Spending endless amounts of time enjoying the things we love.

Settling down in Ubud, Bali for a month afforded us time to do lots of great things together that we are usually too busy to do. Sometimes Bowen would join us and sometimes he would opt to stay home doing something else. We can lounge over breakfast on the verandah for a few hours even after we've had a sleep in and we can flex our creative muscles by making our own silver rings or learn how to make a kite. Cooking our own dinner was a welcome change of pace as was shopping at the weekly organic farmers market. We loved riding the motorbike or hiking out to the rice paddies for lunch and soaking up the incredible views.  Some days we would spend an entire afternoon reading in the hammock without an ounce of guilt about all the things we should be doing instead.

Bowen liked to sleep in well past lunch time and Remy and I liked to explore the surrounding area in the morning so everyone was happy indulging in their favourite things.

Spa day! We are scrubbed with an herbal mixture called Boreh which is a combination of about 15 different items. After our tea we sit in the wood fired sauna for 20 minutes then get a wonderful one hour massage all for $16 each.

The start of Liz's ring

Rudimentary tools were all that were needed to make three beautiful rings. We surprised ourselves even at how nice they all turned out and have now become our new travel wedding rings.

Our rings will be a nice keepsake and provide us with our 25th wedding anniversary memento.

Rai Pasti's restaurant in Ubud was one of our favourite places to eat. The Nasi Campur ( rice with little piles of things like veggies, chicken, sate and tempeh) was delicious and the beers went down pretty nicely too.

The short walkway to our house past the small rice paddy.

We watched these carvers at work the entire time we stayed in Ubud. This was adorning a corner of a busy parking lot and I couldn't help but think about how awful it would be if someone accidentally crashed into it with their motorbike or car.

Its rice harvest time.

Wayan, the artist, painted these delicate eggs. We preferred his pencil drawings as they are easier to transport!

A morning hike while Bowen sleeps.

The temples are everywhere, even on the hiking trail.

Just one of the local beautiful temples.

At the temple

The women do all the heavy moving at the construction sites These ladies moved half a dump truck-load on their heads for $40  total.

I thought it would be a good idea for Remy to help out! The ladies had a great giggle as he tried very hard to balance the heavy pile of dirt on his head.

Home sweet home!! Our lovely 2 story house with our own little yard and 2 verandahs!

Roosters in waiting

This was the coldest pool EVER which made for some fun challenges.

Bali Arts Festival in the city of Denpasar. We caught a few of the festivities while we were there extending our visas for an extra months stay.

Yo!

Chicken sate is served everywhere( so is smoking)

That's rice stuck on their foreheads. Bali Arts Festival

This is the view from the only Starbucks in Ubud. The Water Temple is a popular place for evening dance performances that can be enjoyed from the patio of the Lotus Cafe or Starbucks.

Bowens' Canada Day breakfast. The maple syrup was a splurge.

A great yoga class at Om Ham Retreat.

This happened right outside our door- literally!

The night time view at Rai Pasti's Restaurant. We watched the moon rise over the rice paddy which was incredibly beautiful then a baby rat fell from the ceiling about a foot away from us. Poor Mama rat was very upset.

The mask/puppet museum was pretty cool but we wouldn't want to be there alone at night as it would be a bit creepy.

Same goes for the puppets.

The pedang was one of our favourite ways to eat lunch. Just point at what you like. and they'll serve it up with a big pile of white rice. A whole plateful was less than $3 

This was our favourite pedang style restaurant.

A very happy guy leaving the bird song competition. We love that he has it strapped onto his back like a backpack.

The view from Greenfields Restaurant right across the street from our house. We often sat and watched the sunset here, and celebrated Remy's birthday dinner here too eating roasted duck.

A bride and groom finishing up their photo shoot at the Elephant Caves.

A little prayer at the Elephant Caves

Father and Son sarongs

Cool! A waterfall we can swim at! 

We can't wait to get in that water. It's HOT.

Oh how I would love to bring this table home. It's just sitting here on the side of the road in the carving area of town.

Frangipani. Remy loved the smell of these and would bring one home for me everyday!

The rice paddy at our house is finally being harvested... by hand!

A strong message that investors and builders are NOT welcome.

A community temple. Beautiful.

Getting ready for our yoga class at the ashram run by Ketut Arsana- the local famous guru.

Ketut Arsana ran an amazing class and is incredibly fit and agile despite his appearance.

Ketut is such a small man with a big following.

This was another one of those times when we were asked to take a photo with a local. She insisted on this particular pose. 

Wouldn't this be a great place to stay?

It's movie night at Yoga Barn! $2.50 includes popcorn and water under an open air building with everyone relaxing using  the yoga mats and props.

Bowen has a gym membership and gets there nearly everyday! We are so proud of you, Bowen.

An overnight trip to Amed for a bit more beach time.

Amed- A lovely spot for dinner.

We learned about traditional salt making on our way home from Amed. It's a long process that involves binging water up from the ocean and using the black sand as a filter. After it's filtered it's set out in long troughs to evaporate. What's left is beautiful white flakes that bring in only about $15/day for the family. If only they could market it to the foodie crowd they could actually make a fair wage for their work. We brought home two bags which was about all we could carry.

Bali has been one of our MOST favourite places and we will miss it here but it's time to see another one of the 1700 islands in Indonesia! Java, here we come.

~ Liz