We're not 30 Yet!

With our vacation winding down, we're heading down to Nusa Dua, the resort area of Bali. Our plan is to lounge by the beach or pool and finish all of the books we had planned on reading over the last three weeks but haven't had a chance too! We've had a great time posting and are so glad we could share our journeys with everyone. Your comments have made us feel loved even though we are so far away! See you back in good ole USA soon!!

Adamsons out!

Back to the beach today to try our luck at surfing. We had booked lessons for $40/person, but thought we'd save for a nice dinner instead by simply renting boards at the beach for $10 total! Bryan went out first and quickly remembered how hard surfing is and went to go get a boogie board instead. I was a little more persistent. After catching the first wave I attempted and managing to ride it on my knees, I remembered how great surfing is. It took me another 30 minutes, about 8 gallons of salt water down my throat and almost drowning until I caught another wave. I got a little banged up and have beautiful scrapes and bruises to show for my efforts, but I finally got the hang of it!

Needless to say, I was pretty proud of myself! Bryan, ever the competitor, caught bigger waves on his boogie board, but I'm the surfer!!

We celebrated our last night in Seminyak with drinks at Ku De Ta, the hottest spot in town to watch the sun go down.

Then it was off to La Lucciola for a romantic dinner on the beach. Its a beautiful open air restuarant right on the beach with spotlights on the palm trees and waves! We're sad to leave Seminyak, but excited for the calm and luxury of our last hotel down in Nusa Dua.

While Bali may be a beach goers delight, Bryan and I have been doing so much sight seeing in Bali, we really haven't spent much time at the beach. So today we finally spent the better part of the day basking in the Bali sun at Seminyak Beach. We had some fun boogie boarding and soaking up some rays. Bryan and I both came home with a little too much sun!

After that it was off for more sight seeing. We headed down to Pura Tanah Lot, one of the most holy water temples on the Island of Bali, to catch the sunset.

It was a tourists delight with rows and rows of hawker stands, but once we got down to the beach it was a treat to watch the sun go down with our fellow travelers and Balinese locals.

We headed back to town for dinner (WARNING: Obnoxious American alert) at SOHO. Yes, that's right, an authentic New York dinner in the heart of Bali. It was fabulous! We've been really good about trying the local food and have truly enjoyed it, but there's something really comforting about eating a juicy burger, fries and milkshake with MTV blasting from every TV. (Aaron, Megan: remember our American pub in France?!!) We're sad to leave soon, but we're also planning for our first meal once we land on US soil!

Today, Alana and I headed back into Kuta to pick up our suits and do some souvenir shopping. Haggling over every single purchase is exotic and exciting at first, but it gets old very quickly.

Here is how every single purchase in Bali has been going lately for everything from souvenirs to food to cab rides.

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Bryan: How much for this <item>?

Seller: 250 ($25 US)

Bryan: I bought the same <item> yesterday for 30 ($3 US)

Seller: 30!!!???? Noooo, give me serious price!
and/or Other guy crazy!
and/or This one better!
and/or This one XL size!
and/or This one hand-made!
and/or This one real Louis Vuitton!
and/or More traffic this time of day!
and/or He lie to you!

Bryan: I'm not paying more than 30. I just bought it yesterday for that.

Seller: Ok, ok. 150. Special price.

Bryan: Are you serious? I'm not paying more than 30!

Seller: Ok, ok. 80. Very good price.

(Begin to walk out)

Seller: 50.

(Continue to walk out)

Seller: 30.50 For good luck!

Bryan: Here is 30.

Seller: Ok, 30.

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It's exhausting.

At night, we went down to Jimbaran Bay, to meet Nicolas and Marion for dinner. We went to a fish market where you pick out a giant fish, and they cook it up and serve it to you with rice, potatoes, vegetables, etc. It was excellent.

We wrapped up with a drink at Hu'u and got back to the hotel around 2:00 AM. Shocking.

Our last day in Ubud and we finally had a chance to visit the Sacred Monkey Forest! It is a beautiful sanctuary for the locally beloved animal complete with ancient temples, natural spring fountains, koi ponds, of course monkeys, and ridiculous tourists! While we weren't tempted to buy the bunches of bananas they were selling at the gate, we closely followed those tourists who did and watched while they were subsequently attacked on all fronts by hungry monkeys. It made for some great laughs and photos. We especially delighted at watching a young women gush over a monkey that had climbed on her shoulder. But once the monkey was fed a banana it promptly peed all over the girl as a thank you and bounced away. I think a wise choice we declined the bananas!

I was less than excited to have monkeys running all over me. Most of the photos Bryan took show me with a pained look on my face. This was the closest I look to comfortable in any of the pics.

Bryan was more brave and let the monkeys play around him and even jump accross his lap.

Bryan took about 500 pictures of the monkeys, but this momma and her baby were some of his favorite subjects!

After the Monkey Forest, it was time to check out of our beloved hotel in Ubud. The staff was amazing and they really made our stay there a treat. We were sad to go, but also excited to move on to "hip" Seminyak. We were not disappointed upon arrival at our new hotel. We were escorted into our very own private paradise suite. We have an outdoor garden courtyard living room that connects to the kitchen; the living room has views of garden fountains and our own swimming pool, our bedroom has views of the pool and is connected to a semi outdoor bathroom with jacuzzing tub, indoor and outdoor shower and dressing room. Not to shabby. We spend the rest of the day enjoying our new home, taking a dip in the pool, ordering local take-out and watching bad Indonesian tv!