…

A shot of Ellie sleeping in our bed.

For those interested in where we stay while in Bali, let me know. This beautiful bed is part of a gorgeous, but a bit rustic, bed and breakfast in Sanur.

A Hippie Finale

As a finale to my two week stay in Bali, I treated myself. There were a few places that I have always wanted to visit and I figure there’s no better time than the present.

This morning I booked a tour at the Big Tree Farms bamboo chocolate factory (found a great write up about it on travelfish). We got to sample some of the chocolate as it was poured straight from the mixer into our hands and tour the impressive factory, which is the largest bamboo factory in the world. It’s beautiful! And the sea salt chocolate delicious!

And since we were in the area (kind of in between Denpasar and Ubud) we swung by The Green School, which is beyond words. It’s… like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It trumps outdoor school, Woodstock, Portland, San Francisco, or any hippie nirvana you could possibly think of. The pictures can’t do it justice, especially since so much of the heart of the campus is in and of itself interactive. It’s just kid and teacher heaven.

And then my cherry for the day was eating at Manik Organik in Sanur because what better way to end a day of sustainable structures and hippie tours than to eat roasted vegetables and ricotta cheese in unleavened wraps.

Today was magical. I’ll be back, Bali. And I’m going to find a way to stay.

Chillaxin’

I love Bali, but would love it even more if I didn’t have 92482937 mosquito bites.

Here are some shots from our week.

Some new and familiar experiences

Amed was pretty spectacular. My last post however missed a few important points from the weekend.

One in particular was the 5.4 earthquake in the Gilis and the shakes we felt on the beach on Saturday. It was pretty crazy to hear all the villagers shout “pinuh!!” (Meaning: alive) while the earth rolled back and forth. We all looked out to sea for a moment, and then I realized Seth was out there…

At 2:00 Seth was diving and heard some loud rumbling, as if a large boat was passing overhead. He had a visual of the surface and saw nothing, just listened to it groan for a good 15 seconds.

Fast forward to Sunday and our slow efforts of leaving Amed. We snorkeled again in the morning, lunched and showered and even did a detour through Kintamani. Crazy thing on the windy roads up there was the jeep in front of us missed a turn and drove straight into the rice paddy! Seth jumped out and helped the poor shaking Balinese kids out of their muddy car before we raced off for a quick dinner and then Seth to the airport.

Today things were much calmer… Ellie and I played with friends at the pool and hung out in downtown Sanur in the afternoon. We had dinner with friends tonight, which will probably be the plan for the rest of the week.

Ah, Bali…

Amed

We are staying at a friend of a friends treehouse for the weekend in Amed, Bali.

While Seth is diving the Liberty shipwreck for his birthday, Ellie and I are eating, playing and swimming with friends. Amed is lovely. Quiet, beautiful, and just perfectly lovely.

Batik class

Sarah and I took a batik making class at ARMA today. It was two hours long and while we drew lines of wax and painted, Ellie played in the garden and Michael took a gamelan class.

Bali or Bust

Feels good to be back in Bali.

Neighborhood park adventures

Inspired by the stars

We’re approaching our one year anniversary here. This is the map that hangs above our dining table. It feels like we have traveled so much this year, yet there is still so much more to see!

Summer Break

We kicked off our one month (paid!) summer break. Without my maid the first day, I ended up cleaning and doing laundry all day, only to come to the realization that I am now domestically retarded. We survived. With the return of our pembantu, we got to fully bask in all that is summer break in Bogor. Or in other words… Hell.

Mad respect to stay at home moms and dads out there cause all I know is that this is HARD. And maybe I didn’t have post partum depression during my maternity leave 4 years ago. Maybe staying at home just sucks because I like to work. I like my kid, but I also like to work. Balance, you know?

These next few days will be filled with dance parties, nail painting, swimming, art projects, reading, and mini adventures until Sunday when we can get-the-hell-outta-here for a few weeks.

I’m looking at you, Bali.

Bali or Bust!