Bali

From Dec. 27-Jan. 5, Marly and I went to beautiful, enchanting Bali.  

Our hotel, Rama Candidasa, is on the Indian ocean.
To the left of this pool area is the open-air restaurant,
 where we had many meals overlooking the sea. 

The hotel walkways have beautiful fountains, pools, and statues of Hindu gods,
which is the main religion in Bali. 

There are many pools all over Bali, often with lovely Lotus flowers in them. 

The entrance to the hotel is also open-air, Bali style. Very warm and inviting. 

Marly made a friend at the hotel, named Good Fortune.
We saw him every day.

Here you can see some of the reefs behind our hotel at low tide.
We saw lots of little crabs running around on the seawall.

The entrance to our hotel wing with pools and statues.
Hindu is the main religion in Bali and there are statues of gods everywhere. 

On our second night there, the hotel treated guests to some traditional Balinese dances. 

The band played traditional songs with Balinese instruments, which create a beautifully interesting and exotic sound. 

These dances are unique to Bali and very important to the culture.

The dance we enjoyed most was  Barang, a lion-god played by two people inside his costume. 
He is quite a character with spirited movements and expressions, 
and brings abundant good luck with his dance. 

"Grandfather" dancer is next to me, with Barang, Marly, and other dancers. 

The next day we chartered a small boat for snorkeling.
We went past Mt. Agung, Bali's highest point and an active volcano (in background).

There were lots of beautiful and friendly fish in the water!

It felt like we were swimming in a fishtank with many schools around us.

The fish were quite friendly...

And beautiful up close!

Yup, I felt like a big fish, swimming in the beautiful sea-green ocean..
 these photos really don't even do it justice.

This was the view at the surface. :)

Back at the hotel pool, there were more strange underwater creatures... 

The next day we went on a trek which started in a traditional Balinese village.

Marly got to carry some brightly colored chickens.
Our wonderful guide and driver, Nonok, is on the left.

The weavers in the village make a special kind of sarong...
we saw many samples (Marly was totally bored).

A typical view into a  home in the village. 

We trekked up into the hills where we saw cashew plants
(Who knew they grow on the end of a fruit like this?)..

... and trekked through terraced rice paddies, hundreds of years old. 

Going through the rice paddies,
Nonok showed Marly a plant that folds its leaves up when you touch it. 
So she had to stop and touch every one. :)

The rice terraces make pretty patterns on the landscape.

We trekked along between a clear running stream and the rice paddies for few kilometers, 
where we saw frogs, a few big spiders, and even a couple of harmless snakes...

... and ended at a bamboo bridge near a dam... 

..where we saw some boys returning home after school. 

Next, Nonok drove us to the Tirta Gangga water palace. a sacred place, built by the Raja in 1946. 

The pools are spring-fed and crystal clear. 

Here's Marly on the Dragon Bridge at Tirta Gangga.

There was a nice, cool swimming pool with Hindu god statues spouting water..

There were so many statues of Hindu gods, 
and large, probably very old, Koi fish at Tirta Gangga. 

Large lotus blossoms were at the water palace, too.

The fountains and pools were serene, impressive and beautifully Balinese.

At the exit of Tirta Gangga, Marly made some new friends. 
The iguana was actually quite cuddly. 

On the way back to the hotel, Nonok stopped at Monkey Hill so we could see these cuties and feed them some crackers.
This one did imitations and here is actually imitating my face going "Awww!"

This guy was the King. 
 Give him crackers before any other monkey or they will get beat up. 

On New Year's Eve, the hotel had a special dinner and party.
Marly won the balloon popping contest and place second in the ice-cream eating contest.
Her prizes were tickets to the zoo and a cultural park. 

The fireworks on the beach at midnight were fun!! 

On New Year's Day, we chartered another boat to do some snorkeling
 (you might notice the date stamp is off on my underwater camera)... 

... but first, we had to walk past some friendly cows. 

It was raining on and off and the water was a bit choppy...
we snorkeled and saw lots of clownfish and anemones,
 although it was a bit challenging to get back in the boat with 3' seas! 

.. we sailed to White Beach... 

... where we snorkeled and saw a large school of  blue "Dory" fish. 

White Beach was a fun place to play in the sand and celebrate New Year's Day!

Some views of the reefs we snorkeled over... 

Many big schools of fish that we swam right through... 

... many kinds of angelfish... 

another Angel... 

Clownfish, and more.  The best snorkeling I've ever done, by far. 

I could just do this all day... 

On White beach, vendors come by to sell things like beautiful handmade jewelry. 

New Year's Day offering to the gods on White Beach. 

Later in the week, Nonok drove us to see some silversmiths, and we got some incredibly inexpensive silver jewelry. 

Next we went to the Bali Zoo with the tickets that Marly won... 

...It was a bit rainy, but there were lots of animals hanging around...

...some got in a tussle over their food. 

Marly with a black Cockatoo and a hornbill. 

Me and Marly holding a friendly caiman.  Looks and feels like an alligator. 

Simba and Nala were showing their pride at the zoo. 

We finished up the day in the town of Ubud, well-known for many craftspeople in the area.
Dreamy Bali... statues of the god Ganesh are in the background... 

And as the evening candles were lit... 

...we said goodbye, for now, to magical Bali.