Last two days..

Alright so we finally got some sleep...although we did wake up around 2:30am the first night and were up for a long time reading about Bali, not sure if it was jet lag or just excitement..

So I didn't really explain Bali very well in the last post. Bali is very very beautiful! Everything is so green and the landscape is amazing because of all the terraced rice paddies. We are staying a Rama Candidasa (Candi = god Dasa = ten); Candidasa is actually the town we are in as well. The hotel is really nice and is literally right on the Ocean, it is also right in the backyards of some Balinese Villages. In fact when we wake up in the morning we see the families cleaning their homes and usually cooking, dancing, etc. It is very cool to see but it a little weird too. Our rooms are nice and we sleep under mosquito nets at night. The weather has been very warm and humid. I would say today was about 100-105 degrees if you consider the humidity..it also has rain everyday so far. Today we were at a royal water palace called Tirtagangga (means "holy water from the Ganges") and it started to down pour! We were soaking wet for like 3 minutes and then the humidity dried us right up. Everyone here is really nice, the only problem is that English with a Balinese accent is very hard to understand.

So as far as other things we have done - yesterday we woke up and went down the to pool and laid out for a few hours (We both got a little sun burnt..oops!); after that we heading in the the town of Candidada (it is very small, less than a mile long). We shopped a little but really just got out for awhile. We came back after that and got massages. They were really nice but I have to say my Aunt doesn't always have good luck with here massuses - - the one yesterday was a female with quite a lot of chest hair. After that we had some dinner and then when to sleep.

Today we woke up and then headed out for an adventure. We started first at Tenganan Village, the village is made of 150 people and the village is completely walled in. We walked around and we saw a lot of roosters caged for the cock fights that they have and then also saw some beautiful basket weaving and double-ikat textiles. It takes anywhere from 1 month to 1 year to make the textile and it is believed that it protects you from evil, they are worn for ceremonys or displayed in home to protect. Very cool! The ladies we saw making them were very nice and spent time explaining their designs to us. From there we were able to see some village houses, temple and meeting hall. We attempted to climb up (they call "trekking") a 4 mile hill. I would say we made it about 1/2 of the way at which point we had stepped in buffalo droppings and were dying from the heat! So we turned around and heading back into town. From there we had the driver take us to Amlapura to see some temple and Ujung for some of the same. And then to Tirtagangga and Puri Agung where we were able to snap some amazing pictures.

Once we got back from the adventure we quickly jumped into the pool and that leads me to now..we are off to dinner and then sleep.

Tomorrow we are heading to Patra's house to take part in a ceremony..of what we aren't sure but we do know that we have to wear sarongs..

More to come!

oh and btw, everyone here knows Obama..