Legian, Bali

Legian, Bali

After a magical experience up in Ubud, we headed down to Legian where we were staying at a beach front hotel. Legian (Kuta and Seminyak) is full of street markets and open restaurants and bars. It was a shopping lover's heaven with store after store after store full of dresses, shirts, silver, sunglasses, hats, bags and shoes all for the price that you are willing to bargain for. Let's just say beach days and shopping days pretty much sum up our time in Legian. We did check out a few GORGEOUS places to watch the sunset while enjoying an every so tasty cocktail. The Rock Bar is built into the rocks and you actually have to take a four person life down to where the bar sits. Ku De Ta is another fabulous bar to watch the sun set, chill in a lounge style booth and order some delish food. We also went white water rafting one day up in the mountains and that was pretty fun. Mostly, Legion consisted of enjoying beach days, shopping and cocktails at sunset. Can you really beat that???

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Ubud, Bali

Ubud, Bali

Ubud is a remarkable town in the middle of the island of Bali. For more than a century, it has been the island's preeminent centre for fine arts, dance and music. Arriving in Bali at midnight, we spent one night near the airport in Kuta and then arranged for a shuttle to pick us up and take us to Ubud. Arriving at the Pita Maha, a hotel of lush vegetation, private secluded villas and an infinity pool that you could only dream of, Aaron and I were in heaven. Our private villa included a pool, lounge inside and out, an outdoor shower and bath and a bed fit for a king. We were walking distance from the central downtown markets and Ubud palace. Arriving around noon, we checked in had a look around the property and went for a walk to find some food. We ended up eating at Naughty Nuri's which was a hole in the wall restaurant with picnic style benches for seating, and had some of the best nasi goreng, ribs ( which were cooked on the sidewalk in front of you) and martinis. There was a framed New York Times article on the wall about the restaurant and the last paragraph stated Anthony Bourdain ate here, sucked down three martini's in 1/2 an hour and signed the guest book, "The best martini's in the world." Awesome. We walked a little bit further down the road after a few martinis and stumbled upon an outside art gallery that was just incredible. Ubud is known for its thriving art community and the art there is AMAZING. I could have easily purchased 10 pieces and loved them all the same. We met the artist of these paintings and ended up buying one - a few days later. He arranged for us to meet his brother the next day for a personal tour of northern bali. At 8 am sharp he arrived with his brother and took us to his brother in laws home to show us what a typical "middle class" balinese home looked like. We then went through the rice fields, hiked to Git Git waterfall and had lunch on the Lake Batur. The next morning circa 2 am we arranged for drivers to pick us up and had a guide who lead up on a hike up the volcano. With only flashlights for our light, we hiked up and made it to the top within a little over an hour, which our guide said was incredibly fast! With a bintang in our hands, the sun rose at 4:45 am and it was truly magical. After some much needed R&R by the pool we went to a traditional balinese dance show at Ubud palace and had a lovely night in the heart of Ubud's downtown.

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