First off is Bali because I feel like it.
This rooster is one of the lucky ones that survived it's cock fighting - A tradition that lingers in Balinese villages. He was so awfully beautiful though.
A few days before my birthday, my best friend for a long long time called me up and invited me to Bali with her family in January. Bali had never been really high up on my list of places to go because all you hear are stories of bogan Aussies in Bintang singlets and Southern Cross tattoos roaming the streets. But because I know my friend and her family, I knew that we definitely wouldn't be in Bintang singlets.
This is my friend and I getting our legs exfoliated/cleaned by those little nibbly fish that have a fetish for dead skin. It was a very different experience to say the least.
Me with a local who really wanted a photo taken. He got so excited when he saw the little screen with his face on it. But then he started mentioning massage places and wanting email addresses so we slyly scuttled off.
The temple door in the Monkey Forest. Those monkeys were so so cute, except for the whole disease-carrying thing..
Our gorgeous deck chairs by the infinite pool, one of three different pools available to us. Oh except for my friend's families private pool of course.. My friend and I were staying on a hotel room at the resort but her parents and brother stayed in a private villa complete with their own sizeable infinity pool. Bliss! It was especially awesome when we went swimming in the pouring monsoonal rain.
The wall of the private villa and the pool. To the left was about a 20 metre drop to the forest floor.
The view from our balcony. The rice paddies were owned by a family and all the rice served to us in the hotel cafe was from those fields which is pretty-damn awesome. It was a little uncomfortable at time seeing this family living in a small hut while we were surrounded by pure and utter luxury. I didn't really know how to feel but you do have to remember that a huge majority of the Indonesian economy is from tourism. While the inequalities in this planet are appalling and intolerable, we have to remember that these people need to make a living and this can only be achieved through filling up the hotel rooms of this amazingly diverse country.
We also went for an elephant ride and our elephant had total attitude. Like honestly! Our elephant 'driver' and him had all these little tricks like casually pretending to flick us off his back and spraying water on us. Yeah cool Mr. Elephant.
He did have awfully pretty eyes.
This elephant looked like it had been to the salon with his gorgeous ombre hair. Stupidly, I didn't quite capture the mouth organ he was playing in his trunk. He was very musically gifted.
And this poor little sun bear in his enclosure. He sat on peoples laps and enjoyed lollies but I felt very sorry for him. At least he had company!
Bali was an awesome place that surprised me with it's diversity and incredible scenes. It was heartbreaking at times seeing such extreme poverty but so totally enlightening when you see the positivity that just beams from the faces of these people. Never have I ever seen such a cheerful country despite the conditions that they deal with. Inspiring to say the least! By next week I will pop up some more pictures from Bali that I took with my Diana F+ Lomography camera!
Hurrah chickens!
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