Bali, Indonesia

The stress over the last while has been significant for Nathan and I. No matter how much I try to portray a front of keeping it together, my body betrays me. My hair is falling out by the fist full, acne has been a constant companion and other even less savory body rebellions. Due to our commuted time in Asia Nathan and I decided to take the family trip we'd hoped to make this year to Indonesia by ourselves. It was an intensely needed break. 

Nathan travels a lot for work. The upside is trips like this where we use miles for our flight, and points for our hotel. That left us only paying for the first two nights we spent inland in Ubud. Not a bad deal.

We enjoyed taking in the countryside on our drive in. We stopped to take pictures of some of the rice fields as the sun was getting ready to set, it was stunning. 

The thing about the clouds that make for a beautiful sunset is that sometimes they bring rain with them. In this case, the first torrential downpour of the rainy season. By the time we got to our bungalow we were soaked. A comedy of errors ensued, a river of water pouring down the wall inside our room, for example, out of food at dinner, and the grand finale, Nathan being badly shocked by the faucet handle on the soaker tub. 

 But the gorgeous view at breakfast washed all of the frustrations away...

That and when they changed our rooms to an even nicer one for our troubles. Way to take one for the team with that shock Nathan!  The outdoor reading bed and plunge pool were an unexpected bonus. 

We were there over a Hindu holiday so literally everyone was headed to the temple along with us. At this particular temple called Tampak Siring the people wash in the water, cleansing their bodies but symbolically cleansing their spirits. 

 Usually there are a handful of people in the water, but on a holiday their were crushes of people.

 But still neat to witness anyway.

 We had noticed people walking around with rice on their foreheads and wondered what part of their ritual it was. We met these nice girls and one asked if I would like to have this blessing. They use the Plumeria flower to flick the blessed water on you.

 You drink some of the water out of your palms, three times, before they put the rice and water mix on your forehead and the base of your neck. It was a beautiful blessing.

 I loved the colorful offering baskets stacked at the temple. All day we would see women walking down the streets with these balanced on their heads.

 Next we headed out to the rice terraces. I have had a burning curiosity about the specifics of farming rice since before I moved to Asia. It has only increased since so this was so cool to me, having my questions answered. I did not know that rice looks almost like wheat when the grains grow. How cool is that?

 The above picture is extra fun, if you notice my left foot, I almost got my wish to work in a rice patty! My foot slipped off the edge and plugged deep into the wet mud the rice was growing in. The rice worker who had offered to take our picture was mortified and insisted on washing my foot with bottled water. I mean, hey, I can take a little mud! But it was kind of him to help.

You can see here the rice on the right is lighter and ready to be harvested. It is harvested similarly to wheat. 

Terraced rice pattys are easily one of my favorite things we've seen in Asia. Amazing.

 The next day we made our way out to Kuta and the beach. Turns out this is the site of the 2002 terrorist bombing of a nightclub that killed hundreds of people. There is a large memorial at the site that took me by surprise. As did the increased security. To drive in to our hotel there was a bomb sniffing dog, the inside of the car checked, in the trunk, under the hood and under the car. Any time we went into the hotel we had to go through a metal detector and our bags were scanned. I appreciated the security but feel sad that it is deemed necessary. 

Without altering the picture in any way, this is the sunset we witnessed our first evening. We sat out on the beach and drank it in. We spent our time in Kuta mostly just relaxing and reading together, bartering with the locals in their market and eating good food. 

Not bad for our last trip exploring Asia. 

I'm Baaaack!

I bet ya thought I was done. For good. Nah. I couldn't let my blog die on an ugly spider post! We've just had a difficult few months. Stress filled, limbo-land and so much drama I didn't even know where to start. So I just didn't. I spared everyone the gruesome play by play. And how nice is this? Now I can report our plans without months of "maybe's".
So here is the long and short of it: We are moving to Dallas Texas at the beginning of December. We are gonna catch our breath for a hot minute (or maybe 18 months or so) and then we plan on heading to South America, though it is still undetermined exactly where. Any advice on amazing places to live in S.A. are welcome!
So as you can imagine, previously things were stressful because of the unknown but recently switched to the equally evil, stress from the known-all-too-well. International moves are... involved.  And by all accounts, repatriating is a beast, so I'm super looking forward to moving home with the inevitable, "I somehow don't quite fit in anymore". But hopefully those feelings will be short lived.
Overall I swing wildly back and forth between being unbelievably excited to go home to America, to coming apart thinking of leaving Taiwan. In example, I'll be driving along day dreaming about what it might be like to walk into an American store and shop for my children for Christmas... endless possibilities! Then I'll gaze out at the gorgeous Asian, jungle covered mountains that I love so much and think, How can I leave? This has become home! Cue the waterworks.
I'm sure their will be a sappy, I love Taiwan! post somewhere in this blog's near future. But until then, here's to being back at blogging!