Back from Bali

We had a great time in Bali, and came back to Bandung yesterday.  I think Lonnie and Eve are just boarding their plane now to head back to Seattle.  We had a lot of fun with them while they were here.  I just wish I’d had time off work while they were in Bandung, so we could’ve checked out the city together.  Oh well.

We left Friday morning from the Bandung airport and had a short layover in Surabaya before heading on to Bali.  We decided to start with a few days in Ubud.  We got to Ubud and had lunch, then Eve and I relaxed in a little cafe while Billy and Lonnie went out exploring and found us a hotel.  The hotel was nice with lots of Balinese Hindu style.  It also had a great swimming pool, which Eve and I used a lot.  There were lots of birds, and it was just off Monkey Forest Road.

We went to the Sacred Monkey Forest one of the days, and the next day we did a walk through Ubud’s rice paddies.  We got a bit lost on our walk, but we had a great time exploring.

After three nights in Ubud, we struck out for a beach.  We’d looked at the Lonely Planet Guide Book a lot, and  Billy suggested we check out a nearby island, called Lembongan.  It sounded like a tropical paradise.  We had to take a boat from Bali.  It was a nice little boat, but it was kind of insect-like.  It had pontoons and three arms on either side that lead to the pontoons.  It gave the look of a big skiing bug.

On the boat trip we saw some little flying fish. That was pretty cool.  At first we thought they were little birds just skimming the surface of the water, then we saw them disappear into waves.  They were small, probably no more than 6 inches long, and they could fly for quite a distance, but never very high off the surface of the water.

We got to the island, and the boat let us off by a bunch of small fishing boats and seaweed farmers.  It wasn’t all that inviting.  We met some locals on the beach that insisted they new a better beach to stay at on the island, so we got on the backs of their motorcycles and they took us to Dream Beach.  It was a small beach, with a restaurant and just a few little beach bungalows made of woven bamboo with thatched roofs.  We ended up staying there for 3 nights and really liked it.  The water was cool and clear, and the waves were at times pretty  rough, but we had a lot of fun playing in them.

We rented a couple scooters while we were there so we could check out the rest of the island.  We did a snorkeling trip one of the days, and had an amazing time.  I think it was the nicest snorkeling I’ve experienced.  The water was so clear, and there were so many colorful fish and coral of different kinds.

Yesterday morning as we were about to leave Dream Beach we walked down to the beach for the last time, and saw a giant sea turtle on the beach.  There was a guy from the Nature Conservancy checking on it.  He took a photo of Eve and I with the turtle.

We took the boat away from Nusa Lembongan, back to Sanur on Bali.  We had breakfast and lunch there, then went to the airport.  Lonnie and Eve flew from Bali to Jakarta.  Billy and I flew from Bali back to Surabaya and Bandung again.  It was sad to say goodbye to Lonnie and Eve.  We had so much fun with them while they were here.

But it’s good to be home to cool, breezy Bandung.

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