Before leaving Darwin we took a little side trip to Indonesia to the beautiful island of Bali. It is only a two hour flight from Darwin but is world's apart when it comes to the people and their culture. It is a "very busy" place with a population of about four million people of which most drive motorcycles. We stayed in a beautiful hotel right on the beach in Nusa Dua. The day after we arrived we hired a car and driver and headed out to the town of Ubud with their art villages and rice paddies. We got the rare privelage of visiting an actual old world Balinese house complete with dogs, chickens, pigs and whatever other livestock the family could afford. We saw some amazing wood carvings, silversmith's and batik making. We wandered through the rain forests at Monkey Forest where we made some friends with the local inhabitants. They're a lively bunch and feeding them was a treat. One of them liked me so much he decided to hitchhike on my shoulders for a while. Now I know how it feels to have a monkey on your back!
The next day we decided to laze around the pool and relax. This was great until Bob got bored and decided to go para sailing. He really enjoyed it and nothing would do until I did it as well. After much pestering and three Pina Coladas I got the courage and went for a ride. Whoopeeeee ! It really was a blast!
We only spent three days in Bali but certainly enjoyed our short holiday. The laid back life style and the beautiful green of the countryside and surrounding mountains were breathtaking.