Happy New Year! I am writing this on New Year's day while many of you are still only contemplating the coming New Year's Eve's festivities. It was a a wet celebration here in Ubud. Torrential rains and a thunderstorm set in as we looked for a restaurant to spend the evening. We found a good place with live music where we sat semi-outdoors - after wading through many inches of water to get to our table. We walked to central Ubud shortly after midnight - where tho...

After 42 hours of door-to-door travel we arrived yesterday in Ubud on Bali. An interesting itinerary through airports in Seoul, Bangkok and Singapore. Spent the night in Bankgkok airport - entertained for a while by the 24 hour restaurant team who clearly had never had anyone select banana cheese pizza from the menu. I still think it would have been interesting - but I guess no one will ever know, since they gave up after several attempts. The villas we are stay...