Hello Bali. I said, Hello Bali.

We were up bright and early this morning to catch a 6:30 shuttle from the airport hotel to KLIA for our 8:50 a.m. flight to Bali.  Things were tracking OK.  Man, you go through a lot of security, though.  Our bags get scanned twice from where we're leaving, and they get scanned again in Bali when we arrived, not to mention the usual immigration.  Anyway, barring that, the plane was about 20-25 minutes late, but we were waiting for some luggage from a London, UK flight to get on board.  I guess we had the people.

I should have mentioned last night for the end of our Malaysia tour, that we had some interesting discoveries in Malaysia.  Firstly, one part to another is very different - no surprise - we have that in our own country.  I had the impression that the people in KL or anywhere else on the peninsula didn't even really think about the people in Borneo.  They have 2 large regions there, and it is VERY different there.  Secondly, the country has corruption going on in its government.  There are major projects that get done with government money, but then it seems they just walk away and it isn't maintained, and in some cases, not even completed for all kinds of reasons.

Thirdly, and best, they have a real mix of cultures.  Our one driver told us he went to school with Chinese, and Malays (he was Indian), and the teachers told them, "You play with the Chinese boy, Chinese boy, you play with the Malay boy, etc.  And it was never more evident than in a convent we went by in Melaka where nuns taught school.  And there were girls there in the Muslim hijab.  All religions go to school there.  And in spite of the colonial dominance over a few centuries, they take it all in stride and make the best of it.  Now that's living in harmony.

We arrived in Bali after being thoroughly checked out (and I don't mean with eyes), and met up with our driver, Made (maday).  He took us to the Tanah Lot Temple, a quite extraordinary temple sitting in the edge of the ocean.  We had some lunch beforehand, and the views of the sea were quite spectacular there.

This is the Tanah Lot Temple.  But there were 3 or 4 of them in this same location.

We then wanted to go to our hotel in Ubud (oobood), the Komaneka at Monkey Forest.  We saw monkeys in a forest, and in the parking lot when getting here.  And other sights along the way, like this woman carrying foodstuff on her head.

And this guy with a bundle of rice on his bike.

And then our hotel, the Komaneka Monkey Forest.  What a spectacular spot.  Rooms like this aren't too hard to take.

The whole thing, not just the bedroom, is ours.  Joanne & Dan's is the same.  We had dinner here tonight as we are all whipped from our early rise.

Sorry this is so late getting out.  And I don't know when I'm going to get today's done because the internet connection is verrrryyyyy ssssllllooooowwwww.