Our last few days in Bali

I've finally got around to processing the rest of the photos from our trip to Bali, which in some ways feels like a million years ago now. Since we've been home so much has happened! I'll go into more details later, but right now I thought I'd finish up web logging the remainder of our little excersion.

Nusa Dua and Kuta

We stopped by Nusa Dua very briefly before heading to Kuta for some shopping. Nusa Dua looks to me like a water sports area where tourists can basically do anything and everything offerred on the water. It's a busy beach, with a heck of a lot of resorts.







Kuta is the main shopping area in Bali, and it is busy. We stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe and fed all the kids lunch. They made the children cool sword balloons, which they ran aroud stabbing each other with.



Here's what 5 million Rupiah looks like. It's weird when you are talking in hundreds of thousands and millions.



We went onto Kuta beach and headed to the markets.





Although we got some great bargains it was not a pleasant experience going through those markets; very hot, very grabby grabby, everyone wants you to buy something from their store.

Bali Hai Lembongan day cruise

Our 2nd to last day of our holiday was spent on a pontoon at Lembongan - an island that took about an hour to get to from Sanur. We set out relatively early, and they fed us some pastries and cupcakes for breakfast. I just stuck to drinking lots of coffee.



Once we got to the pontoon we took a ride in the semi submersible.





We then lined up for the banana boat which was so much fun.







We snorkelled, and I got to wave to Kien underwater.





We went on a tour of Lembongan, where we got to see their local weavers at work.



We met the decision makers of the island - they just hang out here under the shade all day every day talking.



The beach had lots of crabs scurrying around. I took Kien down to check them all out.



There was a waterslide that we all enjoyed going down. At the end there is a 1 meter drop into the ocean. I thought I could take Kien down with me, but they didn't allow it; one at a time. So I went first, then Kien bravely followed. This is his first ever experience on a waterslide. He lives to tell the tale, and he made me buy this picture. He will tell you how much he enjoyed the ride.


4:30pm rolled around so quickly, and we were back in Sanur. We headed out to a restaurant down the road for BBQ'ed seafood for dinner.



That was our last night in Bali, and also the last time we visited the little store at the end of the path from our villa.

We paid for our final few bottles of Bintang and toasted to a brilliant holiday.

Elephant riding, drinking poo coffee, eating street food, and kids lighting fires on the beach

This day last week we were riding elephants and drinking kopi luwak/civet coffee in Bali. Oh how quickly it all comes to an end, but always when I get home I get to reminisce about all the good times while writing my blog posts and editing photos. I ticked off two of the things I've wanted to do in my life - ride an elephant, and taste civet coffee.

We set out to Ubud early on Wednesday morning - just as well we did because this place got busy quickly.





Lennox and I were together on our Sumatran elephant.























After our buffet lunch at the enclosure we told the driver we wanted to do some coffee tasting. He asked if we were referring to the most expensive coffee in the world - kopi luwak - or more commonly known as civet coffee (or poo coffee). "Yes", we said. "That's the one we want to drink." So he drove us to a place where we could do just that.



Civets are nocturnal, so we got to see them sleeping instead of eating (or pooing).



They showed us how coffee was processed and roasted.





We had a free taste test of various teas and mixtures of coffee, but for a cup of luwak coffee we were charged 50,000 Rupiah for the privilege (works out to be around $5NZD).







After that we made our way back home, with a quick stop at a rice paddy field on Jalan Raya Samu next to a temple.









When we got home we all jumped into the pool, and Jef went to the local store (literally right outside the path to our villa) where a guy was selling food from his scooter. Real genuine balinese street food! Of course we had some. There were a variety of meat balls and tofu mixed with a bit of noodles, cabbage, herbs and chilli sauce, all served in a lovely hot broth. It was delicious.





That night Nikki and Andre came over with the kids, and we went down to the beach for some pina coladas.





The kids all ran around on the sand in front of us, and occassionally started little fires from toilet paper and matches they took from the tables around. It was a naughty, and yet so amusing at the same time.



Phew, what an action packed day that was!