Amed

We left Ubud and traveled to Amed which is a small fishing village on the north side of the island. The drive was about 3 hours and very windy. Everyone seemed relieved to finally be out of the car. We stayed at the Hidden Paradise Cottages. The rooms were OK. They are older buildings made from brick and painted over. That and the tinted windows reminded me of late 70's American subdivisions, not really a good thing. So we spent lots of time at the pool and the snorkeling was pretty amazing right offshore. I don't want it to sound like I didn't have a good time, Ahmed was a very cool place and the HPC were just not up to the same level as our amazing places in other parts. Here are some pics:

 One of the last pictures with Geo in wings, that's right Geo learned to swim solo in this very pool.

This is the result of Lola wearing goggles all day. She had this bad habit of pushing her goggles into her her face to create a vacuum so that her goggles were sealed. All marks were gone quickly but it looked so bad for a bit.

Walking down the beach to dinner.

Enjoying my best purchase in Bali, my 22 ounce Bin Tang beer cozy. Never drinking ever warming beer again, that is my mission!

Rented a scooter and did as the Balinese. We got the whole family on it and explored the local area. There is something magic about a two wheeled vehicle. You are in it, not insulated from it. Your field of view is where ever you turn your head. And the best? The intimacy of it all. My wife is right behind me arms wrapped around me. It is like the intimacy of the bench seat in the huge early American cars. Slide on over baby. Only difference is that you are not carrying around all that pointless Detroit steel. Just the bare minimum of material and displacement to get to where you need to go. The gas mileage you ask? Well lets just say that it doesn't even matter. I could not have emptied the tank during the short time we were here.

 Drinks out on our scooter excursion. Lola slamming a banana smoothy.

That was it, back to Dhaka and our home sweet home!

Overview of the Bali trip

We just spent three weeks in Bali and I thought that I would post an overall explanation of where we went and then do individual posts about each place. The Dhaka airport was filled with teachers and students preparing to scatter for the Christmas break. There is no shortage of people to talk to and there are many people that were on the same flight. It would be interesting to see a graphic of where everyone involved in the school traveled to because I am sure that every continent had someone from AISD on it. Not exactly carbon neutral but culturally diverse??? Here is a great pic in the Dhaka airport... I think this sign would make a great t-shirt.

The first leg was a flight from Dhaka to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia then a 5 hour lay over spent with the DenHartighs in the airport. It was great to have the time fly by socializing with friends. Next flight was to Denpasar, Bali.

We arrived and were picked up by the driver from our first lodging. Luis was super nice and talked to us about the ubiquidous statues that we saw on our drive to Sanur. Here is a pic of one such statue:

 

We got settled and then Jessica's sister, her husband and their son arrived. Good to see some family! We spent 6 days in Sanur at this place:

Then took a ferry to Nusa Lombongan (an island that is a half hour boat ride off the coast of Bali). We spent three night there in some great little huts, including Christmas day. Here is our cabana... bummer.

Next we moved to another house in Ubud. Ubud is a mid sized town in the hills and rice feilds. We had another great house and spent 6 days there.

Next we went to the North side of the island to stay in a small fishing village named Amed. Here is a pic that pretty much sums it up:

We stayed in small cabanas for three days and then back to the airport and our day long return to Dhaka. It was a great trip in many ways but the best way to explain it is this: I was actually on vacation. I did not think about work at all! We were constantly moving and doing things and really enjoying the gift of time off in a foreign place. Stay tuned for more!