Beautiful Ubud

This place is just stunning. The culture is so rich that it's hard to not get consumed by it and want to learn more. I'm posting a few pics that I thought were beautiful moments in time. There is so much inspiration here... the architecture, textures and colors are just awesome. Everything seems to have that vintage, distressed look to it, but it was done naturally over time and you can just feel the history in everything you see.

Monkey Forest

We went to the Monkey Forest a couple days ago, which is a couple acres of forest downtown Bali where monkeys are everywhere. They're definitely wild, but used to people. If you hold a banana or any kind of food, you're going to have a monkey or two crawling up your clothes to get it from you. We saw some monkeys fighting and two boy monkeys about to mate. One tried to crawl up Kyle, but we were able to fight him off. We don't like rabies.

Fire Dance

We went to a fire and trance dance last night, where 100 or more men sit in concentric circles swaying and chanting while the story of Ramayana, a Hindu epic, is told through song and dance. It was an incredible experience to watch.

Bottle Openers

Awesome.

Our Bungalow at Bambu Indah

Just to forewarn you, this is going to sound ridiculous. Today I learned that all 7 of the bungalows here are Javanese houses that were made in the 1800s and the owner of the resort had them shipped here in tact from Java. I don't even know what Java is. But we were told that we're staying in the honeymoon suite, which was the bungalow that a prince had made for his new wife in the late 1800s. A prince.

Balinese Offerings

The Balinese make offerings of food twice a day to the Hindi gods and to ward off evil spirits. They can be flowers, rice, leaves or candy. The offerings are everywhere you walk, in front of entrances to stores and restaurants and hundreds of them line the temples. The one in the picture was at the door of our bungalow this morning.

It's also common for every household to have a temple in their backyard, built for their ancestors, and the family prays together in their temple every night for a certain amount of time. Some temples are just as big as their homes, taking up their entire backyard.

Hi from Indonesia

I still can't believe it, but I'm on the other side of the world in Bali. We arrived at 2am... roughly 5 hours ago. We'll be working and vacationing here over the next 3 weeks, so my posts will probably be about random experiences or the culture here. You know that feeling when you travel somewhere new at night and wake up to find yourself in the middle of the most beautiful place on Earth? It just happened to me. Here's what I saw when I opened the door to our little wooden cottage about 10 minutes ago.

It's hard to tell, but in the fourth photo there's probably a 100 ft. drop off about 20 feet from our patio and the view overlooks a rice field. And our shower is outside! I've always wanted to shower outside!

Rockabye Baby

Rockabye Baby is a company that makes children's music that you want to listen to — not only for babies but for parents too. They turned to their record collections for inspiration: punk, metal, classic rock. They have 30 CDs (and counting) to choose from including favorites such as The Beatles, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Björk and U2. Such a great idea. I've bought a couple of these for a friend and the music is so good that she put a song in a playlist of favorites she created for friends.

Recycled Ties

This company takes used vintage neckties and recycles them into handmade, one-of-a-kind accessories. You have your pick between passport covers, 3 types of wallets and wrist wear. LOVE the wallets and passport covers - the design options are never-ending. The prices aren't bad either - ranging from $19.99 to $23.99.

Ampersandwich Tee

I stumbled across this today and the name/idea of the shirt was too great to not post it. It only makes sense if you know what an ampersand is though. If you're wondering, it's the name for the symbol "&".

Art in my Coffee

This blog is a collection of foamy awesomeness - cataloging coffee and latte art from around the world. People can upload photos of their coffee art and post where they bought their creation.

Oddities in Ireland

These are some random things I came across while in Ireland a couple years ago. I thought it was strange that they don't refrigerate their eggs - not even in the grocery stores. And that their grocery stores don't give you bags. If you didn't bring your own bags, they let you use a cardboard box.

One thing I loved about Dublin is that everyone lays in the grass in the parks, taking naps or just taking time out. Strangers lay within a couple feet of each other, but it doesn't feel awkward at all.

Dinner Dividers

While vacationing in Vancouver, we went out for sushi and this restaurant had long, picnic table style seating. Once you sat down, they came over with these hand made wooden board dividers to separate you from the people next to you... but there was about a 6" gap between the table and the board, so you could still see the people's arms and hear their conversation.

Sweet Ride

I love it when I happen to be driving alongside cars like this one. This car was in front of me on my way to work when I lived in Arizona... it actually had fliers in the plexy glass holder that were flapping in the 60mph wind. At some point I had the idea of starting a coffee table book featuring "The Best Of..." but it never happened.

I think the best car I've seen to date was a Monte Carlo and the back of the driver and passenger seat headrests each had a built-in 20" flat screen TV. Both TVs were playing the same MTV music videos and were about 3 feet from the kid's faces.

Happiness Machine

My friend sent this to me the other day. Thought it was a good viral and fun to watch.

Lemonade Movie

Lemonade is an inspirational film about 16 advertising professionals who lost their jobs and found their calling, encouraging people to listen to that little voice inside their head that asks, “What if?”

I've been following the making of it and in return, was able to watch a limited viewing on Hulu before the release. It's a great little film that makes you smile, choke up and get inspired all in less than an hour. If you've ever been laid off or felt the effects of this recession or even if you have a human heart, you will enjoy this.

Venetian Typeface

An old professor from college created a new typeface out of window shades. I love the simple brilliance of the physical face. I wish the actual font looked more like the real thing. Check out some of his other typefaces here.