To Be Continued…

Our time in Bali was nothing like we anticipated. We planned for three weeks of bliss, sunshine, and relaxation…what we got was a little chaotic. I guess God did not want us to get bored!

The island of Bali, Indonesia is much bigger than people expect. It has everything from beaches to jungles, waterfalls to coffee plantations, rice paddies to busy streets.

We started this leg of our trip with a few days in the beachside town of Sanur. We relaxed by the pool, strolled along the beach, and ate some DELISH Italian food. We quickly fell in love with Bali!

Then we continued on to the town of Ubud, in the middle of the island. We loved our time here, it is truly a jungle paradise! This was a fun travel day because our driver who drove us from Sanur to Ubud loved country music!! George Strait is not something you hear often in Southeast Asia.

On our first morning here we woke up with the sun to explore the Campuhan Ridge Walk. This was a short hike with beautiful jungle views! We were glad we did this early in the morning, because boy does it get hot!

We expected to come back to our hotel and enjoy a nice leisurely breakfast before relaxing by the pool for a few hours. However, upon our return we found out from a boat operator that our next destination, the Gili Islands (off the coast of Bali) were closed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. It was soon after this that the United States updated the Global Health Advisory to a level 4, which means if you are out of the country, get home now!! We decided it was time to try to change our flight back home. After spending 13 hours on hold with Expedia/Turkish Airlines, we were still unable to change our original Turkish Airlines flight. We had to buy a completely new flight that took us: Bali –> Taipei –> Seattle –> Boston. God was truly watching over us though because all Turkish Airlines flights were cancelled, so if it was not for this last minute flight through Taipei we would have been stuck!!

Anyways, after booking this flight, we still had few days to ‘enjoy’ in Bali. We did our best to have a good time, but we were constantly checking to make sure the airport was still open and our flight was on time.

We panic-bought all sorts of gifts for our families (and ourselves) since we hoped to be heading home in a few days before heading to the Monkey Forest.

This forest is a sanctuary with walking paths where monkeys roam free. It was quite exciting to see them playing and interacting with each other. They were grooming each other, cannonballing into a small pond, and eating corn on the cob. The last time I was in Bali (three years ago), I was ambushed by two monkeys in this forest, so needless to say, I was a little hesitant. This time we were having a great time until a monkey jumped onto my backpack because he was interested in my baggage tag. Once he realized I did not have any yummy treats, he jumped off (definitely not as traumatic as last time!).

The next day we explored the Hidden Canyon. A wonderful local guide took us through two slot canyons. We spent a few hours trekking, swimming, and climbing.

We had a great time and the scenery was absolutely beautiful!! It was a great chance to get our mind off of the coronavirus chaos!

On our second to last day we explored the rice terraces and waterfalls of Bali. Our first stop was the Tegalalang Rice Terraces. It is a beautiful sight, rice paddies built right into the hill side.

Next we visited four different waterfalls. We are glad we got the chance to do this because the following day most tourist attractions started to close to stop the spread of the coronavirus. We definitely got all of our steps in for the day, walking up and down stairs to the different waterfalls.

On our last day in Ubud, and the last day of our trip, we took a cooking class. We cooked alongside a British couple, Dominique and Jack, and we had a blast! This was the second cooking class Reid and I took on this trip and they have been great! We are less than talented cooks, but these classes make it pretty much impossible to mess up!

We ended this day with my favorite dinner of the whole trip!! Reid made me order coconut milk curry noodles, something I would otherwise never order and it was SO GOOD!!! For dessert, we had vegan gelato (even Reid thought it was good!).

This trip has been nothing short of incredible. Reid and I had the chance to learn and grow together in new, fun ways! The question that we were asked most frequently by our friends and families: “Are you sick of each other yet?”

Short answer: NO!! There was only one time the whole trip we were apart. In Ubud, Reid went down the street to get a haircut and I stayed at the hotel to take a nap. Reid was gone for all of 45 minutes, and it was WEIRD! Quality time together is something that we have learned to cherish because it does not come along often for us.

I also must say how proud I am of Reid! Backpacking through Asia was completely uncharted territory for him and he took it like a champ! He was an expert navigator, always knew what to do if something went wrong, and he (quite literally) picked me up when I was down. Seriously, in Phuket I fell down carrying both of my backpacks and he grabbed my big Osprey bag to stand me upright. I do not know what I would do without my Florida cowboy/world traveler.

Although this once-in-a-lifetime trip has come to an end and we are thrilled to be home with our families. We are already looking forward to future adventures together!

Thank you to everyone who kept up with our travels. We truly appreciate all of the prayers and well wishes!

Love,

Sorrell

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding: in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” -Proverbs 3:5-6

Breathtaking Bali

What better way to end my travels in Asia than by spending a week on a beach in Bali?!

Before going to Bali I heard lots of things about how the island was lush, tropical, and truly the lap of luxury. Let me tell you, it was all that and more! We decided to splurge on an all-inclusive resort. I felt like I was living in a castle after all of my stays in hostels…sometimes sharing one room with 15 other backpackers.

After enduring an overnight layover in Singapore we were greeted at the hotel with some welcome drinks and big smiles. We did some exploring before we were able to check in to our room. The grounds of the hotel were absolutely stunning. A beautiful private beach that was cleaned of seaweed and trash multiple times a day. A huge pool with a swim-up bar. And a lagoon that was home to countless fish and birds, and two turtles!

We spent the majority of our time in Bali lounging on the beach and soaking up the sun. I read the entire 600 pages of Da Vinci Code while updating Carley a few times a day on what was happening with Robert Langdon and the Holy Grail. We also spent a lot of time swimming, kayaking, and paddle boarding. The water was so nice sometime it was impossible to get out (also because the undertow was strong…I almost got knocked over a few times). During low-tide we were able to walk a quarter or half a mile out to a coral reef and go tide-pooling. This is one of my all-time favorite activities…I was in heaven! We saw starfish and clams that were as big as my head. We saw creepy worms and lots of crabs. We even saved a baby octopus! After our venture out in the ocean we could reward ourselves with freshly-made juice (watermelon-pineapple was my favorite!) and afternoon snacks by the pool.

This trip was very different than all of my other excursions; the days that I spent scouring the Internet for the perfect resort paid off. Everything was taken care of, there was no need to search Trip Advisor for restaurants and I did not need to try to create the perfect day by day itinerary. It was so relaxing!

I surely did not do enough swimming to balance out everything I ate…all-inclusive can be dangerous! The food was so delicious, and of course we had to try everything (including all the bite-sized desserts!). Most of our dinners were enjoyed out in the garden by candlelight, with live entertainment. Hearing a Balinese person sing Johnny Cash and the Eagles was so much fun!

We spent a few days exploring all that Bali has to offer. Our friend Gus took Carley and I to explore the Ubud area; we got to see so much! We went to a coffee plantation, saw painters, silver workers, cloth makers, and wood carvers at work. We also saw the Ubud Palace. Here, a very sweet Chinese girl came up to Carley and said “Hello, can I….uh…may I, take a picture with you?” In the past 5 months I have lost count of the number of people that have asked us to take a picture with them…but this way by far the sweetest.

Then we went to Monkey Forest. The monkeys were all very friendly, but some were a little rambunctious! One pulled out some of Carley’s hair and used it as dental floss…LOL. When we had reached the end…at the stairs to leave the forest, that is when things went downhill. A very cute, small monkey walked over to me and climbed up my leg. I stuck out my arm to help him out; then he started biting my bracelet (At this point I was panicking a little on the inside, but I think I did a good job of keeping my cool on the outside). Then, out of nowhere, another monkey ran up and jumped on me (idk, maybe I resemble a jungle gym). This is when I really start to panic, they were both biting me and pulling my hair and I didn’t know what to do. I tried to walk to a tree so they would jump into it…that backfired. One did jump off of me and onto a vine. He swung around on that then jumped back on me. Finally, with the help of Gus, the two monkeys were off my back!! I think I might have caused a bit of a scene.

We also visited the famous rice terraces of Ubud; I felt like Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love. I have seen my fair share of rice paddies since I have been in Asia, but nothing like this. Rice must be grown in shallow water, so in Ubud the hills have been tiered. The land has been turned into a giant staircase of rice! It was beautiful to see; something that I have been looking forward to seeing since booking the trip to Bali.

Another morning was spent doing a sunrise hike. Except I would not call it the morning, it was more like the middle of the night. We were picked up from our hotel at 1:30 am, and made it to the top around 5am. I had a cold while we were in Bali and of course it was the worst on this day! Climbing up active volcano in the middle of the night with a cold is hard enough. This Balinese man thought I was a liability so he grabbed my wrist and pulled me the whole way up. While this was a nice gesture, I could no longer use my flashlight because with one hand I was holding a walking stick and he was holding the hand with my flashlight. It also really slows you down having someone right in front of you, trying not to step on his heels. I fell three times on this hike and drew blood once…I think our guide was very worried about me. At the top of the volcano we sat shivering, eating steamed banana sandwiches and hard boiled eggs waiting for the sunrise. Sadly, it was too cloudy to see much of anything. We got to warm up next to volcanic steam vents…those were hard to walk away from. However, there were some mischievous monkeys who took advantage of the food on the top of the volcano. They entertained themselves by jumping from hiker to hiker while they were watching the sunrise.

I do not think I could have dreamed up a better trip to end my time in Asia. Bali was a hard place to leave! But, in just five short days I will be heading back to Massachusetts to spend a week with my family and see my sister graduate college!! Then I will be off to Rainbow Trout Ranch to wrangle for the summer!

Now it is time to get through final exams! Stay tuned 🙂

Love,

Sorrell