Impressions of Bali

We fell in love with Bali, and especially the town of Ubud, when we first visited this beautiful island in 2012. Since our first visit, we have returned again and again. In 2017 we returned to Bali and this time we were pleased to welcome my Father, Stepmother, and my half-brother to explore the island with us. We had an amazing time and created this video to share some of the highlights!

Transcript

Hey everyone, it’s Brandon Pearce and I’m here in Bali with my family! My Dad, my Stepmom, and my half-brother are here and we’re enjoying touring around this beautiful island. I wanted to just take an opportunity to let everyone share their experiences about Bali while I show some of the cool footage and photos that I took.

Thanks for watching!

Robin

My first impressions of Bali…it’s been a really wonderful experience. First of all, it is the most exotic place I have ever been. I have done a lot of traveling throughout Europe, Japan, and Taiwan but Bali is totally different to anything I have ever done.

I really enjoy the culture here. It seems really rich. Not only do the locals practice it avidly, they also love it!

Mark

Well, Bali is a lot like I expected it to be. It is a beautiful island with lots of nature, but what I didn’t expect was all of the culture. It has a deep and rich culture that I really love to immerse myself in.

Jennifer

It’s been great being back here in Bali. I really like sleeping here because it feels like the nights are longer and time goes slower which is really nice! I like things to go slow, I don’t like to feel rushed.

Mark

Since I am a musician, one of the main things I wanted to do when I came to Bali was to have an experience with the gamelan. It was really exciting and wonderful to play the gamelan because I learned how it works and I got my hands on something that had been a mystery to me for so many years!

Brandon

I love the incredibly resonant tones that are so unique in the gamelan music. It is a five tone scale, and I have not been able to get those pitches out of my head since we took the class!

Emily

We went on the Campuhan Ridge Walk which was really nice because I have never been there before. It was really beautiful because we went there early in the morning and the sun was starting to rise. Rays of light were coming through the trees.

Jennifer

The Campuhan Ridge Walk…I really enjoyed our time there as it was not too hot. Actually..all the days we spent in Bali were amazing! There were a few rainy days but I really enjoyed the cool freshness in the air. It was not too muggy, not too hot. The day we walked the Ridge was amazing!

John

One of my favorite things was going through the rice fields. I enjoyed seeing people working there and especially just found it interesting that they would make the rice terraces into the hills instead of just making it on flat ground.

Mark

Seeing the rice terraces was one of the highlights. Everything was a highlight! We had a wonderful time walking through the rice terraces and seeing the people at work. They were doing some harvesting at the time and it was the first time I had ever seen that done in person. It was really interesting. It made me want to be a rice farmer.

Emily

We went to the Monkey Forest again. Every time we go it is always crazy. The monkeys steal people’s stuff. But it is mostly the people that are crazy, not the monkeys because they feed them food and they touch them.

Mark

It was really wonderful to participate in a Hindu ritual at the water temple. That was definitely the highlight.

Robin

We went to the water temple (that is why I have rice on my forehead) and that was a really interesting cultural experience. The people who live here are so happy and kind. They were helping us and telling us what we should do and not do. They were very polite to us.

Another really super special experience was going to a black sand beach. It is beautiful sand, even in the daylight. It is beautiful because it’s kind of black but it has blue undertones. It is hard to describe but they told us that when it got dark that these big flood lights would come on so that the surfers could see. When that happened we would see that the sand sparkled. Unfortunately, there were no surfers that night so they did not turn on the lights. Instead, we got flashlights and we shined the lights onto the sand. It was like glitter! It was like walking on black glitter! It turned out to be a blessing that the lights didn’t work because you could see the stars really well with no light pollution. We could see the Southern Cross up in the sky. It was awesome!

Marie

I liked the gamelan lesson that we took, although it was really long. I liked having a pool so that I can swim because in Mexico, there aren’t many pools.

Brandon

Ubud has changed a lot since the last time were here about a year ago…or maybe it’s just me. It seems to have grown a lot, gotten a lot more crowded, and it seems a lot more touristy now. There seem to be a lot more people here and it is more crowded. There are more big-box chain stores. It could just be that we are here in the high season or that we’ve forgotten what it was like. It has been an interesting change for me.

Brandon: How are you liking Bali?

Aysia: I love it!

Brandon: What do you love about Bali?

Aysia: I love that I have all my toys in Bali. And I like that the people are kind. I like that there are lots of kids in Bali and sometimes when we go to a restaurant I can say “Hi” and we can become friends.

Robin

One thing I wanted to say was that as wonderful and as cool as it has been to be in an exciting new exotic place like Bali, the best thing about being here has been being with our family. Being able to be with Brandon and Jennifer and their darling family, getting to spend so much fun time with them, listening to Emily sing some of her amazing creations… She is so talented and I love her voice. And Marie with her beautiful eyes that match her hair…it has just been so much fun. Marie has such a fun sense of humor. And then Aysia’s darling. She has just been so much fun to have around and she’s so grown up compared to what she used to be when I saw her last. It has been super fun and we love Brandon and Jennifer and the girls so much. I wanted to say that they’re really the only reason we came here. We would never have come to Bali otherwise. And what a blessing it’s been that they were here and we came to see them.

Are you planning a visit to Bali? You can check out some of our other Bali posts here!