Culture and Spa

The other two things we did while in Bali were sight-seeing to Ubud, Seminyak, and Uluwatu, and SPA! Included with our room, is daily spa treatment for both of us (by the way…thank you Tina for helping me score this AWESOME room package!). We started our stay with Balinese Massage and ended with Balinese Massage. Chris even experienced a body scrub and a FACIAL! Lets just say, I think he might be a convert to future spa-centric vacations! J One of the nights we were in Bali, we went to Seminyak for some shopping and dinner at Kudeta, which was recommended to us by our friends Dawn/Craig and Fiona. Food was awesome despite the fact that I got totally bitten up by mosquitoes. Luckily, they have Off! at the restaurant so I was able to fend off the rest of the mosquito army. The sunset view was pretty as well, though we only caught the tail end of it. They had this watermelon ginger beer cocktail that was amazing. We also took a side trip to Ubud one afternoon to check out the various art villages in the surrounding area. We visited a jewelry making factory, wood carving family and also a painter’s co-op. All pretty touristy spots but still really cool to see. One thing to note how clever these people are, they show you how hard the artist/worker works to make the piece BEFORE showing you the finished products. This totally made me soft-hearted to seriously bargain with them. Ugh…losing my touch ;) It was good to see the country side, the real Bali as many have told us. Hungry, we stopped at Bebek Bengil (Dirty Duck) for dinner, recommended by Fiona. It was EXCELLENT! The restaurant is set before rice paddy fields and half the tables were under these little huts where you sit on cushions. Chris got half a crispy duck (their specialty) for $8!! Can't beat that! How could we go to Bali and not visit one of the temples? So, we went to Uluwatu temple for sunset and traditional Kecak dance. The temple ground has lots of monkeys. We were well warned to be careful with our belongings...no sunglasses, glasses, or shiny earrings. They were not kidding. One little monkey grabbed my bag strap and tried to take it from me. Fortunately for me, the bag is 3 times the size of the monkey AND it was a cross body bag :) Chris did a mini video of the Kecak dance which is pretty interesting. 70 men "sing" as the background music. Check it out! Bali was exactly what we needed to unwind and get into vacation mode. Onward to Taiwan!