Turnbull Family Pacific Tour 2015

We're taking it pretty easy for our last few days in Bali, before we head off to Sydney Australia on Saturday evening. We thought about going to the beach today at the end of the strip but we heard there were a lot of hawkers there. So we're spending another day at the resort by the pool, near the ocean. I really like this spot near the pool, next to the seawall. It has some beach sand in a contained strip, with some beach chairs and umbrellas setup here. It's like we're at the beach, without being on the beach. Very nice. It seems to be low season here with few tourists. Sometimes we're the only patrons in the restaurant. Even so, there are many hawkers on the street as we walk to local restaurants and shops. As we stroll along, we are invariably asked every 50 or 100 feet whether we want to purchase sunglasses, whether we need transport, or if we want to go snorkeling. It looks to me like a great number of Balinese men around here are idle without much to do, at ...

I am enjoying the local Asian food. We have only weakened and had a western meal a few times - usually to the disappointment of whoever ordered it. Almost every meal I've had since we arrived in Asia has been good to great. But last evening at the local night market I stumbled across fresh baguettes and I couldn't help but think, thank the heavens for the French influence here! I've tried not to focus on the bread since it's been non-existent to poor throughout Japan and Thailand. Think wonder bread in all its variations - toasted or not, with or without crust, fresh or most likely not. How fresh can wonder bread be anyway? Now we're hitting two former French colonies, Laos and Vietnam, so I'm expecting big things in the baguette department - a little butter wouldn't hurt either. This morning John and I took bicycles out for a spin around the quiet town of Luang Prabang in search of a geocache. It would have helped if I had checked the brakes before we lef...