Friday, January 25, 2013

UBUD, BALI


Ubud, Bali has been probably one of my top travel highlights this year. It's a land of lush rice fields, peaceful rivers and the warmest people. I had a hard time leaving.

We traveled there with our good friends, Katie and Steve, in town from Chicago. We stayed at the beautiful Villa Semena where the hotel owner, Jurg, and his staff took the best care of us. They arranged every detail of our trip and gave us great recommendations on what to do and where to eat during our stay in Bali. The complimentary daily breakfast and afternoon tea outside overlooking the beautiful hotel pool and and river below was definitely a highlight.



The door to our villa


Plunge pool overlooking the rice paddies




A special spot to meditate by the river

I could easily come back to Ubud just to chill out at Villa Semena for a week. It was such a peaceful place.

However, this time our 2 day schedule in Ubud was packed with activities including a trip to Monkey Forest, a bike ride through the town and surrounding villages, lunch in the rice paddies and practicing our acrobatic moves at a Flying Yoga class.

Monkey Forest may have been the boys highlight of the trip. Monkeys were everywhere looking for all of the bananas and treats they could find. I have to admit, they were pretty entertaining to watch.

A monkey jumped on M's back while taking a picture:)

Feeding the babies



They loved the offerings

After Monkey Forest, we headed to Yoga Barn to take our first Flying Yoga class. Flying yoga is best described as acrobatic yoga with partners. Still confused? The pictures below may be helpful.



I am glad we tried it, but we all agreed that the more mainstream vinyasa yoga was more for us. Regardless, the Yoga Barn is a great place and I would definitely recommend you check it out if you travel to Ubud.

The Yoga Barn

That evening, we had dinner at Naughty Nuris, a place famous for their ribs and martinis. I can't say Bali is known as the BBQ capital of Indonesia, but if you're craving grilled meats and a strong drink, this place is the perfect spot.



We kicked off day 2 with a private bike ride tour of Ubud with the goal of seeing a picturesque volcano that the locals rave about. After visiting an art gallery and coffee plantation via a minivan, where kick-backs were definitely involved, we told our tour guide that we had no interest in visiting the breakfast spot, since we had already had breakfast at our hotel. We wanted to start our biking adventure. Unfortunately, the breakfast spot was located at the volcano. so skipping breakfast meant missing the volcano (which we didn't learn until it was too late to turn back). On the bright side, we did see many beautiful rice paddies and some of the local villages.



Local waste management



We visited a local school

And rode past some breathtaking fields
Our bike adventure ended at Sari Organik, a popular restaurant situated in a rice paddy (we couldn't get enough of them!) where we had lunch. The menu included things like a "happy potato salad" with a "purple haze" juice. We definitely enjoyed the refreshing fresh juices and vegetarian friendly meal.


After lunch we went back to our hotel to pack up our things before heading to Semiyak (the beach!) that evening. Before leaving town, we had one final meal at Lamak, which serves delicious asian fusion dishes. I highly recommend the restaurant if you travel to Ubud.



I will write a detailed post on Semiyak, which was beautiful, but I must say Ubud is one of my favorite places I've visited. I hope to get back there again to spend some more time in the rice paddies:) In the meantime, I will live vicariously through Julia Roberts in "Eat, Pray, Love" as I re-watch the scenes in Ubud.

OH THE PLACES WE'LL GO - UPDATE

As I mentioned in a post last year, our goal for 2012 was to visit a new country every month! Unfortunately due to work and holiday schedules, we didn't visit a new country every month...  However, we did visit 12 countries in a year! Have a look below...

1. January - Phuket, Thailand



2. February - Shanghai, China (The list of cities visited since we moved here includes Chongqing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing)

 
3. March - Singapore, Singapore


4. April - Bagan, Myanmar (Burma)


5. May - Penang, Malaysia


6. June - Taipei, Taiwan


7. July - New York City, USA


8. August - Hanoi, Vietnam


9. September - Tokyo, Japan





10. October - Bali, Indonesia



11. October - Forster, Australia



12. Our new 2012 Home - Hong Kong



In addition to the travels above, we also made some side trips, which didn't exactly count as a new country (for me)... But thought I would share.

April - Manila, Philippines (I missed out on this trip. But, M had a great trip with his friends from California!)



August - California, USA



November - Chicago & Detroit, USA




December - Bangkok, Thailand



2012 was quite the travel year for us. We are looking forward to more adventures in 2013!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

ONE YEAR

It's 9pm in Hong Kong and I just realized today marks 1 year since M and I arrived in HK. I can't believe it. Boy does time fly by.

We landed here on Friday, January 13th (who decides to make the biggest move of their life on Friday, the 13th?).  I don't know if we have ever felt so sad, scared and excited at the same time. Can't you tell in the picture below? Wow, I was feeling so many emotions inside. We were so sad to be moving far away from our family and friends, so scared of the unknown and so excited for our new adventure in life.


At JFK before we departed for HK.

Here's a look back at life 1 year ago today.

That's us in front of our corporate housing apartment. We loved living steps away from the wet markets.
We arrived with 4 suitcases. The rest of our belongings were on a boat en route to Dublin, Ireland (there was a slight mix-up with our shipment!).

Here I am in our corporate housing apartment. Little did we know, we would find our permanent housing just 2 blocks up the street (after seeing around 40 apartments around the island).

One of our goals that first weekend was to get M set-up with 3 computer screens so he could work from home. Thanks to the Wan Chai computer center, he was up and working in no time.


We had dinner plans with friends from CO our first weekend in HK. Looking back, I can't tell you how much it meant to spend time with familiar faces when everything around us was so unfamiliar.

It's been a crazy year and I will need some more time to digest all of the important things we've learned since we made the move abroad. One thing is for sure, I am so proud of us.