Bali Bound

I go to Bali in one week and 2 days!!! Ali and I are heading to this beautiful island in Indonesia next Friday and spending 10 days there. The itinerary is as follows (I've attached links to all the places for your reading pleasure!):

We're spending the first few days in a small island off of Bali called Nusa Lembongan to do some scuba diving (apparently the diving around Bali is INCREDIBLE!) and watch some killer sunsets and do all of those sorts of things that people do on magical islandy places. Then, we're heading to Padang Bai to spend a couple of nights at The Marco Inn, a little beach house on the water that has a 360 degree rooftop with daily YOGA CLASSES! (I am much more thrilled about this than Ali is...) Here we're hoping to make the most of the Blue Lagooon that everyone claims spectacular and perhaps take a day trip to Mount Agung, the highest mountain (and active volcano!) in Bali.

And then, we're going to Ubud! This is the heart of Bali and supposedly the center of Balinese art and culture. We're staying in a place called the Ubud Inn, which is where...brace yourself...this place is where...where...ELIZABETH GILBERT STAYED IN EAT PRAY LOVE!!! (Again, I am far more thrilled about this than Ali is...) To stay in the place that Elizabeth Gilbert (who could quite possibly be titled 'my favorite person-I've-never-met ever') stayed in my all time favorite book is almost too much for me. Maybe I can also find that guru fortune teller guy that she befriended there. Anyway, Ubud will be the last leg of our journey, so we're hoping to take in as much of the Balinese culture as possible, including renting motor bikes for the day to explore the Balinese country side, rice paddies, and life outside of the city. And THIS, people, is the one thing that Ali is much more thrilled about than I am. I have a deathly fear of motor bikes ever since I crashed both Nathan Van Kley's and Tim Van Vugt's mopeds in the 8th grade. One I crashed into the wall of an alley (in my defense, I had just planned to sit on the moped but my friend told me I had to spin the handle to keep the engine running and the next thing I knew, BOOM, straight into the wall.) And the next time I was trying to turn a corner and ended up driving straight onto someone's front yard. It is HARD turning corners on mopeds. I was 13 and have never driven any moped-ish vehicle since.

This will be the first time that Ali and I ride a plane together. We've lived in three different countries together and have said 'hello' or 'goodbye' nearly 20 times to each other in airports, and yet we have not managed to actually get on a plane at the same time. What if we're completely incompatible in the air? This plane ride could make or break us.