Hong Kong and Bali= AMAZING! (Part 2)

Hello All!

Ok...Hong Kong and Bali, Part 2.  After having an amazing few days in HK, we jetted off to Bali for a quick 3.5 day stay.  We decided to splurge on a hotel room, so we stayed in the beautiful resort Melia Bali in Nusa Dua (a small resort peninsula in the south of the island).  Here is pic of Nick in our room:

The first thing I noticed when we finally got there was how amazing humid Bali is!  I walked out of the door to take a picture and the lens of my camera immediately fogged up!  However, after getting used to the humidity, I found Bali to be beautiful!  Everything is so green and lush, especially on the grounds of our resort:

We spent the first day and a half lounging completely.  There was a gorgeous beach about five minutes walk from our room where we parked and stayed for the whole day.  By this time in the semester, I needed a nice relaxing vacation and this was just the ticket!  Here is a pic of what I like to call the "paradise chairs" haha...
After getting sick of the salty ocean (yeah right!) we spent some time at the tropical pool on the other side of the resort.  The weather was perfect: about 85 degrees and sunny.  Unfortunately for us, that meant quite a nice little sunburn, but it was worth it!  Here are a few pics of the pool days:  
Me enjoying a pina colada in a baby coconut. :)
After our days of laziness, we decided that we should go and see a little of the real Bali.  On the island of Bali, there are a number of smaller cities, but the main one is called Denpasar.  It is where many of the locals live and few tourists visit.  But we thought it was amazing!  We hired a taxi driver to drive us around all day (and for $17 dollars each no less!) and see the city.  The first stop we made was at the Royal Temples.  In order to enter, the Balinese woman who watches over these temples had to dress us in a special wrap and silk belt for respect of the temples.  The temples were so cool!  Inside there were tons of smaller buildings with little offerings of flowers and different rices and things next to them.  Everything was very ornate.  Here are a few pics:

First off, the gate to get into the temples.

Here's a picture of Nick (in his little dress...haha) in front of some of the statues.  It was so strange- in Bali, they dress all of their statues in beautiful silks and flowers every day.
After walking around the temples for a bit, we headed next door to the bird market!  It was the funniest little place.  They sold every type of bird you could imagine plus other animals like monkeys and rabbits!  Here is a pic of me with the little yellow birds:
And this was my favorite thing at the market: I wanted to take him home so badly, but Nick advised me against it! :)
After this, we told our driver to take us to Denpasar's traditional market.  We got there to find this huge outdoor market with every fruit and vegetable you could think of, plus more!  After wandering around for a while, we decided to head inside to take a look at the non-food market.  Since we were the only white people, every store keeper came running to us to try and sell us what they had in their shops.  We didn't end up staying too long because of this, but I managed to get a few packets of spices to take home for my sister in Australia and a really lovely scarf for me.  Here's a pic of the outside:  People were walking around carrying the biggest baskets of things on their heads!  Amazing!
Not only did they have food, but baskets and baskets of flowers!
After getting out of the markets, we went next door to a quieter area where we could find a few gifts.  We ended up getting some really beautiful paintings for super cheap!  Money in Bali was amazing...here's a pic of their 50,000 note.  When I first got there, I thought we would never spend it...until I found out that 50,000 rupiah is only about US$5!
After packing up our things and saying goodbye to the beautiful weather, we headed back to the airport.  And after 2 long flights, we were back in HK for my last two nights before I went back to Australia.  We went back to the same hotel we stayed at in Sheung Wan and luckily for us, they were all booked out of their normal rooms.  So, they had no choice but to put us in one of the executive suites on the top floor!!  It was great...we didn't even have to pay extra because no one had booked that room for those dates anyhow!  On the 34th floor, our view of the concrete jungle was awesome:

After our long flights, we decided to just stay in for the night.  The next day, we got up to explore the city for the last day.  Before we left for Bali, I went and had a tailored suit measured for me so we went across the bay to Kowloon to pick it up and spent the rest of the day just wandering the city.  At night, we did one of the last things on my checklist: visit one of the "sea stores."  In the area where we were staying, they have a 10-15 of these stores right in a row where they sell all kinds of sea products.  I think they are for people to eat, but some of them looked quite questionable!!  Overall, I wasn't sure what most of the things were but it was interesting just the same. :)
The next morning, I woke up and headed back on the underwater subway to the airport!  (It is built on a man-made island right next to Hong Kong as there is no room for it in the city.)  After saying my goodbyes, I was back on a 9 hour flight to Sydney where Erin and Brett picked me up and took me back to stay at their place for a few days.  Going back to school is no fun after you go on vacation!!

Anyhow, next up: Gold Coast.

Caitlin