Catching up part 1 - Bali

Now, it has been a long long time, since I wrote anything onto this blog... Many things happened, many events occured, many places have been visited, and, sweet and sadly, many goodbyes were said in the meantime...

Currently I am in Pattaya Jomtien beach in Thailand with my beloved husband, chilexing (yes, this is a new word I learned from one dear Singaporean friend: relax+chill=chilax :D) under the sun and tanking power before our long journey on the bike all the way to Hong Kong...

But first I want to catch up on some events and trips that happened in the last months of my stay in Singapore: Bali, Borneo, full moon party at Koh Phangan in Thailand etc...

Bali

We went to Bali during SMU recess week: Oct. 5th to Oct. 11th 2009. First time and I loved it!

First day after we arrived, we stayed in surfers' paradize Kuta in the South-West part of the island: long wide beach with famous sunset, bunch of Australian sunny boys coming up to surf and show off their tanned trained bodies, abundance of small shops offering all kinds of staff one never even thought of, and crazy crazy traffic...

Next day we rented motorbike: Honda Tiger, and headed off to to East. We drove small curvy roads and finally reached Amed - tiny place with great diving sites. This was meant to be our headquater for the next 3 days... We stayed in the cozy bungalows "Good karma", located directly on the beach, and runned by one of the local men. And it inspired indeed a good karma for our Bali journey...

Next days we relaxed, went sailing and snorkeling, and Ilkka had a chance to loose some of his hard-earned money in a cock fight, where he was invited by one of his newly gained local friends...
We drove all around Eastern Bali, to the lake Batur, and active volcano mount Agung, and Pura Besakih - the Mother Temple of all temples in Bali...We arrived to Basakih by dusk, and experienced surreality and mighty of this temple, all covered with half-transparent fog and surrounded by wild and loud sounds of the night jungle...

We then drove down to the place called Ubud - spiritual and artistic center of Bali, where we visited monkey forest and saw famous kecak dance in one of the temples... Our last day we spent again in Kuta and tried our surfing, not without success yeah ;)

I think we both fell in love with this island, with its incredible spirit, magical traditions and rituals, with all its temples on every street corner, and inherently happy people, ready to burst in smiles anytime... Instrinsic happiness they call it...Something to learn from people who have few from material world, but lots from spiritual...