 barong  legong dancer An ancient tradition in Bali is the dance. The dance is based upon Hindu teaching, telling a story of a battle between the mythical characters Rangda, the witch representing evil, and Barong, the lion or dragon, representing good.
The dancers, often learning as early as the age of 4 the movements, which are closely associated with the rhythms produced by the gamelan, a musical ensemble from Indonesia.
The show was quite beautiful, not to mention extremely colorful. The show that I attended was obviously geared to tourist as it was in near the center of the city of Kuta, and frequented by several buses and taxis. Despite this, as in an area such as this it would probably be rather difficult to enjoy this type of show if were not for the presence visitors from out of town.
 gamelan, musical ensemble
 ice cream bike  ice cream vendor north of ubud A small town surrounded by endless rice fields may not be the prototypical place to rent a bike and start pedaling around, but that might just be the best way to enjoy the area around Ubud. After about a 3 mile ride north of Ubud, just inside the entrance to Petulu White Heron Sanctuary, we came across this ice cream vendor. Naturally, never being one to turn away from ice cream, let alone ice cream coming from a guy riding a bike amidst rice fields in Bali, I naturally had to do my part to help to local economy in whatever way I could.
 view of the falls from the overlook  trailhead marked by the warning sign  a muddy, unkept trail Located just five minutes from Lihue, and once the seen in the opening scenes of the tv show Fantasy Island, Wailua falls is a beautiful, easily accessible 80 ft. waterfall on the island of Kauai. Unlike most waterfalls on the island, this waterfall is viewable from a roadside overlook where you can enjoy its beauty and the peacefulness of the surrounding area.
The flow of the south end of the Wailua River over this fall can vary greatly depending on the weather conditions. The picture above was taken during a long dry spell in the area, and thus the water level here is not incredibly high.
The view of the falls from the overlook is great, and for most people this is enough. For those who insist upon a bit more adventure, there is are nearby trails that lead down to the base of the falls.
One such trail begins behind the guardrail just to the south of the overlook. There is a sign put up by the county advising visitors to not go down which should be taken seriously. The trail is steep, and can be extremely muddy (keep in mind that these photos were taken during a dry period).
That being said, if you were to still want to adventure down, several ropes line the trail which aide greatly heading in both directions (up and down).
Note: There is an alternative trail that begins further down the road, but is much less steep which may be easier to climb down. It too is marked by a sign warning visitors to not go down the trail.
Regardless of how you get down there, once you reach the base of the falls, its another beautiful perspective. As an added bonus, there is a giant pool which is great for swimming which wasn’t quite as cold as the water flowing down Hanapaki’ai Falls or Rainbow Falls. Once in the pool, you can swim to the other side and climb up and behind the falls for what is always a great view.
To reach the falls, from Hwy 56, turn onto Maalo Rd (Hwy 583) and drive 3.9 miles to the overlook.
 ground view of wailua falls
 walk on the right here During my travels, one of the things I’ve found interesting is not only the differences of what side of the road cars drive on, but also what side of the sidewalk people walk. Driving is easy, everyone better do it or else it’s going to get messy. The lines generally make things pretty clear, and you would generally assume that for good reason, while rules such as speeding, and even stopping fully at stop signs or red lights may get ignored or taken lightly, the concept of staying on the proper side of the road would always be followed. Sure even with this there are exceptions, like the times when driving down the highway in the Rajasthan region of India, amongst three lanes of traffic heading in the proper direction, there was a lone car which decided driving against traffic was the best bet. One could only assume that the alternative of driving around and looping back was too much of a big deal to deal with.
One thing that has always left me somewhat perplexed is what side of the sidewalk to walk on. Its sort of the same thing as driving in many respects. Walk down the street and come face to face with someone walking in the opposite direction, and there’s a good chance that they’ll dart over to their right to avoid you. New York is easy in this respect, escalators and sidewalks almost all follow the rule of walk on the right.
Bangkok and Tokyo where vehicle traffic flows on the left side, this rule seem to be a bit quite relaxed. Take the escalators for instance, on countless occasions, which side the up or down escalators were on would switch, even within a single series. So while you might be on the left heading down one escalator, when it came to the next one you might need to cross over to the right side to continue down.
Stairs and corridors into and around the subways were even more unpredictable. Some would be marked to walk on the left, and others would be marked walk on the right. If there is no common rule underground in a somewhat controlled environment, could there be one above ground where there’s a lot more space to wander. So when walking down the sidewalk, which side is appropriate? Is there a rule? If not, and you are walking head on into someone, what direction should you dart over to? Do you both just come to a complete stop till one person waves the other one on?
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