so I just got back from another Bali adventure. I was on October break (end of first semester) last week and spent 9 days in Bali. This time i went all over the island. I went with two of my girlfriends Jessie and Christina. We arrived on Saturday and drove three hours up the coast to the north western part and went to Tulamben and did some snorkeling/diving. I am not dive certified yet but plan to start the adventure process before Christmas. I went snorkeling every time then went diving. I got to see a WW II ship wreck and then an awesome coral reef. I was surprised how much sea life i could see from the surface. I saw fish that were so tiny and then some that were huge. When i mean huge i mean between 3-4ft long. It wasn't to scary, it was just neat swimming amongst it all.

After spending 2 nights there we got in the car and unfortunately this lady was a crazy driver. We rode for about 2 hrs going up and down the mountains and through the country a lot of the times on the wrong side of the road trying to pass people. I was car sick sitting up front. But we did make to Ubud safely. We stayed there for 2 nights as well. Our hotel there was so nice. We had our own private balcony and looked over the rice paddies. My favorite part of the whole 9 days was in Ubud. We did a 25km bike rode mostly down hill through the villages and country side outside of town. We had an amazing tour guide name Jaring. He spoke great English and was so funny. He was so knowledgeable and made the trip a lot of fun.

During this tour we got to eat breakfast overlook mt bantur and the amazing crater lakes, went through a village compound, shucked and cut rice in the rice paddy, some village children sang to us,and got to see a little bit of a Hindu celebration all while biking. It was an all day experience and completely worth it. At the end we had an amazing lunch with roast duck and other Balinese traditional food.

The other day we spent in Ubud we went to the market and around the town. I worked on speaking Bahasa to the locals and bartering for goods. We had so much fun and the people were great. I got a lot of good things including some wooden carved masks and some presents for my family members.

The last part of our trip was going an hr away back toward the airport and going to the Seminyak Kuta area. This is more of the beachy party scene area. I came here for Idul fitri but learned so much about the area. One day we went to the beach, one day we went to Uluwati temple, one day we just laid by the pool, and we finished the trip with some more shopping.

We had some nice dinners here. We met up with one of my colleagues and Echo beach for seafood and that was nice and we even tried out the party night life.

My favorite event in Kuta was going down to Nusa Dua and going to the Uluwati temple. This is one of the oldest temples in Bali. It is up on the cliffs and surrounded by monkeys. Please see my pictures. We had a good time watching the monkeys. The monkeys are funny. They tell you before going in no sunglasses, flashy jewelery or anything. Be care and hold on to your stuff.

In the first 10-15mins of being inside the temple we heard a girl scream and it was because the monkey stole her soda. He then drank her soda and look at my pics you will see it . Then later as we were walking around i had a monkey climb up my leg and try to steal a camera case that i had on top of my purse. He tried 2 different times and of course i scream and flipped out a little bit and kind of threw the monkey off me. We even saw a monkey with a mans glasses. The funniest part was watching them play around. As we were leaving we were talking to a Belgium scientist and my friend Christina had a monkey jump from one car land on her head then go to the next. It was pretty funny. She was more shocked than anything.

Kuta was good but crazy fun. I have never seen so many young Aussies in one place. This place is college party town central. There isn't really a drinking age here so there were lots of people from 18-22 partying for the semester break in college and Europeans on holiday.

We had fun and i stayed out late a few times but definition of late is different compared to others. I think late is anytime after 12:30-2. While my friends normally didn't get home until 330-530 in the morning. One day they even said on the cab ride back they watched the sun come up. The Kuta area does have lots of great live bands but i swear they all played the same songs in almost the same order. We would hop from place to place and hear the same songs.

I have learned my lesson with Bali go to the quiet beaches for most of the time and leave Kuta for the 20 yr olds. I cant wait to go back to Ubud and see more of the island. There is so much to do. On my next trip i am going climb a volcano and go see the elephants and maybe try some surfing.

Well that's it for now. I just have to find out where to plan my next adventure to!