Trust me you cannot get bored of waking to such spectacular views!
As we fuss around getting ready for our next day filled with fun and adventure it becomes apparent that Lou is definitely our resident forgetful head, what a laugh if something is missing it is Lous, probably buried in her magic camelback which holds so much stuff it is unbelievable, I truly think it is a black hole in there! We do make it to breakfast and have a guess as to what our smoothy contains today.
Fuelled up we head off in a minivan supplied by the adventure group, they pick you up and drive you everywhere you need to go, in your own private little group, no stress, no fuss. The driver is a bit more subdued than our own racing car driver Wayan so we all sit back and save on our adrenalin stores - for this journey anyway.
We arrive at the location where we will have a go at white water rafting. Funnily enough our guide is called Wayan so no probs there. We look so glam in our crash helmets and life jackets carrying our paddles - wheres Australias Next Top Model when you need em?
A short walk down to the boat/raft says Wayan who disappears into the bushes. So barefoot off we go and go and go and go, short walk my .....well you get the idea it is a fair hike down down down to the water. As we arrive at our raft Wayan is pumping it up - I'm thinking 'I hope this is normal practice' or this could be interesting,either that or he is worried we may sink it - only joking.
We climb in and take up our positions (Ali is sure she will be the one who falls out) a quick training session in the commands to follow, lean this way, boom boom means hang on and lean into the boat - hoping to get plenty of those! and of course FORWARD or BACK that means we have to work. Off we go and it is great fun, splashing of other people on the river is obviously a given (well by us anyway). We only got stuck up on a boulder once and as you can imagine 5 chicks in a boat and a guide yelling "BACK" as we are killing ourselves laughing must have been a sight, eventually Lous call breaks through the noise "PADDLE BACK" oh yeah okay, and digging in we drag ourselves off the boulder and continue our ride. The ride finishes with us being able to jump out of the raft and ride the current to the finish point on a river bank. Great fun, a bit of exercise which is good and beautiful scenery. I would have loved more hardcore rapids but thats just how I am.
Of course now we have to get back up from river level, yep you got it Climb, climb, climb only with an added challenge, trying to get by all the hawkers - "wanna buy a wooden elephant,or maybe a carved bike etc etc etc". No, but is anyone selling thongs? my bloody feet are not too good on these paths - no I don't want a sarong I want some thongs, head down ignore them - no thanks, no thanks, no thank you, hang on look back over the shoulder and NOOOOOOO Manda don'y do it. Yep she stops and starts to haggle for a sarong, gets a great bargain but now the others are like sea gulls after a hot chip, and Manda is the hot chip. We basically end up running up this pathway to the top and our fitness holds up for us as we leave the poor ladies chasing us gasping for precious oxygen. Don't get me wrong the sarongs are gorgeous but how many can you buy?
A shower and great feed, then it's off to the elephant park. What amazing creatures, they are huge and we feed them, pat them have photos with them and then go for a ride on them around the grounds. They are so quiet, for such a large animal they tread so softly and you rock and sway in your seat, very relaxing and although I am not a big fan of animals in captivity these elephants do appear to be really adored by their handlers. A couple of babies are around and another one is on its way later this year. We finish our visit with a coffee and then it is back into our bus to head home.
A full on day but so much fun and we are all sitting in the bus with smiles on our faces and I have never seen everyone so relaxed, but our day isn't over yet!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Better late than never Bali continued
We awake to the most amazing view across mountains shrouded in mist. A very quick shower in our outside bathroom and off to brekkie.
Breakfast is served in a beautiful outside area in between rice paddy fields. A fresh fruit smoothie and banana pancakes yummy a nice cup of lemongrass tea and relaxed conversation - what a way to start the day.
A bit of exploring and then we all head off with our bamboo walking poles for a 2hour hike through the local hills and village. A bit challenging in some places but absolutely refreshing to see life in its most basic form.
Lunch is amazing and as we will experience every meal is made from local fresh produce with very little meat and almost no dairy. Fresh vegies abound and the colours and flavours are a wake up call for your taste buds - the food all has a little bit of bite to it but you get used to it very quickly and remember spicy foods speed up the metabolism heehee.
That afternoon is a cooking class to see how our delicious meals are prepared - it inspires us all to get into some fresh cooking when we get home.
A session of Yoga on the balcony with views to the mountains - it is a fantastic session and our teacher has us in some unbelievable positions and we have an awesome view of the sun beginning to set.
A relaxing dinner and early to bed because tomorrow is our big volcano climb.
3.30AM Wakey wakey rise and shine! Skins and camelbacks and off we go. A decent drive - with less on the roads at this time of the morning and we arrive at a friend of Wayans and Karens who has his own bed and breakfast and fish restaurant.
An introduction to Indonesian toilets with plenty of giggles from Amanda and myself. Our guides arrive and off we go. It is still pitch black and we are given torches a short walk through the town and then into the greenery we go. One of the guides is concerned we are going too fast and we will not make it to the top - haha he obviously hasn't meant the clients and trainers fron body4u. Half way up we take a moment to look out across the volcanic crater and lake below us it is breath taking. The morning mist is beginning to clear and it is just gorgeous.
Onward and upward until we finally reach the summit. In time for the sunrise. We buy a coke each (yeah a coke) and Lou a bali coffee which is in a bloody massive glass and as thick as mud. The local girls climb the volcano every day and set up stalls to sell you these drinks so it is the least we can do to buy one. We take our fresh eggs over the edge onto a ledge and place them into a little hole which is spewing out steam from the semi active volcano beneath our feet. Leave them there for a short while and we have nice freshly cooked eggs and bread for brekkie.
Time to leave and with thoughts of cliffhanger in my mind we walk along a very small ridge line to begin our descent. Where is the chopper to take some great pictures of us? Some singing and laughing and we reach the bottom - all of us taking a look back to actually see where we have been and where we have just come from. Great job guys!
We now head to a spa resort to swim, soak in the hot pools and eat. Followed by a fresh fish lunch at our friends place. The hospitality of the local people is lovely. With our tummies full and feeling very relaxed and invigorated at the same time we head back to our home for a few more days.
When we get back to Ayung Sari Indah we all sit on the balcony with wine and lemongrass tea and one by one have the most incredible thai massage with a local healer called Pak Gadang. Another experience that adds to the already wonderful time we are having.
Dinner and another great night of conversation, relaxation and wonderful food and off to bed.
Stay tuned more to come night night!
Breakfast is served in a beautiful outside area in between rice paddy fields. A fresh fruit smoothie and banana pancakes yummy a nice cup of lemongrass tea and relaxed conversation - what a way to start the day.
A bit of exploring and then we all head off with our bamboo walking poles for a 2hour hike through the local hills and village. A bit challenging in some places but absolutely refreshing to see life in its most basic form.
Lunch is amazing and as we will experience every meal is made from local fresh produce with very little meat and almost no dairy. Fresh vegies abound and the colours and flavours are a wake up call for your taste buds - the food all has a little bit of bite to it but you get used to it very quickly and remember spicy foods speed up the metabolism heehee.
That afternoon is a cooking class to see how our delicious meals are prepared - it inspires us all to get into some fresh cooking when we get home.
A session of Yoga on the balcony with views to the mountains - it is a fantastic session and our teacher has us in some unbelievable positions and we have an awesome view of the sun beginning to set.
A relaxing dinner and early to bed because tomorrow is our big volcano climb.
3.30AM Wakey wakey rise and shine! Skins and camelbacks and off we go. A decent drive - with less on the roads at this time of the morning and we arrive at a friend of Wayans and Karens who has his own bed and breakfast and fish restaurant.
An introduction to Indonesian toilets with plenty of giggles from Amanda and myself. Our guides arrive and off we go. It is still pitch black and we are given torches a short walk through the town and then into the greenery we go. One of the guides is concerned we are going too fast and we will not make it to the top - haha he obviously hasn't meant the clients and trainers fron body4u. Half way up we take a moment to look out across the volcanic crater and lake below us it is breath taking. The morning mist is beginning to clear and it is just gorgeous.
Onward and upward until we finally reach the summit. In time for the sunrise. We buy a coke each (yeah a coke) and Lou a bali coffee which is in a bloody massive glass and as thick as mud. The local girls climb the volcano every day and set up stalls to sell you these drinks so it is the least we can do to buy one. We take our fresh eggs over the edge onto a ledge and place them into a little hole which is spewing out steam from the semi active volcano beneath our feet. Leave them there for a short while and we have nice freshly cooked eggs and bread for brekkie.
Time to leave and with thoughts of cliffhanger in my mind we walk along a very small ridge line to begin our descent. Where is the chopper to take some great pictures of us? Some singing and laughing and we reach the bottom - all of us taking a look back to actually see where we have been and where we have just come from. Great job guys!
We now head to a spa resort to swim, soak in the hot pools and eat. Followed by a fresh fish lunch at our friends place. The hospitality of the local people is lovely. With our tummies full and feeling very relaxed and invigorated at the same time we head back to our home for a few more days.
When we get back to Ayung Sari Indah we all sit on the balcony with wine and lemongrass tea and one by one have the most incredible thai massage with a local healer called Pak Gadang. Another experience that adds to the already wonderful time we are having.
Dinner and another great night of conversation, relaxation and wonderful food and off to bed.
Stay tuned more to come night night!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Sharing Bali Part 1
Just returned after a fab few days in Bali at a wonderful place called Ayung Sari Indah.
If I wrote everything I would be here for a month so I will try to keep it to maybe a week, ok a bit less then.........A few installments I think.
It all started on Thursday last week with Brekkie at the Coffee Club, followed by a stretched limo ride to the airport with my intrepid travelling companions Amanda, Alison, Louise and Karen.
A flight to Darwin with a few hours to kill in their massive airport - not! So we end up in the little tavern having a wine. Already plenty of laughs. Onto our flight to Denpasar - none of us have experienced such a noisy flight and with plenty of alcohol already consumed by half the people onboard it was only going to get better the longer the flight went. Oh the joys of flying Jet Star!
We arrive at Denpasar airport go through customs and Lou gets taken into a little office becuase she has 3 bottles of wine instead of 2. We all wait, just a tad nervous and with fleeting thoughts of "you know who (Schapelle)". 200,000 rupiah later Lou emerges wine still in hand. We then get round the corner from customs to a row of about 30 money changers all calling out to us. Every window offers the same exchange rate so pick a window any window and come away with over 1 million rupiah which is only around $200 but we were still happy to millionaires in our own minds!
Out into the fresh air - only its not too fresh with smoking still allowed everywhere. The clouds have opened up and it is pouring, absolutely torrential. Karen W from Ayung Sari Indah (ASI I will use for short) spots us and eventually we traipse through ankle deep water to her partner and fellow host Wayan and climb into the car for our trip to ASI.
Holy moly this was the most intense 1+ hours in a vehicle any of us has experienced. They drive on the same side of the road as us - well they are supposed to but basically they drive wherever they like dodging bikes, dogs, people, signs, pilesof timber or rocks, you name it we swerved it. Lots of toot tooting on the horn. Eyes wide like scared rabbits in headlights is what we all looked like - this would have been a great you tube video! But guess what we made it totally unscathed and now with our jaws hanging open at the beautiful sight of ASI. Now midnight aussie time it was hard to fully appreciate our wonderful surroundings but that which we could see was lovely. We were led to our bungalows and although these bungalows would become really homely it was a little bit of a culture shock. Unable to really get settled it was time to go straight to bed. It was surprisingly cold and felt quite damp obviously due to the humidity during the day. I would liken the beds to futons a little higher, with mattresses quite hard it made for some funny bedtime joking. Outside bathrooms, so sitting on the toilet surrounded by jungle noises late at night can be a bit spooky first time around. Oh yeah and if someone looked over from the balcony they would see you - or you would see them first and yell out that you were on the toilet, well Amanda did a couple of times until we got into the habit of letting our roomies know we were "GOING TO THE TOILET". Have to say though by the end of the trip it all seemed quite normal. We did still have power and running water so it wasn't totally back to nature without any modern amenities.
So finally off to sleep and awaiting the days ahead.
I will be back with Day 1 soon - log back on it is worth the read I assure you
Friday, May 22, 2009
It's been a while!
I am back.
Things have been moving along nicely at body4u since the New Year New You challenge and we are currently into our next 8 week challenge in the club. With around 30 entrants it is shaping up (pardon the pun) to be an interesting few weeks ahead.
Next week I will be flying off to Bali with a great group of ladies to experience Sharing Bali. A wonderful retreat just outside Ubud up in the hills. Apart from an amazing time anticipated by all we will actually be doing a recce to see about offering our clients bootcamp retreats, incorporating exercise, healthy living and relaxation all in one - interested? well keep checking my blogs for more info.
Also happening at the moment is the training for our Kokoda challenge race which is taking place down the coast in the Hinterlands. It is a fund raising event and takes us on a 96km journey with only 39 hours to complete it. Myself and the rest of my trusty team, Darren, Richard and Brooke are hoping to do it in 20 hours or less. Fingers crossed.
A few hours run/walk tonight followed by about 6 hours in the hills on Sunday - very wet hills I imagine is all part of the fun in store for us.
Gotta go for now be back soon with news of our adventures - take care and remember to make someone smile> :-)
Things have been moving along nicely at body4u since the New Year New You challenge and we are currently into our next 8 week challenge in the club. With around 30 entrants it is shaping up (pardon the pun) to be an interesting few weeks ahead.
Next week I will be flying off to Bali with a great group of ladies to experience Sharing Bali. A wonderful retreat just outside Ubud up in the hills. Apart from an amazing time anticipated by all we will actually be doing a recce to see about offering our clients bootcamp retreats, incorporating exercise, healthy living and relaxation all in one - interested? well keep checking my blogs for more info.
Also happening at the moment is the training for our Kokoda challenge race which is taking place down the coast in the Hinterlands. It is a fund raising event and takes us on a 96km journey with only 39 hours to complete it. Myself and the rest of my trusty team, Darren, Richard and Brooke are hoping to do it in 20 hours or less. Fingers crossed.
A few hours run/walk tonight followed by about 6 hours in the hills on Sunday - very wet hills I imagine is all part of the fun in store for us.
Gotta go for now be back soon with news of our adventures - take care and remember to make someone smile> :-)
Sunday, March 29, 2009
I'd Like To Thank!
I would like to thank everyone involved in this New Year New You Challenge but some special thank yous for Darren for his never ending support and for making all of this possbile, my kids for being so patient and making do without me so often. Richard and Amanda for all the hard work and effort they have put in. All the rest of the body4u team for their encouragement and support of the challenge. A big thank you to the partners and families of those involved for countless weekends away from them.
A special thank you needs to go to 2 of our wonderful clients Brett and Alison King for sponsoring the Bridge Climb today, thank you so much.
Last but not least thank you to Greg and Annette for being great sports and for putting in the effort required to achieve their goals, I will certainly miss our weekend adventures and I wish you both all the best in your future goals for a healthy and long life - keep up the good work.
Cheers Ang.x
A special thank you needs to go to 2 of our wonderful clients Brett and Alison King for sponsoring the Bridge Climb today, thank you so much.
Last but not least thank you to Greg and Annette for being great sports and for putting in the effort required to achieve their goals, I will certainly miss our weekend adventures and I wish you both all the best in your future goals for a healthy and long life - keep up the good work.
Cheers Ang.x
"And now the end is here..........."
The final week. 6 am at the gym running a few minutes late after printing off the details for the final adventure. Greg, Annette and Rich are waiting at the gym. Amanda pulls in and upstairs we go.
A couple of quick pickies and into the last training session. On the treadmills for a hill climb warm up and then into a boxing session. Both of them worked really hard and there wasn't much talk. Rich and myself with focus mitts up each end of the running track and jabs and uppercuts galore, throw in lots of burpees - Greg still needs a bit more practice on these heehee. Puffing panting, red faces and more sweat and it is finally over. Good work.
A quick change and we all load into Amandas car and stop to grab takeaway coffees for all and apple scrolls (just for the trainers of course). We start our drive heading towards the city and the destination is finally revealed "The Story Bridge Climb", I think Greg may be just a 'wittle bit scared of heights' even though he said he lied. Amanda is really nervous and her palms are sweating before we even start. The getting ready takes a while, breathalyzer test (we all passed phew) jump suits on (gorgeous), head sets, safety lanyards, sunnies and off we go.
Great views from the bridge, some interesting history and a few laughs watching the guys climbing and descending, photo ops at appropriate places. Couldn't say the climb itself is challenging, maybe if you are scared of heights! but the overall experience was great. Everyone enjoyed the day and then a yummy breakfast at Bulimba.
Back to the gym for weigh ins and we will all be meeting back at the gym later today for the final measurements and photos and a celebration drink - yep Foxy a drink an alcoholic drink woo hoo! Well done everyone and we will post the results later.
Cheers from Little Miss Scary.
A couple of quick pickies and into the last training session. On the treadmills for a hill climb warm up and then into a boxing session. Both of them worked really hard and there wasn't much talk. Rich and myself with focus mitts up each end of the running track and jabs and uppercuts galore, throw in lots of burpees - Greg still needs a bit more practice on these heehee. Puffing panting, red faces and more sweat and it is finally over. Good work.
A quick change and we all load into Amandas car and stop to grab takeaway coffees for all and apple scrolls (just for the trainers of course). We start our drive heading towards the city and the destination is finally revealed "The Story Bridge Climb", I think Greg may be just a 'wittle bit scared of heights' even though he said he lied. Amanda is really nervous and her palms are sweating before we even start. The getting ready takes a while, breathalyzer test (we all passed phew) jump suits on (gorgeous), head sets, safety lanyards, sunnies and off we go.
Great views from the bridge, some interesting history and a few laughs watching the guys climbing and descending, photo ops at appropriate places. Couldn't say the climb itself is challenging, maybe if you are scared of heights! but the overall experience was great. Everyone enjoyed the day and then a yummy breakfast at Bulimba.
Back to the gym for weigh ins and we will all be meeting back at the gym later today for the final measurements and photos and a celebration drink - yep Foxy a drink an alcoholic drink woo hoo! Well done everyone and we will post the results later.
Cheers from Little Miss Scary.
Friday, March 27, 2009
How time flies!
Nearing the end - sad in a way I have enjoyed seeing the effort of all involved and also some great achievements from Greg and Annette. I am sure there are a few things they didn't think they would have done at the beginning of their journey - walk run to Manly for example, climbing Pollies hill (twice) and Sundays surprise (hey Greg was it heights you were scared of?) just asking would I do something like that?
The big thing will be to see if they can keep it up - I truly hope so. They have inspired many people and the enquiries for our next 8 week body4u challenge has been great already, so you two have shown quite a few people what is possible. Back again on Sunday.
The big thing will be to see if they can keep it up - I truly hope so. They have inspired many people and the enquiries for our next 8 week body4u challenge has been great already, so you two have shown quite a few people what is possible. Back again on Sunday.
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