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.