Rightfully so... Bali needs it's own Travelblog. Let's see how this goes...

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So, Lee and I arrived in Bali on Feb 15th at about 8:45 from Darwin, AU. We're both from Alabama (Roll Tide!) and have not met one single person from our state in the good ole USA yet. After saving money, getting engaged, and quitting our jobs we decided that, yes, we were going to follow through on our plan of travelling Australia... despite our parents wondering what kind of children they had raised to want to be so far away. Armed with a 1yr work holiday visa and 6 month rail pass, we were off. We flew into Brisbane on Nov. 18th, 2009 and followed the east coast via train to Sydney, Melbourne, got bored and flew to NZ for Christmas and New Years, back to Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, back to Adelaide, up to Alice Springs in the red center, on up a little more to Darwin at the top, and realized we're not far from Bali - let's got there. So here we are today. In my wildest dreams I couldn't have imagined being here. Before we planned Bali, I couldn't tell you what country Bali was in or pin point it on a map (a common thing that other countries have found about Americans unfortunatley) And though I've kept a personal written travel journal along the way, I do wish I would've started a "travelblog" from the beginning. However - Bali, I believe, deserves it's own little travelblog full of all our "ewwwwws" and "ahhhhhhhs" - and rightfully so. In all its guts and glory, let's see how this thing goes....

We flew in to Denpasar airport. This is also the name of the capitol city of Bali BUT this is not the where the airport is (though it's reffered to as Denpasar airport). You actually fly into a city located in a town south of Kuta called Tuban. So don't get confused b/c we realized only a couple days before and booked. We ended up book a room quickly just barely south of Kuta. After a quick recovery of location, we ended up staying one night at Palm Springs Int'l Resort Hotel, which was a mid-range hotel (at that) next to the airport. After eating a noodle breakfast which wasn't as bad as the reviews has stated (also our 1st day) we checked out and headed to Seri Suites. I would like to rub it in just for minute to my doubting finance..."Such a relief and refesher to be checking into the hotel that actually lives up to all other pics and adverts" 😊. Check in was not until 2:00 pm so we sat outside and had a few Bintang @ $1.50/beer which is where the 1st photo was taken. The whole time we were just gawking over how unique the place was that we were staying. The pool, the lounge, the temple, staff, bathrooms, I'm losing thought on it all... They soon came and got us (the staff is the nicest of any place I've stayed) and led us to our room. We've received Ritz treatment throughout. As you can see from all the pictures we have been thourghly impressed by it all. And it's so differed from anthing is the US! For $70 US we can't fully explain the simplicity/luxury. I love Bali!

There's 2 more days of travel that I must write about tomorrow. But for now it is Saturaday and we are excitecd to see what these clubs in Syminyak and Kuta are all about. In the mean time we're loving our Seri Suite and the driver/car we hired for $40US a day... more tomorrow on us venturing out and about.. 😊

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Photos

Seri Suites
Our first hotel in Bali. Located north of Seminyak in the middle of rice fields, but close to things - $2 US cab to Seminyak shopping and beach. Just enough out of town to be very peaceful w/ a wonderful staff!

Bedroom at Seri Suites
A delux room at Seri Suties approx $70US