Beautiful Day Photography’s Weblog

NOW  we are in Pemuteran, Bali….We feel like we have reached the end of the world here…but it is as amazing as I would imagine heaven to be.  Honestly, my brain hurts from looking around me as a photographer does, constantly analyzing light and framing amazing moments…to me here EVERYTHING is amazing from things as simple as a village woman balancing a huge basket of wood on her head and walking down the street, to the way the sky reflects like a mirror image in the endless fields of cascading rice pattys….Honestly, it would be hard to take a bad photo here…

.

Esteela was right, it truly DOES feel like an entire other country.  Bali is every part as amazing if not more than I had envisioned.  Today was a bit bittersweet for me, since I had wanted Robert here by my side.  He even had an empty seat for him on the plane.  He would LOVE this place….truly, but Sarah  has been SO excited and positive throughout EVERY part of this trip so far….that it has made it all ok.  From the moment we landed Sarah and I have been in AWE of this place.  Larry, another recent groom of mine, JUST got back from his honeymoon here and hooked us up with his driver Ketut.  Ketut showed up with his brothers to pick us up. They were right on time with a sign at the airport waiting for us.  Since that moment they took us on a 5 hour drive through mountains and rice patty fields, lunch underneath the volcano, stopping at a cremation and taking photos, stopping at a Hindu Temples and tying a sarong around us so we can enter the temple,  visiting a forest of monkeys and feeding them bananas…jamming out to Bob Marley on Sarah;s Ipod and FINALLY getting to Bali destination number 1….the northwestern beach town of Pemuteran at a bungalow resort called Taman Sari….We drove hours through villages and mountains where white people are seldom seen and have arrived at this sleepy, picturesque destination…..this beach paradise that I cannot wait to FULLY enjoy tomorrow.  Honestly, it is ALL honeymoon couples and MAYBE 15 bungalows total here.  Upon our arrival a few hours ago, Sarah and I enjoyed a couples massage…LOL, AND a romantic candlelight dinner, and now we are in our gorgeous thatched roof bungalow with a huge canopy of mosquito netting surrounding us and tropical frogs croaking in our bathroom that has no ceiling where you shower on stones underneath the stars…..Not quite the romantic first night in Bali I imagined, but I know it’s going to be amazing regardless and our adventure has only JUST begun… Robert, I wish you were here….

I SWEAR I think the staff thought Sarah and I were Lesbians, because everyone there was a married couple on their honeymoons and EVERY time we ordered spa treatments, they did them like couples massages or couple’s facials!  LOL, it has become a joke with us now.  We basically just relaxed and ate, read, went snorkeling and diving and had spa treatments EVERYDAY.  We had ZERO internet and we felt like we were on the moon it was so remote.  It was amazing.  We spent more money on diving and spa treatments than food and lodging combined.  I figured it was worth it, because when ELSE am I going to be able to dive in Indonesia?  I finally was able to put my PADI card with my ridiculous photo on it to good use!!  We took a boat to Menjangan Island and saw the most beautiful reef I have ever seen!  Underwater it looked like a field of wildflowers of all different colors, bright yellow and blue and purple coral.  I saw a sea turtle and grabbed onto its shell while it was swimming (like a life DREAM of mine!) and saw SO many fish I have never seen before. It was SO Zen and I finally feel comfortable and relaxed underwater.  My dive master was pointing out things I could pick up and touch and I was playing with sea worms and starfish and even touched a seahorse!!  So there are no words to describe this experience I had in Pemuteran.  Afterwards, we played soccer with our drivers and then stayed up late drinking beers and learning about their culture and laughing  ALL night long at the funny quotes that only a language barrier can create.  It was SUCH a wonderful day and night and the drive from Pemuteran to Ubud was EQUALLY as stunning as the first drive from the airport…and at the end of our drive was NISH to greet us!!!  It was SO fun adding her to our adventures!