A Very Bali Christmas

Happy Holidays, friends! I hope everyone had a wonderful few weeks with family and good food. Mine was fantastically…different.

While I’ve never spent my Christmas in such a hot climate, the intensity with which the Filipinos embrace the Christmas season helped me get into the spirit. They start preparing when the “ber” months come around (SeptemBER) and by the time December rolls around, every employee at the malls has a Santa hat on, the lights are nearly blinding and you can’t escape the caroles.

But I had other plans for the week. I arrived in Bali after a 16-hour trip (there are only 2 non-stop flights a week from Manila, and I wasn’t on either). The airport and the entire city was a madhouse but I made it back to the Mothership, Karen and Gusky’s lovely compound. There I met my two cousins for the first time – Mira, a senior at SMU, and Giri, a sophomore at Lafayette. We shared an unspoken consensus to ignore just how odd the situation was. They are both great and have a really interesting balance of growing up in Bali but being American-ized.

Mira had a few friends from the US staying at a house down the street. In this group of 6 guys, 3 had gone to Dartmouth and one of those lived on the floor below me during my semester "abroad". Talk about a reunion, in Bali no less! Our first several days were spent relaxing in Ubud, enjoying the beach bars, watching the sunset and gallivanting around Bali at night (ahem, even in Kuta). Karen and Gusky’s close friends came on Christmas Eve, so with 9 of us the house was filled.

Christmas Day involved opened presents under the Christmas orchid and then spending the rest of the day on the beach. A solid day of surfing, tanning, delicious noodles and Bintang (the local beer). That evening, dinner was the main event. A number of their friends from Bali joined and 22 of us dined at the lovely table on food their catering company prepared and served. Food coma #1.

Dec 26^th was Gusky’s birthday and to celebrate he invited another group of family and friends to share Babi Guling (roasted whole pig). It's a rare occasion and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Food coma #2. 

We had a one-day break from the festivities and then December 28^thwas Karen’s big 5-0! Gusky planned major surprise party at their Thai restaurant in Ubud. Great people, killer food, delicious mojitos. Food coma #3. Karen danced the night away and we didn’t return home until well after turning into pumpkins.

My final two days in Bali allowed for a bit more relaxing, food comas #4-6, and pool in both forms of the word. Sunday night I made the trek back to Manila, bummed out of leave my newly acquainted family. A New Year’s Eve spent at Friendly’s and another few days at WHO, and somehow now I’m down to my last 3 weeks here. Time to enjoy it while I can! xxx