Balinese Dinner and Dancing

Our first dinner was one of the outdoor buffets which the hotel held by their Rama stage. It was kind of a dinner and dance show thing. When we first arrived, I was suprised by how beautifully it was decorated. Bali is famous for these little umbrellas with charms hanging off them, and every single inch was decorated in this pretty yellow and orange fabric. There were even really cool lanterns and lights everywhere. Balinese food is really...interesting. It's actually not too bad. Kind of spicy, and lots of kebabs. I think I had an entire plate of kebabs! And there were all sorts of nice salads, and even lots of different desserts! After the dinner there was some traditional Balinese dancing. It was kind of similar to Thai dancing, but with even more colourful costumes. Each dance had a story, which was thankfully provided on a little piece of paper! After the show, there was some live music. When they started taking requests, Jessica gladly got up and sang with them! We had a great time taking photos and singing along with her, but because she was so good, noone else would get up on stage and sing with the band...untill some very drunk Russians tried to play the guitar!

Never try Balinese Rice Wine

A great thing about our hotel was the all inclusive part. It meant that any of the drinks, including the alcohol ones were free! And there were lots of different bars, but we generally hung out in whichever one had live music. It was always a nice ending to the evening. So, there was a huge drinks list, and while I had a firm favourite "Beat the Heat", which came with a cute birdy,which I simply loved. the others set about to try them all. Including the Balinese Rice Wine...Dustin insisted on trying it...which I'm sure he regrets, because it definitely didnt go over well...

The beach in Bali

The hotel backed right up onto the beach, which was great. I have spent numberous holidays on the beach with Mummy since I was a little kid. I love playing in the white sand, and I've learnt to lay down in the sun and sleep. This beach was pretty shelly, and since they had constructed a barrier a ways out, there was a lot of sea weed and no waves. So sadly, it wasnt the right type of place for making sandcastles, or boogy boarding, but that was OK. What I really liked was the cool straw umbrellas. I think they are so nice, and I wish they used them everywhere. Because, they just look perfect, and I noticed they used them at all the hotels along the strip used them. I spent some time on the beach, by myself...but at the resort next door, which was more private, and very quiet, and I got a umbrella right by the front row of them. It was nice to sit and look out at the sea, and watch the boats. I liked seeing all the different water sports going on in the distance too. It was very picture perfect! I was really starting to think that I could get used to relaxing on the beach, and the great, hot weather. If only I lived on a tropical island all the time!

The Grand Mirage, Bali

We stayed our first night in the capital city, Denpasar. We just stayed at a cheap youth hostel, which, when it was so cheap, you wouldn't expect it to be anything special. However, it had a nice courtyard with a pool! Our room was nice, and we spent the morning at that pool before being picked up by our new hotel drivers. I hadn't picked the hotel out, but Dustin had, and I just had to trust where he had chosen. It was a beach front place, right next to some big name hotels, like the Four Seasons, and the CONRAD and near lots of cute touristey shops. We stayed there for 4 nights and 5 days, on the all inclusive package. It was really nice, because all our meals were included. The food was particularily wonderful, especially the great, American bacon which I loved. They even had baked beans the one day too! And every night, there was a cool buffet. Two of the nights were these cool outdoor buffets with a show too. And dancing, and live music. And of course, drinks were included in the package, meaning that we tried lots of different funny cocktails...and I loved the non-alcoholic ones which came with a cute little wooden bird. The hotel was built with an open, central courtyard, and rooms off them. There were fresh flowers everywhere, and beautiful statues and fun things that showed off the cool Balinese culture. I liked the middle courtyard best, which had a random waterfall running through it. I'm not sure how it worked, as it seemed to come out of a wall somewhere, and it was covered in ivy, but it fell down the 3 floors, and was a really lovely feature of the hotel. They seemed to like water features, as there was a funky fountain out in front, as well as an elephant trunk fountain...4 of those actually...because who doesn't like elephant fountains!

Airport Ops at Incheon

After the Nankan run, and a trip back to Arao, we headed back to Fukuoka, where I got to do some great Forever 21 shopping! In the morning, I headed to the aiport, and met up with the Bali crew. I was going with Sarah, Dustin and Jessica, who all are ALTs all over Yamaguchi Ken. We took a short trip over to

South Korea to Incheon Airport. It was voted as the best airport in the world for 5 years running. I guess I can kind of understand that and I cant. There were some bad point, like there were only duty free, designer shops, but there were some great points, like the free showers and hairdryer rental, the ice rink (which sadly wasn't working at the time) and a really cool cultural parade which goes through the airport once an hour. Pretty cool, eh? But the one thing it was lacking a little was a observing deck. I think it is more a Japanese thing, and now I am pretty spoilt because I always expect one!

So I headed to a big window, and tried to find the runway, but was pretty unsuccessful. So instead, I photographed the planes being loaded with cargo, and all sorts of things I found happening around the airport. I really think that the Korean Airline planes are beautiful, with their blue colour!

Nankan 10km

On Sunday, we had to get up super, super early to go to Joel's gym, where we then were transported to Nankan, this little town up in the mountains. The reason for going to this little place? Joel was running in their 10km run that he had been roped into by his gym.So we got there very early, and had a little walk around the village. I was really surprised by how many people were there. Hundreds and hundreds. And a lot of kids! There was a 3km, a 5km and a 10km race. Lots of people who were doing the 3km race were older, generally doing it just to walk, and get some excierse, and a whole bunch of kids.

I was pretty impressed, as I dont think that many American kids would have signed up for a 3km run! There were actually a lot of kids running the 5km race too, a lot of them were part of the local Junior High School running team. I thought it was a great oppourtunity for them! And they looked like they were having such fun! I went up about 5 minutes up the race, where the tracks looped around, and cheered for some of Joel's gym mates, who were all lovely, and then I went back to the finish line. The first person to come around the bend for the 10km did it in just under 22 minutes!

Yanagawa Canals