Bali

Jill and I just spent an awesome 3 day weekend in Bali (last Friday was Buddha's birthday which is a public Holiday in Hong Kong).  I'll keep the details of our trip short and sweet...we were in paradise...not much else to say.

Friday: Our flight down there was delayed, so we didn't get to the Grand Hyatt Bali until about 1:30 AM Friday morning.  The whole day Friday was spent relaxing by the pool/ocean.  We stayed on the property and had a great sushi dinner, followed by drinks at the Persona Lounge with some live music.

Saturday:  After breakfast we played some tennis (they had courts on the property), and then went to the Kriya Spa for some relaxment.  I got an exfoliating body scrub followed by a 20 min back, 20 minute scalp, and 20 minute foot massage.  Yes I seriously did this, and I don't care what anyone says about it.  I'm not usually one for spas/massages, but it was good.  Jill got a 1.5 hour full body massage.  We enjoyed it.

After our massages we had a late lunch then decided to take a ride to Kuta, which is a popular tourist destination with shops/restaurants/markets along the beach.  It was supposed to be a short drive from the hotel, but with traffic and massive amounts of people on motorbikes it took us about an hour to get there.  We honestly weren't impressed with Kuta...if I had to describe it, I would say it's the Jersey Shore of Bali...we only spent about an hour walking around before heading back to the hotel to call it a night.

Sunday:  We brought our snorkel gear, and luckily the hotel had a boat that will take you out for an hour for a quick snorkel excursion.  It was nice because it was just Jill and I and the "guide" on the trip.  The coral was not very impressive, but we got to see a lot of fish including a sting ray and a puffer fish.

After about 30 mins in the water Jill and I started feeling little stings all over our arms...and we could see little jellyfish in the water, so we started making our way back to the boat.  We both developed little red welts all over our arms, but they weren't very painful and went away after a few hours. We both thought that being stung by a jellyfish would be a lot more painful, but it really wasn't that bad...so maybe it wasn't jellyfish...don't know what else it would be though.  Regardless, we learned our lesson to always go snorkeling with a rash guard.

After the snorkeling it was a couple more hours by the pool, and then back to the airport.  We definitely want to go back and see more of the island.  It's nice it's only a 4 hour flight away...so I am sure we will be back that way again soon.  Being there this weekend really made Jill and I realize how incredibly lucky we are to be able to take trips like this...

After downloading the pics from the weekend I realized that I didn't take that many at all...and the pics I did take were not that great....so sorry about that! 

View of the walk from transportation drop off to the front desk...not too shabby.  Many parts of the property were open-air, like the front desk, and the Grand Club, which was pretty cool.

View looking back to the front desk/lounge area.  The entire property is dotted with little koi ponds and waterfalls.  The property was much, much bigger and spread out than I expected.

My attempt at being a photographer.  Just a flower on some rocks...

Jill enjoying fresh coconut water.  You could literally just order a coconut and they would cut it open and stick a straw in it.  It was really hot (the weather, not the coconut water) so it was a great way to stay hydrated.

And yes...you really do put da lime in da coconut

In other news we got to see the newlyweds, David and Amanda, on the tail-end of their honeymoon. We had lunch with them today and it was great to see some familiar faces on this side of the world!

That's all for now.

Til Next Time,
Luke and Jill