Bali!

Okay, sorry this has taken awhile to post, but I've been extremely busy writing papers and getting everything back in order with classes starting. Bali was absolutely amazing. We arrive at about 10pm the first night and made our way to the Ramada Resort where we spent the first couple of nights. The first day we headed to the nearby beach where a ton of water sport companies are located. We walked around for awhile and everyone decided that parasailing would be a good time. We talked to several different companies, negotiating how much we would be willing to pay. The price started at 100,000 rupiah per person. After a few talks and almost starting a fight, we got the price lowered to 50,000 per person, which is less than 5 dollars! We all took our turns parasailing and decided to walk a little further down. The first day was more of a relaxing day and we just hung out on the beach and went swimming in the pool at the hotel.
On the second day we had our first tour with Putu, our Balinese driver. He took us on the Kintamani tour. We drove around a good portion of the island stopping at random places and small temples. We made out way to Kintamani. From Kintamani we could see Mt. Batur which is a volcano. When we got there we were basically sitting in the clouds and could see very little so we decided to have lunch. During lunch we could see the clouds starting to move away and we could finally see the beautiful view. After twelve hours of wandering around Bali, we returned to our hotel for the night and scheduled a Putu tour for the next day as well.
The next morning we woke up and packed our bags, loaded up Putu's van, and went to our next accomadation, the Pat-Mase Villas in Jimbaran Bay. We stayed here for three nights. For seven of us, we got a 3 bedroom villa which had its own tv/hang out area, kitchen, dining room, and private pool. After being amazed with our accomadation and being driven to our villa in a golf cart, we got back into the van and went on our next tour. This time we went and saw how local clothes were made, wood carvings being made, and THE MONKEY FOREST! The monkey forest was awesome, its a little patch of woods in Ubud where the monkeys live. You basically can go in, sit on a ledge and put your hand out and a monkey will be running up your arm to sit on your shoulder. However, you have to be careful, these little guys can easily steal things right off of you. We then walked around the Ubud market where we bargained the prices down on gifts for us and people back home. After a long day, we headed back to our relaxing villa.
The next day, we decided we would like to just have a hang out day and just relax. We took the villa shuttle to the Kuta beach, a world famous beach. Here we hung out in the blistering heat all day, went swimming, got crushed by waves, and a couple of us got nice massages on the beach. On the third night, we decided that since a few people were leaving the next evening, we would go to Jimbaran Bay and have a nice dinner on the beach during the sunset. We had a massive seafood feast and racked up a bill well over 1/2 million.
The next day we went to the local beach for awhile until we once again met up with Putu who took us on another little sight seeing tour of Bali and then we had to drop the few people leaving off at the airport and find our next accomodation in Ubud, Nick's Pension. Now there were only four of us left and we were only halfway through our vacation. We found our way to Nick's in the darkness somehow, thanks to Putu.
The next morning we woke up got our free banana pancake breakfast and decided to see waterfalls and a couple temples and the rice fields. Putu picked us up once again in the morning and we headed off on our 3 hr journey to the waterfall, which was about 30meters high. We stopped along the way as we traveled up a mountian to look at the gorgeous views. Once we made it to the location of the waterfall, it was downpouring. We made a 300meter walk in the pouring down rain just so that Josh and I could get absolutely pummeled by this amazing waterfall. After getting a little more soaked we loaded back into the van to have lunch and wonder around another temple. It was then time to go to the rice fields. You see many of these fields all over Bali, but we were heading to the section of the island which is known for the rice they grow. We drove to their neighborhood and saw beautiful landscapes with high rice fields as far as the eye could see.
Once again, we loaded back into Putu's van for another 3 hour drive back to Ubud to our accomodation. The next day we slept in a little bit, hung out by the pool, and waited until it was cooler so that we could walk into Ubud center. We spent the afternoon/evening wandering around the town and markets.
The next day was very similar, we laid by the pool most of the day, got lunch and dinner at the local restaurant and just relaxed. On our last day in Ubud, we wandered into the markets once again so that we could do some last minute shopping and get stuff that we forgot to get earlier. After the market we found a driver to take us back to the Ramada Resort, where we would be spending our last night. We laid around at the Ramada and just relaxed for the last two days of our vacation, working on our tans and finishing up our books. Then the time came. It was time to leave Bali. We left for the airport and waited around for our flight to leave. Our redeye flight. Our flight that left at like 11pm and arrived at 730am. Our flight where I got little sleep. Our flight which returned us to Sydney, which seemed freezing compared to the weather of Bali.
And to think, we're already halfway through our semester abroad.
2more months.