Ubud
Another hour ride with our friend Wayan behind the wheel and we arrived safely in Ubud. Ubud is an artisan's town filled with tons of boutiques selling everything from jewelery to baskets, clothing, paintings and more. As Sarah said, we are not sure we have ever seen a more creative group of people in our lives. Everyone is making some sort of art. Our first night we met up with a friend of my (Lindsay's) family's named Ben, who is an American ex pat who has been living in Bali with his wife, Blair, for the past 12 years. Ben and Blair took us out for a night on the town at a great ex pat hangout. We ate some incredible bbq (there's always plenty of time for indonesian food right?) and had a great time. Over the next couple days we went on two great hikes through the surrounding area outside Ubud, which are filled with gorgeous views of terraced rice paddies (see photo) and ornate temples everywhere you turn. 
We also stopped by at the monkey forest in Ubud, which is filled with tourists feeding bananas to monkeys, but there were some adorable monkeys there, who surprisingly were not too aggressive.
On the second night we went to a wonderful Balinese dance performance which included Gamelan (Balinese percussion orchestra). See photo below for a sense of the amazing costumes the dancers wear. The music and dance is very eerie and unlike anything I had seen before- very cool.
Our last night we really went for the budget dinner option and decided to "cook" dinner for ourselves. Considering our hotel didnt have a kitchen for us to use, we ended up making a raw dinner that consisted of a vegetable salad and some bread. Though it wasn't the most delectable meal we have had yet on the trip, we were all quite proud of our home cooked meal and were happy to get the raw veggies.
We also stopped by at the monkey forest in Ubud, which is filled with tourists feeding bananas to monkeys, but there were some adorable monkeys there, who surprisingly were not too aggressive.
On the second night we went to a wonderful Balinese dance performance which included Gamelan (Balinese percussion orchestra). See photo below for a sense of the amazing costumes the dancers wear. The music and dance is very eerie and unlike anything I had seen before- very cool.
Our last night we really went for the budget dinner option and decided to "cook" dinner for ourselves. Considering our hotel didnt have a kitchen for us to use, we ended up making a raw dinner that consisted of a vegetable salad and some bread. Though it wasn't the most delectable meal we have had yet on the trip, we were all quite proud of our home cooked meal and were happy to get the raw veggies.
Chris and Sarah later took advantage of the extremely cheap massages in Bali and treated themselves to an $8 hour long massage. I had to opt out since I got my first sunburn of the trip on our last morning in Sanur (don't worry Mom it wasn't bad). Needless to say, I was jealous.
The food here has been awesome so far, lots of curry,
fried rice and noodle dishes and the best ofall was the suckling pig we ate on our last day for lunch. It is a baby pig roasted on a spit, filled with amazing spices served over rice. DELICIOUS.
Random interesting facts about Bali-1. They love kites. Kites are everywhere. Its an awesome national pastime. 2. Bali is a majority Hindu (the rest of Indonesia is majority Muslim) and all over the streets are small offerings or blessings consisting of rice, small flowers and maybe a candy or two neatly places in a banana leaf with some incense. Since we have left Bali I miss this smell and splash of color.
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