More Island Paradise...

Ok, so I'm officially in heaven. Bali is almost perfect. The beaches are beautiful, the weather is temperate, and the people are gorgeous and really nice. I know, life's tough.

We've been here almost 5 days and I'm loving it. The journey from Chiang Mai to Bali was a 48 hour sleepless endeavour, so the paradise-like surroundings were a welcome change. Our hotel is beautiful, right on the beach in a less crazy part of the island, but NEAR enough to the craziness that we can still partake if we want.

We've spent our days taking advantage of the chill scene. I've been running and doing yoga, Christy and I went surfing twice, which was awesome. The first time, we were a little scared because the waves looked huge and we weren't familiar with the area. But we didn't want to take a lesson because both of us had had enough lessons before. So we just paid this local Balinese "instructor" (a liberal use of the word-- he also rents out beach chairs in between instructions to his students!) who we called the big Kahuna (because of his mullet and pot belly) to just go out with us and basically supervise for awhile. It was perfect. We built up our confidence as he occasionally shouted out to us, "Now, paddle paddle!" and then we were off on our own. SO fun.

Yesterday all three of us went on a dive trip to Tulamben, on the eastern part of the island. It's the site of a shipwreck from WWII; I had seen some wrecks while diving in South Africa, but this was unbelievable. The sealife had taken over the ship, and it was really beautiful. An easy but really fun dive.

Today was more yoga and relaxing, and then tonight (because it is Janet's birthday- HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANET!) we are going to have a nice dinner and go out on the town! A few more days here on the beach, and then we're heading to Ubud, in the middle of the island, the cultural capital, for art, yoga, dancing, and hiking!

I don't want this trip to end!!