This weekly wrap-up covers our journey from December 22 to 28. We left Singapore for Indonesia on Sunday morning, where we spent five days in Amed, a fishing village in northern Bali. Megan’s mom left to head home on Christmas Day, but we stuck around for a couple more days before heading to Ubud on Friday.
Favorite thing we ate: The number one item on our to-do list in Singapore was to visit a hawker center, and boy, did Megan’s mom’s friends deliver! They picked us up at our hotel early on Sunday morning to treat us to breakfast at a hawker center [pictured above] before taking us to the airport for our flight to Denpasar. It was everything we had dreamed of and more! Having locals to order for us was amazing; we never would have known what to pick on our own, not only because we don’t know what anything is called but also because there were so many options. Shown above includes noodles with shark, egg tarts, various dumplings, and several other delicious items we don’t know the names of, but were delicious!
Favorite thing we drank: Our Airbnb host in Amed also owns a restaurant in the area, which serves a delicious drink called Lime Squash. It was very simple (lime, soda water and simple syrup) but so refreshing and delicious! We could even order Lime Squash to be sent to the villa–and you bet we did.
Favorite thing we did: Jonathan really loved the Singapore Changi Airport: his favorite thing this week was watching the mesmerizing Kinetic Rain art installation at the airport [above left] before our flight to Denpasar. Megan loved snorkeling with her mom in Amed; we walked straight from our villa to the water [above right], then swam about 200 meters down to a coral reef with all kinds of bright and unusual fish.
Biggest splurge: Luckily, traveling with the Bank of Mom meant we didn’t splurge on anything this week–or really spend much money at all. Thanks, Mom! :-*
Best deal: Because Megan’s mom was paying for pretty much everything during our time with her, we wanted to do something nice for Christmas, so we booked a masseuse to come to the villa on Christmas Eve. We each got an hour-long, full-body massage right on the beach. See those sunbeds in front of our villa [pictured above]? That’s where we got our massages! Each massage ended up costing only 75,000 IDR (~$5.38 USD), so that may qualify as the most inexpensive Christmas gift ever. But it’s the thought that counts, right? 😉
Biggest oops: As much as Megan loved snorkeling with her mom … they forgot to put sunscreen on their legs. Ahh! Luckily, they had applied sunscreen everywhere else, but their legs were roasted. In fact, at the time of writing this on Sunday, Megan reports her legs still hurt from last Tuesday. Oops.
What we’re reading: Jonathan finished (and recommends) Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian. Megan finished Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munaweera (one of her favorite reads this year!) and read The Majesties by Tiffany Tsao (set in Indonesia and one of her most anticipated winter reads) and Dominicana by Angie Cruz.
Total walking distance: 15.75 miles (hmm … apparently staying in a beach villa only 100m from anything you would ever need is not conducive to walking)
Up next: Exploring more of Indonesia.
Featured image: Verdant rice terraces on the drive to Amed through eastern Bali
