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Those rice paddies were prettttttty darned awesome.

Actually, all of Bali was pretty awesome. I was apprehensive at the length of time we'd be going (9 days in an Asian beach location? Siao lah.) but I'm so glad we went for that long.

After two glorious days at Gili Trawangan during which I saw not one but TWO turtles while diving, we went to Ubud, drove up to Munduk, and ended the trip with two relaxing days in Jimbaran.

Those last two days were well deserved after the trip we had. One of the two memories that stick out in my mind was the day we started at 2.30am to climb Mount Batur for sunrise and back down again (1.5 hours each way; not too long but the climb was no easy feat!), then went cycling through the padi fields after. We were blistered, bruised and extremely knackered after, but it was well worth it.

The other memory that sticks out in my mind was the drive up to Munduk. We had gone to see the floating temple and a couple of rice paddies en route and had a seafood lunch/dinner at Lovina, but soon realised that if we didn't get a move on, we'd be stuck on the road in the dark trying to find our way to Munduk. This fear grew the longer we were in the jeep, which was pointed nearly straight up on the mountain the whole way. The sun was setting, we were lost (or at least I thought we were lost a lot of the way), we were surrounded by trees, had no street lighting, were miles away from civilisation and were driving on makeshift roads that twisted dramatically up the mountain and melted away into rubble at some points. I remember thinking that if we made one wrong move, we would be tumbling off the side of the cliff, never to be found again.

I kept these thoughts to myself tho, because I could feel Mindy getting more and more kancheong the longer we were in the car. But Mindy's a great driver and after what felt like forever (with everyone we passed along the way saying it was only 5km to go no matter how long it really was), we got to our hotel in Munduk.

Guys, stay at Puri Lumbung. It's peaceful, it's rustic and there's absolutely nothing to do there except enjoy the tiers of rice paddies and the rolling mountain view. Apparently the Munduk village chief owns or co-owns the place so proceeds from your stay in Puri Lumbung go to bettering the lives of the people in Munduk by providing jobs and training. You'll also see donations or stories of famous people who have stayed in the resort inscribed on plaques around the area.

Wow. I haven't written a blog post this long in ages. So I'm going to abruptly end this post here, even tho I have a great story to tell about doing yoga in Ubud. Go back to Bali everybody, and let me know if you need recommendations for the cycling tours or what to see. <3