For the title to come across correctly, you need to sing it.
Bali, Bali, Bali! 
Boy 3 started singing this on the flight from Singapore to Bali and that little tune ended up being super funny between the two of us.  We would sing it constantly.  The others didn't think it was a fun and funny as we did.

Upon arrival to Bali I was a little surprised by the amount of TRAFFIC!
You can't really tell from this picture but as with all countries that we visited on this trip the steering wheel is on the right hand side and they drive on the left.
I am glad we did not rent a car!

When we got to our villa,  (Bali Sanur Beach Villas) we were all happy campers! 
Want a tour?
Of course you do!

Here we go... 
The entrance:

The pool!
It wasn't long until everyone was in their swimsuits enjoying our own private pool!

The perfect place to read a book:

The master suite:

I LOVED this bathtub!
Super long and extra deep.
I also love the sandstone wall hanging.

The 3 little ones were excited to share a room.
Since it wasn't connected directly to us we caught them many nights staying up WAY too late watching TV and playing.  For them it was perfect!  And what great memories....
"Remember that time in Bali when we had our own room and we stayed up all night watching TV Mom & Dad didn't even know..."
(oh, we knew...)

I was happy they had their own bathroom.  :o)
(and that there wasn't TOO MUCH fighting - don't get me wrong - there was some!)

Boy 1, was MORE than thrilled to have his own suite with his OWN private bathroom.

We had a full kitchen - which we really didn't use. 
I mean this was my vacation too - no cooking for this momma. 

And a sitting area.

I would have been happy to stay here MUCH LONGER than one week.

After we settled in and swam a bit we headed out for a little dinner.
And dinner was DELICIOUS!
We ate at Three Monkey's in Sanur - it turned out to be our favorite restaurant in Sanur even though it was a little more expensive than most restaurants in that area.  (But way less than what we would pay in the states.)

We ended our evening with a stroll on the beach....

Bali, Bali, Bali!

In Singapore we stayed on Sentosa Island at the Silso Beach Resort Club.  It is an eco-friendly resort that boast lush & beautiful landscaping with a pool that is filled with natural spring water.   The rooms were pretty standard are not anything to write home about, but really, how often are you in your room on vacation anyway?  And when you have a pool & grounds this amazing and a beach only steps away...well, one can suffer with just a standard room. :o) 

Isn't it beautiful?

Flying children!

As you can tell by the title, we had only 2 full days in Singapore so we took a vote on what to do and Universal Studios won!

We spent all day at Universal where a great time was had by all.  We were able to make it through the park and ride all rides in 8 hours.  We rode many of the rollercoaster multiple times because for some reason even thought it was busy people were not in line for the ROLLER COASTERS!!  Go figure!

Boy 2 was a good big brother and took Boy 3 on this 'baby ride'. 

This was cute....at all the 'water' rides, they sold rain ponchos - AND PEOPLE BOUGHT THEM!
I couldn't figure that one out - it was so hot  that we welcomed getting doused with water! 

It is a good thing we only had 2 days in Singapore as all things were super expensive.
Check out these prices:

This first is a picture from Chili's (yeah, we ate there!).
(One Margarita = 14.55 USD!)

And Ben & Jerry's ice cream - HOLY COW!
(USD = 11.73!)

On day 2 we went to the mainland and hit Chinatown and went to Buddha's Tooth Relic Temple & Museum.

Girl was less than thrilled when she discovered she had to cover herself. 
I think she looks cute.  :o)

After the museum we headed down to the food vendor street for a little street food.
The kids were uber excited as they got to have 2 sodas each.  I think this was the highlight of their trip to Chinatown!

Just a few of the carriers in the ocean bring goods into Singapore:

My favorite part of Singapore where I would run each morning:

The 1 month membership to PCE which is good for the month of May goes to.....

ROSIE!
Congratulations Rosie!
Check your inbox for more information!

Who would have thought that a bird park would be our favorite thing in Malaysia.
It wasn't just any bird park though.  It was
The World's Largest Free-flight Walk-in Aviary!
 This 20+ acre park is divided into 4 different zones -Zone 1 and 2 make up the free-flight zone; Zone 3 is the Hornbill Park and Zone 4 is where the birds are placed in separate cages and mini aviaries.
All zones were AMAZING.
Really.
Normally a bird park would not be on our itinerary, but we kept reading reviews on line about the KL Bird Park and it  kept coming up as the #1 thing to do in Kuala Lumpur.
Go figure.
I really didn't believe it, but we decided to bite the bullet and go - we thought we might spend a couple of hours there.  Over 300 pictures and 5 hours later we finally left...
(Don't worry, I'm not showing you all 300 pictures.)

How fun is this picture?
Boy 3 was a bit freaked out and did not move the entire time.  :o)

A sampling of the beautiful birds throughout the park.

This picture was taken the feeding area.  We had birds all over us!

The Kuala Lumpur Bird Park was truly fun experience!  If you ever find yourself in that part of the world, it is definitely worth the time to pop over for a little while.  OH, and I can't believe we made it the entire 5 hours without any of us getting pooped on!  That must be some sort of record for a bird park that is home to more than 3,000 free flying birds!  :o)

Petronas Towers, also know as the Petronas Twin Towers is the 4th tallest building  in the world.
They were the tallest building in the world from 1998 to 2004.
Today they hold the record for being the world's tallest twin towers.
Our kids were pretty fascinated about these facts, I just thought they were cool looking.
This is my favorite picture I took of the towers:

We didn't go up to the observation floor, we just looked at them from outside and went into the lower levels.

Always having fun!

Batu Caves located on a limestone hill is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India.  The cave is said to be about 400 million years old.

However the most impressive part of the Batu Caves to me was the entrance. 
The statue of Murugan, a Hindu deity, stands at 42.7 meters high!
This picture does not do him justice.

Boy 3 counted 297 - very close - there are 272.

On our way up monkeys were hanging out EVERYWHERE.

This guy REALLY wanted Boy 1's Coke can. He chased Boy 1 for several steps.

Inside the caves was a bit of a let down. 
I was expecting more. 

Boy 2 wrote in his travel journal "When we finally got up the stairs I did not enjoy the caves because of all the man made features." ~ He is 9.

With that being said, he loved the hike up to the caves, as we all did.

We couldn't figure out what was up with these Italian looking statues.

While descending the stairs Girl was checking out a baby monkey on the stairs when all of a sudden I heard a loud scream coming from a monkey and then one coming from Girl.  Turns out Girl got a little too close to the baby monkey and momma monkey didn't like it and ran over and started pulling on Girl's skirt.  

The picture below is of momma monkey and baby monkey back together again and Girl as far away from them as possible. 

Girl was not hurt - just freaked out.  :o) 

Things that make you go hum...
At the cave exit.

Thoughts at the end of day 1.
HOT and HUMID.
We will eat lots of ice cream here.
So far, I'm loving it.
Wishing we had booked a hotel with a pool.

                                                              Want a free one month membership to PCE?  
                                                            Keep reading!  I'm having a drawing one week from today!  

                                                                    When I heard about this company I thought:
                                                   "Wow, this is a GREAT thing for new people moving to Korea."

When I was invited to hear their sales pitch I went for one reason and one reason only - to help promote them to the "Newbies" moving to Korea.  As you all know helping newbies is what I love to do and what a great idea especially for those folks that are just moving here that might be a little apprehensive to get out and explore this amazing city on their own.

I didn't think for even one second that I would ever use PCE personally...I mean I have lived here for almost 3 years (if you add up both times) and I am good at figuring things out.  I mean I can speak pretty good Konglish,  I even thought "heck - I should work for this company".

           I left that informative session with more than information for this blog post....I left with a  membership.  
                                                                                              True story.
 
                                                                    So you ask me, "Why, what is so great about PCE?"

PCE is not only great for the newbies, but for everyone! They are your Korean best friend.  They can help you get things done EASILY.  It is no secret that living in a foreign country can be hard at times and sometimes you just want to throw your hands up in defeat, but with PCE in your back pocket you don't have to.  Just give PCE  a buzz and they will help you get things done in just a few minutes - instead of many hours of research. 

For example, a few things they have done for me:

Date night.  You guys know Hubby and I like to go out every Saturday Night - what you don't know is that I spend HOURS and I mean HOURS scouring the internet and looking at expat magazines searching for ideas.  When Paul over at PCE heard that we LOVE Thai food he recommended that we try out Yum Thai and then recommended a couple of places for us to visit after dinner - this was a whole new area of Seoul I had never explored!  It turned out to be a great night and I didn't research a thing! 

My Camera.  The lens on my camera got stuck - I know I could have researched, found a certified dealer and spent the day getting my camera fixed (and most likely get lost along the way..).  Instead I called PCE, dropped my camera off with them and they brought it back to me the next day 100% functional.  Bam.  It took me MAYBE 30 minutes instead of all day.

Translation:  I couldn't read something - took a picture of it, texted it to PCE they translated it for me in seconds. 

Buying stuff in Korea:  What a PAIN in the arse it is sometimes. You have to have a special Korean bank card of some sort. I don't have one.  I just want to use my debit card, but NO they won't let me.  Hubby and I want to see Jason Mraz in concert - I want VIP seating - VIP seating wasn't available for me to buy - in fact there were no seats available - standing room only was available and I would have had to go somewhere in town to purchase the tickets instead of from the ease of the chair I am sitting in right now.  SO what did I do?  That's right, I called PCE - told them what I wanted.  They were able to get us seats 2 rows behind VIP seating.  (Don't ask me how they did it...they are magical...).  They paid for it with their special little card and I paid them.  Easy as that.

                                               And this is just a tiny sampling of the things they can do for you.  

               SO, on Friday April 26th PCE is GIVING AWAY A ONE MONTH MEMBERSHIP to one lucky reader!!
    All you have to do is leave a comment (Make sure you leave your email address so I can contact you if you win - I will be the only one able to see your email address and I will not share it with anyone unless you are the winner then I will give it to PCE!.)

Your one month free membership is valued at $50!

What you get:

Unlimited use of information.  (Questions, questions and more questions!)
Unlimited reservation services. (Hotel, restaurant, limo - need a reservation, they can do it for you!)
3 over-the-phone translations at any time!  (Imagine getting in a cab and your driver doesn't understand you....give PCE a call to translate!)

As a PCE member you will also be able to use their services for MUCH MORE than what is listed above!  Check out their Facebook page HERE for more information!

   Your PCE team in picture order:
VP Mr. Paul Yoon, CEO Ms. Si Hyun Lee, VP Mr. Mitch Kim

The drawing will be held on Friday 26 April at noon. 
I will announce the winner on my blog. 
PCE will contact you directly.
The one month free membership is good for the month of May, 2013.

We flew to paradise. This is our own PRIVATE pool at our amazing villa in the southern hemisphere...
Where are we now?

The view as I set off on my morning run.

I ran on the beach - barefoot.

Where I am has the second busiest port in terms of total shipping tonnage.
It has one of the five busiest ports in the world.
And it is an island country made up of 63 islands.
Where am I?

It is HOT & MUGGY where I am.
There are about 11,000 orangutan roaming free in this country.
The population of this country is about 29,ooo,000
This is my first time in this country.