How to Visit Bali

Back in August 2012, my friend Rachel and I were at a baby shower. We realized and neither of us had Christmas plans. We went back to her apartment and researched where the cheapest flights in December would take us. The best option was Bali. This is how we decided to go to Bali.

Last year, my family lived in East Timor and they went to Bali repeatedly. I therefore decided I needed to go to Bali as well. Originally, we planned to go to Bali together this Christmas. However, they moved to Haiti so I went without them.

I'm still learning how to do [survive? endure? enjoy? ignore?] Christmas as a grown-up. One important lesson I have learned is that without your family, you make your friends your family and you fill your time with fun. I appreciate Rachel making my 24th Christmas absolutely excellent.

Balinese Highlights

Singapore!! I greatly love Singapore. You could eat of the street in Singapore. Everything is perfect, ordered, clean, modern and beautiful. Both coming and going to Bali, we had an overnight layover in Singapore. This offered the unique opportunity of finally seeing the "Gardens by the Bay" with the famous "Supertrees." We even walked on the suspended platform around the Supertrees for some of the most glorious views of the city and the Flyer. We also met up with a friend of Rachel's at a cute coffee shop where we ate the most delicious (and expensive) cheesecake I've ever experienced.

Beaches (Kuta): Bali's beaches are legendary and they did not fail to disappoint. The main beach town is Kuta which is where all the drunk Aussies party. The bars open at 3pm, bar after bar after bar and Aussies wandering around town in bikinis, shirtless and in board shorts. We wandered the art market, wandered the mall with all the Western shops we can't get in Cambodia, and walked along the beautiful beaches. We stayed a good 20 minutes outside of Ubed close to a quieter beach.

Ubed: Ubed is known as a cultural center of Bali. This is where you go to escape the drunk Aussies [hey! even the Aussies know they are frightfully annoying in Bali!]. In Ubed you find art, temples, yoga and meditation and adorable cafes and vegetarian friendly restaurants. It's in the hills along a windy little road well over a kilometer long. We explored the little boutiques and temples, overwhelmed by the adorableness and yet touristy feel of everything. Our hotel was further outside down in the middle of a rice field, a little villa all to ourselves.

Rafting: I wasn't immediately down for this activity. However, with some convincing, I relented. After all, saying that you went rafting in Bali makes for the best story. Our trip was about two hours long on class three rapids. Thankfully, we started far up river with the good rapids and few other people. The river was almost in a gorge and you looked up and cliffs and jungle vines. I was almost over stimulated by all the colors and the vivid green! It may be one of the most beautiful places I've seen, in all my worldwide adventures. The river was warm and shallow and though we never actually fell off the raft, we got completely and utterly soaked.

Moto driving and Rice: Much to our amusement, in Ubed the roads are really only one lane wide. They are windy and small and vehicles must crawl around curves to make room for each other. We know this because we rented a moto one day and drove far out into the countryside. We saw beautiful rice fields, beautiful temples, and Indonesians living their lives completely unaware of the chaotic touristy invasion onto their island. We stalked the elusive volcano that dominates the Bali horizon, but clouds intercepted our quest.

Starbucks: We don't have Starbucks in Cambodia. It's not a problem because we have Brown, Blue Pumpkin and Java. However, whenever you leave Cambodia, Starbucks is something of a signpost that you've reach civilization. This signpost, we only visited five times? or was it six? Who knows, but we hit the entire holiday drink menu...possibly twice. We actually spent the better part of Christmas afternoon playing card games at Starbucks.

Indonesian & Indian Food: Indonesian food is amazing. Anything covered in peanut sauce is amazing. By far the highlight of our trip was an Indian restaurant with the most amazing Indian food I have tasted in my life. We also found a favorite cafe restaurant in Ubed (Kue) which we frequented three times. Any holiday must be filled with amazing good, and this was no exception.

Games: Rachel can be strongly credited for helping me discover what was already within me...a love for board games. We kept a running score of the hours of games we played in Bali...Carcassonne, Dominion, Monopoly Deal, Lost Cities, and Blocus. I may have won the overall Bali game tournament, but Rachel never tallied the actual score but pretty sure I was just barely ahead.