She's finally here! I got to meet up with my mom in Bali this weekend. It was a visit long awaited and much appreciated :) After my flight was delayed three hours Friday night (typical for Jakarta) I arrived in Bali near midnight. After we both passed out (she had two layovers on the way), we woke up the next day ready to conquer the island!
We took a car into Ubud to do some shopping. But first, we had to stop at the famous Ibu Oka. If you've watched the Indonesia episode of No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain visits this waroeng to get a taste of the well-known babi guling or suckling pig and cannot stop raving about it. I have to say that after all of the hype (from him and others), I was a tad disappointed in the dish, most likely due to the fact that I had just come off of a vacation in Manado and had the most wonderful, succulent, and tender pork sate. Nonetheless, it was a good experience that I am glad to check off of my Indonesia bucket list! From there, we headed to the pasar to look for some oleh-oleh. I definitely put my Indonesian language skills to the test through some intense bargaining with the locals.
We finished the day at Pura Luhur in Uluwatu. This temple is built on a cliff overlooking the ocean and is famous for the spectacular, vibrant sunset as well as the kecak dance (extra post on that later).
Over a year ago when I told my family that I was in fact moving to Indonesia, my grandmother, Mammaw, pulled out the old Kodak slide machine to show me pictures of their trip to Bali back in the 70's. My grandfather, Pappaw, had worked for the company that built what is now the Bali Hyatt Hotel which had resulted in a family vacation. This is the reason that we chose to meet in Bali, to see the legacy that he had left behind. Although I had only seen pictures after it was just built, I could still recognize some of the buildings from their former life.
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