Far East Techsans: May 2010

I know it’s been awhile since my last post and I apologize to my faithful followers but our lives have suddenly returned to ‘normal’. Ryan is still busy as ever with work and I have started working! Woo hoo! I am working for an outpatient/sports med clinic called PhysioActive. It’s very similar to the setting I was working at in Houston, just smaller. I am working 5 days a week but only half days so that I can continue to explore and learn about Singapore and start getting involved with the American Women’s Association (AWA). The clinic I am working for was started in 2006 by expats from The Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany….I am the first American trained PT to work there. I have to say, I didn't think I would miss working as much as I did, it is nice to have a routine and treating patients again!

Other than me starting work, we don’t have any exciting news to post. I promise our fun in Singapore hasn't stopped so expect some fun posts and pictures soon! Hope everyone is having a great start to their summer! Love and miss. XO

Day 1:

We arrived at the KOMANEKA Bisma Resort in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia around 9:00 on Wednesday. Because it was so late we just went down to the resort restaurant to get something to eat and then just enjoyed our room. We had a long day to look forward to on Thursday.

Here are some picture of our room.

The pool.

Day 2:

We took a tour around the Central and Northern parts of Bali. Our tour included a temple, an art studio, a traditional Balinese house compound, the Monkey Forest, rice paddies, a wood shop, volcano and more. We were truly able to experience the culture of Bali and really learned a lot about the culture and Hindu religion. I was fascinated by the people and the scenery. The pictures don’t do either of them justice!

Women working in the rice paddy.

Traditional Balinese House Compound. This is the outer wall or the first impression (huge in the Balinese culture). The statues out side are the guards. You can't see it well but they have bulging eyes. All statues with bulging eyes are guards.

This is where the parents sleep. There are seperate little open air "huts" for each activity. Sleeping, cooking, etc.

I took this picture from the car. I loved the people in Bali!

Our next stop on the tour was to a silver shop. Here a women is tediously placing tiny, silver beads on a necklace.

Then it was on to a painting studio. I was really hoping to find some Balinese paintings to fill our empty walls but we didn't see anything that we were dying to have. However, the art work was beautiful and I wish I had taken pictures of it!

Next, was to the little village of Mas where we visited a wood carver. Yes, all of the things you will see below are hand carved from a block of wood. There we some incredible pieces with such detail.

On our way to the volcano we stopped at a fruit market to try some of the local grown tropical fruit. We bought some to take back to our resort and enjoy later. We loved the mangosteen and rambutan...yummy!! And look at the beautiful colors!

We then stopped for lunch at a restaurant that over looked the Batur Volcano and lake. The views here were absolutely breath taking! And we were at such high elevation that it was cool, I may even say cold which was a nice break from the hot and humid weather in Singapore!

Again, the people. This little baby was camera shy but would smile and wave real big with no camera!

Our next stop was to the Gunung Kawi Sanctuary or Hindu Temple.

Washing my hands in the pure spring water. It's supposed to be good for your skin!

We had to dress appropriately to enter the temple.

The Goddess of Knowledge. She is has 4 arms-each holding something different-a book, a guitar, a Genitri (like rosary beads) and a lotus flower.

We stopped and visited a rice farmer on our way back to Ubud. The rice paddies are so neat!!

Our last stop was the Monkey Forest. Ryan loves monkeys so you can only imagine how excited he was ;) They were everywhere!!

This was a waterfall in the monkey forest. Beautiful!

Day 3:

Friday morning we headed to the Ubud central market to do a little shopping before we headed to the beach. We left Ubud around 1:00 and headed to Sanur, Bali, Indonesia-the beach part of our honeymoon. We arrived at the Pavilions Resort around 1:30, got some lunch and then headed to the beach for a bit. I have to be honest and say we weren’t that impressed with the actual beach that we saw. The water was incredible but the beach, not so much. There are parts of Bali that are white sands but we weren’t in that part. :)

The Ubud central market. I got 3 new pair of flip flops for almost nothing!

Ryan enjoying the local beer, Bintang. It was really good.

Pavilions Resort. Enjoying our welcome drink and foot massage!

Our private pool villa.

A bamboo tree walk way leading up to the resort.

Enjoying a book on the beach. It was really breezy this day and kind of chilly!

Day 4:

Saturday we got up super early, enjoyed breakfast served in our room and then headed out for 2 hours of snorkeling. This was a first experience for both of us and it was great. We are looking forward to our next snorkeling trip and hopefully getting certified to dive while we are living in Singapore. The second part of the day was spent having a 2 hour treatment at the spa. No pictures of this but it was wonderful and a great, relaxing ending to a wonderful trip.