Bali, Indonesia

We are back from eight wonderful days in Bali, Indonesia. We stayed in the beach town of Seminyak, which is on Indian Ocean, and made a few day trips to the mountain town of Ubud, of "Eat, Love, Pray" fame, where were able to avoid large groups of Australians on Julia Roberts' movie trail tours, and still see authentic Bali. We loved it.

Indonesia is made up of thousands of islands. It is the world's fourth most-populated country, and is predominately Muslim, with the exception of Bali, which is more than 90 percent Hindu. It was incredibly interesting to see the temples and architecture, and learn about the culture and customs.

Trip highlights: riding elephants, swimming with dolphins, running from monkeys, watching the fire dances, and the food, including the seafood, traditional noodle dishes and mongoose pooped-out coffee beans. Yum.

Tradition of not packing light and
documenting it as the first photo taken on the trip: check and check.

We stayed in a wonderful villa in Seminyak. We had a
private pool that our babies swam naked in first thing after waking up.

Every morning, the staff made us breakfast, which was one
of the day's most-anticipated events. It was pretty delicious.

Eri ordered a chocolate-filled pancake eight mornings in a row, and twice on Day 5.

Swimming in the Indian Ocean.

Oops.

Sunset.

Geoff and Eri went white water rafting on the Ayung River in Ubud.

Geoff and Leo riding "Agnes," which is also Geoff's grandmother's name.

Eri and I are on "Cindy," who does not share a name with
 any of our relatives, but did play the harmonica with her trunk for us.

At the end of our ride, we fed Cindy fruit.

We went to the Monkey Forest in Ubud, where the monkeys are famously
aggressive and visitors are advised not to look them in the eyes.
(Seriously, that's a posted rule.)The monkeys jump all over people,
snatching food, sunglasses, and whatever is in their pockets.
Geoff was holding a banana, so I guess he was asking for it.

The squealing in the background is Eri and I, really hoping
no monkeys touched us. If they were cuter and much smaller,
I would've been OK with it. Also, they have really pointy teeth.

Keeping a safe distance and ready to run. 

Boat ride to go swim with dolphins.

Eri and I getting a kiss and a hug from "Ricky Martin."

Eri and Ricky. 

Indonesian Food:

Typical Indonesian food is very delicious noodle- and rice-based
dishes. This is mie goering with shrimp.

Geoff ordered duck whenever possible.

This is a mongoose at one of Bali's coffee farms.
These animals are fed coffee beans, which are then collected after being pooped out,
washed (I hope), roasted, ground and brewed. People LOVE it.

We gave it a try. It's a little thick with a flavor
that can best be described as "exotic."

This coffee, which is considered a high-end luxury
(I mean, a mongoose can only sh*t out so many beans a day),
reminded us of some of our best friends John and Nikki Speer. In a good way.
We could definitely see John and Nikki ordering mongoose-poo lattes at
Starbucks someday. Until then ....




... Check your mail, Speers! We miss you guys!  

Sampling a flight of teas.

Mmmm.

We stopped at a cocoa farm / artisanal chocolate shop, where we
pillaged the sampling room and signed-up to make our own chocolates.
(Just to be clear, none of these cocoa beans were pooped out of anything.)

Eri is making little chocolate elephants ... 

... while Leo is doing some more sampling.

Indonesian Culture:

In Bali, car seats and seat belts are definitely optional and as many as five people
are legally allowed to ride on one moped. The streets are crowded and traffic is heavy.

Wood carving by hand is seen throughout the architecture and art in Bali.
It's amazingly intricate. This man, who holds blocks of wood between
his feet and uses both hands to carve, made us a little Vishnu elephant out of sandalwood.

More wood carving. Looks like a casino, but it's the outer facade of a store.

Cock-fighting is a prevalent pastime and
on fight days, owners display their roosters in public. Somewhat
unsettled by this cultural tradition, I was assured by our guide that
the fights were over very quickly because
razorblades are attached to the roosters' feet.

Practitioners of the Hinduism leave daily offerings for their deceased ancestors
on the sidewalks everywhere. They're everywhere. But unfortunately for those in the after-life,
it was hard to keep our two small children from picking out the little crackers and candies
in those offerings.

We saw several small Hindu ceremonies and street parades.

These little guys are dressed up for an outdoor ceremony.
We gave them packets of goldfish crackers and dried, sugar-free apples
to add to their ancestors' offerings, but they ate them instead.

Hey. 

Sweetest little boy in any country.

My pretty girl in our "We love Bali" selfie!



Happy 4th of July!



It's been several years since we've celebrated Independence Day because, understandably, it's not that important to Brazilians. South Koreans probably don't really care either, but it was a big deal on the U.S. Army base in Seoul, where we live. Geoff and I attended a party hosted by the U.S. Embassy one evening, and on the 4th, the four of us went to a huge event for the thousands of military families here. It featured a series of K-Pop concerts (this just means the genre of music with either four or five super hot Korean girls wearing super hot shorts who sing, dance and flip their hair) and culminated in a fireworks show.