Family Time Part 1

Hi peeps. I finally get to organize our family vacation pics. I want to share some pics here on my blog as for me, this blog is more than just a crafty blog. This blog also my way to keep in touch with my family that's spread all over the world.

If you have followed my blog for a while, you know that I treasure my family above everything else. I am very blessed that I have a close family. Being able to come home and spend time with them is something that I am very grateful for. It feels so good to wake up in the morning and see faces of the people that you grew up with. I love that I can hug them in person, chatted for hours, catching up, etc. Simply enjoying the little things in life.

This trip was also hubby 1st time to visit my home country, so we all decided to vacation together in Bali so we can all hang out and spend time together. We started our across the globe trip on Thursday morning. Roughly 25 hours flight from Houston to Jakarta via Tokyo. And, yeah, this is usually where I try to catch up on my  movies. ;) Here's part 1 of our family vacation.

My SIL always got me flowers when I come home.
This year it's in a form of rose cupcakes.

We did spend one day in Jakarta as we want to show hubby a bit of the city where my family live. It's nice to finally able to share with him the home that I always come home to. And, of course, my  brother never fail to take me out to the best food in town. This place called Rasane is my favorite seafood restaurant. They have amazing seafood. One thing about Indonesia food, we use lots of spices. So, when you eat our food, it's like yummy party in your mouth!

Indonesia has some of the best seafood! Here, grilled crab
wrapped in banana leaves & grilled shrimp. They tasted amazing!

We arrived midnight on Friday, spent Saturday in Jakarta and off to Bali on Sunday. My rented a place at Abi Bali Resort in Jimbaran. It's pretty cool place that divided into section. Our section has 4 rooms (2 downstairs, 2 upstairs) with family room in the middle and our own swimming pool.

Here's a view of our section. That's the family. The close door is the door to our room. The other room is above and across from our room. The shape of the section is circular. I love renting place that's more like home that hotel, because it allow us to gather. If we had stay at a hotel, once you done from sightseeing then you just stuck in your room. This way, we can hang out.

This is the view of our bathroom. I want to share this pic, because it's a very typical Bali style to have outdoor shower. Yep,  you read it right. Where the shower is, it's open to the sky. And, of course they designed everything in such a way that there's no peeping from anywhere. :) There's something relaxing to shower under nature. I find it peaceful & put me in meditative, calm state. If you have a chance to go to Bali, you'll find many places have this.

Here's the pool. Very tropical, yes?

One of the many beach in Bali. This one we access while waiting for our lunch. The restaurant has a short path to the beach.

At one of the beach at Nusa Dua. This one by Bebek Bengil.

Bali is a very artistic island. You will find many Batik art, wood carving, stone carving, silver art, painting, etc. A visit to Bali is not quite complete without visiting some of the art place. Here's pics I took at the batik place. Batik is a traditional Indonesian fabric. They can be made by hand painting or stamping using bees wax. Hand painted batik fabric could easily take 1 month to complete. They trace or draw the pattern with wax, then dyed it with various colors.

As you can imagine, we did lots of eating. Well, it's actually normal amount. Lunch and dinner, except they're food that we don't normally can find in the States. LOL,  you can take the girl out of Indonesia, but you can't take the Indonesia out of the girl. I will always think Indonesia food is the best. They're just so rich in flavor. And, hubby get to learn to eat Indonesian style. I always say, the best Indonesian food best enjoy by eating with fingers. No utensils needed.

View of the rice field at Bebek Bengil Tepi Sawah. To eat your lunch with this kind of view is awesome. I mean, I can't help but appreciating nature more when I am in Bali.

Bali is the only island in Indonesia where the majority are Hindu and you'll find many temples on this beautiful island. They have a pretty simple way of living. They believe in starting the day by offering thanks to the Gods and end it the same way. I wish we had more time to visit some of the temples, but hubby really only get to go for 10 days and  that including flying time. So, pretty much 3 days gone for flying and only 7 days for sightseeing. And, trust me, the jet lag is hard on the body.

Another must see place when you go to Bali is Tanah Lot. This place offers beautiful view and during low tide you could actually walk to the temple you see behind us on the pic. Unfortunately, when we came it was high tide, so we couldn't walk across.

Now, Bali without some water time wouldn't be right. Hubby never did parasailing, so we definitely did that and we get to try this ride called Fly Fish. This pic below showed hubby and I, right before we took off. So, basically we lay on this raft and hold on to the tube rope by our shoulders. The guy sitting in between us control the raft, so it wouldn't turn over during the flight. He basically hold on to a rope and jump side to side to keep the raft balance. 

Fly Fish. Off we go!!

No seat belt or anything like that. When we did this, I looked at hubby and said, this ride would never ever be available in the States. It'll be lawsuit waiting to happen. ;) Once you land back down, then you can ride the boat like as if you ride a horse and being pulled by the boat. Exhilarating both ways!

Anyway, I think we have enough pictures for today. Next, family pictures!! I am in love with my niece. So, yeah bragging auntie moment coming up! Happy Sunday.