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Our theme for this 10 day vacation was to chill, relax and enjoy each other on our last big Asian vacation before we return to the USA. It was accomplished and I hope you enjoy all the photos. Bali is one place we WILL return to someday, I don't say that for every place that we have visited so it truly made a lasting impression on me (and Pete).
1st Stop Ubud May 4th-7th A little info about Bali but why create my own when Wikipedia says it so well already:
"With a population recorded as 3,891,428 in the 2010 census,
the island is home to most of
Indonesia's small Hindu minority. In the 2000 census about 92.29%!o(MISSING)f Bali's population adhered to
Balinese Hinduism while most of the remainder follow Islam. It is also the largest tourist destination in the country and is renowned for its highly developed arts, including
traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather,
metalworking, and
music. Bali, a tourist haven for decades, has seen a further surge in tourist numbers in recent years."
I had arranged for our hotel to pick us up directly at the Bali International
Airport in Denpasar. It felt really good to get off the red eye flight and to have our driver waiting for us with a sign that said Mrs Elyse Winter, Sri Ratih Cottages and away we went in his van that was kept cool with the AC. Temp was 30 (90F) degrees when we landed in Bali.
I have written this blog a little different as the 81 pictures will do most of the talking.
Activities: •
Eco Balivolcano bike ride on my birthday, best tour and value of all of our Asian experiences. The ride was great and challenging while the food was amazing at the end of the tour.
•
Payung Raftingon the Ayung River white water rafting. One must climb down 150 stairs to get to the river for the rafting and back up once the 2 hr tour is over. No drinks provided but the guides were really great. Food at end of the tour was mediocre.
• Chilled Out the rest of the time doing what we wanted, whenever
Spa: Putri Bali Spa BRILLIANT and I can speak for both of us that we would go back
in a heartbeat. I had no idea until the day before we left that Bali was known for great spa treatments at amazingly low prices. We have gotten massages or spa treatments in almost all of the Asian countries we have visited but Bali TOPS the list. Upon your entrance to the spa you are greeted with an ice cold cucumber water, cold washcloth to wipe your face, a foot soak then to your spa room for your chosen treatment.
• Pete had two Javanese Lulurs (1 hr and 45 mins/$16.21) including a one hr massage with Frangipani mint oil, followed by a tumeric scrub to exfoliate your skin, yogurt body mask then applied the the skin, showered off and then soak in an exotic flower bath
• I had one Javanese Lulur and then on our 2nd visit I had the Good Karma Massage (1 hr/$19.45) aka. Four Hand Massage 2 people massaging you at once in unison...out of this world.
They even offer two, three and five hour spa packages including different services, the most expensive package is $45.38.
Restaurants: •
Sari Organicin the middle of rice paddies and has amazing fresh,
organic food; our friends visited here last Fall and recommended it...glad we took their advise we even came back for a 2nd night to enjoy the sunset views with friends we met in Ubud.
•
Bridges Bali riverside dining for my birthday dinner (appetizers as we weren't that hungry from our spa experience) amazing atmosphere, service and food
•
Ibu Oka also recommed by our friends and Anthony Bourdain's show No Reseravations. It is community style seating so if a table has room you sit down and enjoy with others. The man we sat down with ended up being from Eugene, Oregon and an Univ of Oregon graduate. Pete and A had so much is common is was quite scary but also serendipitous, if you believe in it (I do).
Stayed: Sri Ratih Cottages...upgraded for free from Deluxe room to a Suite for our first 3 nights, loved it so much we extended our stay another night. AMAZING service and would recommend it to anyone (Superior rooms $48, Deluxe rooms $50-$60 and Suite $75) Recommend Deluxe room over Superior since they have outdoor Balinese bathrooms but our last night we didn't have a choice as they only
had 1 Superior room left. Amazing staff and service was beyond our expectations...at ERAC we would have said Completely Satisfied!
Don't get me wrong there are parts of Ubud that are very commercialized but where our cottage was located, it was far enough away to not hear any street noise and avoid the touristy downtown area of Monkey Forest Road.
We never turned on the TV, wore a watch, used an alarm or updated the blog...successful first segment of our trip to let go of the technology world for 10 days.
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Amber Gudson
non-member comment
I like the statute with the boobies and pretty much drooled when I read your spa sessions. Sounds amazing.. Why do U think foreigners like to take photos with americans? I just had some folks from India the other day ask me to randomly take a photo with them. It's totally flattering bu reall funny. U may be on their wall I'n their living room or something!