Bali: Part One

I always think of Bali as a romantic getaway, where you laze by the beach, eat a platter of exotic fruits, drink cocktails, enjoy people watching and marvel at the pretty sunset while the man does just the same right by your side. However, for our Bali trip, we had none of it. The only time we set our feet on the beach was when we had our sunset dinner at Jimbaran beach, but even then, we missed the sunset, so the whole notion of romantic sunset dinner as noted in our tour itineraries was nonexistence. But I am not here to complain about the trip because I had been warned before the trip by Oliver and I quote, "This is not our honeymoon" as an inception to not expect anything romantic. So, the part of Bali that we got to experience was its wealth of culture, its religion, the people and the amazing talents they have when it comes to arts whether its batik painting, wood crafting,  paintings in general, etc. But more about that later because on day one, shortly after checking into our hotel, we were fetched by Ketut Adhi, our very nice and informative tour guide who along with his sidekick driver who I called Kedek drove us to Uluwatu, a temple high up by the cliff and is inhabited with monkeys who claimed it as their territories and we, human beings, the trespassers. I read somewhere that described Uluwatu as a 'temple situated majestically by the cliff..' and it was that. And since it was the first of many temples we visited, I was quite amazed with the centuries old architecture, the stone-weathered paths, walls and edges, the craftsmanship and details of the temple, the monkeys, well not so, they were fun to look at until they snatched Oliver's and Polly's glasses. And while Oliver managed to get back his glasses with minimal damage, Polly on the other hand had hers beyond repairable. Those monkeys are quick and aggressive I tell you. Anyways, according to our guide, 85% of the local Balinese practice Hinduism and they practice it to the core. Each family has at least a shrine where they can pray and make offerings to. Bigger and wealthier family will have family temples and they have different type of temples for different God like you have God of protection, God of destroyer etc. so you can imagine for the next three days, we saw shrines, temples and remnants of offerings everywhere at every nook and corner. Later during the first day, we went to Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park where there stood a huge, and I repeat huge statue of Wisnu which is an illustration of the Almighty God in maintaining and caring all life and its being. The god Wisnu is said to be the owner of Amerta in the form of water as the source of fertility , giving wealth and life to the universe. And that statue is only 20% complete. The complete statue will be 150 m in height. Gasp. We ended the first day with a trip to the local Starbucks near Kuta Beach and discover a new favourite Starbucks drink, Ice Hazelnut Latte or something like it. A pretty eventful first day come to think of it. Anyways, what is a travel post without pictures, right. :)

Settling down

One of the most common questions thrown to me nowadays is 'how's married life?'. If I am to be honest, I'll say, I'm still trying to get used to it. Maybe the same goes for Oliver. I guess being married aside, the challenge would be living together. Now, that would take a lot of getting used to than the former. We had a conversation the other day with another married couple that almost crossed into the borderline of an argument but for the sake of being positive, let's just say, it was a healthy argument as it talked about the reality that we're facing. Two people with different personalities, habits and quirks living together at some points are bound to get into each other skins. So the next challenge is how much would one be willing to give and take. It gets harder when two people with rather strong personalities on different extremes. I guess that's marriage for you. Well, only a part of it. 

That aside, I'm pretty sure being married is great. I mean, it already is. It goes back to the anecdote that says life is a parcel and we are to open and enjoy it as it presents itself. Personally, I find joy in being married; traveling together as husband and wife, having to refer to Oliver as my husband, deciding furnitures for the house, buying groceries together, figuring out what to cook for the husband each day, seriously, I'm a lot more motivated to cook now that I'm with him, just yesterday morning, I woke up so early and already my brain was working out a breakfast for him. We joined a prayer walk organized by the church, went to friend's BBQ and you know, basically just doing things together because these are the things that brings us closer and these are memories to be.

Bali in August '11. Definitely go back there some day.

Back from Bali

And no, trip to Bali was not our honeymoon. Nevertheless, Bali has always been a place that I'd like to visit some day and when friends of Oli; Polly and Marco who came to our wedding suggested they visit Bali, Oliver and I decided to tag along. So, I got us an agent, booked the tour and off we went to Bali for four days and three nights. Anyways, I don't think I'll write a full post on Bali now since Oliver has not edited the hundreds of pictures he took and I need to pack since we're flying off to Frankfurt tomorrow. But I just want to say, Bali is beautiful. Of course, four days or rather three full days is simply not enough, while we managed to visit the recommended touristy places like the Uluwatu & Tanah Lot temples and the lakes, what I'd really like to do is spend more time just walking along the local streets to immerse in the everyday lives of the local Balinese rather than watching the whole thing from the comfort of our coach or hiking the mountainous or volcanic trails rather than just  looking at it from afar and it's sad that we didn't get to sample 'Bebek', some duck dishes or 'Babi Guling', Indonesia's version of suckling pig. But hey, that only means that we've got to make another trip to Bali. :D. Note to self and Oliver, 'must make another trip to Bali. Anyways, I've got to get back to packing. I'll write more when I'm in Germany since I won't have much to do anyways. 

I guess, till later.