FollowTheLeBarons: Kiel's Birthday

Turning thirty-four was pretty magnificent!

Guest POST! Hello there, readers. Today Alyssa gets to take a well deserved day off from writing blogs while her lovely husband gets to walk you through his 34th birthday celebration.

I was honestly happy just having a steak dinner and a beer; It would have made a great birthday but a short blog post, I guess. So we planned a jam packed day trip and got a few surprises along the way.

Our day started off early with a return trip to the rice paddies and another visit to a local temple. The notorious saying of Southeast Asian street vendors trying to sell you something you've already seen before is "same same, but different." Such is the case with our morning trip to the rice paddies and a temple; they were similar to what we had seen before but different enough to warrant a return trip. I'm sure every time you visit you can pick out something different and new to make it special.

The highlight of the day trip was really the Sekumpul Waterfall in North Bali. It started off poorly; we received little explanation of the long hike ahead and were asked to pay a separate guide around $20. This is a week's salary in the rural parts of Bali, so the entire hike to the waterfall was spent scowling, thinking that we were getting ripped off with each passing step. However, roughly 30 minutes later we were rewarded with one of the coolest experiences I've ever lived through.

Our guide took us down in to the rocky terrain preceding the waterfall and took copious amounts of pictures from photographer's angles and they even met Alyssa's approval ;) The main photo of this blog post is one of my favorite's of this entire trip, and for that I think it was worth the $20. But besides the photos, I came equipped with a bathing suit and jumped in to challenge the waterfall face to face. It turns out I was no match at all for it; the sheer force of the water crashing from 300 feet above quite literally takes your breath away and the shattering sounds of water become deafening. Several people near the waterfall had the same scared, confused look on their face as I did as we were all caught off-guard by how powerful this act of nature is. I started hearing some of the guys nearest the waterfall shout at the top of their lungs something incoherent and I decided followed suit. It was bizarre, but it relieved and invigorated the spirit. It was a cathartic and almost religious experience. Unfortunately my GoPro footage or our photos can't tell that same story, but its something I will always cherish.

It was hard to top the waterfall, but I did end up getting that ribeye steak dinner and it is probably in my top 5 of all steakhouses, speaking now from 34 years worth of experience in accumulating high blood pressure via red meat. Worth it. Also, I think it came out to under $100 for both of us, which is a ridiculously good deal for the quality.

Tired and full, Alyssa and I head back to the hotel, anxiously ready to lay our head on the pillow after an exhausting day. Not two minutes before we get in bed do we hear a knock on our door. It's one of the hotel staff, mentioning that there was a problem with the room and asking us about it? Quite taken aback, and not knowing how to politely tell him to bug us tomorrow about it so we can sleep, we just look at each other puzzled. It was then that a cake with candles and the rest of the hotel staff pop up from around a corner and start singing Happy Birthday to me in heavily accented English. It was embarrassing and adorable and really heart-warming. They also sang their version of Happy Birthday in Indonesian and asked me to cut and then hand out slices of cake in order of whom I liked best. I remember giving the first slice to Alyssa, but after that is kind of a blur.

Thanks to our guides, hotel staff, and of course my beautiful wife for making this 34th birthday one to remember!