i'm getting married TODAY!!!

Well...today, next year!! Let the one year countdown begin.

364 days to go until I marry the man of my dreams....but who's counting?!

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."- Emily Bronte

xo Tegs

Land of the worlds very best coffee...and views too!

Hi Blogland! Im back with even more Bali goodness...this time its all about venturing out and about, away from the comforts of the resort to discover the real deal. As I mentioned in the last post, we hired our faithful driver Putra, to take us to the best places on the island for a day. He was a real trouper, arriving to the resort by 8am and not dropping us back until after 8pm that evening...that`s a lot of terrain to cover...we`re talkin about 20 Absolute Vodka bottles of Gasolina!

Putra took us to see the traditional Balinese dancers in lavish costumes. We didn’t quite understand the story but hey they could really shake a booty! The hips don`t lie!

We took a tour of a coffee plantation where the “best coffee in the world” is grown, harvested, cleaned and roasted by this sweet sweet lady.

 

I know you must be dyyyyying to know what makes this stuff the very best java in the whole wide world?! Well I sure wanted to know and boy was I in for a treat. There are these little critters that look like the love child of a cat and a raccoon called a Luwak. They go about scavenging the ground and, being the coffee connoisseurs that they are, they pick ONLY the very best beans to eat as they scurry along. So when I said the beans were “harvested” on site that was kind of a loose interpretation. Because the real truth is that the beans ferment in the critters belly and then exit via the natural digestive process...if you know what i mean! And then the locals gather these precious 'deposits' and clean and roast them to produce “the best coffee in the world”. YUM.

We tried a few varieties of beverages, they were all super delish! Even the very best variety 

(when in Bali – do as the Balinese do!)

 

Talk about a view for lunch. Sitting in Kintamani over looking the sacred Batur volcano, at 1500m.

On the way back to the resort that evening we drove through the iconic rice patties in the peaceful village of Ubud. Can you imagine going to work everyday at these rice patties?! Up to your knees in swampy wetness and surrounded by more shades of green than you can possibly find words to describe...I'll be thinking of these rice gods & goddesses with each and every grain of rice that passes my lips. That's no easy breezy business.


It was such a brilliant day that we asked Putra to meet us again the next day too for another round of Balinese adventure (think gorgeous seaside temples).

xo Tegs

So good

Back from the Island of the Gods and yes, this place is truely blessed. I feel like I could probably go on for more days than we were actually in Indonesia about how much we enjoyed Bali to the absolute fullest. It's the essence of relaxation squeezed in between bounds of adventure. The sun was shining everyday (it packed some serious heat) so this is how we coped...

 An afternoon at the surf club.

 

 

We met some beautiful people on the island. Everyone was so kind and caring and always there to help out in anyway they could. Dave and I made a new friend Madi, who I'm pretty certain has like a black belt in Tailoring...if ever there was such a thing. He made Dave a 3 piece suit, custom shoes and a jacket in 2 days!! I still think he has a deal with the fabric gods because I cant really fathom how that's possible, on top of my order for a jacket too?! So naturally I placed another order for a (few) dress(s) to be shipped to Aus. They came before I even got my blog post up!! I think Madi and I are going to be life long friends. Then there was our driver Putra, the most nicest of drivers we could have found in Bali (I could get used to having a driver *drifting into dream*)...we will share our adventures with him in the next post! He took us from a scenic lunch at the top of a volcano, then wound all the way down to these hot springs at the bottom, where the only healing spa in Bali awaited us. I felt healed alright.

 

 
 

My handsome cabana boy!

When we weren`t touring the island, it was straight back to the resort for more bevys and some R&R!

Dave's loving his Bintang and I'm loving him!

Well I think the pictures tell a far better tale than I ever could, but needless to say, we had a wonderful time celebrating our beautiful past nine years together and what a fabulous way start to our tenth anniversary around the sun. Love is so good.

I mean seriously, who wouldn't want some more of this? I`ll take 100 more years please.

Hope you enjoyed Part 1 of our relaxing Balinese bliss, Part 2 is coming next and oozing with adventures away from resort life! 

xo  Tegs