I’ve been out of the blogging habit for quite awhile. In the meantime, we visited home and San Diego, I went to an international teaching job fair in Bangkok, Bali which I am going to tell you more about, am currently on the way to Tokyo, and have decided this is our last year in Taiwan. A lot to digest… multiple posts worth, but let me not get ahead of myself.

First semester in Taiwan is always a grind. The effects of a 200 day school year really take it’s toll on you early in the year… or maybe it is just me.

I have been talking about going to Bali since I did my National Boards Professional teacher certification back in the states. One of my coworkers joked that after doing so much work on National Boards, I would need to go. It is our last year in Taiwan, which I will post about separately, so this winter vacation seemed like the last chance to take advantage of proximity. A five hour flight versus a much longer one from the states 😛

A few of our local friends had been before and a few of my coworkers used to teach at an international school in Indonesia and brought students there every year, so I felt like we were adequately briefed on things to do. That being said, with the craziness of finals I did not book everything till school was out for break. I have come to find that the older I get the more I appreciate the flexibility of not having every detail planned… but I am getting off topic again; sorry.

We flew into Bali and right away I appreciated that the Southern Hemisphere was having their summer. Taiwan, while both sub-tropical and tropical can have brutally cold winters. We arranged for an airport pickup from a tour guide that was a friend of someone we knew. He gave us great advice about what we could do and then stopped at a local mini-mart outside of the touristy area, so we could avoid price inflation on water and sunscreen.

The hotel was open air, full of interesting art, and across the street from the beach. I enjoyed eating breakfast staring at the ocean every morning. The first thing we did was go to the beach. One of those toes in the sand moments was needed, I mean I was in Bali after all! 😁 We ventured along the beach and then stumbled into a nice restaurant where we had happy hour cocktails and Mediterranean food. You are wondering why I would get Mediterranean before Balinese? Well this place just happened to specialize in Mediterranean and it is not easily accessible where we live. Don’t worry for second dinner we had our first of many satays.

After exchanging money (FYI- they prefer US dollars… you get a better rate) I was on a mission to get a pedicure. That is where we ran into Momma Anna, her moniker not mine. I got a mani-pedi, while D fell asleep to a neck rub. To pass the time Momma Anna tried to entice the Australian tourists to date her brother. She kept telling them that he was perfect for one of them to the endless giggles of the workers. She said that he had a jewelry stand across from Puri Raja, which happened to be our hotel, so I made a mental note to visit Norman’s stand.

After that we went back to our hotel and had the second dinner I described previously. We arrived just in time because the wind picked up and a crazy rainstorm ensued. Luckily our open air hotel had a section of the restaurant that was covered.

Day two was probably one of the laziest vacation days I have had in awhile. It entailed lots of sleeping. You know one of those breakfast, nap, nap by the pool, then venture out kind-of days. I forgot a toothbrush, so I went to a local shop near our hotel to buy one. This was where I met Norman, Momma Anna’s brother. I saw why her co-workers were giggling. She was talking to a young 20 something Australian tourist about dating him and he must have been late 40’s early 50’s missing a few teeth, but very nice and I got a few nice pairs of earrings from him for a good price.

We were targeted by a “timeshare” scheme. Honestly sometimes I think D’s too nice as I would not have stopped to keep listening, but I think when they found out I was a teacher and D only worked part-time they were no longer interested in us. Fine by me, they gave us a free taxi ride to the mall where we needed to go and we did not have any solid plans that day. You may be wondering why are we going to the mall or what is special about it? Well, in order to have working data SIM cards it needs to be registered at an official store. Apparently there are many counterfeits and this is one of the ways that the government is dealing with along with turning off after a few days of use all unregistered SIM cards.

After getting functioning cell phones, it is sad that they are a necessary evil, we set off to try a Balinese restaurant recommendation we were told we cannot miss. It did not disappoint. So many interesting flavor combinations. I was interested in how they use so much coconut in their cooking! Freshly grated coconut on top of the rice. It was delicious! The fresh juice is also so refreshing. I am not sure fruit in the states will ever taste the same after eating the fruit in Asia. It also is palate pleasing to add your favorite spirit to it, hello tequila. After a satisfying meal accompanied by local music we had a pleasant walk back to our hotel.

Day three we checked out and had a early hotel (6AM) pick up to take us to the port. One piece of advice we were given was to make sure that we got off Bali to experience some of the other nearby islands. These deserve their own post. Sayonara for now!