December 23-28: Merry Christmas, Bali!

First "kampai" in Bali.

Lunch on the balcony. 

Out of all the locations we were headed on our vacation, I think Bali was the place I had been looking forward to the most. We had planned it as not so much a trip for traveling, but just a place to relax and be a bit spoiled for a few days.

Christmas morning sunrise

In the early days of planning the trip, I was browsing through places to stay, looking mostly at places that were on the beach, but not very expensive. Just for fun, I started scrolling through all the high-end resorts, and happened upon a deal (about half price) for an all-inclusive resort in Bali. It was at the high end of the budget, but doable, and I emailed James, asking what he thought. He replied through email with what he told me later was a sarcastic yes, but being that it was communicated via email, I didn't catch the sarcasm, could only think of how much I wanted the hotel, and booked it. I found out later he was kidding and, while I could have canceled, still wanted to stay there, so I started to read off the list of things that were included. He listened while I told him about the "motorized watersport activities", the "non-motorized watersport activities", the pool, the restaurants, the minibar. And then I said the magic word.

"Oh, they include milkshakes."

From then on, James was 100% on board, and all he could talk about was how many milkshakes he was going to have while we were there (although he ended up drinking mostly lassi).

Rainbow after the rain

Afternoon clouds.

Decorated for Christmas

A bed on the beach!

Inside the lounge

Glass-bottom boat picture fail. 

The whole stay in Bali was just fantastic. We had a bit of bad weather, but whenever it rained we retreated to one of the amazing restaurants in the resort, or sat on our balcony overlooking the ocean. Most of our time was spent in the resort, but we did venture out one day for some shopping. Another day, we had booked a trip on a glass bottom boat to a nearby Turtle Island that had basically a small petting zoo with eagles, fruit bats, giant turtles, snakes, porcupines, and other miscellaneous birds and critters. The glass-bottom boat part of the tour was a bit disappointing, since we were going too fast most of the time to see anything, and for the short time that we were parked above a school of fish, other boats in the area started feeding them and they swam away. The animal place was very interesting though, and probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. 

Adorable baby turtles. 

The tour guide, after handing us the turtle, says, "He's albino... Just like you!"

As you can see, this is where the big turtles are. 

And they are very big. I felt a little uneasy standing in a pool of water with bare legs and a whole bunch of giant turtles swimming around me.

Again the tour guide wasn't shy about sharing her thoughts.
"You guys look like a happy family!"

I showed this to my students, and they were mortified that I was handling a reptile while sporting bare shoulders.

The bird on the left was INSANE. He wouldn't stop moving-- hopping back and forth and back and forth. Behind him, I'm clutching James' hand in terror. 

They told me to shake him so his wings would open.
It feels wrong holding an animal upside down by his feet and shaking him. 

James decided to go on a Sea Walk, where they give you a helmet that looks like part of an old-fashioned scuba suit, and you walk along the bottom of the ocean and look at the fish. He had me talked into it for a little while, but at the last minute I backed out and I was glad I did.

As I feared, they give you food so that the fish kind of swarm you and nibble on you, which is the opposite of what I want to happen when I'm in the ocean. James enjoyed it, but said they didn't really let them walk very far. I enjoyed sitting in the room ordering room service and also not walking very far. 

Statue on the taxi ride to the hotel

Towards the end of the week, I decided to concentrate on fulfilling my desire to be pampered, and booked not only a beach-side hour-long massage (only $20 US :D ), but a mani/pedi (including hand/foot scrubs, massages, and many other wonderful things) at the spa next door. Both were magical.

Outside the spa

Before I knew it, my time in Bali was drawing to a close (time flies when you're having an amazing time and there are unlimited mojitos). I was really sad to leave, but excited to head to our next stop---  Vietnam.