrow.

This was the outside of a small temple:

and they had a ridiculous sign:

Wow, the nerve.

Town:

Lots of bars and clubs, it looks like a fun city to party in.  Unfortunately, we were not in a party mood, so we took a cab back to the hotel.  The moon was pretty:

Aaron was feeling better and hungry, so we walked a few blocks to Discovery Mall:

We walked around and shopped a little.  They make a lot of things out of shells and agar wood:

We were tired of Balinese food and wanted something not-Asian (we just needed a break), so we found this and it just sounded right:

It turned out to not be great, but check out the weird stuffed crusts I saw on the menu that I've never seen at home (well, I don't go to Pizza Hut at home):

Aaron tried the sausage crust and it was weak.  To be honest, all the pizza was weak.

We went back to the room and got trusty room service for dessert:

YUM!  We found a video store while we were at the mall, selling movies for about $0.40 each, so we stocked up (again).  I swear Aaron's backpack is just chock-full of movies at this point.  We finally watched Tomb Raider, but I fell asleep before she got to Angkor Wat, so I have to watch it AGAIN!

Bali gets better!  Stay tuned for Bali: Day 2!

Blog delay

So as you can see, I didn't end up blogging today.  Aaron and I ended up not being as hungover as we planned, so we were able to see more sights today.  We check out of our hostel tomorrow morning and while waiting for our flight, I'll do my best to catch up.  Here's a teaser of the Sydney Opera House yesterday:

So dope!

We're currently at a bar across the street from our hostel and we met some really cool blokes from England living in Australia and are getting some great tips.  Unfortunately, we haven't adjusted to the time difference yet because we've just been sleeping in late and staying out later.  Hopefully once we get to Melbourne we are able to really settle in.  

Anyway, be on the lookout tomorrow for my posts from our time in Bali and Sydney!

Sydney!

We finally made it to Sydney!! It felt like forever, but we're here and so relieved.  It's been a long day (and night) and tomorrow we wake up and explore, so I probably won't have time to catch up on my posts (Bali and Sydney) until day after tomorrow.  

In the meantime, here's a teaser of me at the monkey forest in Bali:

I dangled a banana in front of it and it climbed up my body like a tree.  I did this a few times actually and it was a mixture of really cool and really terrifying because in my head I'm simultaneously thinking about Ross from Friends with his cute pet monkey and Outbreak where the monkey straight up kills everyone.  I won't leave you in suspense, I'm alive and (so far) well.  If you happen to hear about some sort of quarantine in Australia on the news or something, then I guess I spread my monkey disease to everyone and we're all doomed.  Geez, I'm getting lack-of-sleep loopy, so I'm off to bed!

Grounded

Bali has been great!  However, we were supposed to catch a flight tonight to Sydney and it was cancelled due to a volcanic eruption!  A volcano in East Java, Indonesia erupted and the ash made it impossible for flights to get out, so Virgin America put us up in a hotel for the night and in the morning we'll get shuttled back to the airport and hopefully get on a plane at 11:30am.  If that happens we'll be landing around 8:30pm local Sydney time.  Whew!  It's been a hell of a long night, so I'm gonna get a couple hours of shut eye.  I'll try to post Bali when we get to our hostel in Sydney tomorrow night, but no promises as tomorrow is going to be another loooong day.  Pray for us that we make it outta here and don't get swallowed by lava!!!!!  Sanwal, out!