The pictures are below, but I'll summarize some of our trip here -- then you can refer to the pics! :-)
We arrived in Bali on the August 9th (Sunday) and left on the 16th (Sunday)... it was so nice to get away from unpacking boxes!! The first few days we spent decompressing at the beach, Lio and I both read 2 books while we were there!
We took surfing lessons on Tuesday -- I have just the 'before' pics, but we did buy the CD with all of the pictures that the professional took from the beach -- so I'll put them in another post! It was really fun!! I was better at it than Lio (haha) -- I got up the first time and it took Lio quite a few more tries but he got the hang of it by the end! :-) It was really nice because we did a private lesson (1 instructor and the 2 of us) -- so I'm sure that helped our success rate!
Wednesday we went to a special dinner that included traditional Balinese music and dancing -- 'The Best of Bali.' You will see a couple of pictures from that night. As we entered they dressed us up in traditional clothing -- the wrap to cover the legs with a special belt and a head scarf for the men and a flower in the women's hair. It was really fun and interesting to hear the music... the best way I can describe it is Chinese chime music?? And the dancing was a little Chinese also with them posing and then moving their eyes back and forth at some points in the dance. It was kinda creepy but a cool experience all the same!
NOTE - I don't claim to be an expert on Chinese music/dancing, so I'm sorry if I've offended anyone! :-)
On Thursday we did the ubiquitous souvenir shopping at the only mall on our side of the island. They mostly specialize in craved wood figurines and very tight basket weaving.
We also did a 'fish spa' -- this is where you put your feet into a tank with little fish who eat the dry skin off of your feet. (see picture) It's actually a fun experience -- it just feels like bubbles running over your feet and legs. (I even convinced Lio to do it with me!!)
That evening we went on a private sunset tour of the Uluwatu Hindu Temple which was built on the side of a cliff. What beautiful pictures!! We had to be dressed in the traditional attire to enter the area around the temple -- but we were not allowed to go into the actual temple. We saw a TON of monkeys -- see the pics (Lio loves monkeys apparently...he took lots of pictures of them!) - they tell you not to wear sunglasses, earrings, and keep everything close to you because the monkeys will steal it.
We actually saw a girl who was wearing pearl earrings and a monkey ran up (the monkey must have been scoping her out) and ripped one out of her ear. (She was fine, BTW) The local kids got the earring back from the monkey by giving it a treat, then charged the couple money to have it back. Sounds like they have a little system going to me...
Anyways, our tour guide was a trip... I can't even explain him here -- but he was very talkative and said the same thing over and over again -- quite interesting!
Friday we scheduled snorkeling and a trip to Turtle Island. We didn't expect much from the Turtle Island part because we had scheduled the tour really just for the snorkeling. What a NICE surprise!! We first went snorkeling, it was a little subpar... there were a lot of people/boats and the water was really dirty on the surface (lots of seaweed, etc.). Though we did get to see a lot of really colorful fish, it was sad to see the condition of the coral... people were standing on it, etc.
The best part was Turtle Island! (see pictures!!) We got to see baby, adolescent, and then adult sea turtles!! It was so cool, we held a younger turtle and then got to stand in the water and feed the 50-60 year old ones!! They don't bite -- unless you get the food (seaweed?) right next to your leg on accident, which I did! I got bit!! It more just startled me -- it didn't hurt. Then after the turtles, we went and saw the other animals they have there... iguana, hawk, and a toucan. The toucan was very friendly -- it wanted to get into our mouths when it was on our arm... someone must have fed it from their mouth and that idea stuck! It was pretty funny!
We did feel a little bad about seeing all of them in cages, but they looked healthy and maybe they rescued them or something. It was just such a cool experience to be so close to the animals!
Tubing!
On the way to Turtle Island we saw the coolest tube ever... they pull it behind a boat and it FLYS! Ha! It was pretty scary actually! They strap you in between the baffles of the tube (only 2 people will fit - one on either side) and then a guy rides (you can see him more than the people strapped down) on the top -- in a position like you would ride a normal tube. He was not tied onto the tube... he was just holding on. Crazy -- they went really high! (see pics!!) I don't know if they would let you use that on Table Rock! :-)
The last couple of days we relaxed at the beach/pool and didn't want to leave when Sunday rolled around!! It was such an awesome vacation!!
Here is the web album... just click on the pictures to get to the bigger pics!
(sadly, we forgot our camera that night and this is the only picture I have with Steve that I can find! Playing golf in 100 deg weather...very attractive!)
(Note - The awesome poodle that was hanging out with everyone in the water... it would have been perfect if it was holding (pawing) a beer)
Melody & Joe (family friends) 
