Disclaimer: My camera decided not to take intelligible photos during the daytime in Bali, so some photos are very bright. I did my best to make them viewable, but....some still aren't great...
For the most part, the 7th grade field trip to Bali went well. Thankfully, Miss Mandy always had a hotel room to herself, which was MUCH, much needed after a long day with shrieking, singing, constantly-texting 12-year-olds. (!!!) I love my kids- I do- but I was more than happy to see them go home to their parents on Friday night.
Anyways, Bali was a HOTTTTTT and beautiful island. We stayed in and visited the touristy places, which, surprisingly, were very classy and not trashy-touristy, like I'd imagined they would be. I'm planning on visiting Bali again with some other teachers in May, when we get a 4-day weekend for some random holiday.
The only drawback for me was the CONSTANT smell of incense because there were Hindi offerings everywhere we went- in front of every single building, in restaurants, and in doorways. (One of my boy students rescued a kitten who was trying to eat the incense!)
Here's a super-quick overview of our week.
Monday:
We all arrived super earrrrly at the airport on Monday morning, so as to get there before the horrible, morning traffic fiascos that Jakarta is notorious for.
Goodbye, Java...
...and hello, Bali!
We all got orchids at the Bali airport.
Our first stop in Bali was the waste management site, which was, quite possibly, THE worst possible introduction to anyplace you can imagine. We were there so the kids could understand the importance of recycling. However, the formidable stench and uncompromising heat were more than we could handle, so we moved on after 5 minutes.
Some cows hanging out at the waste management site
Cows were everywhere in Bali because it's a predominantly Hindi island.
After this lovely place, we drove to this random place so the students could learn about mangrove planting, where they just listened to a seminar in Bahasa, planted small trees and lost their shoes in the mud in the planting process while the locals watched us. I thought it was really boring and pointless.
Frog statues are a part of Hindi worship, I think, and they were everywhere on the island, too.
This was our first hotel, where we stayed only on Monday night.
We arrived at our hotel just in time for dinner. There was a guy next to the restaurant, intently doing something involving lots of smoke and very little fire. I didn't know if he was worshipping his ancestors or trying to make dinner. He eventually made dinner, but not ours. :-P
My bedroom at our first hotel
A wall hanging in my bedroom
Our yummy dinner and a fun, traditional Balinese center piece
Tuesday:
The lovely pool at our hotel, which included a wet bar that was actually wet (in the water).
Teak paneling- one of Indonesia's best natural resources.
The best part of this hotel was the fact my bedroom had a BATHTUB! This was exciting for me because I haven't seen a bathtub since I was home in July.I took a looong, hot bath every night here. :-P
A pretty lily pad at the bird sanctuary
The next day, we took a long, speedboat ride to 1 of 3 islands that lie south of Bali. The one we went to was called Nusa Penida. ("Nusa" means "island" in Bahasa.) Indonesia's only bird sanctuary is located on this island, and it also features the rare Bali Starlings.
This is a cool bamboo treehouse. People on these islands really do live in grass and bamboo huts!
Throughout the day, we saw many chickens, roosters, cows, dogs, and pigs roaming freely on the island.
After the bird conservatory, we went to a seaweed plantation, which is Nusa Penida's main industry.
Then we swam in the ocean for awhile to cool off!
This is a student's photo of us on the speedboat on our way back to Bali from Nusa Penida.
We ate dinner at this restaurant for a cultural experience.
This lovely guy greeted us at the entrance.
There was a baby shark aquarium in the lobby.
There was a live Balinese dance performance while we ate dinner on the beach. I tried my best to get good photos, but the dancers moved too quickly and thus, the photos are blurry. However, some looked kinda cool that way, so I've posted them here.
Sorry. She profiled at the last minute, but you can at least see how angular the arms are in Balinese dancing.
This is my favorite photo!
My new friend :)
We ate dinner on the beach, where they served us fresh coconut milk as appetizers.
It was one of our students' birthdays on Tuesday, so the waiters played Happy Birthday for us. :-P
Wednesday:
I don't have any photos to post for this day, so I'll just recap what we did.
I missed out on the morning's activities because I had to stay at the hotel for a few hours with a girl who wasn't feeling well. After a few hours, she was feeling better, so we met up with the other students at the botanic gardens. By the time we arrived, everyone was concluding their tour in the cactus collection, which wasn't that interesting.
After the tour, the kids had the opportunity to do some high ropes activities, which just happened to be right when it started to rain. Some kids didn't want to do this, so we all hung out on the bus for what felt like 2 hours. Then we started our long bus ride back and ate at Pizza Hut by our hotel. On the bus, our tour guides gave us snacks- a fruit called a marquisa, and steamed corn on the cob, still in the husk. I thought that was pretty funny...
Thursday:
On Thursday, we went to a traditional, Hindi village in a section of Bali called Ubud. Below is what I had for breakfast, and the other 2 photos are the only ones my camera would take in the village. The first is a woman decorating baskets, and the other is of some small, Hindi shrines on the edge of the village.
Friday:
This was our last day, but it was still a really long day.
We spent the morning in the southern section of Bali called Denpasar. We spent some time at a watersport place, where I rode a banana boat with some of my students. If you want to see a picture of a banana boat, click on this link.
Other water activity options were parasailing and riding the wave runner. The banana boat was my safest bet and was a ton of fun!
Then we went to a nursing home. The kids sang songs and performed a short drama. It was really obvious the kids hadn't rehearsed these prior to going to the nursing home, but I don't think anyone really cared.
I'm now on my way to go to another island with Eric and Christine called Belitung. I'll be back this weekend. Stay tuned for more photos!
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