cha cha chaka chaka chaka chaka.....

Now, you may be curious as to what mnemonic gibberish I used to entitle this specific post. Well my friends, allow me to show you…

Assuming you played the clip (as you were suppose to…), let me enlighten you about the traditional Balinese Kecak ("KEH-chahk") dance. This specific form of dance dates all the way back to the 1930’s….uh, hmm, um wait, I am confused. How is this classified as traditional when it has not even been around a century in a civilization that dates back to 1^st century AD (wikipedia)? Oh! Silly me! The purpose of this post is not to inform you of the “traditional” Kecak dance but to tell you about the comedic value my 3 friends and I found in it during one of the best vacations of my life! Let’s start over…

Two weeks ago (I know, this post has been way overdue) my 3 friends (Maya, Lisa, and Jun) and I took a break from the chilly Japan weather and made our way over to a little island in Indonesia known as BALI.

(Over looking the cliff of the Pura Luhur Temple in Uluwatu)

(On our train ride out to Narita Airport. Jun just makes friends so easily...must be the phone connection.)

But, before we arrived on one of Indonesia’s 33 provinces we “roughed” it in the Singapore airport, also known as AMAZING-ness.　I won’t go into full details but I will say endless duty free shopping,

orchid gardens, massages chairs,

sports bars, complimentary Singaporean noodles,

ABSOLUT disco floors, free shots of mimosas, free internet, and a place where Jun can start his modeling career (that’s fun story for another time) all add up to a magical place called Singapore’s Changi Airport.

(Taking a little nap during our first lay-over in Singapore.)

After our lay-over in Singapore we finally made it to 86 degree weather paradise. From day 1 our trip was nothing short of pure fun and non-stop laughter.

Though our trip was only a total of 5 days I am happy to report that we most definitely made the most of it! Somehow in our short span of time in Kuta, Bali we managed to get maximum beach/sun time,

make friends with the 2 chillest, local guys on the island (Dickie and Agus),

watch the sunset at Dreamland (Yes my friends, Dreamland. A beautiful beach we would have never known about had we not met Dickie and Agus.),

take over the dance floors at various clubs,

visit Pura Luhur,

retrieve Lisa’s camera case from one devious, little monkey,

and see the “traditional” Kecak dance.

And might I add that the Kecak dance was the icing on the cake for me. We were all so inspired that it crossed our minds to give the folks on our return flight a treat and perform our rendition of Kecak (Jun being the lead and the 3 of us girls as back-up) but, alas, the 4 hr a night’s sleep that we had maintained during our vacation finally caught up with us and thus postponed our performance.

Once back in Japan, though seriously craving some onigiri (Japanese rice ball), it was unanimous that Bali definitely left its mark on us or maybe it was we that left our mark on Bali. Either way, it was a vacation with 3 wonderful people that I will always remember.

And to my Bali Crew: Maya, Lisa, Jun, “chakachakachakachakachaka” forever!