Honeymoon: Part 2

The following morning we were up at 2am to make the 2-hour drive to Mt. Batur.  When we arrived at the bottom of the volcano it was 4am, and we had a 1.5-2-hour trek to the top!  Our guide gave us flashlights to help us see where we were climbing.  He was quick climber, and we passed many many people on our way up!  Please note: this was not a leisurely climb, we were literally grabbing onto rocks at one point, and many people only went to the halfway point because of the rocky and challenging terrain.

We were the 2nd group to the top, so we snapped a quick photo!

Our guide took us to an area at the top where no other climbers were, and we were able to watch the sun rise in silence 🙂

Check out that amazing cloud cover!

Our guide Matr!

(drinking some black tea)

See all those people?  We would have been squished together! So glad our guide took us to the other side…

The hut where our guide made us some breakfast

The volcano is still active, so we put eggs and bananas into the rock so they cooked!  We enjoyed “boiled” eggs, as well as a banana sandwich!

The dreaded climb back down…(yeah, we did that in the dark!)

Half way stop

Once we reached the bottom, our driver Dharma drove us around the area so we could take some photos of Lake Bratan.

Then he drove us to the top of a neighboring mountain so we could snap photos of Mt. Batur!  All that black stuff is actually dried lava.  They use that soil for farming and the building of roads, sidewalks, etc.

Next stop: Gunung Kawi.  There were these beautiful and HUGE ancient cut shrines just a short drive from the volcano.  Little did we know that there were a ton of stairs to get there 😦

Check this out: I initially thought this guy was climbing up to trim away a few dead leaves which were not high up at all.

Then he did this:

Seriously? He was going for the coconuts!  Totally awesome.

In other news: Our guide book said there was a highly recommended place for suckling pig in Ubud.  Since Ubud was exactly halfway between the volcano we had just climbed and Sanur (where we were staying), we decided to stop by!

Talk about tender pork…

After we came back home (around 1:30pm!), we relaxed by the pool for a bit before going to an hour and a half long yoga class. Luckily in the area we were staying, there were many yoga studios to choose from.  We chose Power Of Now Oasis, because Stefan’s wife (the instructor from the scuba diving trip) is a teacher there!  Small world…

Since we had such a busy and active day, we had an early dinner before heading to bed!

(coolest butter container ever)

Honeymoon: Part 1

HELLO…Here come the photos!

Rewind to the beginning of February…We postponed our honeymoon until Chinese New Year, when we had more vacation time.  Honeymoon location? BALI.  Trust me when I say this place was absolutely amazing.

Let’s start with our accommodations.  We have some friends who happen to have a villa in Bali, so as a wedding gift they offered to let us stay there!

We arrived late in the evening (almost midnight), so we didn’t have a chance to take in the wonderful layout until the following morning.  We spent some time exploring the grounds

This massive bed is where we got our afternoon massages, for $6 an hour I might add 🙂

Another guest room and office on the second floor

And the open living room (where we had meals), as well as another guest bedroom on the second floor

Breakfast!!!

After breakfast we took some time to explore the beach area.  We were only a short 5-minute walk to the ocean, but actually we never really spent a ton of time there, mostly because the beach was quite rocky and the tide was always so far out!

We walked back past the villa and went to the main street for some potential souvenir shopping 🙂

This was my favorite spot to sit at when we were by the pool, especially because it would get so hot after being in the sun for just 15 minutes, so I would find relief in the shade on the sofa!

Here are our lunches/dinners for the first few days.  It was all so fresh and beautifully presented!

(chicken with Penne) 

(spring rolls!)

(fresh salad)

(my new favorite soup EVER. Seafood and cilantro!)

Chicken satay and fried rice!

One morning we decided to go for a scuba diving trip.  Obviously I was still asleep when we got to the diving center…

We got briefed on the event list for the day, then we piled into vans and headed our separate ways with our respective instructors.  Gorgeous scenery along the way!

I was only able to go one 1 of the 2 dives, because my ears were hurting pretty bad after the first attempt.  Even with all the cool tricks to pop your ears, I just wasn’t able to go very deep without getting some wicked pain in my right ear.  So, I stayed on the beach and snapped photos of Ezra and our instructor: Stefan!

Apparently, they saw a massive sea turtle, as well as some eels and other cool fish!  REALLY wish I could have gone down further, but I’m glad Ezra had a great time.  I think he’s officially addicted, and is now talking about going back to get his open water certification.  I think I join him and take a yoga course instead 🙂

Since it was a 2 hour drive each way, we all fell asleep for the return trip and promptly crashed for a good night’s sleep!