10.2.17 – Bali Day 7

Our last official day here in Bali and we decided to spend it with some shopping at a flea market, rest up at the villa, then head back out to this place called Sea circus.  Let’s take it back to the early morning when we went to the flea market.  This place is exactly what you’d call the “Swap Meet” at Aloha Stadium.  You’re able to negotiate prices too because everyone who has a tent up is busy hustling the same stuff as the tent right next to them.  So it’s who ever is able to nab the cash first.  Everyone there is hella good at selling things too so it’s up to you to be smart and negotiate smart.  We ended up getting some gifts for cheap then we headed back to the villa to swim at the pool and take more photos.  Later in the evening, Shaz wanted to try a place she seen on instagram called “Sea Circus.”  I thought it was gonna be all about seafood but when I googled the place, it was just some restaurant with burgers, salads, and some seafood dishes, but this place was hella good!  I noticed it was an Australian spot though.  Many Australians.  Only a handful of Asians.  But if you ever come to Bali, don’t forget to hit up the “Sea Circus.” You won’t regret it!  We’re now busy packing since we leave tomorrow, well I’m taking a break from packing, that’s how I’m able to type all of this up lol.  But I have to get back to it because I don’t want to leave anything behind!  This trip was a wonderful experience and so laid back.  I definitely would do this again and come back here to Bali.  I just hope more people are down to come and enjoy these special moments with us as well.

10.1.17 – Bali Day 6

This day I really hadn’t taken much pics since we started the day early and checked out of our second villa, The Hideaway Villa’s, then went straight to shopping.  Our first stop was a souvenir market to buy some Bali gifts for some peeps back home.  It was your typical souvenir market with a whole bunch of random clothes, food, accessories, all dedicated to Bali.  Second place we hit was Discovery Shopping Mall, which is located near the airport.  This was a pretty huge mall.  I don’t think we even hit half of it.  But what we explored was 3 levels of shopping, dining, and entertainment.  We seen a few stores that we definitely don’t have back in the states, or in Hawaii in general, that we wished we had lol.  The place was kind of like Pearl Ridge but just 1 phase.  After that Shaz wanted to check out an outdoor mall called Beach Walk Mall or something like that, kind of like Waikele or how shopping is in Waikiki.  This mall was only a few minutes away from Discovery mall.  The whole area it was in reminded me exactly of Waikiki.  There were hotels/shopping malls on one side of the street and the beach across from it.  We didn’t buy anything at that mall because we did the math on the prices and it was the exact same as back home lol.  Again,  I hadn’t taken any photos yesterday because, 1) we dedicated this day to shopping and 2) the places we went to, we did a lot of walking around and we sweat a lot and I was in no mood to be stopping around and shooting in that heat lol.  So after shopping, we headed to our last villa, The Amala, located in Seminyak.  This is a sister resort to the first villa we stayed at, The Samata in Sanur.  Both belonging to, Lifestyle Retreats.  Hands down I’d have to say that the people of Lifestyle Retreats are so hospitable, warming, and just good people all around, if y’all ever plan on taking a trip out here to Bali, BOOK WITH LIFESTYLE RETREATS!  You’ll thank me later.  But all I was able to get was shots of our last villa and me and the girlfriend shot around the place as well.  Be on the look out for her photos.  You can check her previous photos here.

9.30.17 – Bali Day 5

This day we started off our day with some hella good breakfast!  I finally was able to get my hands on some bacon & eggs (y’all don’t even know how long I’ve been wanting this!)!!!  It came with white bread and I ate all my food lol!  After breakfast, we got ready to head out.  We were recommended a driver from the homie, Kerah, so we hit the dude up the night before to take us out.  But what we didn’t do was BE SPECIFIC with our plans and the driver had already set up an agenda for the day so we ended up having a little adventure that for sure we didn’t regret.  After getting picked up we went to this place where they made fabric by the old fashioned weaving technique and learned some history behind it.  It was cool to see that and I even remember going on a field trip back in Hawaii where I got to try out old fashioned weaving myself.  It’s a pretty cool process.  Then after that place, our driver brought us to this place where they craft real silver and gold.  We learned a bit there, like how much time gets put into some pieces and what kind of skills are used.  It was very interesting!  After they brought us inside to the collection where they were selling their things and I almost bought a gold chain!  The gold here is way cheaper than buying a gold chain back home but I ended up not pulling the trigger since I didn’t anticipate on buying jewelry while on vacation.  I only brought money for food, drinks, etc.  NOT JEWELRY lol.  After that we visited a temple, where we had to put on a sarong before entering.  The temple was was a tourist magnet since there were hella “non locals” there, just walking up to everything and taking whatever photos they could.  I did the same too since I’m always out with my camera lol but this was a cool place to see while on vacation here.  After the temple, we went to a butterfly park.  These plans were hella random and thought up from the driver since all we wanted to do today was go shopping but being the responsible tour guide that he was, he had already planned our whole day!  The butterfly park was interesting to see since we don’t have that back in Hawaii.  Shaz was getting creeped because she isn’t a bug person and every time a butterfly flew near her she freaked lol!  But we got through that place anyway and Shaz even got to have a butterfly chill on her hand while I got some shots from that.  After that place, we went to see this local waterfall that is popular in the area, but when we saw the waterfall, our driver was surprised and informed us that the water WASN’T supposed to be brown lol but regualar water color (blue) and that the water was dirty this time of year lol.  It was still a cool place to see though.  By the time we left the waterfall, it was WAY passed lunch time, maybe around 2-3, and our driver suggested to bring us to this joint by the beach where they served seafood.  We ended up going but didn’t have lunch because we were just hella thirsty from traveling all day lol.  The place was nice though and the menu had some pretty good seafood on there but all we ordered was a water.  This night is our last night at this second villa and tomorrow morning we’ll be on our way to our last villa……a 5 star one!  So look out for that one!!!!!

9.29.17 – Bali Day 4

Already half way through our trip and we left the first villa’s we were staying at, The Samata, in Sanur.  If y’all ever plan on taking a trip out to Bali, I’d recommend this place 5 stars because of their hospitality, cleanliness, and customer service.  It’s just a laid back place to relax and unplug from the world.  But now we’re at our second villa, in a place called Uluwatu.  This one has a more hotel-ish vibe compared to The Samata, where that place had a “home” feel to it.  The rooms at this second place is smaller but is still nice tho!  The view from our living room is breathtaking with our own private pool just right there.  Once we got here and settled in, all we did was take a dip in the pool, ordered some drinks and food, and took pictures.  Then ended the night sleeping early since we’re going shopping tomorrow!  Oh, before I end this, I have a short funny story.  So I forgot about the electrical outlets push out more power here than in the states and I had a surge protector plug (you know those long plug in things with multiple outlets in them) plugged into our universal adapter, then when I went to plug it into the wall, a loud POP came from the surge protector and I tripped the circuit for our room we was staying in lol.  I ended up having to call room service to save the night.  Big lesson learned from tonight lol.  Look out for day 5 coming up!  Also follow us on social media to see what else we’re doing: @sphotohi @shaz_v

To see the photos of the girlfriend at this villa check them out here!

9.28.17 – Bali Day 3

This day was officially was our last night here because tomorrow morning when we wake up, we have to check out of this villa by 12pm!  We were here for 4 days, 3 nights.  Tomorrow will be our 4th day.  Then we’re off to our other villa!  We decided to make use of this day by having our usual morning breakfast.  We both had eggs benedict today, with green tea, and I also had orange juice, while Shaz had apple juice.  After breakfast, we shot again around the resort, but this time at the public pools (you can check out the shoot we did today here).  Right outside of our door, the landscapers had made a heart from the flowers of the trees that grow around the resort.  Pretty sweet touch since most people here are couples that come here just to get away, relax, and just spend time together.  After the shoot, we stayed at the pools to relax and swim for a bit before going back to our villa and swimming some more in our private pool.  Swimming was perfect for this hot day today but it also made us hungry.  So we showered and got ready to eat lunch at the in house restaurant, Zenso.  They even have a koi pond at the bottom of the restaurant.  Today,  I felt like eating seafood so I ordered a dish called, “King prawn papardelle”, which is pretty much pasta (it reminded me of egg noodles) with some grilled shrimp over it, and a creamy sauce.  It was good and I enjoyed my meal.  Shaz had “Mushroom Risotto”.  Hella vegan dish since it only consisted of rice porridge and an assortment of mushrooms lol.  I tried a small bite of her food though and it was pretty tasty.  We also had a drink to finish off our lunch then we headed back to our villa to just relax the rest of the day.  Right now as I’m typing this, it’s about 8pm and we just finished dinner.  Gonna call it an early night since we have to check out tomorrow, plus I have to pack my shit.  I wouldn’t wanna forget anything here!  Stay tuned for Day 4!

To see the photos of the girlfriend at this villa check them out here!

9.27.17 – Bali Day 2

This morning we woke up around 6:30 am!!!! Hella early and for some odd reason, I was not………I REPEAT……I WAS NOT jet lagged.  The night before I slept around 10 pm-ish, which is the usual time I’d sleep back at home.  I have no idea how I got accustomed to the time in Indonesia after a 10 hour flight!  Anyways, after I woke up this morning, I went and did my business in the bathroom from all the shit I ate and drank the night before lol, then decided to show y’all what our backyard looked in the morning time.  If y’all follow me on my social media, I remember posting the tour of the villa we’re staying at.  But our backyard is a rice field.  Breathe taking view from what the norm is back on Oahu.  I decided to show more of the villa from our dining area to the lounge area’s.  After breakfast, we decided to take a dip in the pool.  Water was nice since it started to get hot around 10 am-ish….no different from Hawaii weather lol.  After that, I did a little shoot with the girlfriend (click here to see the shoot), which turned out great because there’s so many spots to shoot here that I haven’t even touched yet!  I only touched maybe 1/10th of this photo gold mine.  We had lunch at the resort’s restaurant, while room service was cleaning up our room, which we had no idea because we don’t know the cleaning schedules yet lol but everything was all good because our bed got made and new towels was put in, etc. etc.  Since the bed was made up and presentable, we wanted to show……well Shaz wanted to show how “pretty” the bed was so I had her jump on it so I could take a quick flick of our “pretty” bed.  We pretty much just lounged all day today and ended the night with more room service and got dinner.  I got a burger while Shaz got some cold soba and we even got complimentary mango salsa and bread…or so I think lol.  But we have one more night at this villa so stay posted on more to come!  It’s about 10 pm here in Indonesia right now as I’m typing all of this out, so I think I’ll wrap this up here.

To see the photos of the girlfriend at this villa check them out here!

9.26.17 – Bali Day 1

This officially marked the first day of me and the girlfriends trip to Bali, Indonesia.  First we left Hawaii on Sunday, then had to fly to Taipei, Taiwan, for a short lay over, which then turned into traveling a day ahead.  So while it just turned Monday in HI, it was already Tuesday in Taiwan.  So we lost a day but that’s okay.  We still got a long trip ahead of us!  Then after waiting for a couple hours in Taiwan, we boarded the plane again for 1 more flight to Bali.  We landed here around 2 pm, which by the time it was 8 pm back in Hawaii + a day behind.  I don’t know what’s wrong (or right lol) with me, but I don’t seem to be jet lagged and on the time schedule over here already.  First photo is a part of the airport in Taipei, and the rest were taken here in Bali on our drive going to our villa.  The moped photo, I wanted to show how dominant those bikers were in this country.  They take up majority of the road and ride in packs and those road lines that are supposed to separate us on the road doesn’t exist on this side.  It’s crazy the way they drive here and you have to be hella alert and cautious driving in these streets!  But our driver got us to the villa while driving good.  I’d say he’s a good driver lol.  But more to come on our adventure here in Bali.  Stay tuned for day 2!!!!!!!!!