Traveling around the world you will realize how important your computer, iPhone, or other wifi related device is to you. After we left the Aston on Kuta beach in Bali we went north to Ubud where we stayed at a nice hotel but it did not have the luxury of wifi without paying a hefty price for it. Coming from a family full of techie gurus and a dad who practically wrote the book on all things computer geek we need our gadgets. Even Lindsey was wilting a bit without the luxury of her iPod touch games.
The morning that we left Kuta it rained so we didn’t get to go surfing but we did get to check into our hotel and then travel the Bali countryside to the volcanoes. We ate at this buffet restaurant that looked out on the lava flows of one of Bali’s largest volcanoes. It was rather impressive and we took several family photos with the mountains in the background. The food was really good too and worth the money. We were practically starving because it was nearly 2pm and we hadn’t eaten since 9am. It was beautiful to eat and look out over the lava flows. There was one island of higher ground where everything was green. It was pretty cool.
Then we went to the largest Hindu temple in Bali, which they call the “mother temple”. It turned out to be comprised of 55 temples in total. Some of those temples are private ones for families. All of them are built out of the volcanic rock. Originally the main temple was built in the 8th century but has had to be rebuilt several times since then due to weather, erosion, and volcanic eruptions. I learned that there are 15000 temples throughout Bali. Also that there are certain celebrations that rotate through the temples and one is held every 100 years, every 10 years, and annually. For the celebration that is every century it was in the 1970s and over 70% of all Bali’s Hindu population came to it. We got to see pictures from it and the procession. It was a really interesting experience.
We finished off the day at our hotel and walked around near it in search of a restaurant with wifi. Yes, wifi. If the restaurant didn’t have wifi then we didn’t eat there. It was that simple. Most of the restaurants boast that they have free wifi but it sucks beyond all belief. There are very few times when I have been grateful for Thai internet and this was one of them. When the wifi range is so bad that it doesn’t even reach where you are sitting from the front then you might be in Bali. It was great though walking around the city and seeing all of the fun shops. Ubud is definitely more mountainous and we actually had some hills to climb. This provided some much needed exercise for all of us. Bali really has been a great experience.
Random Fact: In Tibet it is considered good manners to stick out your tongue at someone.
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