Bali

Annie and I spent last Thanksgiving in Bali.  We started this tradition in '09 when we visited my cousin Judy in Mexico on the Mayan Rivera.  We were sitting on that beautiful Carribean beach in the sun when Annie turned to me and said,

"You know, this ought to be a tradition for us.  Let the kids fend for themselves on Thanksgiving while we loaf on a beach somewhere.  We've done our time in the kitchen with turkey."

I thought that was a great idea.  I have always thought turkey was overrated.

Bali is a beautiful place.  Green and lush and the people are friendly.  Tourism is an important business there.  I thought the prices were reasonable in the face of that.  I would have loved to have had dinner in the setting shown in the image above.  However, we traded that for a sunset dinner on the beach.

  

Good trade.  The food was outstanding. The food court in the image below was near our hotel.  We ate there more than once.  I can't say it was Asian street food cheap but it was oh sooooo good.

The sunsets are spectacular.  Here I caught some folks posing in the sunset.  This was on the beach right accross the street from our hotel.

And here's a child on the same beach in the same sunset.

  This fellow is a local muscian who happened to be providing dinner music at a roadside cafe.  We had stopped to view the landscape when I heard this music and snapped this image.

Here's proof that you can't be on the map unless you have a Hard Rock Cafe tucked away somewhere.

 There were lots of artisans.  Batik is popular.  There is also lots of woodworking.  These large slab tables were interesting.  I have been reading about them in my woodworking books.  The trick here is to get a slab this size to cure without large cracking. 

 

There were some beautiful temples.  The one shown here was called the Monkey Temple.  The setting was spectacular. 

 However the monkeys were spoiled.  They had attitude.  We were warned that they would steal stuff from you.  Sure enough, one grabbed Annie's sunglasses right off her head.  The one here is so interested in this juice bottle she forget to pull her skirt down.  These monkeys could have used some manners althought that is probally right up there with getting teenagers to clean their rooms. 

I will indulge in one last beach picture.  Those are monsoon clouds.  I reccomend Bali.  Even during monsoon.