(Bali, Indonesia)
Bali, located 8 degrees south of the equator (whoohoo - we made it but totally forgot to check if the toilets drain the other direction, although Mikie tells me they all drain the same way), is Indonesia's largest tourist destination and a second home to lots of people from Australia - they say Bali is to Aussies like Mexico is to Americans. 
Balinese culture is strongly influenced by the Hindu culture, so there are lots of gigantic, elaborate marble statues all over the Island.
This is the part of the work trip where we really began to sweat. We worked from morning until late at night pouring over design ideas, driving for hours to visit the local tiki carvers, and logging all the new products we saw that we want to carry at the shop.
Okay, so it really wasn't all that HARD of work - I mean, we were on a beautiful Island - but darnit we WERE working! (Except when we took a day off to visit Uluwatu where there's a temple on the edge of a 300'+ cliff that overlooks the Indonesian Ocean and the home to hundreds of monkeys that you can hand feed bananas. If you don't, they will steal your sunglasses and run away with them and you'll never see them again, so I'd suggest buying the blasted bananas. Since we were visiting the grounds of the temple, we had to wear a sarong, hence the matching blue skirts - no, we weren't that matchy-matchy tourist couple everyone makes fun of! - check out the 2 monkeys in the background!)
I'm so bummed that the camera died right when we got to the monkeys at the temple because there was a bit of an incident that I would have LOVED to get on film. Mikie was trying to feed one of the monkeys from his banana bag and this other, bigger monkey who was obviously a "pretty big deal" among the monkeys kept stealing the bananas away from all the others. Mikie tried one more time to feed monkey #2 but Alpha Monkey wasn't having any of it. In an effort to try to stand up for poor little monkey #2, Mikie tried to intervene, but he was too late and (thankfully) aborted the effort. Alpha Monkey was on to Mikie's tricks, though and just stared - the most hateful little monkey stare he could muster - at Mikie. Alpha Monkey was on a wall at this point, so he stood about chest-level with Mikie and was about 5' away from him. I'm fumbling with the blasted camera - which is dead - while pleading with Mikie not to test the little buggers, and all of a sudden, Mikie gives the Alpha Monkey the "finger gun" as if to say "hey, big guy - you intimidate the bejesies out of me but I'm going to try to look tough as I walk away" and in a split second Alpha Monkey lets out this blood curdling scream, the furry mohawk on his head stands straight up, and he lunges towards Mikie in a fit of rage. My life with Michael flashed before my eyes as I witnessed this would-be-attack-in-the-making and, by the grace of GOD, Alpha Monkey ran out of runway on the wall before he could reach Mikie's head - which I'm sure he was planning on eating. He came to a screeching halt and just jumped around screaming at Mikie from the ledge. Our guide looks around really quick to make sure everyone's okay and says in a cool Balinese accent "monkey think: 'you don't kill me - i kill YOU first!'... you ready go?". Yup - we ready go.
Our hotel was right on the beach, and it was beautiful.
Kuta was the area that had a decent surfing break and all the shopping - where apparently the locals' respect for you is directly proportionate to your bartering abilities: if you can walk away having argued the price down to nearly nothing, you're friends for life.
We also saw some things that reminded us of our friends back at home:
Even though it's spelled differently, Jhonny's still Yanni or Yanie in any language!
And then there was the lady that crochets EVERYTHING, and of course how can you see crochet-ANYTHING and not think of Heather Sommer who crochets some of the
most fabulous coozies, (I still covet the one Willthing was given on his birthday) matching scarves and hats you've ever seen - because it's always okay to coordinate.
