Anniversary

We had a nice dinner for our last night in Gili and for our 1 year wedding anniversary. Brandon surprised me by printing off some of our old e-mails from our first year of dating while I was in Australia and he was in Europe. They made me a little teary and really thankful that we get to be together now. It was such a great reminder of how falling in love with my best friend was the most wonderful time. Brandon also got me a cotton sarong. He looked up the traditional gifts for the 1 year anniversary (paper=the e-mails) and for 2 years (cotton=the sarong) since we signed for our marriage license two summers ago. He also bought me a dress on the way to dinner. What a nice guy.
We had an excellent dinner; Brandon enjoyed the seafood platter and I had the crab ravioli.
We left Gili the next day to head to Ubud in Bali. We took a horse cart into town and then took some pictures at the beach while we waited for our late boat.
We will miss the beautiful colours of the sea here in Gili. And I will miss the awesome yoga. I included a picture of the garden area in which I got to practice yoga. My final session included some meditation on the chakras. It was wonderful!

Bali

After what seemed like a really long time in Gili (9 nights!), we decided it was time for some culture. We headed to Ubud on the island of Bali, accidentally completing the Eat Pray Love trifecta (Italy, India, and Indonesia). I'm so glad that we stopped here. We got to see an excellent Balinese dance show. Their make up, costumes, very open eyes, and nearly constant bent leg position were all impressive. I also went to the cheapest spa ever. It was so lovely and next door to our hotel. I had one of the best massages ever and a hair treatment. Not sure if the hair treatment made a difference to my hair, but it felt nice to have the aloe vera cream rubbed into my scalp.
Our highlight was the monkey forest. The quickest way for us to walk into town was through the forest. The first time we walked through, it was night time. It was a little spooky and very fun. The jungle sounded so alive. When we went the next day, we both got jumped on by monkeys (at separate times). The monkey who jumped on me really wanted my sunglasses (I managed to pull them out of his hands though). The monkey who jumped on Brandon just wanted to hang out. He spat some of his food on Brandon's neck and then swept it under Brandon's shirt. He was also very interested in the baggage tag on Brandon's back pack. It was so fun to watch the monkeys from up close. I think they are so fascinating because they are so similar to us. I especially liked the mother monkeys with their tiny babies. We also saw one small monkey start crying, a large monkey just opened up his arms wide, and the little monkey climbed into a very big hug. We saw one lady put out her hand to a monkey that was sitting on a ledge. The monkey held her hand with his, then added his other hand, and then a foot. They seemed to like interacting with humans as much as we liked being with them!
Bali's weather was perfect: just warm and humid enough. It is also very lush and since I wear a lot of green, I blended in. There were offerings to the gods on every doorstep (and a picture below features a large collection of the offerings). Our hotel even made sure that we had a little offering on our doorstep!