Beach, diving, and luxury

Our last week and a half has been great. (Unfortunately, our memory card reader isn't compatible with our new memory card, so we're not able to post any pictures right now. We're sure our descriptions won't be able to do justice to our surroundings.)

We spent 10 days with Andrew who just completed a trip to many of the same places that we've visited on this trip. He's looking for work in Singapore and flew to Bali to meet up with us. the entire time was a lot of fun. The three of us, along with Andrew's girlfriend and her sister, drove to the northwest coast to Menjangan. The best diving in Bali is here, and we spent the next couple days diving in this beautiful area. Alex spent her time on the boat, snorkelling, and relaxing by the pool at our private villa. The diving was great. It's the rainy season, so visibility wasn't as good as it could be, but Chris et. al saw lots of beautiful fish, as well as sea turtles and a white-tip reef shark. The area is essentially a wall of coral that descends vertically for hundreds of feet. At one site the current whipped us along the wall for over a quarter mile, which was exhilirating.

We then headed to the opposite side of the island to Sanur, where Andrew recently lived for a couple months. It was nice to see where Andrew lived, and the town has a beautiful beach. We also got great massages for $7 for an entire hour's massage in a setting that was as nice as any spa either of us had been to.

From Sanur, we traveled a long day to the Gili islands off of Lombok (Lombok is the next island 5 hours by boat to the east of Bali). The three small Gilis are the epitome of tropical paradise. Gili Meno is the quiet, almost uninhabited one; Gili Trawangan is the party island; and Gili Air's atmosphere is in between the two. We spent the next four nights on Gili Air. (During this time, Andrew's girlfriend became his ex-girlfriend, so we separated from her and her sister.) It's a small island completely surrounded by beautiful white-sand beaches. There are no cars or motos or even paved roads; the only transport is by horse-drawn buggy. It only takes a couple hours to walk around the entire island. We stayed in a lovely bungalow from one of the island's dive shops. Since Chris and Andrew were diving we got a great deal. The days for Chris and Andrew were spent diving -- it wasn't quite as beautiful as Menjangan but they still saw lots of fish and more white-tip sharks. The coolest fish was the school of bumphead parrotfish -- these big fish (about 5 feet long) have huge foreheads and big buckteeth that they use to eat coral. We had our lunches and dinners at small restaurants that were right on the beach, which featured lots of freshly caught seafood. Overall, Gili Air was one of our top places on this entire trip.

We spent our last night on Gili Trawangan. It's more built up than Gili Air but still has a similar feel. And it's reputation as a party island is well-deserved. The clubs blast music until 5 in the morning. It was a fun time, although the hour of sleep we got wasn't the best fuel for our long trip back to Bali the next morning.

We've now spent the last several days in Ubud, the cultural capital of Bali. It's a great city with lots of shops, an abundance of art galleries, nice architecture, and the island's best food. It's the type of city to just chill out and explore for a few days. We spent one last night with Andrew where we had a great dinner and took in a cultural dance show. The setting, at night in front of a lit-up temple, was gorgeous.

And then, the luxury. Alex's friends gave us a gift certificate to the Four Seasons, which we've used in Ubud. This was without question the nicest hotel either of us had ever stayed in. Located a mile west of the city center, it's situated in a lush valley over a river. The hotel doesn't even have regular rooms, only suites and villas. Our suite was a two-story place with 30 foot windows looking out onto the valley. Upstairs was a powder room, a balcony, and a large living room with a big flatscreen TV. Downstairs was the bedroom, master bathroom with awesome shower and big tub, and another big balcony with chaises. Everything about the hotel was perfect -- complimentary fruit throughout the day, a big infinity pool overlooking the river, etc. They even lent sneakers to us for the gym, since we didn't bring any on this trip. The changing areas were more like spas than locker rooms. And off the gym were three smaller infinity pools (cold, hot, neutral temperatures), which had beautiful views.

We spent three nights there, and unfortunately were starting to get used to the luxury. Tonight we begin a long trip to New Zealand where accomodations will be a little different -- we've rented a camper van, which is what we'll be using for almost the entire time we're in the country. The camper van is essentially a mini-van with bedding and cooking equipment. We're excited and think it'll be a lot of fun; but it's no Four Seasons.