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Where we stayed in Ubud

Where we stayed in Ubud

Aug 26, 2017 | Travel

Someone asked me where I stayed in Bali, and I thought it would be a good idea to share some of these places…

Of all the places in Bali, this AirBnB in Ubud was my favorite.

We planned to stay for 3 days, so I wanted to make sure we had a comfortable spot to call home while we explored the town. A requisite when I was looking up accommodations for Ubud was that it had a kitchen, an outdoor shower, and a private pool. When I found Wayan Budiana’s home on AirBnB, I was immediately heart eyes over it.

The details

This home in Ubud has everything you’d want in a vacation home and more. It is listed as a brand new family villa which can house up to 6 guests comfortably, and is hidden away in nature, but is very close to the main Ubud town areas. The open floor plan give the home a very spacious and airy feel, and the floor to ceiling windows and sliding doors brings the outside in and provides much of the natural light. Both the showers are partially outdoors, and i was obsessed with the wooden kitchen table and benches. There’s even a goldfish pond at the entrance!

We walked around on our first day to nearby rice paddies and the cutest little cafes and shops, and rented a scooter from our host to get around for the remainder of our stay.

What do you look for when you choose an AirBnB?

Never used AirBnB? Sign up using this link for an extra $25 off your first stay!

All Good in Ubud

All Good in Ubud

Aug 22, 2017 | Travel

The clouds have blocked the sun from shining through my window, and my eyes flutter awake at 8am.

Good morning Uluwatu!

Our plans for today are simple. Eat breakfast (we went to Nyoman Local Food and ate on their boat table). Catch some surf (for Ian), and pack up again – because today we are…

On our way to Ubud!

Our AirBnB host helps us get a driver named Putu to take us to Ubud, with a couple of stops along the way.

I was still in dire need of an American power adapter to charge up my camera and laptop. We got one at a stall outside of Bagus Supermarket while we were picking up some groceries. We also purchased a prepaid SIM card from Telkom Cell which had 12GB data for 30 days, and it was only 150,000 IDR (about $11.25 USD). I highly recommend this plan for anybody passing through Bali and whose life is recorded on social media. So worth it!

The drive took about 2 hours during the afternoon traffic. I was getting carsick so I *forced* myself to take a nap (only kind of lying, because I’m also known for falling asleep on car rides).

We arrived at a small unmarked road looking for our next AirBnB home, and after a quick phone call made by Putu to our host, a friendly face pops out from a family compound right next to us, introducing herself as Chantik (she is our host’s relative) and she leads us through a smaller road beside it. There, we found our secret private villa – and it is amazing!

If you’re ever in Ubud and you’re looking for a beautiful place to stay that’s close to town, but gives you a sense of privacy – check out Wayan Budiana’s AirBnB! If you’re new to AirBnB, click here to get $25 off on your accommodations.

(I wrote a blog post about this AirBnB here.)

As tempted as I was to stay in and enjoy the pool, we got up to explore our area. The evening air was cool, and we wandered off the beaten track. The road was completely run down, but a man on a bridge that leads nowhere gestures to us to take a little hidden path just past the banyan tree. We walk down some sketchy steps and over a bamboo bridge and find ourselves amidst a rice field. How cool is this?! Right in someone’s backyard.

We continued our trek through Penestenan street. I felt inspired here. I wanted to paint.

I walked up to a couple of different places offering batik painting, but most were closed since it was almost 6pm. I saw a small shop with the lights off but the door was open. There were beautiful batik materials hanging and draped in all sorts of fashion. I walked in and was met by a beautiful woman named Anna sitting on the floor working away on her laptop. She tells me her boyfriend is the artist in residence and I inquire about taking a class. It’s settled, tomorrow I will be back!

On the way home, Ian stops at a moto vendor selling chicken satay and sticky rice. And we head to our AirBnB to relax in the pool, make dinner, and watch movies.

It’s all good in Ubud!

What we did in Uluwatu

What we did in Uluwatu

Aug 20, 2017 | Travel

My internal alarm clock went off and I was wide awake 2 hours before the sun would come up. I wish I was more of an early bird usually. I used those hours to catch up on my travel journal – I’ve been slacking on it.

Scootered over to Padang Padang Beach to check out the Impossibles surf break. It was barely 7am and there were at least 15 people out already. An hour and 2 other surf spots later, we stopped for breakfast at Cempaka Cafe.

We had the whole day ahead of us, but we needed to see one more break – Bingin beach. It looked big everywhere. Ian concentrated on the waves and I fell asleep on the beach. About 2 hours later, I was burnt out. I needed to move around.

We refueled our scooter and checked out Nyang Nyang beach. Our taxi driver told us it was a sweet spot but after having to pay a toll to enter and discovering halfway that we would have to descend a quarter mile on slippery limestone to the unshaded beach, we realized we were getting hot and hangry.

So we doubled back to Padang Padang beach, where we passed through a temple with macaques running around everywhere, and walked through a corridor in the 200-foot cliffs. It was high noon and the beach was packed. I’m still in a state of culture shock over the density of tourists here! We strategically placed our things next to a big group of suntanning“bule” or white foreigners (lol), and cooled off in the cool Indian Ocean. Ian also got chicken satay skewers from a tiny beach vendor, and we couldn’t help but buy souvenirs to remind us of this place.

After the beach we stopped by Dedari Theory, a treetop bar which caught my eye when we zipped by earlier.

It had the chillest vibes, and we were the only ones there! How can this be?! Such a sweet little spot.

Got to the cabin and jumped in the pool right away for the next hour or so.

The sun was about to go down, and Ian and I rushed to the Uluwatu Temple. Again, there were macaques everywhere. I’m honestly scared of them – whenever they would look at me, I’d look away and pretend I was minding my own business. They definitely look mischievous.

We hoped to catch the Kecak Fire Dance but by the time we got there, it was sold out. There were a LOT of people there, so we sat around for a bit and all watched the clouds lose their luminance and the sun fall behind the horizon.

But the night was not over yet!

We zipped off to Padang Padang again for some amazzzzzing yellowfin and salmon poke bowls at Coco & Poké, and dancing at the famous Single Fin bar. The scene was bustling. Surfers and non-surfers, bloggers, business people, drifters, young and old travelers of every age and nationality. Just dancing to some funky tunes.
We got home before midnight to rest our tired bones.

We made it to Bali! | Day 1 in Uluwatu

We made it to Bali! | Day 1 in Uluwatu

Aug 18, 2017 | Travel

We made it to Bali! 

ULUWATU DAY 1

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It took a 13 hour flight from LAX to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, and then a 5 hour flight from Taiwan to Denpasar. I immediately noticed the amount of tourists flooding the airport hall towards baggage claim. There were a lot of them, and we were part of it. I don’t know how but somehow I packed verrrrry light for this trip and only brought my Deuter backpack. I was very thankful for this because that meant I didn’t have to wait in line for my bags, and I wouldn’t have to worry about losing my luggage.

*Pro Tip: Use the bathroom before you head to immigration because (1) there will be a long line, and (2) it’s harder to find a bathroom once you leave the airport.

We stepped out to the arrivals area and were greeted by about a hundred hoteliers and taxi drivers holding up signs with all sorts of names on them. I prearranged a pick up with a guy named Mario who we were referred to, but after half an hour of searching for him and feeling lost, we decided to go with another taxi driver who approached us asking if we needed a ride. The drive was a 1.5-hour sensory overload ride from Denpasar to Uluwatu. It was about 4pm and traffic was peaking. Lucky for us, our taxi driver knew all the backroads so we barely had to stop. The road was bumpy, the air smelled of fuel, and I got a little motion sickness. I didn’t care, I was having the time of my life. By about 5pm, we finally arrived at Batu Jaran Hill – our beautiful AirBnB clifftop cabin.

Can you believe it only cost $55 USD per night? After a quick dip in the infinity pool, Ian rented a scooter and we zipped off to Pantai Suluban beach just in time for a magnificent red sunset into the ocean’s horizon.

To get there, we traversed down many flights of uneven steps and ended up below the cliffs and marveled at the beach access. It’s known locally as Suluban Beach (“sulub” meaning to dodge) because surfers may need to crawl beneath the cliff rocks. We stopped for dinner at Delpi Waroeng at the top of the cliff, and I got my first taste of the Indonesia’s most popular meal – nasi goreng (fried rice).

–

low res images / high quality memories

I was too excited to sit in our BnB, no matter how beautiful it was. So we moto’d around Uluwatu looking for a power adapter and a SIM card, but to no avail. By 9pm we had retreated back to our cabin and got some much needed sleep.

*Note to self: always remember to pack universal power adapter! We could not find it in all of Uluwatu (that we saw, and we stopped many a mini-mart).

I barely took any photos on this first day. I was soaking it all in and prioritized the present. And didn’t want to risk bringing my camera while we were scootering around at first. But I do want to take more photos in the coming days!

What would you like to see from Bali? More to come!

Quality time with the Que’s

Quality time with the Que’s

Aug 15, 2017 | Lifestyle

Hello! As I mentioned in my last blog post, my week has been filled with cute kids and too-hot-to-do-anything-except-swimming temperatures. It’s been mostly uneventful, and I got to spend a lot of much needed quality time with my family. I wanted to keep a clear schedule so I could truly have a little vacation from my usual go-go-go schedule during vacations. I didn’t even tell my Arizona friends I was in town, which I probably should have, but I just really felt like I needed this time to retreat and restore.

Isaac’s first day of pre-school

We woke up early, and strapped the kids into the car. Isaac was reading one of his favorite books on the drive over, and Rachel sat calmly staring out the window. We arrived at the school and Isaac followed his mommy along while licking his “pop pop” that mommy gave him that morning. His teacher greeted us at the door and Lyn signed him in. My sister let go of his hand and he immediately reached for her hand again. He cried on his first day of school, just like I did. My heart melted, but we knew he was in good hands. When we picked him up we had another special pop pop.

Got my 13” MacBook Pro laptop screen fixed for free!

If you have a 13” MacBook Pro retina display laptop, you might have encountered a stain on your screen that won’t go away. After a quick google search, I learned that a bunch of other customers had this same problem. It was referred to as #StainGate. It was a flaw in Apple’s manufacturing of the display screens. I booked a repair appointment online at https://getsupport.apple.com/ and got it fixed in a day!

Arizona heat is no joke

All week, there was 100-degree dry heat. I had no desire to leave the house. Well, one day I did go window shopping at an indoor mall (so that I could practice resisting the urge to buy things, I told myself). My parents bought a big beautiful home in Arizona and the pool is so key in the summer. We spent a lot of time swimming with my nephew whose favorite thing was jumping in the deep end doing funny poses. My baby niece joined in too and relaxed hardcore in a little floaty.

All you can eat sushi

This place is awesome. Akita Sushi is an all-you-can-eat sushi spot in Scottsdale. Lunch is $13.95 per person and dinner is $21.95. It’s so worth it if you know you’re hungry and you’re craving sushi – which is like, all the time for me. I scarfed down a bowl of miso soup and 3 delicious specialty rolls, and I wasn’t even that hungry. There are also unlimited nigiri and hand rolls. My brother introduced us to the place so when he raved about the green tea ice cream and fried banana desserts, we had to try it… and it did not disappoint!

Let’s Go Dbacks

My brother and I watched the Diamondbacks vs Cubs game. He gets a student discount on ticket prices, so we only paid $5 each! The seats were way up on the bleachers, but we had a really good view of everything from up there.

It’s getting harder to say goodbye

My flight departing Arizona was at 5am, so the night before, I gave my nephew and niece kisses before they went to bed and hugged my sister and brother tight. I live so far away, it’s not easy to just stop by for a visit. And each year I come to visit so many things change. It was so good to be with them again, and I wish I could see them more often.