Sunday, September 2, 2012

Bali Trip

In the Jakarta airport waiting for our flight to Bali.
Our first meal in Bali.  There are lots of flowering trees & plants.  Really beautiful.  Good food.


Old architecture - love the chimneys with the hats.
 Beautiful doors - interesting that every Asian country has similar style of tile roofs however the color of the tiles are different.  Bali has blue tiles.  Korea has green tiles.
 Lots of Banana trees - there are 4 different kids of Banana trees - these ones are yellowish in color.
 This was the place where we stayed the first 2 nights - in the city of Kuta.  Its a very touristy place - lots of people from Australia and the Netherlands.
 On the 3rd day, we hired a driver to take us north.  It is has lots of rice fields, banana groves and mountains.
 Little villages nestled on the sides of the mountains, beside the rice fields.
 Amazing flower plants.  Beautiful.
 More flowering plants.
 many waterfalls.
 The ferns are amazing - huge leaves.
 In the North of Bali - in the city of Lovina, we stayed in this incredible place.  There was a swimming pool just outside our door.  It had walls of windows on two sides with curtains that pulled shut.
 Hinduism is very prominent.  Lots of shrines and temples.
 Interesting boats that they use for fishing..  They fish at night.
 More amazing flowers.
 I'm not sure what these things are but there were lots of them in one of the cities that we spent an afternoon in.
 We are standing in front of two lakes.  Volcanic lakes.  One lake was at a high elevation that the other.  You would think that the higher lake would empty.
 Your dad trying his hand at making music using a traditional instrument.
 We hired a driver to take us to the furthest eastern point of the Island to the city of Pemutera.  It is really dry here - the hills are barren - the beach is volcanic rock.
 Kids swimming naked in the ocean.

 This is the place we stayed in Pemutera.  We had a small cottage - just a bedroom and bathroom.
 This is some kind of fruit - don't know for sure what it is.
 More fishing boats.   - looks like a spider.
 The shore has lots of volcanic rock - the sand is black - your feet got black.
 Your parents on the beach.
 Active volcano - the last time it erupted was in the 60's.  There was a definite line for where the lava stopped.
 Coffee beans - we visited coffee plantations.  At this place they had the Cat-like animals that eat the berries and poop out the beans which is made into a very expensive coffee.
 Dad and I sampling coffee.
 Terraced hillsides.
 The last place we stayed at.  It was very beautiful.  Our room was on the second floor of the big house.
 The rice fields in front of the place where we were staying.  These idols could found everywhere.
 Bali kids.  They were always calling us - asking us to take their picture.
 There are a number of monkey forests.  These particular monkeys are well fed so they don't really bother the tourists but some are very agressive and will steal your camera, watches, etc until you give them food.  We stayed away from those ones.
 The tree roots in this place were amazing - hanging down the side of the cliff.
 The Balinese people are very artistic.  They have lots of wooden and stone carvings everywhere.
 The carvings are so detailed.
 Even Cromagna Man
 On our 2nd last day we found this organic restaurant that was situated in the middle of a rice field.  It was a 30 minute walk out to the place.  Well worth it.
We had a great trip.  Bali is very beautiful but very crowded with tourists.  After we got home and looked at our pictures, we noticed something.  From our pictures you would think that we were the only people on the island since we have very few pictures with people in them.  Yet in fact the roads are crowded with scooters, motorcycles, bicycles and cars and trucks - not to mention the people on foot, the dogs and the roosters.  There are so many dogs - it reminded us of Thailand in that way.  If we were to go again, I think I would like to see the other islands which don't get so many tourists.  Indonesia is great for snorkeling and scuba diving, there are many coral reefs surrounding the Islands.

Japan Outreach

This is Megumi Chapel - the church where we went in the city of Hochinhohe.  It was built by a group of Canadian builders.
We worked at a camp for  a few days.  The girl in the blue t-shirt is Iel, she was our team leader.

Here are the kids that were at the camp.  Japanese kids are so cute.


We went to a children's museum with the camp kids.  In the picture is Sushil (from Napal), Kate (from Russia) and 2 kids from the camp.  They had dress-up clothes.

This is the team - one person is missing.  The boy in the blue shirt is one of the kids from the camp.
 This is everyone standing in front of the church.
 Some of the kids at the camp.  -  The little boys were so cute.
 More pictures of kids.
 This little girl came with her family to the International Night that we had at the end of the camp.
 On the last day, we were taken to a park.  It was our only day for sightseeing.  It was a beautiful park - reminded me of Canada.  Because we spent so long here we almost missed our plane.  We arrived at the airport 15 minutes before the flight was scheduled to take off.  Fortunately it was a small airport they allowed us on.
It was a great trip.  We had a lot of fun.  There was 12 of us, representing 9 different countries - Cambodia, Philippines  Peru, Nepal, Russia, South Korea, Kenya, China, and Canada.