I started writing this post the DAY before I went into labor with Clare. My goal was to finish all of our Europe adventures by the time she was born. While l did not acheive the goal, I am still finishing this post now!

Let’s pick up right where we left off:

The next morning, we took a flight over to Bali. Prior to this trip, Bali was on the very top of my bucket list. From the gorgeous beaches to the incredible rice fields, it caught my attention. It truly lives up to the hype!

When we landed, we drove up to the more hilly, northern part of Bali and stayed in Ubud, which is known as a center for yoga and meditation. Surrounding Ubud’s rainforest, are the famous terraced rice paddies.

Bryan and I stayed at the Adiwana Arya Villa hotel, which was a little bit outside of the main city of Ubud. We liked being away from the city center, because the city was much more commercialized then we expected. At the hotel, we met some new friends from London, Sophie and Jack, and loved seeing them at all of the meals because the hotel was so small.

On the first day, Bryan and I considered renting a moped to ride up to the rice patty fields, but were advised against it because of how dangerous it can be! We ended up driving up there and we were glad we did! Bryan and I laugh about it now.

At the rice fields!

We spent a couple of days exploring Ubud and sitting by the hotel pool. We loved the incredible food and gorgeous shops in Ubud.

One of the nights, we went to dessert at the famous Room for Dessert restaurant from the “Chefs Table” Netflix show. Chef Will Golfard’s creations were works of arts!

After our stay in Ubud, we took a very small plane over to the Flores islands. It was the highlight of the entire trip! Traveling to the Flores islands was a bit of a treck because we flew from Bali to Labuan Bajo, which was the nearest city. From there, we took a fishing boat out the remote island. The small island only had our “eco-lodge” hotel, The Seraya, on it. 

Our hotel was so remote they only had one restaurant and no WIFI on the island. Some of our favorite memories were eating family style dinners every night with the other hotel guests! The owners of the hotel would catch a big fish in the morning and cook it for dinner.

One of the days, we took a fishing boat over to an incredible cave. We swam in the cave water and it was a crazy experience! The water was freezing, but refreshing.

My favorite day of our entire trip was our day exploring the Flores islands by boat. In the morning, we visited the island of Komodo to view the famous Komodo dragons, and then we visted Padar Island (photo above). It was one of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen!

It was a glorious day because we saw spectacular wildlife: we swam with stingrays, spotted turtles, and floated near incredible dolphins all in one day. We went with the 3 girls from Switzerland and they were from a region that spoke an incredible swiss/Italian dialect!

We also saw the famous Komodo dragons on the island of Komodo and they were MUCH bigger than I expected!

 

After our incredible stay on the island, we flew back to Bali and spent the last several days of our trip at an air BNB on the island of Nusapendida — off of Bali. This island is really known for surfing.

We loved every second of this remarkable trip. Bryan and I met wonderful people from around the world, saw amazing things, and relaxed before starting our new chapter in Atlanta.

As I am writing this, we are packing up the house to start another new chapter in Nashville! Time speeds by!

Xo,

Hila