In Transit

Dear Mom,

Sam and I have decided not to come back to the US.  We really like living abroad and I have decided to take my entire life savings and live here for as long as possible.  You and Dad should come visit sometime this summer!  

xoxoxo

Gi

Just kidding!  Sam and I will be en route to LAX from Hong Kong when this post publishes to the blog.  

Things I am looking forward to upon our return to the US:

1. Sleeping in my own bed
2. NOT washing our laundry by hand in the sink
3. Cooking for myself rather than eating out for every meal
4. Sam getting a haircut
5. Seeing (and hearing the voices of) all the friends and family I’m missing
6. A manicure/pedicure (my nails are horrendous)
7. A haircut for myself
8. Wearing something other than the 8 shirts, 3 pairs of shorts, and 2 pairs of pants I packed back in April
9. No crazy tropical bugs thus no monster bug bites
10. Sam's graduation from medical school!

Babi Guling

Tonight, on our last night of vacation, Sam and I wrote this post together over our last bottle of Leo beer after listening to some live music.

When Sam and I were getting ready to leave on our epic vacation our good friend and food enthusiast wrote us out a list of foods to try in Thailand and Indonesia.  Each list was tucked into its respective Lonely Planet guidebook and came along with us everywhere we traveled. 

On the Indonesia list was ‘babi guling’, roasted pig, and our friend explained that he had always wanted to try this dish but hadn’t been able to yet. Sam had been marinating the idea of throwing one last giant beach BBQ the Thursday before graduation (June 2^nd) and suddenly babi guling sounded like a gift from God himself.  The plan was to find a place that would teach us how to cook it, but babi guling is a process that requires more time than any of the cooking classes allot for.  A whole pig is stuffed with chili, turmeric, ginger, galangal, shallots, garlic, coriander seeds, bay leaves, etc., is basted with turmeric an and coconut oil, and then skewered over an open fire where it is roasted. So we opted to just find a place to sit down and enjoy the dish.

Our guidebook mentioned a place in Ubud, Ibu Oka Warung, as THE place to order babi guling if you are anywhere in the area.  So I checked out the map and noticed it’s right around the corner from where we’re staying.  Awesome, right?  I consult Lonely Planet, and follow the map of Ubud but there’s nobody there. As we walk away, I notice the sign says Oka Warung which I feel confidently is the new and possibly improved listed place in Lonely Planet, Ibu Oka Warung. Perhaps it had sold out and was closed?  We decided to come back again another day and express our interest, as usually you need to order a day ahead.

Yesterday Sam and I took a long hike and hit up the best fried duck in Ubud, and on our way back to our hotel we stopped by this babi guling place again.  On our way up the hill Sam asks me if I’m sure this is the right restaurant, and I tell him if he doesn’t trust me, he is more than welcome to look at the map.  Ever the glorious boyfriend, he trusts me and when we arrive at the restaurant, the owner tells us they don’t cook babi guling at the restaurant but her brother cooks it and brings it in when people order it.  Of course, she would be happy to cook for us and serve lunch the following day at 1pm so long as we put down a deposit.  As we walk away I tell Sam that I have a bit of a funny feeling about the whole situation which I neglected mention before, but we’ve already paid so we figure we’ll roll the dice and see what happens.

So Sam and I were anxiously awaiting lunch today as we did some last minute shopping and bought our long-coveted large salad bowl.  We walked up to the restaurant and Sam was killing time looking in the guide book while they prepared our dishes.  He suddenly looks up, grinning and puts the book away.  What?  I ask him.  Nothing, nothing, I’ll tell you later.  Fear grips me, there must be something wrong with our food.  Sam noticed some horrible thing and he won’t tell me otherwise I won’t eat.  I am petrified and tell him so.  He immediately promises me there is NOTHING wrong with the food, and I ask him to type out the situation on the ipod and pass it to me.  He takes a moment and hands me his ipod.  “The restaurant in the book is one street over. And we came in here demanded a dish that may or may not even be on the menu.” This suddenly made sense as to why the owner mentioned that her brother makes the dish and she would bring it in. No wonder the name was slightly different in the book and on the sign.  It turns out I misread the map and turned up one street too soon.  No wonder this place is empty all the time.  I did make sure that babi guling was on the menu so we were not some horrible American tourists demanding food that was not really served there.

We giggle. Then eat some amazing roasted pork and have a fabulous meal of it.

If you are wondering about the greatest babi guling restaurant in Ubud, we walked down the street, hung a left, and then another left.  There was a HUGE sign with a roasting pig on it and people lined up in droves out into the street waiting for tables.  They were carving slabs of pig and serving it with rice.  Epic Fail Gianna! And so we are heading there for lunch tomorrow before we get on the plane. Winning? 

Monkey Business

Here’s a piece of news that I am very proud of: Sam and I are 28 days into our trip with only 2 to go and we are still UNDER budget!  Of course, we put off our Balinese souvenir shopping until now so that we didn’t have to lug everything around the country, but still- our budget didn’t include our shopping!  Sam put together a whole spreadsheet while we were in Cambodia that did our conversions for us and totaled our average daily spending and grand total.  So far, so good!

Sam and I survived the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, but others were not so lucky.  We didn’t buy bananas to feed the monkeys for fear they might attempt to climb on us and we were right- several people fell victim to unwanted monkey contact.  It was hilarious, but also a little frightening to see the monkeys out free roaming around.  At one point Sam turned to me to say “There are monkeys everywhere,” and just then a large stick came down from the limbs of the tree above us, shattering on the ground just a few feet from where Sam was standing.  We decided it was better not to spend our time standing underneath the trees and moved to a more open space.

After we’d had our fill of monkey business, Sam and I started walking back up the street to our hotel.  Along the way we did some serious souvenir shopping.  I am most excited about the beautiful 3-4 foot (I’m not exactly sure how big it is) woodcarving we bought at the market this afternoon of flowers, framed by a border and stained dark.  I’m planning on hanging it over our bed when we get moved into our new apartment in July.  It’s very pretty and its more the color Sam wants for wood furniture.  Unfortunately, I was getting a little worn out (read: cranky), so Sam decided we should rest up in the room for a few hours before our big dance performance tonight. 

I bought a new book at one of the Periplus bookstores we passed so Sam and I settled down to enjoy our books, the air-conditioning in our room, and the peace away from the busy streets of Ubud.  Thank goodness the gamelan players had finished for the afternoon before we returned!

After recharging our batteries a bit, Sam and I headed back out on the streets.  He is searching for palm sugar that is drizzled on pisang goreng, desserts, and used as syrup at breakfast.  One of the gentlemen at our hotel suggested he try the market, but we arrived too late, apparently the food vendors are only there in the morning.  We’ll have to go back again.

By the time we’d wandered up and down a new street of shops, it was time to get ready for the Balinese dancing.  We got cleaned up and walked next door to the Ubud Water Palace to see 6 dances: Tari Penyambutan, Kebyar Terompong, Legong Semarandhana, Oleg Tamulilingan, Topeng Tua, and Tari Satya Brasta.  We had seen the first, second, and fourth dances at Munduk and honestly, Sam and I thought the children did it better there than the professionals here.  The third dance is a famous Balinese dance that I have wanted to see because it was mentioned often in the book I bought about the Dutch colonization of Bali.  Overall, Sam and I weren’t very impressed- we’re glad we had the experience, but the passion seemed lacking in many of the musicians who looked outright bored and the standout performer was the guy who danced in the second and fourth dances.  He was clearly very good, and I was disappointed that he didn’t have a larger part in the overall performance. 

After the show we hit Havana for dinner, which is a Cuban inspired restaurant that has great reviews no only in the Lonely Planet book, but also from the NY Times.  It was pretty spectacular, though neither Sam nor I ordered anything Balinese. I had chilies rellanos and he ordered a black bean and chorizo bowl.  They had a live band playing Santana covers (quite well I must say) and we had an after-dinner drink at the bar to sit and listen to them.  Sadly, Ubud has strict noise policies because it is a village that still functions as a home for locals unlike Kuta, which has pretty much become tourist land.  When the band quieted down we had a lovely chat with one of the waiters who was very sweet and then came home to read some more of our books. 

"When Monkeys Attack"

Now that we are in Ubud where we have wifi again I can compose my thoughts much better and not feel pressure to get off the hotel computer quickly.

Before I start with today, I can’t believe I forgot to mention yesterday that we were able to see four traditional Balinese dances by the local children the night of the 25th!  There was a large tour group from France staying at our hotel and Sam and I think they might have been the reason for the performance because it was postponed until they were finished with their dinner.

One of the gentlemen who works at the hotel came out to let us know that the first two dances would be traditional Balinese dances, and the third would be one with contemporary choreography.  The fourth dance, we were told, would be one of audience participating and the dancer would come to the audience and ask us to join her.  I was pretty sure that Sam would fall victim during this dance because he was much younger than most of the men there and (in my opinion) he’s pretty cute.  We were also informed that one of the gamelan (the main musical instrument of Balinese dancing) players was very well renown and had been teaching the instrument both in France and California.

The first three dances were wonderfully composed, and I was able to record them on our camera. Just after the third dance, many of the spectators got up from their chairs and moved to the back of the room or completely outside of the dance hall where they peered in through the windows.  Sam and I were sad for the dancers at the poor spirit of the French tourist group, and we stuck it out in our front-row seats.  I was now even more convinced that Sam would be called upon to join in the dancing, so I made sure to have the camera ready to record as the dance began.

The fourth dance was very lovely and much slower than the previous three dances. The poor girl dancing went to 3 Frenchmen who all rejected her before one of the boys playing music came to her rescue and danced a bit with her.  When he was finished, she started making her way over to Sam and I… closer… closer… and suddenly I realized she was asking ME to dance with her.  No, no, I thought, this is all wrong; you are supposed to be asking my boyfriend!  But I couldn’t turn her down, I had to stand up for American tourists everywhere and put my best, albeit left foot forward.  So I, Gianna, broke the ice and was the first tourist to join in the Balinese dancing.  Of course Sam took the camera from me so that everything is documented and I am sure he’ll be sure that we show it off when we have the family here for graduation.  I must say, in reviewing the footage after the fact, I am not the best dancer out there (there were several French participants who went after me) but I am not the worst either!

♠   ♠   ♠   ♠   ♠

Today we traveled from Munduk to Ubud, the city in Eat, Pray, Love.  By the way, I have to admit that my dear friend, Molly, lent me that book years ago when it first came out and I still haven't read it!  In any case, Ubud is similar to Seminyak in that it is clearly a haven for tourists and there are shops lining the main roads.  But it definitely doesn't feel quite as congested, and in that way I like it much better, even if we aren't on the beach anymore.  

Our hotel is directly adjacent to the Ubud Water Palace where the Balinese dance troupes perform.  The hotel and the palace are both lovely and believe me, the location really couldn't be better, but they practice the gamelan music at the palace in the afternoons.  I am horrified to admit it, but the sound was almost like a carnival gone terribly wrong.  Instead of being upbeat and carefree it was sinister and repetitive and we couldn't stand it!  Hopefully tomorrow night when we watch the dancers it will be better because today's practice was giving Sam and I both headaches and we had to seek refuge in the streets by going shopping- friends, this was really a win-win situation for you.  We walked all the way from our hotel to the Sacred Monkey Forest (where we plan to go tomorrow) where Sam witnessed a monkey launch itself onto a woman to steal a bag of food she was holding.  I'm telling you guys, we are truly living a series on Animal Planet, this episode would have been called "When Monkeys Attack" and hopefully there will not be a repeat episode when we go back tomorrow.

This afternoon we also finally were able to find an ATM- hallelujah for being back in civilization!  I should mention that the ATMs in Bali make me feel a bit like Clark Kent, they are in free-standing, air-conditioned, glass, telephone-booth-looking structures that have music playing.  It's a relief to walk into one off the hot streets!

It's now raining for the first time since we came to Bali.  Sam is inside reading his latest book, I swear he's been through 4-5 of them since we arrived as well as finishing The Count of Monte Cristo which he has apparently been struggling to finish for about a year now but he's been so busy studying that it's been difficult.

I think I may go rouse him so that we can brave the drizzle and find somewhere to eat dinner.  Ubud has lots of great food and we are hoping to not only consume some babi guling (Balinese roasted pig) but Sam would also like to find out how they make it.  Fingers crossed!

Yet again, the internet is not fast enough to load photos on the blog but facebook is having no problems, so here is the link to the updated Bali album for your viewing pleasure.  I hope if nothing else it helps you escape reality for a few minutes.  :-)

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Today we took a class in bamboo weaving- Sam and I each made a bamboo place mat!  It was very fun, and much more complicated than I had anticipated.  Sam had the brilliant idea to use two photos from our trip, mount them on the place mats and have them framed.  What a great way to utilize them and a fun way to decorate!

 After our weaving class, we met our translator from yesterday, Dharma, who took us on a 3 hour guided hike of the local valley and waterfalls.  He is such a nice man, and speaks amazingly good English so we are able to converse quite well with him.  We walked along the backroads past the villager's homes and got to see the clove trees, the vanilla bean stalks, the coffee, and a variety of other plants growing in their yards.  It was pretty humbling to see how they live, but it doesn't seem that they are unhappy here.  Dharma told us that in Bali they don't worry about money because they wouldn't know what to do with it if they had more than they do.  He explained that the reason there is no ATM (again our hotel lets us charge everything to our room including our transportation to Ubud tomorrow) in Munduk is because there is no bank, and there is no bank because most people only have a small amount of cash which they prefer to keep at home than in the bank.

After our hike, Sam and I wandered over to the Sunset Bar at the far end of our hotel.  Unfortunately the clouds have rolled in so in addition to very chilly evening air, there wasn't much sunset to be seen.  I have been sleeping in my sweatpants and long sleeved shirt but tonight I may even don my sweatshirt!  As the sun was setting behind the clouds it almost looked like the pictures of Japan's hillsides covered in mist.  It was just beautiful.  Aside from Railay's sheer cliffs and blue bay, this may be the next most captivating view we have seen on our trip.

In our herbal medicine demonstration yesterday, Dharma said that in Bali they believe that Western thinking causes stress.  That we should worry less about the future and live more in the moment: Don't worry, be happy.  He said that if a person goes to bed early (9-10pm) and wakes up in the still of the morning, a few hours before they have to go to work, they will be able to enjoy the calm and reflect on their day and find harmony.  As a result, the rest of their day will seem to be less hectic since they had time to collect their thoughts in the morning.

Already today I have resolved not to worry about where we are going to live come June 31st when our lease is up.  The quote on the apartments we liked is slightly more than we had anticipated which means we'll need to reconsider and start hunting again.  Sam and I were chatting at dinner, because that's what you do when there are only 2 of you on the trip, and we both agree we are itching to be productive again.  Not that I am not enjoying my vacation, but at the same time I am starting to feel a little restless and I want to have a purpose.  I am trying to adopt the "Don't worry, Be Happy" way of thinking, but the real challenge will be when we get home to California and this laid back lifestyle that is so natural on vacation is threatened by the realities of the real world.  And darn it, as I glance at the clock here I realize it's only day one and I'm already going to bed later than Dharma directed!

In the Mountains

Excuse the poor punctuation, the hotel we are at doesnt have wifi and their keyboard as some broken keys (the apostrophe key is one of them)

Sam and I arrived in Munduk (Moon-Duke) yesterday to find that our bungalow has one of the nicest views in the whole hotel (Lonely Planet lists 6 of the bungalows as such) of the rice terraces, the rolling mountains, and down to the Bali Sea.  I teased Sam that even up in the mountains I made sure he has an ocean view of the sunset from his balcony.

Our first afternoon we hiked up to the local waterfall to enjoy the views.  It was a little further than I remembered in the cab on our way to Pemuteran, but we did it!  I wish I could upload photos, but I promise I will share them when we are back in the US.

We are doing several cultural activities while we are here.  This morning Sam and I made Bali Coffee from dry beans through the roasting process, hand grinding them with a giant mortar and pestle into a very fine dust, and then we drank it. The coffee here is very fine and it is mixed directly with hot water because they dont have strainers like we do in the US.

This afternoon we took a short walk down the main road which is barely wide enough for one car but handles bi-directional traffic.  When we came back we took a short class, which was really just a taste test, of traditional Balinese medicine (can you tell I am traveling with a doctor).  It was very interesting, but the concoctions smelled fowl and tasted worse.   We are going to wait a bit for dinner.  Tonight there may be some children performing Balinese dance, its unclear as to when that is happening, but hopefully we will get to see some!

Tomorrow morning we are taking a class on bamboo weaving and then a guided tour of 7 of the local waterfalls.

Then its on to Ubud (Ooo-bood) and back to California.  I certainly am getting a bit tired of handwashing all of our clothes.  Sam was having some trouble getting the hang of it and his suitcase was getting a bit rank so I have taken over the laundry.  :-)  I am also missing cooking my own food, I definitely am noticing a theme that Southeast Asia is ALL ABOUT RICE.  It is a little overwhelming sometimes trying to pick things to eat that are partially healthy.  Tonight I think I am going to try another grilled fish dish, the last one was to die for!

Life at the Beach

Yesterday we spent a very lazy day at the beach.  Sam has been going snorkeling in the afternoons, and yesterday I joined him for both a morning and afternoon snorkeling session.  The coral here on the Northern coast of Bali has been through a lot.  First the local fishermen were using dynamite and cyanide to fish, and then el Nino severely bleached the reef.  The dive shops (including the one we’re diving with) and a few of the locals have put together awareness programs to teach the local people how important the reef is to their tourism and how they can protect and improve its health so that they can continue to count on tourism as employment.  There are a couple of neat organizations & their links:

Reef Seen works to rescue turtle eggs endanger of being dug up and eaten (they are considered a delicacy).  They also take in turtles that are found on the beach or in fishermen’s nets so that they can be released back into the wild.  We went to see their hatchery where they have about 400 baby turtles and 5 adults.  It was definitely very cool and the baby turtles were adorable!  Click on "environmental prog." and check out their turtle project.

Also headed by Reef Seen (and under "environmental prog." on their website) Reef Gardeners is a program that educates and promotes a healthy reef in the Pemuteran Bay.  The members are responsible for removing harmful things from the reef (such as Crown-of-Thorn Starfish) and promoting continued growth. 

Finally, the Bio Rock project is responsible for maintaining the underwater structures that are charged with a low-level electric current that helps promote limestone growth, which is the base for coral formation.  The project is the largest in Southeast Asia and there is more Bio Rock in the Permuteran Bay (some in the shape of turtles, fish, starfish) than there is in all of Southeast Asia combined.

Today Sam and I went SCUBA diving again.  We rented an digital camera & underwater housing from one of the shops near our hotel and headed back out to Menjangan Island with our same dive master and a German couple, Milan and Claudia.  They are serious divers and brought their equipment (including a very nice digital camera in underwater housing) from Germany to dive in Bali.  We took some neat photos although our camera didn't have a wide enough lens so everything came out blue.  :-(  And, of course, the internet isn't cooperating so I can't upload pictures into the blog tonight.  We saw a 4-5 foot Black Tipped Reef Shark (which was too far away for me to get a clear photo), a small eel, and a 1-1.5 foot barracuda on our first dive.  After a great lunch break and some tanning on the bow, we went for our second dive and Sam took the camera.  He got some very neat photos of the pair of octopuses we saw, which was by far the highlight of the second dive.

I think I have to rescind my comment earlier about Bali not having as many big sea animals as Thailand (although Duson made that very comment to Milan this morning) since our only shark this vacation was here in Bali and I have never seen an octopus (that I can recall) in all my time diving.  In other news, I have doubled my total number of dives in the last two weeks.  I'm very excited about that, and I'm just beginning to appreciate how relaxing and fun I find being under water.  I wish it were a cheaper hobby and that Sam had more time to go diving with me!

After we got back from our dives, we headed to our hotel's bar for appetizers and a cocktail to celebrate our last night in Pemuteran.  After that we treated ourselves to massages (Sam quite enjoyed his first oil massage by the way) and headed over to the restaurant Duson at Easy Divers recommended that we try.  Dinner was fabulous!  I ordered the Red Snapper grilled with Balinese spices, but we're pretty sure I ended up with a Parrot Fish- either was it was amazing.  Sam tried Beef Rendang, which our food connoisseur friend Dan wrote down for us to try while we are here.  I liked the beef, but the fish definitely stole the show.  

Since I can't post photos here on the blog, check out the link to the Bali facebook album and you can see the photos from our diving trip: Bali Album

Pemuteran, Bali

Sam and I are in the middle of nowhere living something out of Animal Planet.  No, seriously, we are in the sticks of Bali.  I did not realize when I was booking our hotel in Pemuteran that our nearest ATM would be 40 minutes away by car, or that the grasshoppers would be the size of my pinky finger, or that we would seriously NEED to use the bug netting around our bed.  Thank God I took more cash out than we thought we needed before we left Seminyak, and also that our hotel allows us to charge all our food at the restaurant to our bill (which we can pay with credit card), and our dive shop takes credit cards too!

Our trip here took us 3 hours by taxi through the center of the island.  (Side note, the public transit on Bali is incredibly unreliable and very inconvenient so all the guidebooks recommend that tourists do all their traveling via taxi and arranged transfers from one hotel to the next.)  It was very beautiful, but our taxi driver was crazy and his constant speeding up to pass and then slamming on the brakes to duck back into our lane was a little tough on our stomachs.  We had negotiated 400,000 rupiah as the fare for the trip (he originally wanted 500,000) and when we were about 15 minutes from our destination he started making comments about how very long the  journey was.  Sam and I caught each other's eye after he told us he'd have to ask for the 500,000 he originally wanted in his broken English.  Sam told him that we had agreed on 400,000 and that was it.  Then things got interesting, our taxi driver pulled over to the side of the road, at which point I was thinking that one of us would have to get out to unload all the luggage from the trunk while the other one refused to leave the car so this crazy dude didn't run off with everything we owned.  It turned out he was just consulting a map, but Sam and I were on pins and needles the last 10 minutes to the hotel worrying that we'd be dumped off in the middle of nowhere when we hadn't seen another taxi for what seemed like hours.  Once we were safe in the lobby (we only ended up paying the guy 420,000 which he was NOT happy about) Sam and I agreed that had the driver not said anything we were both considering giving him 450,000 for his troubles since that was what our previous hotel had offered us as a transfer fee.  The poor dude really screwed up there and he should have just kept his mouth shut!  Needless to say we'll be paying a little more and using the hotel transfer services from now on.

Our first order of business after checking into our room was to drop by the Easy Divers shop where I had arranged for us go SCUBA diving.  As we walked up, the owner, Dusan, came out of the office and said, "Ah, you must be Gianna, and this is Sam!"  Which was really unexpected and impressive that he made the effort to keep my email on hand today so that he could greet us by name.  Sam and I signed our lives away, were fitted with our gear, and headed back to our hotel to do some well-deserved relaxing and sunset watching.  I got a little eager at dinner last night and ordered a sample platter of several Balinese dishes.  Sam was sweet (and reminded me of my Dad) when he traded me his fish dish because he could tell that the Balinese sample platter was not quite my cup of tea.  Another great thing about Sam is he is far more adventurous than I am when it comes to food.  Luckily, we had both been curious about tasting the sample platter to begin with so I didn't feel too horrible about him eating it and me sticking to the fish.

This morning, we had the luxury of meeting at the shop at 9am rather than 7am as we did on Koh Phi Phi.  We took a bus to the dock 20 minutes from our hotel and the dive shop, and we hopped on a little boat to take us the 45 minutes out to Pulau Menjangan Island.  We had three French vacationers on the boat with us, Julie was doing a Discover SCUBA dive while her boyfriend, Ludvick, and friend, Mathilda, dove with Sam and I.  Ludvick is from Lyon, France, and the girls are from Normandy.  They were very nice, and Ludvick's English was very impressive.  Unfortunately, our boat broke down as we were about 10 minutes from the island so we had to get a tow from another boat until a second boat could come out and get us.  

Our first dive was at Sandy Slope.  Let me tell you, the Balinese choose very appropriate names for their dive sites.  Sandy Slope was exactly what it sounds like, but on top of the slope was a very nice coral reef.  Diving in Bali has been relatively shallow, our maximum depth here was 18 meters on both dives, whereas we were doing as deep as 32 meters in Thailand.  I think that has to do with the fact that Mckenna (on Koh Phi Phi) is a dive instructor and today we were with a dive master.  From what I understand, dive instructors are licensed to teach unqualified divers more advanced skills and dive masters are licensed to guide licensed divers during the dives they are qualified for.  had much better visibility than we did in Thailand, maybe 20-30 meters, and also way more sealife.  Not that Bali wasn't good, but we saw a few really cool things (barracuda, sting ray, eels) whereas Bali has amazing and beautiful fish and coral everywhere.  We didn't see as many anemone here, but there were a few, along with their various anemone fish.  

Lunch was another home-cooked meal and man alive, do these Southeast Asians have some great food on their dive trips!  Today we got to eat Mie Goreng which is kind of like the Balinese chow mein.  It's been on the menu a few places, but we hadn't gotten to try it until today.

Our second dive was at Coral Garden, and again, it lived up to its name.  The diving was the best of our trip so far and although there weren't so many amazing things (we didn't see any eel or barracuda) the overall dive was MUCH more exciting.  Coral Garden is a huge sheer face of coral and as we made our way along the middle we were surrounded by schools of fish, anemone, coral, and all kinds of sea plants and animals.  It was really neat!

Sam and I agreed that Bali has definitely lived up to it's diving so far and we're really excited to go SCUBA diving again on Monday- we are taking tomorrow off as a bit of a break so we can check out the turtle hatchery and go snorkeling off the beach at our hotel.  Sam's been going in the afternoons while I hang out on the beach and he said the snorkeling is AMAZING right off the shore where they are creating a new reef.  More on that tomorrow!

More Temples

Sam is feeling a little better today so hopefully we won't have any more under-the-weather issues during our trip.  We took a tour of Pura Luhar Bakturu, one of the directional temples (facing West) on Bali.  The temple was very pretty and it had beautiful flowers and lovely stone carvings, but it just didn't measure up to anything we saw in Cambodia.  Don't get me wrong, the Balinese are wonderful craftsmen, but the bar has been set with Angkor Wat.

During our walk around the temple grounds, we were able to wash our faces with holy water and say a prayer/make a wish to the Gods.  I figured it can't hurt, and with all the prayers we've offered at temples on this trip (in both Cambodia and Bali) I am hoping Sam and I are blessed for quite some time.  

When we visited the temple, Sam and I had to don the traditional sarongs worn by the Balinese out of respect.  I figured this could be my only shot at a picture of Sam in a dress so I had to take advantage of the opportunity.  Truth be told, I think we both look great!  

On our way to the temple we stopped at a hot springs and witnessed a cremation procession and cremation ceremony.  The Balinese believe that you have 5 years to save the money for a cremation after a relative dies, after that you are in danger of the restless soul coming after you.  After the temple, we got to sample 7 teas, coffees, and a hot cocoa (we bought some ginseng coffee and lemon grass tea to bring home with us).  Then we were on to the rice terraces!

Sam wearing an ancient Balinese umbrella 

Rice terraces as far as the eye can see

Sam and I are pretty tired of the "city" at this point.  Seminyak is a small beach community but it runs pretty seamlessly into it's border beach cities and there is a LOT of traffic on the roads between the taxis and the motorbikes.  Adding to the air pollution is the incense burning with the thrice daily offerings to the Gods outside the temples, and businesses.  It's a little bit ridiculous if you ask me, but then again, it's not my faith.  We are looking forward to getting away from the heavy tourist population and back to the tranquil vacation we are loving so much.

Better & Better

"I have to admit it's getting better, it's getting better all the time"

At dinner in the dress Sam picked out for me

Today was a great vacation day.  Sam and I slept in, and walked up to the tourist lifesaver the Bingtang  Supermarket after breakfast.  We were almost completely out of the Deet-based bug repellent and Tide laundry detergent my grandparents kindly sent me before our departure and Sam needed to do laundry pretty desperately.  

On our way home from the market we stopped at a bookstore because I have already finished both books I brought with me.  I picked up Love and Death in Bali, a historical fiction story based on the Dutch colonization of the island in 1906 and the mass puputan (ritual suicide/fight to the death) of the royal family and followers at their unwillingness to be conquered.  I am only about 100 pages in so far, but I thought it would be interesting to read a historical fiction about the place we're vacationing in, and it's been very insightful to read about the customs and beliefs of the local people.

We also stopped at a small clothing vendor and Sam and I each picked out a dress for me. When we got back to our hotel we elected to hang out by the pool in the shade to give Sam's back a rest from all the sun exposure.  His snorkeling and sunbathing are no match for our SPF 50 suntan lotion.

Tonight Sam wanted to have dinner on the beach overlooking the ocean. Our taxi driver last night had suggested La Lucciola, a beautiful seafood restaurant on the beach, as somewhere we ought to try.  Sure enough it's in the Lonely Planet book and had some great reviews so we got all dolled up and hailed a taxi to make our way over. 

Walkway from the bridge to the restaurant

To get there, we had to walk over a candlelit bridge and through a serious living fence of lit hedges, trees, and bushes.  It was almost like being in the Secret Garden.  I had read that the second story had a good view of the beach and ocean whereas a small grassy knoll obstructed the view on the ground floor.  We requested to sit upstairs, and as a result, we were asked to wait for a table in the bar.  To pass the time (and fill our stomachs) Sam ordered us some calamari.  It was worlds better than our last calamari experience while in Thailand- lightly battered, tender, and incredibly fresh.

Once we were seated, the views exceeded my expectations.  Sam was battling a bit of a sore throat today, so he ordered the seafood stew which was absolutely exquisite in it's presentation and utterly delicious.  I think it was one of the most beautiful things we've ordered so far!  I had some really delicious homemade ravioli, and because we were celebrating Sam's impending graduation, we went crazy and ordered a dessert sampler.

View of the restaurant from the bar

Sam was very appreciative of the impromptu graduation dinner, but let me tell you: he absolutely, 100% deserves it.  Our friends who are married or dating medical students agree there is nothing quite like seeing first hand what these young men and women have sacrificed in the last 4 years- late nights, early mornings, and holidays spent away from home are just a few things that come to mind.  Sam is a very smart guy, he has a generous heart, and I am so looking forward to all the wonderful celebrating we'll be doing in his honor beginning tonight and ending with our families and friends throughout June.

Sam's cioppino- just what the doctor ordered!

Goodbye, Thailand! Hello, Bali!

Sam and I have arrived in Bali!  We came in late last night and went directly to the hotel to get settled in.  This morning we wandered Seminyak (the beach neighborhood we're staying in) and found me a massage- which was awesome!  Then we took a taxi down to Kuta Beach, one of the prime spots for novice surfers on the island.  Sam and I walked along the beach, rented a set of lounge chairs and an umbrella for 2 hours, and then hiked home on the beach.  It was quite a walk, maybe an hour or so long.  And we had a very nice time.  Hopefully we'll be able to do more outdoor activity on this leg of the trip because the weather is supposed to cooperate with our schedule. 

We went out to dinner at one of the restaurants Lonely Planet suggests, Sate Bali, which was fun.  And then we headed back to our neck of the woods to hit up a little bar with live (American) music.  We had a great time, and we definitely had a drink in honor of all of you guys following along at home.

Sam wants me to mention that he's made a few observations about Bali in our first 24 hours:

• There are couples everywhere and a couple of surfers, but the vast majority of people we have seen are 40-something, overweight, women in herds.
• It is less hot and less humid here than it was in either Cambodia or Thailand, but it is still hot!
• Thailand ruined all concept of "cheap" and "expensive"

Koh Phi Phi

Blogger is finally back up and running!  They were doing some site maintenance so I couldn't post about our trip from Railay to Koh Phi Phi- more amazing travel luck for Sam.  We paid 450 baht per person in Ao Nang which included a 30 minute taxi ride and the cost of the ferry tickets from Krabi to Koh Phi Phi.  At the port, we found out the tickets for the boat alone cost basically what we paid so our taxi ride was essentially free.  Nice!

Koh Phi Phi Viewpoint, before sunset

We didn't get on the boat early enough to be on the top deck, so we were stuck in the bottom.  It was close to 2 hours of near asphyxiation by gasoline fumes.  I am so not looking forward to making the return trip today.  :-(

Upon arriving at the island, we were greeted by a porter from our hotel- pretty swank?  Well no, actually.  In the time since our Lonely Planet book was published (they named this their preferred place accommodations) things must have changed here at the Chunut House.  The man at the front desk informed Sam and I we needed to pay in cash up front rather than by credit card at the end of our stay.  This wouldn't have been such a big deal if the reservation confirmation hadn't told me that I could pay by card, or if we hadn't depleted our baht during our travels to Koh Phi Phi, or if we hadn't just disembarked from the boat ride of deathly fumes.  We finally got into our room to find the safe nonfunctional, the bathroom consisting of a concrete annex to the bungalow and a million degrees, and tiny mosquitos everywhere with no bug nets. Great.  Sam pointed out to me that this place is roughly 1/3 of the cost of our beautiful room on Railay- you get what you pay for in Thailand!  

One other funny note, our hotels in Khao Lak and Railay both had king size beds which feel huge to Sam and I because we've got a queen size bed at home.  Well here, at Chunut house, we've got a double, and as I write this, Sam (asleep) is rolling all over the place and continues to crash into me.  This has not been the best sleep of the trip between the fear of the mosquitos and Sam's thrashing.  :-)

Disappointing accommodations aside, Sam and I have enjoyed Koh Phi Phi.  Yesterday we went SCUBA diving again.  This time we booked with a legitimate dive company, Island Divers, and had a fellow American dive instructor, Mckenna, who went to CSULB and lived in LA for 5 years before moving to Thailand 15 months ago.  She was awesome!  She highly recommended that Sam and I check out the wrecked boat off the coast of San Diego from WWII, she said it is really neat.  (Certified friends reading this blog, please consider that an invitation if you'd like to come along!)

Our first dive was at the King Cruiser Wreck, a passenger ferry that ran aground on Anemone Reef and sank on May 4th, 1997.  It was very cool to dive a wreck- I think when we get back to the states I might pursue wreck specialty certification.  We got to swim through short hallway and into part of the ferry.  There were lion fish, some very neat rock fish, and also some pretty awesome schools of brightly colored fish.  Unfortunately I was sucking my air pretty heavily so it was a shorter dive than anticipated.

Our second dive was at Anemone Reef, and it was my favorite dive in Thailand.  There were lion fish everywhere, some porcupine fish, puffer fish, and we saw 3 kinds of eels.  Very neat!  Sam and I were diving with Rachel from England who had just finished her certification courses the day before, and Jos from Holland who had been diving since he was 14 but didn't seem to have a very good handle on his buoyancy.  They were very much following Mckenna around the whole time we were underwater, so Sam and I had to hang back a bit.  Well 40 minutes into this dive, Rachel was low on air so she and Jos went up to the surface and McKenna took Sam and I on to another part of the reef were we got to see some baby eels and a school of smaller barracuda before we had to surface.  It was really beautiful, even with only 10m of visibility, so I can't imagine what it would be like in peak season with up to twice that.

Sam's photo of the sunset from the viewpoint

The last dive was at shark point and I'm sad to say there were no sharks, or at least none that we saw.  There was one lone large barracuda circling the joint and a bunch of really colorful schooling fish.  We missed out on the stingray but I think Rachel and Jos got to see it.  

When we got back to the island, I couldn't resist buying a t-shirt from the dive shop.  I have a Dive Cancun shirt from my first diving experience in 2007, and I figure since I am doing so much diving out of the US I should at least pick up a shirt from each country if not each shop.  Worst case scenario, I could always have them made into a quilt like some of my friends have done with their old swim and softball t-shirts.  Sam took a hike up to the viewpoint while I rested and he took some great photos of the sunset.

Sitting in our fridge because I couldn't eat it :-(

Last night we watched the Manchester United v. Blackburn futball match live from one of the pubs.  I think Sam cannot get over that the soccer games are shown live during primetime hours here because he always seems to be able to find one on TV for us to watch.  Dan Colby- Sam really wanted to text you during the game.  We then went to Papaya Restaurant, where we had eaten an amazing Pad Thai snack after diving, and I ordered Phanaeng curry that was supposedly only 15% spicy but that I couldn't eat it was searing my lips with heat.  I guess that's one way to diet- order things you can't possibly ingest!  LOL

Now we're off to catch the hopefully-less-smelly ferry over to Phuket for our last night in Thailand  It's amazing to me that we've already finished this portion of the vacation but also that we still have over 2 weeks left abroad!  We miss you all and hope you're doing well!

Are you for SCUBA?

Sam and I finally made it diving today!  We took a long tail boat out to Koh Si and Koh He- two tiny islands that are really more like large rocks and we circled each one while underwater in less than an hour.  Our first dive was fun, but the water clarity was terrible.  We did see a pair of stingrays, some sea slugs, and crabs, but there was also a VERY strong current we had to swim against at the last leg.  The second dive was infinitely better!  We saw a sea snake, several large puffer fish, Sam found a school of squid, and I found a lion fish.  When we got back on the boat and headed to shore, we were delighted to eat a home-cooked meal of sweet and sour beef with veggies and rice.  Pretty sweet compared to what I've eaten on dive trips in the states. Also, these two dives mean that I've done as many dives in the US as I have done abroad- kinda interesting when you think about it.  

When we got back to the hotel, we found two lounge chairs and relaxed.  Sam read his latest book while I fell asleep for a couple of hours- I'm a little teeny bit pink as a result.  Oops.  Hopefully it's nothing a little aloe vera and shade can't fix for me. 

We watched the most amazing sunset from our chairs at the end of the day.  It was quite possibly one of the most stunning sunsets I have ever seen.  I like this photos so much I made it my desktop background on my laptop.

Pick your dinner!

After the sunset and some seriously needed showers, Sam and I headed to our hotel's restaurant where we saw a fantastic seafood BBQ on our way home last night.  We were blown away by all of the options- red and white herring, mackerel, barracuda, shrimp, blue crab, clams, and squid.  It was ridiculous!  

The chef cooked the exact shrimp you picked out, and cut the filets to order as big as you wanted directly off the side of the fish- which I had never seen before.  Everything was by charged by weight, as you can see they had a scale off to the left.  

Between the two of us, Sam and I tried everything except the two herrings, and we agree without a doubt this was the best seafood of the trip.  The view wasn't bad either, we got a table at the edge of the restaurant overlooking the beach and the bay.  It was probably our coolest dinner too, because we are on the windward side of Railay and there was a nice breeze keeping the air moving.  

All things considered, we are sad to be leaving for Koh Phi Phi in the morning, but excited to see what will come next on our adventure!

Railay

Our bungalow at Railay Bay Resort & Spa

I am so content here on Railay Bay that I can't imagine leaving- Sam and I have been joking about canceling our plane tickets and living here for the rest of our lives.  It is SO laid back here, it's the PERFECT vacation location.  

Sam and I hung out at the beach late into the evening last night and then we headed out to find a place to eat.  We are noticing that our guide book isn't very helpful with restaurants because many of the places we've wanted to try have either closed for the season or are no longer under the same ownership.

Luckily, the food has been pretty good regardless of where we've eaten.  Sam is on a serious curry high so we order some variation of that dish it seems like every meal but is probably more like once a day. 

I decided I have a new favorite curry which I intend on learning to cook- Phanaeng Curry.  I had it with prawns last night and it was amazing.  It's much sweeter than it is spicy- a huge bonus for me!  Sam is really into all the hot spices so my tongue has been on fire a lot so far.  :-)

After dinner we headed to The Last Bar to listen to some live music and play some pool. I think the last time I played pool was in the garage of Sam's house junior year when Kevin still had his pool table.  It made me miss Isla Vista and all the good times I had there in college.

We also met up with a bunch of Americans who are out visiting friends before their wedding.  Riki and Aaron grew up in the bay area and both lived in LA for a while as well.  The four of us watched an amazing fire show on the deck of the bar and ended up hanging out well into this morning.

After a slow start this morning (our hotel has an amazing breakfast buffet by the way) Sam and I walked down to Walk Street and booked 2 dives for tomorrow- so exciting!  We're anitcipating poor visibility but I don't care because I am so thrilled to get to dive in Thailand and I know it's going to make Sam's week.  

We took it easy in the lounge chairs on the pool deck that overlook the bay all afternoon.  I think Sam and I both took naps and we read our books and enjoyed the sunshine.  There were a couple of rain showers, but they kept the heat down and only lasted a few minutes so we weren't too hampered by them.  It was nothing compared to what we went through at Khao Lak!

Tonight we found a great restaurant that used to be called The Rock Bar, but has changed names and ownerships and it's unclear what they call themselves now.  Sam thinks it was the best prepared food we've had yet, but I'm not so sure.  On our walk home we passed our hotel restaurant and decided we are going to there tomorrow night because the seafood they are serving is off the hook!

Heaven on Earth

Sam in the Long Tail Boat before we got splashed

Sam and I left Khao Lak this morning and traveled by taxi to Ao Nang where we caught a Long Tail Boat to Railay Bay.  The bay is cut off from the main land by some limestone formations that make in inaccessible except by water.  We decided to upgrade our reservations and stay in another bungalow, this one isn't quite on the beach, but it's much bigger and nicer than the one we stayed at in Khao Lak.  Hopefully the weather will hold out and we won't be spending as much time indoors here as we did at our last stop.

Railay Bay is bordered on two sides by some magnificent sheer faces.  The flatiron mountains in Boulder are the only thing that I have seen that resembles them.  From what I understand, it is a rock climbers dream here, and we saw several boat loads of people dressed in their climbing gear offloading while we were sitting on the beach this afternoon.  

All in all, it was a great day, and as soon as Sam finishes his book we are headed to dinner.  We are very excited to check out the menu tonight at dinner because we are in Thai seafood paradise.  Sam would like to try the lobster but I have been incredibly happy eating shrimp.  

Keep your fingers crossed that the weather holds out- we are going to try to arrange some diving while we're here but I'd be more than happy if we stay on the beach all day suntanning.

See ya Khao Lak

Today was definitely a bust.  I talked Sam into renting a car rather than a motorbike because he wanted to drive up to the Khao Sok National Park (which is about 90 minutes away from our hotel) and the weather has been so bad I didn't feel comfortable making the trip unless we had a little shelter on the journey.  Sure enough, we went through some pretty insane rain on our way up into the mountains, but I navigated like a pro despite having to drive on the right side of the car on the left side of the road!  

We got to the park and checked out the center.  They had some interesting literature about the flora in the park, and we picked up a map of the waterfalls we wanted to hike to.  Just as we walked up to the path, we saw a couple from Holland coming down.  The guy looked at Sam and I, and said, "If I were you, I wouldn't go up there like that.  We just pulled 30 leeches off our socks and sneakers."  At that moment I looked down at his poncho, which he was holding inside-out at the bottom, and there was a leech chillin' on it.  I nearly fainted.  Leeches are a deal-breaker for me.  He and the girl he was with proceeded to tell Sam and I they hadn't waded in water or stopped moving as they walked, but somehow the leeches got all over them.  Disgusting!  Sam and I walked up to the end of the pavement and we debating for quite a while- Sam did try to persuade me that he could get leeches off no problem with a cigarette butt- but at the end of the day we decided that the last thing we need is leeches.  Also, as we headed back to the car, Sam mentioned that 1 out of 10 times the leech dies before it lets go and then there can be issues with infection.  Wow, really glad we decided NOT to risk that one!

As a consolation, Sam and I drove out to the dam to see the river- it was beautiful!  We decided to head back down to Khao Lak to get some rest and hang out.  On our way back down the hill we stopped to check out the waterfall next to the highway.  It was very pretty, and just about the brightest spot in our day.  

Once we were back in Khao Lak,  Sam and I took showers and settled in to watch some Entourage before getting ready for dinner but the power went out.  We waited three episodes (about an hour) but there was no luck with the power and we discovered the water was nonfunctional too, so we found our clothes in the pitch black and went to dinner.  Luckily the power DID come back on while we were eating, and now we're getting packed up and ready to hit Railay tomorrow- hopefully so that we can get some diving and beach time in!

Happy Mother's Day!

Sam and I rented a motorbike this morning and took a ride out to one of the waterfalls on our way North up the coast.  We stopped and ate lunch along the way because the rain started again and we were pretty wet.  Then we also tried to find a dive company who would take us out, but we really are too late to get anything out of Khao Lak. 

Since we couldn't go diving, we took a trip down the coast to the Similan National Park Headquarters and the pier.  It was pretty neat to see all the boats in the harbor and some of the countryside and local people.

Tonight we took the motorbike back out and went to dinner at Pinocchio's, an Italian Restaurant that was highly recommended in our Lonely Planet book.  Nonna & Papa Santi would approve!  They import their wine and cheese from Italy and the pastas and pizzas are made onsite.  Back in 2004 the restaurant was destroyed during the tsunami but  they have rebuilt.

Most importantly, Sam and I want to wish all the mothers out there a very Happy Mother's Day!  We wish we could have spent the day with our moms (shout out to Camille and Sue) but there's always next year.  

Rainy Season

So, our epic travel day has been followed by a very stormy time in Khao Lak.  The weather has been incredibly windy, rain has been heavy at times, and we've lost power a couple of times yesterday afternoon and this morning.  Also, the Similan Islands, which Sam really wanted to dive, are closed for the season due to the rough seas & poor visibility.  Apparently yesterday was the last day for several of the companies and they said it was nearly impossible to see anything because the water is so churned up.  C'est la vie.  Obviously we'll have to come back during the high season!  :-)  And there is a possibility that we'll be able to dive out of Railay or Phuket later this week.  

The weather let up last night and it was actually pretty nice, so we walked up to the main road and had dinner at Jai Bungalow which was pretty good.  Sam and I agree that so food so far has been very good overall.  There hasn't been anything (yet) that's been inedible, the prices are incredibly reasonable, and we've tried one new thing at almost every meal.  

Yellow curry & prawns 

Papaya Salad

Barracuda & vegetables 

Now we're off to see if we can visit the Khao Sok National Park and see some of the rainforest.