Although I often think I am the one with the better end of
this deal, the system seems to work well for us. One person sits watching the bags, enjoying a
cold drink while the other person scours the town searching for a place to stay
for the night. I bet you can guess
which role was mine. :) The benefit of this system (besides getting
to relax with a cold drink while my husband searches the area) is not having to
walk around with our large backpacks on, which helps you feel less desperate
when trying to find a place so you don’t end up settling for the first room
that you find.
During our entire two weeks in Bali (and the following three
weeks in Thailand), we did not ever plan where we would sleep in advance. I became accustomed to the “fly by the seat
of your pants” type of traveling in which we never knew where we would rest our
heads for the night until that day arrived. At first it made me nervous but in the end I
think it was a real lesson in learning to trust. It stretched me to learn to trust my husband
and to trust God in new ways. Things
always worked out, we always had a place to stay. One part of learning to Love Well is learning to trust
as well.
Matthew and I have grown much from our times of serving and
seeing different ministries around the world, not to mention from the
incredible people we have met along the way.
But we have also grown much during our times of rest and
reflection. Our time in Bali was
definitely that. It was a great few
weeks of relaxing together and enjoying the culture and beautiful landscapes
Bali has to offer, as well as a time to rest and reflect and learn to trust.
We rented a car to explore the island and found ourselves
hopping from place to place … Kuta, Panangbai, Candidasa, Amed... no matter where we ended up, I thoroughly
enjoyed the quality time with my husband.
Our rental car
Driving in Bali proved to be a slight challenge but Matthew
handled it like a pro. Circling the
roundabouts when driving on the left side of the road takes some real
brainpower because all your instincts are telling you to go the opposite
way. There are hardly any street signs
and even when there are signs, the names of the streets suddenly change. Two-way streets suddenly turn to one-way
streets without warning or signs. The
streets are also full of mopeds and motorcycles weaving around, piled high with
people (including women holding babies) and random things.
An entire family on a moped
A moped carrying a load of balloons
Matthew and I found many wonderful little places to stay
with some gorgeous beaches nearby.
One of our rooms near the beach
Many of our days flew by while we sat on the beach, surfed, snorkeled, read, wrote in our journals, and watched the amazing waves. It was my first time seeing black sand beaches which are beautiful although really hot in the sun.
One of my favorite beach spots
Matthew surfing some amazing waves
Beautiful black sand beach
Snorkeling
During one of the snorkeling adventures, Matthew saw a ship wreck and captured it on video...
As we were driving around the island, Matthew and I also saw many Balinese
people taking offerings to the temple.
We also toured one of the incredibly large temples. Our tour guide stopped and played some music
for us.
One section of the large temple we toured
Our tour guide playing music
Another section of the temple
People bringing offerings to the temple
A highlight for me was the day we visited a volcano. The black lava covered the ground surrounding
the volcano even though it last erupted years ago. I went a little photo crazy because I had
never seen a volcano or lava before!
The black lava is in front
The black section in the middle is lava
The lava is in front on the left
Matthew and I decided to take a boat to a smaller Balinese island,
called Nusa Lembongan. This small island
does not have any cars on it. We stayed
in a bamboo hut overlooking the ocean.
Matthew went surfing and we enjoyed watching some incredible sunsets.
Our bamboo hut - we were on the 2nd floor
View of the sunset from our bamboo hut
Bali is a beautiful country and we saw some awe-inspiring sunsets almost every day. Here are pictures of some of them:
Ok, not a sunset but still beautiful :)
I have to end this post by sharing another story of God’s
hand of protection over us. As you know
from previous blog posts, we have been spared in several countries from riots,
protests, and even an earthquake in Nepal; all events that we missed because
our plans divinely changed at the last minute.
In Bali, we were headed back to Kuta where we started our trip, in order
to take the boat to the island. Matthew
and I had decided that we would buy a small computer to replace the broken
one. The day that we were supposed to
pick up the computer and head back to Kuta, we received a phone call from the
computer store. “The model you purchased
was not in stock so it won’t be ready until tomorrow.” This meant that we would have to spend a day
waiting in an area where there was not much to do, delaying our trip to the
island. Matthew made an effort to
comfort my disappointment when he said, “Don’t worry, everything happens for a
reason babe.” It was practically a passing
comment that flew by as we decided to explore the area and make the best of
it. I looked at it as another lesson in
learning to trust. We would spend an
extra day where we were and head to Kuta the next day. It was not until later that we would realize
that the computer delay was again God’s hand of protection over our lives. That night, we learned that there was an
earthquake in Bali. Where in Bali? Kuta.
Next destination on this grand adventure…three weeks in
Thailand
