Mom Tri’s Villa Royale Paradise

Mom Tri, owner of the resort, totally gets it. His spa uses edible coconut oil, he has an organic farm in Chang Mai with a cooking school, and looks super fit and healthy. This is one of 3 pools at Mom Tri's, and salt water too. Each morning I'd find a newly bloomed lotus flower. They're beautiful! This is just one of several decks overlooking the ocean for dining and drinking. What a view! This is the beach at Mom Tri's....turquoise water and white sands. I did get a minor jelly fish sting. I was with a doctor, luckily, who kept me calm, and though it left welts on my arm, it was really not a big deal. I tried to swim a mile a day in the ocean. It was bath water warm and such a treat.

By |January 22nd, 2010|Beauty, Fitness, Green Living, Health, LIFESTYLE, Travel|Comments Off on Mom Tri’s Villa Royale Paradise

Flight Time

One way I like to entertain myself is with my camera, especially during long international flights. The sunrise during my very long flight back to the USA from Tokyo was beautiful. Most people were sleeping and missed this amazing view. I don't sleep well on planes, and you'll usually find me doing wall push-ups and stretching in the open area by the staff. Maybe that's why one flight attendant remembered me from my flight to Asia 6 weeks prior.

By |January 19th, 2010|Fitness, Health, LIFESTYLE, Travel|Comments Off on Flight Time

Touring Around Bali, Indonesia

We did the tourist route and visited Kintamani Volcano. We were lucky to enjoy this beautiful view because it rained a couple hours later and was socked in with fog. Next, we drove to the bottom of Mt. Batur to hike up the volcano. As soon as we started our hike, it began dumping rain. And I mean torrential downpour! It was no use trying to stay dry, so we chose to keep climbing. Huge blessing that the rain stopped and the sky cleared as we approached the top so we could take in the views. And once we got back down to the bottom, we went and soaked in a mineral hot spring to warm up. I had to put a photo of the back of our jeep in here. Our rain soaked clothes are hung up to dry, and we're stocked up with 2 huge Montong durians. Our jeep smelled of durian from the outside. Good thing Carol and our driver both love durian as much as I do. Check out this pretty bug. Does anyone know what type of insect this is?

By |January 16th, 2010|Fitness, Health, LIFESTYLE, Travel|1 Comment

Tropical Fruits in SE Asia

It's rainy season in Bali, so it downpours buckets of rain for 20 minutes to a couple hours almost every day. It's warm, so I don't mind it. On my first rainy day, I decided to visit a local grocery store, where I found a new fruit called salak. It grows on palm trees. This is salak. It has a brown snakeskin that's really thin. You peel it away to find what looks like garlic cloves inside. These pods of fruit contain a small seed, and taste sweet and tart at the same time. The meat of the salak fruit is not juicy, but rather dry and firm. It has a texture similar to a pear, but not as firm and crisp, smoother in texture, and dry. Interesting texture and delicious flavor. This brightly colored, hairy fruit is a rambutan. I love lychees, and the rambutan is very similar in texture and flavor. Rambutan is very cheap in Bali. I  bought a big bag for about 50 cents. The rambutan, even at the grocery store, is always covered in crawling ants. I guess this means there's no pesticides on the fruit, a good thing. Here in hot, muggy Bali, I live off fresh tropical fruits (durian, salak, rambutan, mango, papaya, pineapple, and banana), and enjoy only occasional greens when I find them. Back home in the States, I had been cutting back on my sugar intake over the past several months. I was concerned about eating so much fruit. But, my body is thriving on this raw food fruit diet. Combined with swims in the warm ocean, walking everywhere, and the sunshine, all this fruit is making [...]