Bouncing Around Bali

Our next stop was in Bali, Indonesia. We decided to split our time between the Nusa Dua area and Seminyak.

The “Bali Collection” (a cool outdoor mall + restaurant area) was close to our hotel, so we explored a little and found this absolutely amazing tree.

The girls also treated themselves to a fish pedicure at the Revive Spa. In theory, the fish exfoliate your feet, leaving them silky smooth. In actuality, it pretty much freaked them all out.

Mony said it felt like tiny little shocks all over your feet.

I think this was a one and done experience.

We, of course, had to hit the grocery store where we found all sorts of new and interesting items. The Mung Bean ice cream was both fascinating and terrifying. “What the heck is a mung bean?!?”

We found the local LDS church, which was pretty cool. Some was in English, some in Indonesian. Speaker choice. But they had an amazing woman doing the translation both ways during the entire meeting—we all had little earphones for translating.

This is the street near the place we rented in Seminyak. As you can see: scooters. Tons and tons of scooters. The roads are a nightmare of cars and scooters and honking and everyone whipping in and out. Traffic signs, rules, all of if is only a suggestion. It’s a total riot and fun to watch. Just say a prayer before trying to cross the street.

Surfing lessons in Seminyak. Kindy was a natural and figured it out almost immediately—she’s the one the left. But, everyone was pretty good right out of the gate. Not me. I got rolled more times that I can count, but it was super fun.

Below is the Tegenungan Waterfall near Ubud. The water turns a murkier brown with sediment after a lot of rain.

Here we are visiting the Goa Gajah temple and Elephant Cave. It kinda reminded me of something out of an Indiana Jones movie, but no booby traps inside.

You can see everyone wearing sarongs to cover your legs (when wearing shorts) to show respect. You can get these at the entrance of the temple area.

We also visited a coffee plantation and saw a few of these sleepy animals below. They’re called civets. It kinda looks like a big cat. And, if you’re familiar with kopi luwak coffee, you’ll know why they have these civets around.

If you’re not familiar with kopi luwak coffee, you should know it’s created when these cute suckers eat coffee beans/cherries, digest them a bit, then poop them out. They then make coffee out of it.

Wild. Just…wild.

A cool false bird of paradise. That is all.

We also visited the Tirta Empul Temple, where the ladies participated in the bathing rituals and then we found the koi fish. For a few coins, you can buy fish food and watch the feeding frenzy.

These are rice terraces near Ubud.

And this is a gigantic swing that stretches clear over the valley. Kindy dressed in a flowing gown and the workers launched her—she has no fear!

This guy is found guarding the entrance to the monkey forest. We weren’t sure if he was guarding the monkeys or warning us.

And here are the monkeys. They’re everywhere.

They even leave the forest and explore nearby, using the power lines as overhead crosswalks to avoid the roads.

The end of the day after surfing (mostly drowning for me) in Seminyak.

We had a chef come to our AirBnB one day and prepare a fancy Balinese breakfast. Fun fact: turns out Beanie is allergic to Dragon Fruit. Not Epi-pen level allergic, but definitely won’t be drinking a glass of juice again anytime soon.

We also visited the Elephant Sanctuary north of Ubud—it took us a couple of hours to get there with traffic, and I barfed several times along the way due to motion sickness. I’m telling you, the traffic is wild and our driver got his license from the demolition derby association.

We started off by giving this girl a bath, both scrubbing and washing.

And then they took us on a ride around the sanctuary. Apparently, as of January 25, 2026, they’ve halted the elephant riding due to government directives.

Bali was fun, lots of mosquitos in our place in Seminyak, but worth all the cool activities. We asked the kids if they’d live in Bali, and they all declined. We agreed it was a fun trip to do once, but probably not a regular return vacation spot.

Next stop: Taiwan!