Bali 2015 (Part 2)

So what did we do apart from lounging at the balcony?

…watching the waves crash in the distance to form a white creamy surf…

…playing ‘cafe’ at this little spot in the kids’ pool, making friends with other guests…

…Swimming in the pool and nua-ing on one of those super comfy floating massive ‘beanbags’?

We took a short road trip to Ubud, where amongst other things we ate dropping off the bone pork ribs at the original Naughty Nuri’s, as racks were constantly barbecued right in front of us…

And had crepes at Confiture Michele (corner shop at the southern end of Jalan Gootama).

One of my main reasons for going to Ubud was to hunt down this shop (called xS) that I couldn’t buy anything at the last time, because we had kinda run out of cash. This time, I shopped with a vengeance, spending a tidy sum!

The dresses are not cheap by Bali standards, costing about SGD 29 each, but I loved the quirky design and couldn’t resist getting matching cheongsams (cars vs ice-creams!) for the girls for next year.  And the snails on the dress below? One opens up with a zip as a mini pouch!

The shop assistant told me that they are all locally designed and sewn together. So supporting the locals was my excuse for going on a spending spree. The best part was that the girls were with me this time, so I could try out the sizes on them, and more importantly, get their buy-in on the designs I liked. These days, if I buy something that they simply can’t see themselves wearing, it gets banished to languish forever in the recesses of the wardrobe. Women.

Bali is rightfully famous for its sunsets, and I’m not sure whether its something about it’s latitude or longitude, but two sunsets I witnessed took my breath away.

The first was at Jimbaran Bay, a long stretch of beach dotted with seafood restaurants. We knew it was a bit of a tourist trap, but went anyway, just to experience dining on the beach whilst watching the sun set.

We arrived early around 530pm and got a good table right in front with a great view of the horizon. It was also fun to soak in the very festive atmosphere of folks on holiday – happy voices of people chatting with friends or family, people everywhere taking photos or selfies…… The girls had some time to play with the sand, since it was too hot to start eating yet.

Then as dusk set in, we made our orders and settled down to enjoy the food and view.

The restaurants there have a wide range of fresh seafood, including this huge lobster I saw but didn’t order. What a beautiful creature.

Here’s the food we had, and we opted to grill most of it.  The crab could have been cooked more, but overall it was just quite enjoyable to eat with sand at your feet, and a sunset to remember, with close family.
Apparently, it was very cloudy and rained just the day before, so we were fortunate to be able to witness one of the loveliest sunsets I had ever seen. The sky turned peach, then pink and lavender – a symphony of pastels.

I later realised that the Italian restaurant at our hotel (called Envy) was also rather famous for good food with a great view. I managed to reserve one of the best tables, and here’s what we were treated to that night. Sunset @ Envy, or Sunset Envy?

This was simply the most amazing sunset I had ever seen in my life. I think the grandparents enjoyed it too. The girls weren’t too impressed (but what do they know?). The sky slowly but surely dimmed and the sun set in that gorgeous yellow yolk way. For hours hints of the setting sun lingered, even after almost the entire sky was dark. The clouds changed from being tinted with light pink to deep glorious salmon.

It is times like this that our soul sings out “How great Thou art”.  As Psalms 19:1 says: The heavens are declaring the glory of God, and their expanse shows the work of his hands.