Seminyak & Jimbaran Bay

For our last night in Bali, we headed over to the Jimbaran Bay with a stop in Seminyak for lunch. Upon coming to Bali, a few of our friends told us that we should spend more time in Ubud, rather than the beach area, and I'm thankful for that advice. Although the beaches were nice, they weren't worth flying all the way to Bali to see. 

We hired a driver for the day, Made, and made our way down to the coast. I forgot to mention that there are really only four names in Bali, whether you're a male or female. The names are Wayan, Made, Nyoman, and Ketut. These names pretty much mean First, Second, Third and Fourth. If you have more than four, you just repeat. We used Made for most of our stay in Ubud and everytime we asked for him, people were confused since everyone's name is Made; they usually called people by their surname or nickname...hehe.

Anyhow, Made drove us around Seminyak so we can visit some of the shops and then dropped us off at Potato Head for lunch. Our friend, Ryan, recommended the beach club and it didn't disappoint. There was a nice pool, lounge area for guests with beach front access. Since we were only here for a few hours, Gerald and I opted for the couches instead of the day beds and had our meal. It's a very commercialized place, but I can see how much fun can be had here with your friends.

After lunch, we headed over to the Four Season Jimbaran with a stop at Jenggala Ceramics. I loved the ceramics here but was limited to what we could buy since we still had to travel to the PI, boo! I got a few pieces from the collection though. 

We arrived at the Four Seasons to a room with a plunge pool, where we spent most of our afternoon. The rooms at Jimbaran were laid out like a traditional Balinese home with the different areas inside a bigger complex. For the most part, within a complex, there is a place of worship, kitchen, parents quarters, your quarters, etc. If you follow traditional customs, the sons and their family usually live with the son's parents. If you don't have a son, then the youngest daughter and her family stays with the parents. This is their way of making sure their parents are taken care of, so sweet! I thought that was super neat; here are pics to share. 

entrance

walkway to living area, pool, and bedroom

living area

bedroom/bathroom

plunge pool

We ended our stay in Bali with a stroll on the beach during sunset and a fabulous seafood dinner at Menga Cafe.  You get to pick your own seafood and how much of each from the shop in the back and they cook it for you. I was in seafood heaven!

The next morning, we said our goodbyes and headed off to the PI! I felt like we did so much already and still had a week of vacationing to go, exciting!

Ubud - Eat, Pray, Love

In planning our Philippines trip, Gerald and I realized that two weeks in the PI was probably a little much for us. Why not take advantage of being the area and take a side trip somewhere? We decided to make that side trip, Bali and I'm sure glad we did. Bali was a bit of everything for us: relaxation, food and culture. 

After reading the book "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert, I knew that Bali was something special. The Balinese are hardworking, grateful people and it shows in their smile when you first meet them. They are thankful for tourists as it creates jobs and helps them make a better living. Also, because their island is so beautiful, who wouldn't want to show it off. There wasn't a single person I met during our trip that I didn't enjoy talking to; it was that kind of place. Everyone there thought I was Balinese so most of the conversations started off with, "Where are you from?" "Oh, I thought you were from here, you look Balinese..." haha.

So with that said, Gerald and I were pretty much in heaven for the next 5 days. Here's our little version of Eat, Pray, Love...

Eat

Balinese food reminded me of Thai food but with a bit more spices like tumeric and lemongrass. There wasn't a dish I wasn't happy with. Gerald especially loved all the fresh fruit shakes! My favorite dish was the Babi Guling, roasted pig stuffed with spices, from Ibu Oka. We went into town for a few of our meals and also had some meals at the Four Seasons which were a bit more pricey but oh so worth it. Our favorite from Four Seasons was the BBQ dinner where you get to pick our your own meat and seafood to grill, served with various accompaniments of Balinese side dishes. The dessert bar was to die for also.  I really wanted some mangosteens and at the time, the hotel didn't have any, but come dessert time, they went and got some for us and even put some in the room. I do appreciate great service! I'll leave you with some pictures to drool now...

Pray

Every morning, the Balinese put out offerings in front of the stores, restaurants, hotels, houses, temples, and even trees. Where ever there is life, there is an offering. The offering, also know as canangsari, is meant to keep away the bad spirits and bring in the good. Every morning, we had an offering put outside our hotel room with an incense burning. This little gesture gave me a positive vibe each morning and made me just appreciate being in this beautiful country. Like Buddhist, Hindu's believes in reincarnation and karma, so whatever life you live today can determine what kind of life you live in the afterlife; I quite like that idea. Maybe people will think twice about their actions. Just seeing how much the Balinese appreciate life, no matter how much or little they had, made me a happy person. I think I'll start incorporating my personal offerings of getting rid of the bad and bringing in the good each morning.

 

Love

The scenery here is amazing; nature at it's finest I must say, and I was in LOVE!  We stayed at the Four Seasons Sayan, which was located along the Ayung river, in a lush jungle setting. Very dramatic setting and we enjoyed every bit of it! We took a little day trip out to Mount Batur, the rice terraces, and the temple of Gunung Kawi and saw even more amazing scenery. The rice terraces were so green and perfectly lined. You wouldn't believe that they did this through manual labor!  Along the way, we stopped at a Kopi Luwak coffee farm and went through various villages, some of which were having ceremonies. Ceremonies and celebrations are big here. In the five days, we saw 2 big processions and lots of smaller ones in the villages. I loved seeing all the traditional dress during these processions, the little ones were the cutest. Oh yah, we also went into town and met Wayan, from EPL. She was busy with clients but took the time out to speak to us for a few minutes - so nice!  I didn't quite LOVE Monkey Forest in the center of Ubud, but it was worth a visit. Cheeky Monkeys!

I've only scratched the surface of what life in Bali is like, but that concludes my version of Eat, Pray, Love - Bali. Hope you enjoyed it!

Fall Back

After 2 weeks, and 12 flights, we've arrived back to the 'Deen safe and sound, with little disruption, I must say. Getting on and off the plane a total of 12 times, there was not one delay or mishap; I am very impressed. More importantly, we had safe travels.

We arrived in Aberdeen to cold, wet rain. It snowed the day before we arrived but by the time we landed, it all melted. Here's a few pics I stole from my friend's FB =)

October 26, 2012 - first snow in Aberdeen






After sleeping for 12 hours! I woke up to a beautiful fall morning. There's nothing like sleeping in your own bed after vacation; I think that's my favorite part about coming back home =)

This is suppose to be our last fall/winter here in Aberdeen, so I'm hoping to soak in all the fall colors, cold, and snow I can get. We only have 5 weeks left in Aberdeen for 2012! And even with the 5 weeks, we really only have 2 weeks of daylight, since the sun now sets at 4:30 pm and will continue to set earlier and earlier until December 22, 2012, when it set's at 3:27 pm! Where has this year gone?

Rain Rain Go Away...

Right now, I am sitting in our hotel room in Boracay, it's raining, there's a typhoon warning and all boats are cancelled for the day. It's so beautiful out here and it's a shame that we can't enjoy the awesome snorkeling but hopefully we can get some beach time in later this afternoon. However, I'm actually not counting on that since forecast does say 90% chance of rain.

We've been traveling for almost a good two weeks and have done so much! I figured I'll take the time to update a little bit on our adventures before doing a full blog:)

Bali seems like ages ago already but I still can't forget the amazing experience we had:

Where: Ubud
Stay: Four Seasons at Sayan
What: Day tour of volcano, rice fields and temples, Balinese dance performance, good eats, spa-ahhh, village walk, meeting Wayan from ELP, and shopping for local goodies

We decided to check out the beach side of Bali so switched hotel for a night and visited two of the towns:

Where: Seminyak
Stay: Potato Head Beach Club
What: Stopped here on the way to Jimbaran Bay for lunch and a quick stroll through town.

After visiting Seminyak, I'm really glad we decided not to actually stay here. It was nice but too busy and commercialized for what we wanted to experience in Bali. We opted for a quieter part of the beach towns:

Where: Jimbaran Bay
Stay: Four Seasons Jimbaran
What: ceramic shopping, plunge pool, sunset on the beach, seafood barbecue yumminess!

Our stay at Jimbaran was short and sweet. I was sad to say goodbye to Bali as the people there were so wonderful and it just put me in a happy place ;) We boarded the plane for Manila to meet the fam-bam for some good times!

Where: Manila
Stay: Intercontinental Hotel
What: lots of shopping malls, road trip to family's childhood homes, riding a jeepney and tricycle, visiting schools, cemeteries, CVX, karaoke, clubbing, Apl.de.ap, Filipino celebrities,spa-ahhh, and still a few more days to go there...

The Cristobals-Penas decided to take a beach break and head to Boracay for a few days without the parentals and that is where I am now.

Where: Boracay
Stay: Two Seasons, Station 1
What: white sand, turquoise water, beach, seafood market and hobbit house...one more day of exploring today so we shall see what we find

After writing all this, it's still raining:( but we shall make the most of it. Maybe some shopping or drinking...haha!

Pictures are plentiful but will have to wait to post them, sorry. In the meantime, follow my Facebook, I've been very active at checking us in so we can remember all the places we've been.

Have a great day and see y'all soon!! Missing everyone!

Nairs

Pre-Flight Night

So I decided to host an AWA HH today since we will be gone most of Oct. and I didn't want to disappoint my group. I chose one of my favorite bars in ABZ so was pretty excited, but then came the crazy rain. Supposedly, there was one month's worth of rainfall in the past 24 hours, which made for a pretty crappy day! Therefore, some ppl cancelled, understandable; but some of us went out anyways and made a good, fun night of it. Afterwards, we went out to a belated bday dinner for Ram at Shabaaz, an Indian restaurant, and of course, Gerald got something fried! He is totally missing out...one day, one day...

We are off to the PI tomorrow and I can't wait for some good eats and warm weather. Stay dry and warn everyone:) Adios!

Eat, Play, Bowl!

This year, I have volunteered to be 2nd VP of the AWA, in charge of the group's social events. Luckily, I am not the only one with this role. My good friend, Tanvi, is also 2nd VP and my partner in crime. Tanvi loves to entertain, and so do I, so it just made sense that we're in this role. 

Our first event of the 2012-2013 year was the Fall Social. We wanted to put on something where people would be free to mingle as they please and not be confined to a table for a sit down dinner most of the evening. So we decided to go with a bowling night! Included in our bowling night was a round on the bumper cars and a simple meal. The highlight of the evening was 2 games of bowling with a DJ and music playing in the background. And what's a social without drinks? There was a bar conveniently located behind our lanes as well, perfect! 

To spice up the night even more, we decided on a sports theme where everyone would wear their favorite sports apparel or collegiate gear, along with a pair of crazy socks! What a hit! It was nice to be able to pull out some of my Longhorn gear and see others in them as well. With most of the members being from Texas, we had a good amount of Texans fan and of course...Aggies.

There was a great turnout of 45 people and we had a blast! Some other events that are in the works are the Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas Luncheon. I think I might put this accounting degree away and become a party planner...hehe.

In addition to the Fall Social this past weekend, I was being a social butterfly myself, with Gerald being offshore. I went out for a friends bday and danced until 3:00 am, which ended with late night pizza. Reminded me of my 6th St. days, but the pizza was not as great as Ropollos! Late night eats aren't the greatest here and I feel we can make a killing with some Whataburger,  Chacos, Best Wurst, or Mai's...haha. If you're looking to make some money, I would suggest moving to Aberdeen and opening a late night eatery.

Now, time to detox before our trip to Bali and the PI! We leave fresh and early Saturday morning and I can't wait. Some R&R with G-man and then meeting up the familia in Manila. Now, I must get off my butt and get this week started...

Wine Charms

Today's crafty project consisted of making wine charms. I typically don't use wine charms when hosting, but what a great idea they are! Keeping track of your wine glass at a party can be a struggle if you're always running around and setting things down in random places like me. I finally got a set just the other week that I've been wanting since last Christmas but never got around to searching them out (they were sold out everywhere last Christmas). I stumbled upon some at a local gift shop, NOVA.

Anyhow, once a month, I get together with a group called, The Craftniche, and we come up with different crafts to try out together. This month's activity was making wine charms using beads that a few of the ladies had. I started off going for a colorful African theme, since the beads I was using came from Africa, but got bored of it quick. After making two, I was ready to move on to something else.



There were some pretty orange and white beads staring right at me, so I decided to go for the Longhorn theme. Although not quite burnt orange, it works.



I ended up making 6 wine charms altogether and it took me almost 3 hours! They might seem easy to make, but placing those tiny beads in the loop and knotting the wire for the dangle and the ring is not as easy as you think. Thank goodness we had some veteran wine charm makers on hand to help us or else I would have been there all day! I had so much fun and might be making some of these for Christmas presents; if you get some, don't be surprised.