Bali - Last Day

Okay - this is late, but better than never. We did visit Ketut Liyer! It was an amazing experience. He read our palms, backs, faces, pulses and determined that we are "very good!" When he first saw us he said "honeymooners, perfect match!" This was good to hear! I guess better than the alternative. He is a very old man, he said 87, but who knows if that is his real age. It was quite an experience!

Later that day we took a stroll through the Sacred Monkey Forest. These monkeys are like birds here in Bali - they are everwhere! If you are holding something that they want, they will crawl up your body and take it! We have several videos and pictures of them doing this.

Our last day was great and the sunset on our last night was absolutely breathtaking. I will post this later on tonight.

We are back in Chicago now, enjoying our horrible jetlag! After 36 hours we finally made it home in one piece. We are happy to be home! We had a great trip and made memories that will last forever.

Thanks for reading!
Jenn and Jeff

Bali - Day 4

I'm sitting here in the backyard of my villa writing you this post as I overlook the beautiful Indian Ocean. I can't believe our journey is almost over. It has been an adventure of a lifetime and much more than a vacation for Jeff and I. We have been enlightened by the things we have learned and the wonderful people we have met.

Today we hired a driver to tour Bali. Our driver was so wonderful and spoke really great English. Part of the experience in Bali is getting to know the people here. This is a very strong community, with hardly no crime, and people that are so genuine. I believe this is from their spiritual beliefs in Karma and a balanced life. What comes around goes around is the motto here! Unlike Indian Hindu's, Balinese Hindu's believe in only one God. This one God has many different functions, just like one person can be a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, etc. This is a facsinating religion, especially if you have the chance to oversee some of their rituals.











Our first stop was in Mengwi. Mengwi is 1 hour N of Jimbaran and home to the Jagalah Kebersihan temple. This temple is from the 17th century and still used by the public for daily rituals. The temple is surrounded by a moat and beautiful gardens. Very simple architechture and grounds - unlike Thailand

Our second stop was in the Mount Batukaru hills. We took some beautiful pictures of the mountain side before proceeding up to another temple.




While visiting this temple in Bedugul, they were beginning a cleansing ceremony. Someone had passed away and they were taking their ashes to the family temple to be spread. The music and the costumes were beautiful. Our driver told us that sometimes people don't have the money for creamation here, so they will bury the body for up to 5 years while the community raises money for creamation. It can cost up to $1000USD for creamation here, which is very expensive in Bali. This can be more than their yearly salary if they are a farmer or in the tourist industry. This temple sat on Lake Bratan. We saw so many temples as we drove through Bali - so with a little explanation from our driver, we understood why. In Bali they have 4 different types of temples - each family has their own (which is generally placed in front of their home), there is also at least 3 temples for each village, a temple that depicts which class you belong to (upper, middle, and lower), and a public temple. There are so many here that even the Balinese don't know how many exist. I figure since 4 million people live here, there has to be at least 3 million temples in Bali, if not more.
Our final stop of the day was in Gitgit, home to Bali's largest waterfall. This was pretty awesome! People from all over Bali visit this fresh water waterfall to swim and to drink! It also was surrounded by natural flowers, spice trees, and herbs. You could see many fresh fruits growing on the trees as you walked down the 300 steps to get to the waterfall. This was our last stop of the day. We are postponing the Sacred Monkey Forest and Volcano till tomorrow. We are excited for this trip, as we are also going to visit Ketut Liyer, the famous Balian Healer.

One last note, while the people here are so polite and genuine, they are very poor. Our driver today got up at 6AM drove from his home in the country to pick us up at 9AM. He drove with us all day until 4PM. He then has to drive back home 3 hours. His day was from 6 - 7PM. While this may seem like a normal working day for an American, his entire pay for the day was a mere $3.50. Balinese that work in the tourist industry only make 10% of the booking fee! This man was a wonderful person - he is taking care of his entire family (2 young children, a wife, his parents, and his aunt). He is the only one that works in his family. He explained to us that education is very important to him and he wants his children to be educated so that they will have a better life. Education in Bali is not government funded and has to be privately funded by the citizens. We found this very sad, as this man did not want to eat lunch because he saves all his money for his children. This put a lot in perspective for us - how fortunate we are and how we should not take what we have for granted when others have so little. The most amazing part of this man is that you would think he was the richest man in the world - always smiling, loving his family, and so down to earth. We need to take a few lessons from him.

Until tomorrow - we will have a lot to share about our experience with Ketut.

Bali - Our Villa/The Grounds

There are so many beautiful places in this resort, we can't show you enough pictures! The Ritz sits on 165 acres of land!

Bali - Day 3

We layed by the pool this am, but it was a little overcast so we decided to visit the village of Kuta in the afternoon. However, before visiting Kuta Jeff decided that he wanted to do some laundry! He refuses to pay the laundry prices here, so take a look at him cleanign his clothes in our beautiful bathtub - this was a priceless moment!

Kuta is roughly 30 minutes Northwest of Jimbarin Bay. It is a tourist destination, full of shopping, restaurants, and gimmicks (bungee jump, fake tatoos, etc.). We were able to bargain some great prices for some hand carved wooden statues and had some traditional Balinese food, which mostly consists of a variety of satays - seafood, chicken, pork, beef, ect.

The most interesting part of our trip to Kuta was our cab ride. Our cab driver was a very religious Hindu man. He was telling Jeff and I about his spiritual teacher. Most Hindu's have teachers that show them how to be better men and better Hindu's. He has been seeing this man for only 3 months now, but gave us a background on him. He is 60 something years old now and started teaching when he was 38 years old. When he was 20 he had the vision to be a spiritual leader. He decided that he needed to find God first, which consists of fasting. To most of us, fasting means no food. This man had a different idea of what fasting meant. Supposedly, he dug a hole in the ground, built himself a coffin, had his family bury him alive, and gave himself only 1 long peice of bamboo sticking out of the ground for air.

He sat in this box and "fasted" for 40 days!!!!! After 15 days they thought he was dead because when they poked him with the bamboo they did not feel him move. While they feared that he was dead, they followed his guidance and did not dig him up until the 40th day. He was alive, but felt that he still was not with God. This man decided to leave his family and lived in the forest for 18 1/2 years meditating, eating wildflowers and bamboo to survive. After 18 1/2 years, he heard a loud bang. He says this was God telling him to now go back to his village and teach his Godly ways. Now the may has been teaching for 25 years!

He is known to heal all kinds of ailments. He told us a story of a very reach Balinese woman who was diagnosed with cancer and cured by this man. He told us of newly married couples not being able to have children and they were cured by this man. This was definitely an interesting story and we felt very honored that he shared it with us. Our cab driver gave us a great Balinese compliment when he dropped us back at the hotel - he told us that we were now like his family and that he hopes to see us again. In the Balinese culture, this is one of the best compliments that can be paid to another person.

We are doing our 10 hour Bali tour tomorrow - Sacred Monkey Forest, Volcanoes, Waterfalls, Temples, etc.

Bali - Day 2 continued

We just returned from Ubud, the center of art in Bali. We actually bought a 1.7 million dollar painting! HA HA in the Rupiah...this is only $170. We bought it from this outside gallery found in an alley in Ubud. This painting is so beautiful and would go for 10 times this price back home. The Rupiah is very weak. The exchange rate is 1USD to 10,000 Rupiah.

The people are very poor here. They live in huts with sometimes just a single 40 wat light. They are artists, preparing wood carvings, which can take some of them 2 full days to carve for only $30USD. We drove through the artists villages prior to reaching Ubud and saw the painting, wood carving, gold/silver, and stone carving crafts. It was really interesting to see hut after hut offering these beautiful pieces of art.

Ubud was really intersting, a ton of Hindu temples and shopping. Hindus are constantly preparing for rituals - sometimes spending almost 2/3 of their day in ritual.

At least 3 times a day, they place bamboo trays of flowers, fruit, and sugar cane in front of their homes and businesses to invite in the good spirits and keep out the bad. You have to be careful not to step on these! They are also very superstitious, such as the direction they sleep (North and West only), the hand you use to eat as a visitor in a Hindu home, animals having certain ranking overs, etc.

You can see some of the many Hindu temples above. They are very different than the Buddhist temples in Thailand - made of limestone and depicting a variation of different Hindu Gods.

There are also wild monkey's running around everywhere! Jeff saw one jump on a tourist woman's back today and steal her food! You have to be very careful of anything too flashy or food because these monkeys are wild and will take it form you! We will see more of them when we visit the Sacred Balinese Monkey Forest on Thursday.

Tomorrow we are off to Tamah Lot temple to watch what is supposed to be the best sunset in Bali. Afterwards we are heading to Kuta, where the nightlife and shopping are supposed to be great.

Bali - Day 2

We had a ton of fun on New Years Eve!

We ventured away from the hotel, while most of the guests stayed here and enjoyed dinner. We wanted to be different! We went to a restaurant in Jimbarin called Fortein. This restaurant, like many of its neighbors, sits directly on the beach. We had a candle lit dinner on the sand while we watched real, authentic Balinese dancing....it was SO COOL! This was a seafood restaurant, so you pick what you want and then go to the kitchen and actually pick your piece out. I had lobster, which I had never seen a lobster like this, and Jeff had trout. As Americans (Westerners as they call us) - we are so used to very nice looking, established restaurants. Well, you have to get over that when you venture to Asia. If they put candles out you are at a nice restaurant. So with that said, we are naturally preconditioned to think "is this place really going to be good, is it okay to eat here?" Well, once we walked back to the beach and witnessed the beauty of the sand and the candle lit tables we felt a little better. After we ate we felt great. The food was excellent! The grilled lobster and trout was accompanied with 4 different type of sauces - tomato, chili sauce, garlic, and soy. We also had "chippies" with it - french fries. This might have been the best lobster and fish I've ever had, probably because it was so fresh.

We really enjoyed the company of our waiter. He even gave us his personal email address so that we could keep in touch. Everyone was really nice there - shaking our hands saying Happy New Year when we left. They even gave us a complimentary ride back to the hotel.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel for the DJ and fireworks. Unfortunately, but very common here, it started raining at around 11:30PM. When it rains here it is like a curtain, thick, hard, and windy! So the DJ and fireworks didn't happen. That is okay though, we enjoyed ringing in the New Year with a cold beer looking over the Indian Ocean.

We are off to Ubud today, which is known as the cultural center of Bali. This is where people go to experience real Bali, rather than just the beaches and a few Pina Colada's. We are hoping to add to our art collection with a painting or some type of sculpture from the Balinese.

We also contemplated visiting this Medicine Man that lives just on the outskirts of Ubud. I read about him in "EAT, PRAY, LOVE". He has asked that people come visit him, as the tourism has been down since the bombings in Bali 4 years ago. This man wanted to be a painter when he was young and was very skillful, but had an accident that burned his arm severely. Through a dream, he was able to mix herbs and natural medicines together that would eventually save his arm. This was the beginning of his spiritual path, as he had another dream that told him what his path was - a healer. He fasted for 6 days, eating only the dew off the rice patties until he felt one with God. He is supposed to be an amazing man, with good English and an amazing ability to heal both physical and mental anguish. He has seen people from all over the world. He is very poor, but will heal for no money if you don't have the means to pay him. I'm not sure if we will be able to see him, as there are many factors that make this difficult: he is very far from the city of Ubud and taxis are not readily available and it is extremely hot here today so we are not sure how long we will make it with no AC. However, it would be really wonderful if we could see this Medicine Man.

We are off....we will post pictures on this blog when we return tonight.
Cheers to the New Year!

Bali - First Full Day

Bali, also known as the Island of the God's and 'Morning of the World' is absolute paradise - everthing they say about it is true! It is lush, green, has wild flowers growing everywhere, volcanoes, mountains, lakes, ocean, etc. We love it here and are already planning out next trip! It is hard to actually come inside and write this blog - bc it is SO BEAUTIFUL outside. Bali is only 8 degrees south of the Equator, so we are enjoying a tropical climate. We are in the wet season, but really haven't experienced any rain yet. The island is pretty small - stretching 140km from east to west and 80km from north to south. 3 million people live in Bali in tight little villages and of course they all know each other. With the religion being 90% Hindu and the belief in the good of the people, the crime rate is very low here - mostly brought on by tourists.

We are staying at the Ritz Carlton in Jimbaran Bay. This is on the Southwestern tip of Bali - about 25 minutes south of Denpasar, Bali's capital. We could probably see the entire island in 12 hours because it is roughly the size of Delaware, so of couse we have already planned out our excursions over the next few days!

We arrived last night, after standing through customs and immigration for 2 hours! They are very strict here - death penalty for those found bringing drugs into their country! When we arrived at the Ritz, we were given orchid lays and an upgraded ocean view villa. This villa is even bigger than the villa in Chiang Mai - 4 rooms and a killer bathroom. We have our own outdoor, private plunge pool that overlooks the Indian Ocean and our very own cabana that sits outside. We can't decide which is better - Chiang Mai or Bali. They are both so different! Every detail has been touched here - extravagant waterfalls all over the property, plunge pools, beautiful gardens, koy fish, hindu statues, private beach, etc. etc. etc. We can't take enough pictures! Everywhere we turn is a Kodak moment. The pools are really great. We will load everything on JeffJenn.com so that you can check them out...doing all of Chiang Mai later on tonight.

Today we just hung around the hotel and checked out the facilities. This is the largest hotel in all of Bali - equipped with 4 pools (see one of them below) and 7 restaurants. Each pool is different - colonial, polynesian, beach side, and wading pool (slides, etc.). We are heading to Jimbarin tonight for our New Years Eve dinner. The restaurant sits beach side and we get to choose our own piece of seafood to have grilled at our table - I am very excited about this, as I ate way too much rice when we were in Thailand! Finally, we can eat again!!!! We are then coming back to the hotel, as they are having a huge party and fireworks. We will enjoy the martini bar here - with over 50 Martini's to choose from!!!



We are off to dinner. HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone from BEAUTIFUL BALI!!!










I know all of you like my quick facts, so here are some more on Bali:

Bali is 90% Hindu. Hindu is very similar to Buddhist; just don't believe in Buddha. Instead, they believe that most worldly problems reflect some imbalance in the netherworld and they can be restored by appropriate rituals. Order and harmony are personified by deities who live on mountain tops and bestow their blessings on humans. Demons symbolise disorder and dwell, beneath the sea, seeking chaos and distruction. Hindus sacrifice to the Gods every full moon. They offer the good spiritis food,flowers, tobacco, etc. They offer the bad spirits liquor and blood. They sacrifice animals to the bad spirits and believe that these animals will come back one level higher. They also believe in reincarnation and that if we live a good life, we will be presented in heaven in front of the Gods in a favorable light before reincarnated.

The Balinese are rich in culture and have not swayed away from many traditions even thought they have been taken over by tourists. Over 50% of the land is still Green and they still follow traditional art and culture - painting, stone and woodcarving, textile, dance and drama. In fact Kecak is still practices here and is the most famous of all Balines dances. This dance is based on trance chorus formerly used in times of epidemic.

That's enough for now - can't stay in the Villa too long. BALI is too WONDERUL - everyone should plan a trip here!!!!! And you can swing by Australia on your way out - the northern tip is only 3 hours away.

The Internet here is very slow, so we will upload more pictures as soon as we can.


Peace, love, and happiness to all of you in the New Year!!!