Day 6

Day 6- Bali

We slept in and hit the breakfast buffet right around 10:00. The food again was simply incredible. We had to check out of the Novotel Resort and head over to the Melia Benoa Resort right around noon. We ate and packed up our stuff. We went over to the Melia Benoa Resort and it was so gorgeous. I could have lived there. They had so much outdoor living space incorporated in their resort. It really was amazing. It felt so spa like as well with all the stones and water features. In Bali when you check in they always give you a little drink. We thought that was pretty cool! It was some type of fruit drink and it was delicious. We also got one of these each time we went to the spa. 

We walked around the hotel and checked out our rooms. We went up and got dressed and headed down to the beach for some relaxing. The beach was right on the other side of the pool. That was really nice. When we got to the beach we went to check out some of the activities that they had. Fabi and I wanted to do the parasailing and the boys wanted to do something called the Fly Fish. It took like 15 minutes and a few cocktails to talk Fabi into doing it with me, but when they hooked us all up they said we had to go one at a time. Fabi DID NOT like this idea at all. I went first to show her that it wasn't scary, but after I was strapped in and they got some air in the parachute I shot up like a rocket. After that we all knew Fabi was NOT going. It was so beautiful up in the air. It was a little boring compared to skydiving, but was still fun to try.

After I went parasailing the boys got to try the Fly Fish. It's a new water activity. It was a huge tube thing (See picture below) that is pulled behind a boat. You lay down on your back and hold on to the handles and the boat causes it to fly up in the air. Rhett and James really enjoyed it and said they would definitely be getting this in the states soon if they don't already have it. 

After the activities we started walking back to the resort and saw this beautiful pool at a new resort. Not one person was in it so James asked if we could swim. They said if he bought a drink at the bar then we could all swim.  It was so beautiful and it was a blast to have the entire pool to ourselves. 

We caught a taxi back to our place because we were all soaking wet and it was a little ways away. Poor Rhett actually ran back to grab our wallet that we had left in a bag on the beach and by the time he got back we had been swimming for about 20 minutes. Poor Rhett. I was so thankful that he did it though because I was worried about all our money being stolen just laying there without us near it.

When we got back it was near dinner time so we decided to head again to the Bali Collection. It had such a great variety of restaurants that we never ate at the same place twice. We had a coupon for two for one, hour long massages so we hit that up first. We had planned on heading to Kuta to check out a nightclub, but we are so old that we were worn out by the time we ate and had our massages. Rhett wasn't feeling very well either. I felt so bad for him. It's never fun to be sick on vacation. 

Here are some pictures. I wanted you to be able to see what a beautiful resort we were staying in.  Enjoy!

This is the front lobby!

Here I am with the welcome drink. (Non-Alcoholic of course)

Out on our balcony.

The view from our balcony.

The hallway.

Just a little reading nook!

The Pool.

This was our room.

Fabi showing off the beautiful landscaping.

Right off the lobby. They had outdoors incorporated everywhere you turned. It was so amazing!

Getting ready to go parasailing.

The wind caught me and took me up so fast that I went from 0 to about 100 feet in 10 seconds. You can see my ugly henna tattoo in the picture below. lol. I am so glad that thing only lasted 2 weeks. That was right when I got done. I was still trying to convince Fabi to give it a try, but she opted to just sit and watch.

The boys getting ready for the fly fish!

The boys flying up. I guess the guy who was on it with them got them up high in the air and asked Rhett and James if they wanted to flip over. Rhett immediately said, "Yes." He thought it would be a blast at first thought. Then he really thought about it. What if they were flipped over when they came back down? The guy went to fake flipping them and both guys freaked. He then just started laughing his head off. :) 

Just another flying fish photo.

This was the hotel that had NO ONE in their pool and let us swim.

Here was the pool. They even brought us all towels out. They were so nice!

Being goofy. The girls taught us those beautiful poses we are doing.

Me and Fabi at the spa. That was our favorite place in Bali for sure.

Day 5

Day 5- Bali

We started the next day bright and early. We had rented scooters for the day and were really excited to play around on them. We rented 3 so Fabi and I were planning on taking turns riding our own. It was cool because it was was $10 for the entire day. As the guy was explaining the rules about the scooters he said, "If you get pulled over by a cop you should just give them money." That way they won't give you a ticket. Nice! We started by cruising down to the Bali Collection for our daily massage. We did 60 minute full body massages for $14. It was so nice. Rhett and I were in one room and Fabi and James were in another. The music was playing and it was so relaxing I almost fell back asleep. That's when they started to slap Rhett's leg. I started giggling and couldn't stop. We had just had a conversation with Fabi about when they were in Thailand and the lady at a spa had asked James if he wanted a happy ending right in front of Fabi. I had this on my brain I guess. It made such a funny noise when she was slapping him. I know it wasn't very professional of me, but I just couldn't stop laughing.

After our massage we got brunch at one of the restaurants. Rhett and Fabi got the coconut curry and James and I got sandwiches. The food was great. We then decided to head to Kuta. Kuta is where the younger crowd tends to hang out. We dropped my scooter back at the hotel because I was nervous about keeping up with the boys. I hopped on the back of Rhett's and we were off. That was the SCARIEST ride of my entire life. I thought for sure we were going to die. There were scooters everywhere weaving in and out of the cars like a delicate dance with everybody inches apart. All hell could have broke loose at any given moment. There really are no rules when driving in Indonesia. It just was sort of a free for all. When we finally made it to our destination Rhett was very surprised we hadn't wrecked!

We drove all around and stopped at a quiksilver store to try and find a backpack for their little girl. Then somehow James got turned around and we headed back to Nusa Dua. We filled up with gas and asked how close we were to Kuta and the attendant just smiled and said we were no where near. We changed plans and headed to Ulawatu because we had met someone one the plane that highly recommended it. The beach was suppose to be incredible.

We got to Ulawatu and headed to the temple first. They gave us sarongs to wear and we had a good laugh about Rhett and James in theirs. As we were about to go in we saw our first monkey. James went behind it to touch it and let me tell you these monkeys don't have much of a sense of humor (See video below). Before we walked in there was a ton of old people trying to get us to hire them for protection from the monkeys. We opted to fend for ourselves. They warned us to watch our belongings because the monkeys tend to steal stuff. We laughed thinking this to be false. Boy were we wrong! We got to the temple portion and it was gorgeous. It was on a cliff and the waves were huge beneath us. As we walked around a corner a monkey snatched James' sunglasses right off his face. I thought I was going to die I was laughing so hard. He chased the monkey in his purple sarong but couldn't get them back. He finally paid a local to get them for him. He tossed some fruit to the monkey and it left the glasses for the fruit. I have my suspicions that they may be trained.

After walking through the temple and the beautiful grounds we started back out the gate. Rhett and James were walking really fast and I started to freak out. There was a HUGE monkey between me and Rhett and he was totally eyeballing me. I mean I knew he was going to attack or something. Fabi grabs me and we are both frozen and screaming as the monkey scampers towards us. Rhett and James are laughing as we try to run back from the monkey. Fabi stumbles and loses her flip flop. The monkey quickly snatches it and runs for the trees. I, at this point, was just glad to see the monkey gone. Fabi paid another local to get her shoe back, but he had totally broke the bottom of it. We then watched another monkey jump right on a girl. I would have peed myself for sure. I made Rhett hold my hand the rest of the time around the monkeys.

After the Ulawatu temple we headed to the beach. It was AMAZING. It was like a little village carved out of the cliffside. You walk along these cool pathways past restaurants and stores right on the cliff face. You finally reach a set of stairs that lead you down to the water. It was absolutely breathtaking. We walked down and wanted to get in the water, but the waves would have eaten us alive. We were all starting to get a little bit hungry at this point so we headed up to this cool little cafe right on the cliffside.  It had the greatest view ever. You looked right out at only water. The atmosphere was awesome, but I have to be honest, we felt a little out of place there. It was like they there were shooting an Abercrombie and Fitch or Calvin Klein ad. All the people were super tan with chiseled bodies, and sun-bleached hair. All these beautiful people walking around in bathing suits made me feel super self conscience. :) And it certainly didn't help that I felt like I was walking with a pirate limp due to being on the scooters all day.

We ordered another pizza and a couple of chocolate shakes. The pizza was okay, but the shake was worthy enough to be compared to a Wendy's frosty.

We went over to the other side of the restaurant and saw this sweet pool. It was an endless pool that was completely overlooking the water. It was for hotel guests only and we didn't want to pay the outrageous price to swim in it, but boy did we enjoy the view. We watched the sunset and then thought we had better head back. It was quite the drive back to our hotel with crazy drivers and ridiculous turns through nowhere. :) We finally reached our beach and they were having a big seafood BBQ there. Rhett and I decided to head back and swim in our pool while Fabi and James were ready to eat again. It was such a great day. We played in the pool then headed in to make good use of the HUGE bathtub that our room provided. ;) It was a much needed hot soak after being on scooters all day! 

Oh before I forget... A fun fact about Bali Indonesia- Their money is called Rupiah. For $100 US you get about $850,000 rupiah. I was totally a millionaire there. :)

Our scooters for the day.

This was one of the temples. This one was at the Bali Collection. They have a temple in every little village so you see them EVERYWHERE!

Fabi showing off her coconut curry. She and Rhett got Thai food almost everywhere we went while me and James stuck with familiar foods. :) I know, no adventure. lol.

Taking a break to look at quiksilver.

This was the coolest part of seeing all the scooters. Everyone adapts their scooter to fit their needs. Some people use it to sell fruit while others carry huge boxes or crates. Some people use it as a van and carry their two kids and wife with them. This broke my heart because none of the kids had on helmets. :( We even saw a couple guys carrying shovels and pick axes with them. They really use the scooters for everything. It was a little scary.

A monkey at the Ulawatu Temple.

At the temple. Don't mind the ugly hat. I bought it a few minutes prior to the picture because my ears were getting burnt. Also, don't mind the "peace" sign. I've been in Japan too long. lol.

The monkey that stole James' sunglasses. You can see them in his mouth as he was running away!

Rhett in his beautiful sarong at the temple.

Heading down to the beach.

Check out those waves. They were seriously so big.

Up at the restaurant. Check out that beautiful view!

Just waiting for our food to get done.

Rhett enjoying the amazing view! Uluwatu is seriously a must if you ever go to Bali!

A sweet kiss as we watched the sunset.

This was that awesome pool. Isn't it incredible! I love how it just looks like it goes on forever.

Rhett getting ready to hop in our pool back at the resort.

Here is a little video of one of the monkeys at the temple. Remember to pause the music in the top right corner so you can hear the video.

Day 4

Day 4- Bali

We got to Bali right around 3:00 a.m. We were all so tired and ready for a cozy bed to sleep in. We checked in and they gave us this yummy fruit drink. We were all too tired to drink it except Rhett who drank all four. :) We got assigned to our rooms and were a little disappointed that they were in a different building, but they were all booked up so we couldn't move closer together. We stumbled up to our room. I was so tired I couldn't really appreciate how beautiful the resort was. 

I debated about taking a shower right then or in the morning because it was a complete toss up whether I wanted sleep or to be clean. I chose to take a quick shower. I hopped in, washed my hair, and hopped out. I was walking around the room brushing my teeth naked when all the sudden the phone rings. I IMMEDIATELY drop to the floor knowing who it is and why they are calling. Rhett answers the phone and James says, "Tell your wife to close the blinds." I was horrified! Rhett walks over to the window and says back to James, "Can you see me? I'm doing the helicopter." I seriously had the hardest time looking James in the eye the next morning. It didn't really help that he teased me about it several times. :) Oh well, live and learn! They could only see because they were up one floor from ours and directly diagonal from our building. They both had a good laugh though!

We slept in, and it was so nice to be able to sleep in a bed. We went down to breakfast right before the buffet closed at 10:00. The food was so GOOD! They had all the fixings plus all the breakfast foods from any country you may be from. 

After breakfast the girls went to facebook their kids while the boys went to check out the tours. 

When they came back we were chilling in the outdoor bar area on a comfy pillow couch and Rhett says he is in dire need of a nap. I had finally woke up and a nap was NOT on my list for the day so we split up. I went to check out the Bali Collection with Fabi and James while Rhett went back to bed. 

As we were discussing what we were going to do we threw out the suggestion of a massage. Rhett wanted to go and do the massage, but instead we decided to head over to the shopping mall. That is why he went back to take a nap. We promised to do massages later in the day with him.

The Bali Collection was this beautiful outdoor mall. It has tons of stores and restaurants. We walked up to the Tropical spa and saw that they had a deal for a neck, shoulders, head massage. We did 40 minutes of that and it felt so good that we did another 40 minutes on our feet. The total cost $14. Sorry Rhett, it was just too tempting. :) We called Rhett after we were finished with the massages to see if he wanted to meet up for lunch. We shopped around for a little bit and decided we wanted to check out the beach at our resort. They had this amazing little restaurant right on the beach. Rhett and I got this BBQ chicken pizza that was FANTASTIC! 

We stayed and watched the waves for a while until it started to cool off. We thought a jacuzzi would be divine. James called the spa and they assured us that they had one. We headed over to the spa where the jacuzzi was and were way disappointed that they were separate. Mens and Womens. At that point we didn't really care. I hopped in and hopped back out nearly as fast. Ours was ICE cold. The boys were enjoying theirs way too much to feel bad. They kept telling us to sneak over, but it wouldn't have worked. The lady was constantly checking on us. Fabi and I decided to head back to our rooms and shower and get dressed up to head back out that night.

We decided to head back out to Bali Collection and hit up one of their restaurants. It was amazing and so cheap. I had 4 huge shrimp and fresh clams. They grilled everything and it was the best seafood I have had. That is saying something because I love Red Lobster. :) They had this band that was playing music and singing all the popular songs. The atmosphere was absolutely incredible. Rhett requested a couple songs for the band too, Hotel California and Rhinestone Cowboy. They did a pretty good job! 

It was a really fun night and a perfect relaxing day!

Rhett and James coming back from checking out tours. Love the height difference. :)

They had landscaped everything so beautifully.

Getting ready to head over to the Bali Collection with Fabi and James.

In the massage room. James wigged out about having a boy so I gladly took him. I did laugh my head off though as he explained that he wouldn't be able to relax at ALL with some dudes hands on him. :)

At the Novatel beach. That pizza was so yummy!

Rhett in front of the fresh catch of the day. Check out the size of those shrimp. That's what I had.

At the restaurant listening to the band and just enjoying being together!

Here is one with the band in the background and check out how long my hair is. We got those extensions in Shanghai! :)

Day 3

Day 3- Singapore

After the absolute WORST night's sleep in the world we arrived in Singapore. We got a bite to eat at Burger King at the airport. Rhett was super excited because they had Milo. Milo is like hot chocolate in Australia. He took a huge drink and scalded the heck out of his mouth. I felt so bad. He had like 50 pores in his tongue that were completly sticking up in protest. It hurts so bad to burn your mouth and then it feels funny for days. Poor kid! After dropping off the luggage at the luggage locker we were off to explore. We didn't have a hotel room for the day because our flight for Bali was leaving that night at 2:00 a.m. We bought tickets to the hippo tour bus for all day so that we could hop on and off as we pleased. We started the morning by heading over to little India. We had fun walking through their little shops and Fabi and I even got a henna tattoo together. :)

Rhett was teasing me so I made the lady add his initials. lol. 

We got back on the bus and listened to all the fun facts about Singapore and learned several cool things. One thing you may not know about Singapore is that it is illegal to chew gum there. It is also one of the CLEANEST places I have ever been. They have very strict laws on the buildings and they have to be redone every so many years to make sure it looks brand new. It is also very expensive to be a car owner there. They only allow cars that are 5 years old or newer. They send all their older cars to Japan. Interesting, huh? Singapore is also home to the world's largest ferris wheel. 

After being on the bus for an hour or so we headed courtesy of James to the Raffles hotel. The home of the Singapore Sling. It is an alcoholic drink. It was really important for us to stop so that James could get one. They seated us and me and Fabi starting chowing down on the peanuts. They brought us a menu and James almost died at the price. It was $26 for one Singapore Sling. We quickly looked over the menu hoping to find something we could actually afford, maybe a coke or something. ;) They had nothing so after weighing our options we left $5 for the peanuts and quickly snuck out just praying that our waiter wouldn't come back in time to see us.

We went back to the bus and rode over to the botanical garden. It was so gorgeous. We walked around for a few minutes, but it was later in the afternoon and we were all dragging. No hotel was pretty brutal. We found this beautiful gazebo with a few benches down by the pond. We sat to rest for a bit and immediately feel asleep. I'm pretty sure we slept for about 2 hours. We woke up to a landscaper sweeping the gazebo. I was a little embarrassed, but he didn't seem too mad about our little rest. 

We headed over to this little Thai restaurant to have dinner. It was so good, but I have NEVER had anything so spicy in my life. Rhett thought his mouth was on fire. It was funny because we all ordered it mild and the staff thought we were hilarious as we drank gallons of water with every bite of curry! 

We split up after dinner so the boys could check out  this world famous 5 story electronics store. The girls went to check out clothes and other stuff like that. We just had a place to meet back in an hour. 

After we got back together we headed back to the airport. 

We hung around the airport for several hours trying to sleep on the benches before boarding the plane for another HORRIBLE flight! Thankfully it was only a an hour and a half to Bali. Which was good! We were starting to really get to know each other well at this point with no sleep and crazy food schedules. We learned that Fabi and Rhett are ruled by their stomaches. If they started to get mad we knew it was feeding time. :)

On the hippo tour bus. Look how tired we look! lol. It was a double decker bus and we loved sitting up on the top for the breeze and the view! It was a fun experience. It told you about every area before it would stop so you could see all the cool attractions when it dropped you off.

This is Fabi's tattoo. I got mine on my lower belly. I did not realize that you had to wait 20 minutes for it to dry. I looked AWESOME with my shirt tied up high. I was so embarrassed! :)

The largest ferris wheel in the world.

The Raffles Hotel- Home of the Singapore Sling.

Me and Rhett at the clock in front of the botanical garden.

Fun fact- Singapore is one of the only cities to have a tropical rainforest within it's city limits.

Everything was just so green! It really was a very beautiful city. Very expensive though!

It's funny to look at this picture. I have to say that honestly I slept better right here than I did on the plane coming to Singapore. Poor Rhett though. That does NOT look comfortable!

Day 2

Day 2- Shanghai

We woke up the next morning and got everything all packed up and ready to go. We checked out of the hotel and left our luggage with the baggage claim for the day. Our flight wasn't leaving until midnight and we didn't want to have to carry it around with us.

We got a taxi over to the Bund, or historical part of Shanghai, again and decided to do a little shopping. We started by going down a couple rows of street shopping. They had all the normal junk from Mexico and MORE. :) We had a blast trying to barter and get them to come down to our price. It surprised me how into Angry Birds every store was. They had clothes, backpacks, toys, pens, magnets, and school supplies. We walked along and picked up a couple toys for the kids. Rhett bought a watch from someone carrying it in his little briefcase. This is still a sore subject because not only is the watch crap, but when he gave us our change he gave us Russian money which no one takes or exchanges. Little con artist. His lazy eye was so distracting that when he switched us our Yuan for Russian money we didn't even notice! :)

We had bought fruit smoothies on the way over to the shopping and let me tell you- Chinese do NOT know how to make a fruit smoothie. It was more like water with a mango aftertaste. Poor Fabi had ordered pineapple and papaya and learned that they have two names for pineapple. If you just say pineapple it means you want pear, but if you say puu then you want pineapple?!? Hmm, that sounds like a scam if I have ever heard one. Anyway the water juice was pretty gross so we were all starving. We saw a KFC and got totally excited for lunch. There was a guy that James had been talking to so when me and Fabi walked in the store he touched my arm and said, "I'll wait right here for you." "Okay, whatever!" It would have made more sense if we had known James had been talking to him. We just thought he was a little creepy! :)

We ordered a box of chicken. It came with 3 cokes, and a small roll. No sides though. It was sort of weird to be eating JUST CHICKEN! It tasted so good though. Nothing like something familiar when you are starving. 

On the way out there was this lady holding her unconscious baby that broke my heart. She was begging for money and it just tore me up seeing this poor baby that we all donated to the cause.   

After that the same guy was still outside waiting for us. He took us around to all these fun hidden shops. He went to show the guys some stuff for iphones and then he had Fabi and I come with him. As we were walking down a tiny little alley going deeper and farther from the guys we started to get a little nervous. He was right there to assure us in his broken English, "It okay. You safe wit me." Yikes! Now that I look back that could have been a really scary situation. He seemed nice enough though. I mean he had waited for us to finish eating. :)

Anyway, we ended up in a store full of designer purses and watches. We each picked out a new coach purse and he assured us countlessly, "It's real." Yeah, real fake! :) It is a fun, pretty little thing though and as long as nobody else thinks it's fake I'm good, right?

After that, the boys bought new head phones and Rhett bought a really great North Face coat. Me and Fabi also had fun buying hair extensions and outfits for the kids. :)

After all that shopping we headed over to the beautiful Yuyuan Gardens. We loved walking and seeing the cool architecture of the buildings. We made our way up to this old tea house. This tea house was 180 years old and people from all across the world come to do the tea ceremony. It is said to bring you luck through your lifetime. Fabi and James love tea so we obviously had to do the ceremony. It was fun to watch as they made us 13 different types of tea. They were all herbal and had different uses and meanings. We don't drink tea normally nor do we like it, but it was cool to see James and Fabi enjoying the different flavors so much.

After the tea ceremony we headed back over to the Huangpu River for the tour we had missed the night before. It was relaxing and by this time I was very much in need of a chair to sit and chill for a little bit. The tour got a little boring towards the end so Rhett made up this fun game where he would pick out somebody on the shore and we would all wave to them until they waved back. Every single person waved back to us EXCEPT one. He knew it was him that we were waving to, but just wouldn't do it. Several other people on the ship joined in on the fun and waved right along with us.

Side Note- I am going to stereotype the Chinese people for just a second. Please don't take this personally anyone... this was just my own observation. Chinese people are rude! I am so used to the Japanese that are overly kind and would slam on their breaks on the freeway to let someone in. Chinese people at least in Shanghai were rude. They have no concept of what a line is and they push a lot. I think this may be do to the crazy population and they just have to fend for themselves, but seriously they need to learn some manners. I'll throw out just a few examples even though I could go on and on about this subject. First, I was waiting in front of a stall in the restroom for my turn to go. Two ladies ran right around me to get in when it opened it. I mean come one. Wait your turn. Second, we all were waiting for an elevator and we were directly in front of it having learned our lessons earlier in the day. They shoved me as it opened up just to run and get in. Third, when we were at KFC and even though there were four registers open there were no lines. It was just a mosh of people clawing to get to the front. There were at least 12 people standing right at the front bar just hoping to order next. It was mass chaos. Grr... I am a person that likes my personal space and Shanghai was not the place to get it!

Back to the day- After we did the boat tour we headed to the French Colonial part of the city and had dinner at this AMAZING Greek restaurant. It was so good! This side of the city was absolutely gorgeous and you could really tell that they cared about presentation. I wish we had spent more time in this area. It was so great! The food was amazing. The restaurant was on the second floor overlooking a road and the weather was perfect for outside dining!

We then headed back to the hotel to grab our luggage. After being out in the heat and humidity all day we were all in dire need of a shower. We begged the front desk to let us run up to the spa showers and they obliged. It was nice to get a quick shower in before heading to the airport. It was a fun filled day and we were all tired. Our plane left at midnight heading to Singapore.

This was in the hotel lobby. This is the largest single piece jade carving in the world! It took 10 full years to carve it.

A view of the strip from the bund in Shanghai.

Right after our water juice! Yum yum!

The Yuyuan Gardens. Lots of bamboo, but not a lot of kung fu pandas.

This was a guy that tried to slap Rhett for taking his picture. lol.

Rhett bartering for some headphones.

This guy was out sharpening his knife for one of the kitchens. 

The 180 year old tea ceremony!

My handsome husband-

This is what I picture when I think of China. It didn't disappoint!

The Huangpu River tour.

The Greek Restaurant we ate at!

This is how we all felt waiting for our flight!

Again, please pardon the typos. I really need to do this earlier in the day when my mind hasn't completely turned to mush!