Bali

---

In a lot of ways Bali reminds me of Hawaii. It has beautiful tropical beaches, coral reefs, and huge beachfront resorts. However, there are other aspects of Bali that make it really unique including its ancient cliff side temples and friendly, spiritual people.

Just north of our hotel there are numerous Hindu temples that lie on cliffs overlooking the ocean. Once you get to one, you see another one off in the distance. These temples date back to the 15th century and appear to still be used as places of worship today.

It was especially great to see how friendly and spiritual the Balinese people are (although like everywhere else in the region many people try to sell you a bunch of junky T-shirts, glasses and paintings). All around you see people making square baskets out of leaves with flowers inside. They would then light incense on top of the flowers as an offering to their god (look up Balinese Hinduism, its interesting). But they don't limit their offerings to the surrounding Hindu temples, you will also find the offerings on sidewalks, inside shops, at the beach, nearly everywhere we went. We spent some time talking to some of the locals about the island and it was clear that they were really proud and happy to live where they do, and why shouldn't they, its probably one of the most beautiful places on earth!

So other than trying to take in some culture, exploring the temples, and checking out the beautiful coastline, I used Bali as a place to recharge before heading to Japan and China. It was nice to get good local meals with fish and rice and spend the days exercising and relaxing on the beach. I also tried to surf, but no better luck on that front. It was 8-10 ft the week before we arrive, but was only 2-3 ft at best during our 5 day visit. This just gives me another reason to go back and explore further.

---