Today's alarm sounded at 2:00am. Excitement for the day ahead overshadowed our lack of sleep. Bedu had asked us if a fellow American girl could join and of course we said yes! An instant friendship was made with Catrina, even at 2:30 in the morning. A gorgeous and positive Florida native, who has recently moved to Australia to pursue her love of traveling. She shares our sense of adventure and fit right in. We met our hiking guide Adi, lit our "torches" and sta...

Today was a much needed day of leisure and pampering! Our morning was spent at what coulda woulda shoulda been a very romantic spa package and setting. We received a traditional Balinese massage and scrub down which was followed by an outdoor flower bath. The ambiance was all too perfect and only enhanced with the natural Ubud soundscape. Our bill came to a whopping $25.00 each. You all know too well that we can only sit still so long, ergo we were off to explo...

Guess what we had for breakfast? Mie goreng! It was time to make moves to Ubud. Our driver and soon to be best Balinese friend, Bedu, picked us up and we started our trek. He wanted to show us his country and he knew we loved the culture so he planned a few stops on the way. First was the Batik factory where women were hand weaving and painting all of the beautiful and delicate Balinese fabrics. Next stop, jewelry! The entire village was dedicated to silver jew...

Heaping plates of Mie Goreng, a typical dish of "fried noodles" was how we started the day. We again went to the market to make a few final purchases before heading off to the Bukit Peninsula. It is about an hour drive from Seminyak so we hired Gusti to be our driver for the day. Gusti is a lovely gentleman that took to answering our many questions very well. On the way out of town we were dropped off at a store with scarves and trinkets as high as the ceiling. W...

It was only a 14hr jaunt over the Pacific to our layover in Taiwan. Choosing a redeye flight was our best decision thus far. With the assistance of a bit of melatonin, I woke up cuddling my neighbors pillow, being served eggs with Chinese tea and had just enough time to watch Monuments Men. Shawna also slept 11+ hours. Her TV was broken which led to her being showered with gifts by China Airlines and a touching and inspirational conversation with a gentleman name...