(Sorry I haven't written anything about Malaysia yet, it was great and I will post something soon but I am consumed with amazingness of Bali at the moment...)

Ubud
I woke to the crows of roosters in the rice patties outside my front porch at 5am, clearing their throats in announcement of sunrise. The white mosquito net around my bed fluttered over my head in the breeze from the fan as rolled over and drifted back into sleep. The sun was streaming through my window when I finally opened my groggy eyes, excited to explore the city but still tired after being awake for nearly 48 hours straight besides a few naps on the bus and plane. I walked down the mossy stone steps to a wooden table with a nice view of a small rice patty, a Balinese girl came over and served me coffee followed by a plate of fruit and a jaffle, an egg pocketed between two pieces of toast. Dewa the owner of Jati Homestay said "goodmorning Amanda" from his computer then walked over and handed me a map of the city as well as a schedule of performances and tours for the area. The guy who picked me up from the airport, also named Dewa, walked around the corner and asked me if I slept well then invited me to come on a bike tour tomorrow. The contagious friendly happiness spread across my face in a smile, I felt so welcome and excited to explore the city. Kids with enormous brown eyes looked up from their games and smiled as I walked by the little family compounds within the walls of the homestay, wooden chimes clinked and the roosters continued to gawk. At the end of the quiet narrow stone passageway, the colorful street was buzzing with morning activities. Ladies picked up big baskets and easily balanced them ontop of their heads while holding a baby or a big bag of rice on their hip. An intricately beautiful little banana leaf basket filled with purple and pink flowers and incense announced each doorstep as I carefully hopscotched across the cobblestones trying to crushing them. A lady played with her gorgeous little black haired baby on the front steps of a shop, smiling and saying hello, asking me to take a look at the dresses. Dresses in blues and purples, reds and greens lit the streets from behind glass storefront windows, paintings leaned inside open air galleries, shadow puppets froze in rows of simultaneous crouching and masks greeted me with smiles and oustreached tongues. I was so happy I just wanted to laugh. I loved Ubud instantly, a place so overwhelmingly amazing I couldn't take it all in. Shop after shop of amazing things, anything you could want, everything you wish you could buy. I started planning gifts for everyone, too many choices I had no idea where to begin. I was hungry from my morning of walking and hot from the happy sun so I sipped freshly squeezed mango juice as I browsed menus for lunch. I noticed one with some people far in the back on a porch and decided to take a table after seeing a few interesting things on the menu. I sat a bamboo table with only a rail between my chair and a stretch of green rice patties, the shade under the bungalow canopy was cool and it was nice to relax while I waited for my food. The skinny baliniese girl walked over, saying sorry as she placed a plate of Gago Gado infront of me with an array of colorfully arranged vegetables, rice and tempeh as well as a Bintang Beer. I sat peacefully finishing every bite of the delicious food, such a wonderful afternoon relaxing by the still water on the patties. I walked back into the sun and the now busy Monkey Forest Road, greeted for the rest of the afternoon by various groups of boys asking "hello ladys where you goeeing? need taxi? have motorbike. Where you want to go?" followed by girls sitting on sidewalks with crossed legs and outstretched arms waving flyers and offering "maaassage maaasage, good discount". I smiled with a "hello…no thank you" probably two hundred times but somehow instead of annoying me it put me in a pleasant mood. Compared to the pushy, loud taxi drivers in Malaysia who surrounded me and hovered for ten minutes, practically yelling at me to take a taxi, the Balinese refrain of "transport transport" was like a happy chant. I discovered a market maze at the end of the street and wandered without concept of time or place, browsing at clothes and jewelry, pottery and paintings until I had no idea how to get back on to street. Eventually I retraced my steps of course trailed by the cries of ladies trying to sell me one more bracelet. I took a short break back in my room, dropping off my purchases for the day and asking for directions to a vegetarian restaurant in the middle of the rice patties. My feet ached from walking all day but I really wanted to see the sunset in the middle of the fields so I walked out of the city and up a hill until green and brown terraced patties streached endlessly ahead of my narrow stone path. I held my breath with excitement, how amazing, what an incredible place. No cars could fit down the little path, I passed a few people finishing up the day's work and a couple motorbikes zipping by. The sun was setting behind the clouds casting only muted colors and shadows across the shallow still water. Palm trees echoed in puddles, ducks scattered water with quacks and webbed feet, a little boy carried a bundle of sticks balancing on a green strip between two square patties. Later I passed an old man with a long scruffy white beard, dark wrinkled skin and pointed straw hat, balancing a long stick on his shoulders with dirty green coconuts tied to the either end. The land so beautiful and peaceful as dusk settled. I decided I need to wake up early one morning and watch the sun rise over the fields. In the distance I saw a bungalow style building and my empty stomach was happy to discover it was Sari Oganic, the restaurant I had been looking for. I sat on a purple cushioned chair under the thatched roof on the elevated porch. Layers and layers of square rice patties scattered the landscape like a floor full of mirrors thinly framed in green. The sky melted to purple black as I sipped sweet water from a big green coconut. A painters palate of red rice, green vegetables and yellow curried tofu appeared on my straw placemat, I was delighted to mix and savor each flavor of my Nasi Campung, fusing flavors into a gloriously delicious masterpiece. Night had enveloped the sky as I sipped the never ending coconut juice from a wooden straw. Fireflies jumped from terrace to terrace and distant house lights glimmered yellow on the still dark water. I was a little nervous about walking back along the dark narrow paths, of course the one time of the day when I maybe wanted transport transport and no one was offering. I watched the faded white glow of the stone path glide alone a few steps infront of me until the city appeared about fifteen minutes later, I was ready to relax for the evening with a nice massage then a shower and bed. I was headed to the salon with the cheapest prices I found earlier in the day when a slightly pitiful lady handed me a massage flier then proceeded to tell me all the acupressure training she hadcompleted by quickly pointing out pressure points on a wrinkled laminated picture of the body. She charged eighty thousand for one hour but I knew I could get one down the street for at most fifty thousand so I made an offer to save my tired feet more steps and as I walked away she agreed. She held her hands out to part traffic as we quickly walked across the street and up the hill where she jumped on a scooter and told me to get on the back, reassuring me that she was the manager, a statement that made me a bit more unsettled than comforted since I now had no idea where she was taking me. To my relief she stopped infront of a very small room/shop about two minutes later and I followed her into the space that barely fit two massage tables. An ant crawled in zig zags across the marbled white tiles on the floor below me, wooden Balinese instruments clanked along with shallow metal clinks as I breathed through an hour of kneading. Feeling calm and soothed, I handed the lady the equivalent of about five bucks and decided this would definitely become at least a once a week habit over the next month. Ubud had collapsed into night when I left the alley, unwelcoming metal slats covering storefronts, the little banana leaf alters now wilted and strewn across the sidewalk, dogs wandering aimlessly and drivers more aggressive in their sales pitches. I was craving something chocolate and as I stopped to look at a restaurant menu two people walked past then looked back and yelled "Amanda!" with a waiting high five. Haha it was Stevo and his girlfriend Leah, my old buddy from the winery. I had remembered he said he was coming to Bali in July and happened to think the other day that it would be crazy if I ran into him…of course, late at night on the streets of Ubud I did. Oh I was so happy to see him, such a nice coincidence to run into someone familiar in a foreign place. He was through working at the winery and very glad about that, we talked about travel plans and recent happenings then planned to met the next day for dinner. What an amazing day and having someone to talk to made it even better, I walked back to my room happy and amazed by my incredible first day in Bali. The crickets croaked in chorus behind the hum of the fan as I turned off the lights. Happy in Bali, dreaming of my bicycle ride through rice patties and villages in the morning.