Bali Trip

Last night Megan and I went throug our nearly 300 pictures that we took on our honeymoon in Bali and picked out the best 70 photos to post online. We posted them last night in a gallery.

After our wedding (which I will talk about once I post those pictures) we went to the Hotel Lucia in downtown Portland for the first night of the honeymoon. It is a beautiful hotel that I would recomend people stay at if they get the chance. The staff was really helpful. The next morning we took a MAX to the airport and got on a flight to L.A. After about 5 hours in LAX we finally bordered our flight to Hong Kong.

The flight was about 14 hours long, but the food was pretty good and Megan and I were both able to sleep for a few hours. We landed in Hong Kong and spent about 4 hours in the amazing Hong Kong International Airport. This is one of the largest airports in the world and the main terminal is likely the largest enclosed space in the world. We then bordered our short (4 hour) flight for Bali.

We arrived in Bali and were met by my Aunt Jenny's friend Wayan who drove us to my aunt's house in Ubud in central Bail. My aunt is actually in the states right now so we were able to stay in her house for the first few days. Ubud is considered the cultural and culinary center of Bali. It is a great place with traditional dancing almost every night, really good shopping and good food.

We spent 3 days in and around Ubud. The first day we walked around Ubud and did a bit of shopping then we walked throught the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary just south of Ubud. The monkeys own this place, but they are generally calm and just want a bannana.

The next day we visited a number of temples around Ubud. Hinduism in Bali is very influenced by the earlier Balinese religions and is intensly spirtual. There are temples in every small town and offerings are left in front of every doorway and at many shrines. There are almost always 4 shrines in every family complex and every shop has at least one. We saw at least one temple festival or people dressed for a temple festival every day we were in Bali.

The next day we went to the central mountains and vistited a temple and some amazing waterfalls. Later in the day we visited Bali's most famous temple, the sea temple of Tanah Lot. This temple is built on a large rock in the middle of the surf. We stayed there till sunset, since this is the most famous sunset in Bali.

After Ubud we wen to the south-eastern beach town of Amed. On the way to Amed we drove behind a procession to a temple for about 1 km. It was amazing seeing most of a village walking to the temple for a festival. All the men and women wear traditional temple clothing and most carry offerings for the temple.

In Amed we stayed at a resort called Good Karma where we had our own bungalow no more than 10 m from the beach. We went snorkling and relaxed on the beach. Every evening the fishing fleet from the near by villages would sail by with there multi-colored sails.

It was very hard to leave Amed after three days, but we wanted to see more of Bali, so we left for Lovina. Lovina is in northern Bali. It is well known for the resident dolphins that live in the area. The dolphins are pretty well harrased by the tourist boats, so we didn't go to see any. In Lovina we relaxed more. One day was our day of real luxury. We first went up to the Air Panas Banjar hot springs. Later we went to central Lovina and enjoyed a massage. That night we had a great mult-course seafood dinner at our hotel's restaurant.

On our next to last day we went back to Ubud and shopped a bit more. The last day was a journey to the airport. It was hard to leave Bali and Megan and I really want to go back.

Posted by Noah Brimhall at October 7, 2004 09:43 AM