Southeast Asia Vacation, Part 4: Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia

Our last location on our vacation was Seminyak, which is a touristy town on the west coast of Bali.   By the time we got to Seminyak, we were in need of some rest and relaxation.  Fortunately for us, this was the view from our villa: 

A covered bed, a hammock, covered lawn chairs, and an amazing pool.  Woop, woop!  Loved this place!

The villas where we stayed, Blu Bambu, are owned by a European man and Balinese lady who married.  In Bali, they have very strict laws on purchasing land.  I'm not sure if you have to have been born on the island or how it goes, but it's almost impossible for outsiders to purchase property.  So the owner was telling us how he married his wife and coming from Europe, he has a lot of money compared to those that live on Bali, so they bought the villa property.  It's made up of 3 villas (just a bedroom and bathroom), 2 pools, and the main building.  The ground floor of the main building is used as the "lobby" where you check in, but then there's also a kitchen where the prepare breakfast for the guests each morning and an area with couches to watch tv.  The owners live in the rooms above it.   They were super nice and checked in with us during breakfast each morning, asking about our daily plans and adding suggestions on where to shop and eat.  They also arranged a driver for us and made several calls for us to arrange another tour.   And it was conveniently located near many restaurants and just 10 minutes from the beach.  We were very happy with our choice.   

The bedroom part of our villa was nice, but our favorite part was the bathroom, which had a separate outdoor shower.  You got to enjoy the fresh air, but didn't have to worry about anyone walking in on you.   Very nice!

The gate to Villa Blu Bambu: You got to walk over a koi pond.

The gateway to the beach :-)

This place isn't very busy during the day, but from dinner until closing time, especially sunset, it's packed.  Yes, that's right, they have bean bag chairs and tables that light up! So fun.

Enjoying the sunset

Another night of enjoying the sunset

We found friends for the day!  The couple who were staying in the villa beside ours was about our age, so we asked them if they wanted to join us for the sunset and then dinner.   She's in the Canadian military and he is a pilot that lives in Hong Kong part of the time.  It was fun to have another couple to hang out with.  We forgot to get a picture together though. 

The one downfall of the beaches on Bali is that they are filled with vendors trying to make a few bucks.  People were selling kites, watches, sarongs, and much more but they were also offering hair braiding, massage, henna tattoos, and mani/pedi services as well.  They seem to not understand the word "No" but we quickly learned the ignore tactic was the best approach to make them disappear quickly.  However, our favorite was an interesting man named Linus (not like the Peanuts character, pronouced Lyn-noose) from New Guinea.  He sold us paramao root oil.  Don't worry, I Googled it first to make sure I wasn't going to get arrested at customs in Singapore if they found it in my luggage!

Now, I don't know what it really is, but he claims if you rub just a little bit on to any part of your body that hurts/is swollen/is scarred, it will heal you.  Like magic!   Our Canadian friends (at least the gal) made the mistake of showing slight interest in the product, and next thing we know, she's getting this oil rubbed on her and then a shoulder massage.  I was next, of course. Linus told us that we were very special customers to him (I kept hearing this same line..) and he would cut us a deal.  Of course we did some bartering of our own, and got him down to 2 small bottles for $10.  Sold!

Our Canadian friend getting paramao root oil massaged on to her.

During the days, if we weren't lounging on the beach or by the pool, we spent some time walking around the area.  The shopping wasn't very good in Seminyak, just lots of cheap junk.  We had better luck with food though.  We found a really good taco place that we really loved and we had pizza for dinner one night at a restaurant/bar on the beach.

Prior to moving to Japan, we ate at Mexian restaurants quite often.  I'm highly unimpressed with the "Mike's Mexican" down the street from us here in Japan, so when we saw Beach Tacos was highly rated on TripAdvisor, we knew we had to go.

We were not one bit disappointed.  They put a nice Indonesian twist on the tacos and we loved them!   The chips and salsa sampler was amazing too.  We really wish this place was by our home in Ebina!

How have I not mentioned the spas yet?!?   Spa services are super cheap in Seminyak!  I started by getting a manicure with french tips for $12.  Another day I went up the street where I soaked my feet in what I call the Fishie Spas.  I have seen the fishie spas a couple times around Japan and have always wanted to try it.  It's usually $15-20 per 15 minutes.  However, I paid $5 for 20 minutes.  At first I found their nibbles to be very ticklish, but after a minute, my nerves adjusted.   Two Australian ladies came and sat with me and I chatted with them for awhile.  *Fun fact:  The majority of Bali's tourists are Australian.  It's like their version of Jamaica or Mexico*  Then I got a real pedicure and I finished off with an ear candling service.  That's right, they stuck a burning candle in my ear.  There was a man holding it in my ear the whole time, with a flame guard so that my hair didn't catch on fire.  Basically, the heat from the flame creates a vacuum inside the hollow candle and it draws out all of the wax from inside your ear.  Now, I don't have wax problems, but it was only $7, so yes, I tried it. It was strange, but still fun to experience.  Like I said, I don't have ear wax problems, but they still took out a big chunk, about the size of  a Chicklet, from each ear.  Sorry if you found that gross, but perhaps you should've skipped to the next picture if you didn't want to hear the details.  I finished up my spa rounds by getting a "cream rinse bath".  It was basically a deep conditioning treatment for my hair, but while I was waiting to rinse it, I got a scalp, neck, shoulder and hand massage.  Very nice!  Bryan also enjoyed the spa services, but he stuck to massages until the end, where I talked him into getting a pedicure.  He didn't really comment too much about it but was appalled that they asked him if he wanted clear nail polish. (The answer was a definite no!)

My feet have never felt smoother! 

Not a great iphone picture, but a delicious meal on a beautiful patio, while listening to a guitarist.  I believe we enjoyed green curry and some kind of steak.

Our flight back to Singapore (remember we were flying Space A, so we had to go back there before coming to Japan) wasn't until 10:30 in the evening, but we had to check out of the villa in the morning.  The owner said we were more than welcome to just pack everything up and leave our bags in the lobby and hang out at the pool, but we thought we should make the most of our time and see more of the island.  This led us to looking into riding an elephant.  The owner made several phone calls for us and in the end decided our cheapest option was to hire a driver for the day.  We didn't even barter and paid $35 for a lovely man to drive us anywhere on the island from 11:00am until we needed to be dropped off at the airport at 8:30. Don't you love Bali?!?!?   Our driver was a very friendly and talkative man, probably in his 20s.  He was really excited that we were Americans because he said that he speaks English like Americans.  I asked him how he learned English and he told me how he started watching American television shows with the closed captioning on when he was a little kid.  He said that The Three Stooges was one of his favorite shows.  Hilarious!   He also did his best Australian accent for us, which was really impressive.   He made me feel really stupid since I really haven't learned much Japanese at all in the almost year that I've lived here (well I know some phrases and random words, but not actual grammar or even one of their "alphabets").   He was also a very good tourguide.   He took us to the elephant park, like we requested, but then he asked if we wanted to stop at a silver store along the way.  Usually you can watch them make beautiful silver jewelry, but it was a holiday, so only the store was open.  We got Bryan's mom a nice pair of earrings.   Then we went to the elephant park.  

I was very torn on whether or not I wanted to ride an elephant.  I spent a lot of time researching different places and worrying about how they treated the elephants.  The park where we ended up going seemed like one of the better ones.   I didn't see any sign of abuse on any of the elephants. The guides didn't use hooks on them.  Yes, the elephants were tied up when they weren't being rode, or if the guide wasn't on them (like when he took our picture), but I'm sure it's a safety issue.   I guess I felt okay about riding the elephants because of their back story.  The elephants come from a couple islands over, Sumatra.  Sadly, the elephants are losing their homes, due to foresting.  When they go into the towns, they are being killed by people, so they're in danger.  The companies bring the elephants to Bali and other islands where they can have a safer life.  It's not a normal life for the elephants, but from what I could see, it wasn't a terrible life either. 

This is Laura!  She seemed like a happy elephant.  Our tour guide said several times, "Lots of pictures, good tip!" and "Americans tip very well!".  I was a bit annoyed by this, but then I noticed how another tour guide didn't take any pictures of his riders at all, and our took about 40 pictures of us and Laura with our camera.  So I was grateful for the pictures he took and we ended up tipping him well. 

Laura does tricks!

The elephant park also had 2 baby orangutangs.   They were so fun to watch!  There were two ladies who, I'm pretty sure, had the job of entertaining them all day.  They were very comfortable and played with each other off to the side of where we ate lunch.  Check out their hands and feet!

Yes, he (or she?) is wearing a diaper.  He may look sad in this picture, but I think he's just exhausted from playing so much.   We had to be quick with the camera because this was the only time he wasn't running up steps or climbing all over his friends.   We didn't ask to play with them, but the gals working with them kept pulling them back if they crossed a certain point towards us, so we assumed we weren't allowed to touch them.  They were still so cool to see!

After we were finished at the elephant park, we made our way down towards the airport.  Our driver said he knew of some good restaurants that had a great view of the sunset.  He didn't let us down at all.

Jimbaran Beach, where we had dinner.  Everyone was out for the holiday!  The land in the far left is the runway for the airport.  Do you remember reading in the news how an airplane landing in Bali overshot the landing and ended up in the water?  That happened the week after we got back from our trip.  Well I wasn't surprised because I watched planes land about every 5 minutes and I thought each one of them was going to do that. 

We enjoyed some drinks and a complimentary "Sunshine Shot".  Bryan even went for a quick swim while we waited on drinks.

There was a band that visited tables that played classic songs like Brown Eyed Girl.  They were really good and added even more awesomeness to the evening.

Time to go home!  You can get your suitcase saran-wrapped shut.  You place it on the circle platform and then it spins around really fast.  Now your suitcase definitely won't pop open! 

Back at Singapore, waiting for the subway.   For safety reasons, they have the tracks blocked until the train comes to a stop.   And even though they have a floor markers, people still crowd.  They need to learn a lesson or two about getting in line from Japan. 

We landed in Singapore around 1:30am and then headed straight for our hotel.  It rained almost all day, but we still enjoyed it.  We slept in and then I took advantage of the huge shade umbrellas by the pool and read a book while enjoying sound of the light rain.   We eventually went to see the Marina Bay Sands hotel (that huge one with three towers).  We went in to the casino, but didn't waste our money.  It was crazy big and crazy busy.  We finished the day with a nice dinner along the river and called it a day.   We had to be up really early the next morning to make roll call for our Space A flight.  We were once again lucky and made the flight back home without any problems.

All in all, it was an amazing trip with an amazing husband :-)