The Honeymoon - Part 4: The Island Tour

As much as we wanted to, we did not spend the entire honeymoon lounging around our villa. Our first off-resort activity was a tour of the island. We worked through our resort to book a private driver and tour guide that customized our tour to the things we wanted to do and see. The morning of, we met our guide Nyoman and he reviewed the itinerary, and even threw in a few additional suggestions on things we might want to see that we had not considered. One of my initial concerns was much of what I read suggested the drivers would get commissions from any purchases you made, and would take you to places you didn't want to go in hopes you'd buy something. Luckily, there was no such pressure from Nyoman. In fact, most of the places he suggested didn't even have the option to make purchases. I'm sure he made some commission on the things we did buy, but I'm fine with that.

One of the bedrooms in a traditional Balinese home

The first stop we made was a traditional Balinese home. This was probably the most unique experience of the trip. We went to an actual Balinese home, not one staged for tourists. The traditional homes are nothing like we expect in the West. There aren't simply four walls, rooms, and a roof. In fact, each "room" is typically it's own building, and the rooms often don't even have walls. The beds don't have mattresses, but are made of straw mats. The kitchen was open and powered only by a wood burning stove. Perhaps most impressive, though, was the obvious commitment to religion that we saw consistently throughout the trip. While Indonesia as a whole is Islamic, the island of Bali is actually Hindi - though interestingly enough, they seem to have no issue eating beef. Each traditional Balinese house have their own temples. This custom might extend to even non-traditional houses, as all the businesses we visited even had temples. Every day, the family would prepare small offerings to the Gods consisting of some flowers and rice on a banana leaf in a little palm basket and would place them in each temple. These are to appease the spirits and to give back to the Gods what they have given to you. We'd frequently find these around the island in different places as the locals looked for blessings and positive spirits going about their daily activities.

We visited several local villages where they specialize in various crafts. In Celuk, we stopped at a jeweler. Almost all jewelry is silver in Bali - of course often embedded with semi-precious stones. The jewelers tend not to negotiate prices, or negotiate very little. We were able to tour the production line and see how they actually make the jewelry. Mas Village specializes in wood carving, so we made a stop there as well. The detail with which the craftsmen work is incredible. Some of the carvings were absolutely huge - I can only imagine how long it must take. Prices are negotiable at these shops. Lastly, we stopped in Ubud at one of the many art galleries. Every subject and style of art was available, including very unique works that used actual sand on the painting. Negotiation was expected here - in fact, when I first inquired about a price, the woman was very quick to add that all prices were negotiable.

For lunch, Nyoman took us up a mountain to have our meal at a restaurant overlooking an active volcano, Mount Batur. The food was great and ridiculously cheap by US standards. For both our meals and a couple beers, I think our total was around $20 USD. We enjoyed a mix of Indonesian foods while taking in the scenery. You could see the areas of the volcano that still showed black from the most recent eruption's lava flows. At the base of the mountain was Lake Batur, the largest freshwater lake in Bali. After lunch, we went to a rice paddy and saw some incredible views of the fields. This was the place we ran into the most aggressive street sellers. Nyoman had warned us that if we were approached, we should ignore them because engaging with them would tell all the others that we might be willing to buy something. The woman was trying to sell us postcards and really gave us a hard sell. She followed us for a good 200 feet down the paths. We also made a stop at a Balinese temple (the best I have for the name is Obyek Wisata Gunung Kawi Sebatu Tegallalang), where we donned our sarongs and got a tour of the grounds. The temple was gorgeous, with statues and flowers everywhere, koi ponds, and, strangely enough, chickens in bird cages. Another interesting fact about Balinese temples: women are not allowed during certain times of the month.

Our final activity of the day deserves its own special post. We went to the Monkey Temple. I GOT TO PLAY WITH MONKEYS!!! Keep your eye out for that one next. In the meantime, here are a handful of the other pictures we took that day.

Traditional kitchen

The start of a day or two's worth of offerings

As Nyoman described it, this is the "honeymoon suite" or where the newlyweds would live

One view of the family temple

Detail work on the family temple

Inside the wood carving shop

At lunch overlooking the volcano

Mount Batur and Lake Batur

One of the many statues in the temple

One view of the temple

Another temple view

The statues were pretty cool

Rice paddy

I thought the different levels of the rice paddy were so cool!

The Honeymoon - Part 3: Our Resort, The St. Regis Bali

Going into this whole thing, we knew the St. Regis Bali was going to be an incredible experience and an amazing resort. I don't think we were actually mentally prepared for what that meant. The St. Regis experience began the second we were off the airplane. I was surprised to see a hotel representative standing there with a sign with my name on it right at the gate. He immediately welcomed us to Bali and explained he'd be helping us through the airport. That began with whisking us to the visa-on-entry booth where he walked past the line with our money (interestingly enough, it's $35 USD per person, regardless of where you're from or where you connected to get to Bali) and bought our visas. After that, we got to basically skip the immigration line. And by skip, I mean he escorted us through the Diplomat line. I'm not gonna lie - that was really cool. We collected our bags, and he transferred us to another hotel representative who took us to the car that would be bringing us to the resort. Even the car was really nice, with comfortable captain's chairs in the back and foot rests.

Upon arriving at the hotel, we got through the first security checkpoint (a "thorough" check underneath and inside the vehicle) and got to the open air lobby. The staff opened our car door and greeted us by name. Clearly, they have incredible communications to know exactly in which car we'd be arriving. We were greeted with a cocktail at check in, and our butler drove us via "buggy" (ok, it's a golf cart) to our villa. We were fortunate enough to be in one of the Strand Villa, which is an experience in its own. The butler gave us a tour of our villa before departing. We were in absolute awe with how incredible it was. Flowers and all kinds of chocolates were waiting for us in our room as a honeymoon welcome gift from the resort.

The villa consisted of a living and dining area, a small kitchen, butler's quarters, a giant bedroom, a giant bathroom, private gardens, a private infinity pool, and a private stretch of beach. It was all nothing short of remarkable. All of the lights were operated with buttons on panels that could be removed and carried around with you, allowing you to operate any light in the villa from anywhere. The living and dining area consisted of a round table (where we ordered room service way too much), a couple gorgeous chandeliers, a comfy couch, and a TV that retracts at the touch of a button. All of the shades were electronically operated, revealing a view of - and doors to - the pool and garden. The garden had several lounging areas including our own cabana, but they call it a Bale Bengong. The plunge pool was a little more than a typical plunge pool. It was a good 30 feet long and 10 feet wide, and had a picnic table with a seat in the pool. It was perfect for a quick dip to cool off. The gardens were meticulously kept and lead to our private stretch of beach. Our beach chairs were waiting for us each day, and every time we sat down, a butler would immediately come over with waters, a cloth soaked in Florida water, and to make up the chairs with towels.

The bedroom was over-sized with a canopy over the bed. The doors also opened to the gardens and pool. Perhaps the most impressive part, though, was the bathroom. It was by far the biggest hotel bathroom I have ever seen. It had a claw-footed tub, a separate rain shower, a large walk-in closet, and a double vanity. We discovered another hotel gift - the tub was filled with red rose petals with white ones spelling out I <3 U. It was a nice touch. I guess there's not a whole lot else to say about the villa, so check out a bunch of pictures from the room and garden.

The Honeymoon - Part 2: Getting to Bali

The journey to Bali was a 32 hour flight. In coach. I'm not going to sugar coat this. It sucked. Having previously traveled to Guam several times, I thought I mastered the across-the-world, but 24 hours in business class is a big difference from 32 hours in the cattle car. I don't think I can ever do that kind of trip again if I have to be in coach, so (sorry Susanna) it might be a while before we get back there as long as business class tickets stay at $15k. Or until I get a raise.

We flew Qatar Airways, connecting through Qatar. First, let's talk about how to pronounce Qatar, because I sure as heck had no idea until this trip. There were a couple ways I heard from the airline and from people who worked at the airport. It's not "Kuh-tar" like most Americans like to say. It's also not "Cutter" as pronounced by most Americans who are trying to be worldly cultured. The two ways I heard it pronounced were either "Gut-tar" or "Kat-er." The most common seemed to be "Gut-tar" where the beginning "G" is really like combination between a G and a K. There's also almost no vowel sound in the first syllable either. The second way sounds like you're just adding an "er" to your favorite feline friend.

I have to admit - I was remarkably underwhelmed by Qatar Airways. I think it was all the first impressions. Each seat has it's own TV/entertainment system, a USB power port, and there are outlets in between each seat. A few minutes after we sat down, Susanna's entertainment system crashed. To top it off, we couldn't get the USB power ports to work. I tried getting the flight attendant's attention, but she seemed to be trying to avoid me. Finally, she came over. When I explained the problem, she simply barked "You'll have to wait ten minutes for the system to restart," ignored the USB issue, and walked away. Great first impression. We learned all of the USB power ports - at least every one on every segment of our trip - only worked sporadically at best. The real power ports were hit and miss as well. They'd work fine for an hour, then someone would move and you couldn't get them to work for another twenty minutes again. At least the in-seat entertainment was pretty good.

I was also a little surprised by the food. It wasn't bad food at all for airplane standards, just different than what you'd expect for airplane food. It was fairly gourmet, but definitely included some things that just don't work well on a plane. Lots of lamb and chicken, and prepared in lots of ways that dried it out pretty good. The toughest part was they just didn't seem to like to come around to give you water. We were so thirsty the entire time, and every time they came by, we'd ask for about 5 glasses of water each. I'm not sure what their aversion is to providing you with a comfortable, well hydrated flight.

The best part about the flight is that it left at 10 PM, so we were able to sleep through some of the 12.5 hour first leg before our 9 hour connection in Doha, Qatar. As we landed, there was a pretty cool view. The setting sun looked pretty similar to what Star Wars made Tatooine out to be. Of course minus the twin suns. The Qatar airport ended rather underwhelming, just like the airline. For an international airport that has a bunch of long connections, there's really very little to do. There are also very few power outlets, which quickly became a problem. There are a lot of really weird and hilariously unusual pieces of art throughout the airport though. Strangely enough, there are a TON of contests to win money and cars, and they had a Maserati, Mercedes, and a McLaren on display. There is definitely not enough to keep you entertained for 9 hours. Here's a tip: many of the merchants and duty free stores will ask you if you want to be charged in US dollars. It sounds great, but they apply a 3% conversion fee, so if you have a card that has no fees, like a Capital One, then make sure to have them charge you in Qatari Rial.

The 10-hour flight to Bali was much of the same as getting to Qatar, although with some slightly friendlier flight attendants. We still had trouble with the power outlets, we were still thirsty, and despite being absolutely exhausted, we could barely sleep. You can imagine our excitement when we finally touched down in Denpasar and were able to get off the plane!