Nusa Lembongan

The next two weeks of the trip was filled with two new island paradises dedicated to diving, snorkeling, scooting, and coconuts on the beach.  On the way to the dock, en route to Nusa Lembongan, we crammed into the front seat of the van next to the driver who turned into our tour guide for the next two hours telling us about everything from the sculptures on the side of the road to the meaning of life.  Indonesia is the highest populated Muslim country in the world with 240 million.  However, Bali is the only predominantly Hindu island of the country.  He leads a life based on good karma and following that philosophy makes him a happy man. During his "tour" we weaved in and out of traffic, passed cars on blind curves going up hill, and nearly ran a few scooters off the road.  This is typical of all the transportation we took on Bali. Most of the streets/highways of Bali are just about as wide as what I would call one lane.  The chaotic, congested streets have two-way traffic full of cars, vans, buses, and lots of motorbikes all passing one another. The horn is used frequently to let the other cars know you're there and not going to move, that you are passing, to please move aside so I can pass, to ask if you need a ride, or to say wow you have really blonde hair!  We made it safely to the dock and he was in charge of getting the slow boat tickets for Andy, me, and another couple in our van.  He gave the tickets to some other people in line and then looked at us blankly when we asked where our tickets were.  He then got confused and said, "you all look the same".

"Don't puke don't puke don't puke..."

Nusa lembongan has no ATM or rather one ATM but it doesnt have cash in it yet.  Credit cards are rarely accepted so you need to stock up on the cash pile before making the voyage.  The slow boat over to the island was a simple vessel.  Wooden slats sufficed as seats and it had a nice cover to protect from the sun.  After an hour and a half, we trolled into the bay noticing the the shallow reef below where algae grew in perfectly cut squares.  The island harvests algae and sells it to Japan and Hong Kong where it's used for cosmetics and supplements.  The locals only use it as agar, or thickener in sweets and as interesting fried seaweed snacks.

Manta Ray Point

JUMP!! 

We glided onto the sandy beach and leaped off the back of the boat into knee high, crystal clear water. All around us there were diving boats mixed with small fishing boats and canoes to carry the algae from the plots to the shore sprinkle the small bay.  The main beach was lined with small, humble beach bungalow inns alongside plots of land with piles of drying algae.  We settled into a place where the outdoor lounge/restaurant/lobby is steps from the beach with a view of the entire bay and a front row seat to the show the expert surfers put on.  The locals and foreign surfers shred gnar about half a kilometer off shore on the reef break.  

Andy's man crush

The back of our place led into a long dirt alley of about 200 meters, just wide enough for two motorbikes, the favored mode of transport, that led to the main road.  Only dirt roads exist and with a population of about 5000, traffic is no worry. We rented a scooter and explored the island from the east beach, to the northern mangrove forest, to the secluded beach on the western side and anywhere in between. You can ride around the entire island in about 40 mins, not including a detour to the neighboring island that you must cross a rickety old bridge to get to the other side.  The other smaller island has a few incredible spots where you can grab a beer on a cliff top bar or do a cliff jump 15 meters into the ocean.   The catch is you must drive through a dozen small villages and turn down the correct alley or there is no hope of finding these magical spots. There were two little girls selling homemade jewelry on the side of the road that caught my eye. One spoke English and taught me a few Bahasa Indonesian words.  When I purchased a necklace from one girl, the other was visibly upset and about to rage at her friend for taking a customer. To keep from breaking up a friendship, I bought a bracelet from the other girl and turned it into a win/win/win situation.

Wooo!

We intended to stay for 2 days, ended up staying a week, and seriously thought about becoming dive instructors and moving to the island.  We met a group of Aussies on the boat over from Bali and then ran into them again two days later.  They are three Aussie siblings, Jacqui is a dive instructor and an expat for the better part of 10 years, and her two brothers, Sam and Ben.  Ben is the sweet older brother that they joked was a know-it-all when he started telling Jacqui how to dive.  Sam is the younger brother with an adventurous side and no shortage of entertaining stories to tell. Jacqui was teaching her bros to dive and we joined them for the next few days in search of manta rays and sun fish (mola mola). We searched to no avail but in the meantime explored the incredibly beautiful corals and tropical fish.  Instead of diving one day, we ventured to manta point for a snorkeling trip.  We swam with these gentle giants for an hour watching them gracefully glide through the water. From afar, they look like large table clothes floating in the water.  The mantas can grow up to 6 meters and 3000 lbs but swim weightlessly through the water.  These incredible creatures make you fell so small and insignificant in their world.  They don't seem to be bothered by human interaction.  The curious ones will swim close and others just ignore you.  

The last day of diving we went solo with another dive master named Jaya.  He runs the dive shop and is very on top of everything but will take every chance to take a snooze. On the way to our dive site he climbed onto the bow of the boat laid down and slept through the bumpy ride to the site.  Andy and I sat behind him with faces full of salt water from the splashing wake of the boat.  With a few dives under our belt, we were comfortable in our fins and immediately descended to 20 meters.  We swam along the reef and stopped half-way through, to check the current, but really there was a school of angry Trigger fish with triggers raised. These aren't too dangerous but have been known to bite a toe off once in a while.  Once they swam away we continued along the reef.  

We swam past schools of large fish, moray eels, turtles, eagle rays, small neon-colored nuddibranchs, and countless other fish.  The whole time a remora followed us and tried to stick to our wetsuits.  They are the small fish that attach to bigger fish.  Sort of like the mosquito of the ocean.  He even followed us up to the surface and attacked Andy while he was taking a whiz.  The boat capital called out, "Fish! Fish!"  and hysterically laughed as Andy hurried into the boat. 

The last night there we teamed up with our diving buddies and headed to a restaurant that our french dive instructor, Francios, recommended.  The tables brought me back to my childhood.  All of the tables housed classic board games underneath glass like Chutes and Ladders, Chess, SORRY!,  and Chinese Checkers but unfortunately we never had the opportunity to play.  When we tried to order, we quickly found out that rice and chicken were the only items left on the menu.   This would have been fine but the waitress continued to tell us they were also out of beer right as the power went out.  The group took that as a sign to move to the next food establishment and hopped back onto the scooters (3 people to 1 scooter).  The next joint offered tables on the beach and the owner/cook/waitress asked if we would be ok with a special family style buffet for the table. Thirty minutes later we feasted on banana leaf tuna, BBQ'd tuna, chicken satay, roasted veggies, nasi goreng, etc.  Amazing!!!  By far, the best meal I've had in Indonesia thanks to the good company, delicious food and ice cold Bintang.

Bali-n

Sunset over small surf on the Indian Ocean

Awesome. So far this time around our trip seems more like vacation than the last one did. Maybe its the extremes we pushed ourselves to in South America. Possibly the cold, the altitude, the bad food, I just don't know exactly. But here in Asia so much of our time is spent sweating, that to work too hard would be foolish. The locals pace is the proper pace. We wouldn't want to go streaking past anyone on the streets or beautiful beaches because there isn't anything that requires that speed of life. It's about taking it slow and taking it all in.

Kelly taking it all in

Bali is an interesting little place. It is part of Indonesia which is predominately Muslim but the majority of Bali is Hindu. We landed in Denpasar with what seemed to be ALL the other tourists because it took an hour to get through customs. The cab ride to our hotel showed densely packed streets well lit with both neon signs and barren bulbs alike all with the promise of delicious mie goreng, snazzy tank tops, happy hours everywhere and cheap massage. A torturous ride through gridlock traffic with these amazing potential stops right outside the window of our cab proved sufficiently enough that this was a place for hedonism. Upon writing this I realize we didn't really take any pictures that display the tourists or nightlife of Kuta. So here are some monkeys instead.

Macaques macaquin'

Bali is one large island of about 4 million people overrun with tourists mainly hailing from Australia. Western Oz is a short plane ride away and this seems to be a weekend or weekday pleasure for every last one of them. In short, it is a party all of the time, everywhere you go. The town we stayed in was called Kuta and has some good beach and reef breaks very near for our surfing pleasure. We were able to rent boards from any number of people lined up on the beach for about $5 a day and follow that up with a beer from the same guy's cooler upon return or hiatus.

Our room in Kuta, probably the nicest of the trip

Not too much gnar to shred on Kuta beach but fun long boarding anyhow

The streets are at all times teeming with short shorted, neon colored tank topped Australians and then clones of every type from any other number of countries. They all seem to mean well and are just out to have a good time, but it smacks of a lawless dirt-roaded Vegas without the gambling, or a nicer Mexico without all the beheading. You can wander the streets for hours looking for the cheapest foot massage or Bintang (local pilsner), and eventually be rewarded with your discovery that will save 20 cents. We argue over paying $7 for a back massage because this place has air con or $5.50 here where it doesn't and the argument makes sense. In a world where that small change makes all of the difference when its all said and done whether or not we can eventually make it to Vietnam it makes a lot of sense.

Temple entrance

 It is pretty easy to live like royalty here, and pretty easy to see why it is so popular of a place to stay for good too. There is culinary variety and activity abound. We made it a point to surf every evening because there is no better place to be when a blood red sun sets over the Indian ocean than on said ocean with no one obstructing the view. The beat of live music pulses over the waves from the beach behind us as we arrived just in time to enjoy a week of celebration with the Kuta beach festival. Seems to me that it is simply a celebration of this place being so worthy of celebration because the weather will not ever change too much and it wasn't an actual holiday. So we would turn out boards in after sunset and get a drink, watch the live bands cover popular music well but butcher the lyrics, and then head inside for some air conditioning.

Out later for dinner and the crowds we noticed for the first time the huge memorial to the people who died in the 2002 club bombing in the middle of the most popular intersection in town. The 10 year anniversary was also during our stay and we met an older Aussie couple who were there and helped with the survivors as well. It was actually supposed to be a very dangerous time to visit unbeknownst to us. We saw an interview over breakfast the morning of the event with the bomber's widow and daughter and the daughter said she was very proud of her father and what he did because the people he killed were sinners. Insane. 202 dead.

2002 club bombing memorial in downtown Bali. This was the night of the ten year anniversary.

On a lighter note, the majority of the Balinese are Hindu which is a pretty peaceful religion and makes visiting the temples of the area very interesting too. After seeing so many ruins of the Incan culture in South America it is nice to see something so utterly different. There are temples all over the place and many of the homes have areas dedicated to shrines as well. When visiting the temples, all people must have their knees covered so there will be someone out in front with a box of sarongs to loan. I tie on my dress and we get in.

That is a borrowed sarong. But damn is it slick.

We visited a very nice temple complex in Ulu Watu, south of Kuta, called Pura Luhur that has a serious macaque infestation. These monkeys range from tiny kitten sized young to 20 pounds of shrieking fury. Generally pretty tame, they feast on bananas that are available for purchase at the temple gates. We had some good times playing with macaques.

Gotta cover them knees.

Hungry little fella?

Pura Luhur

Pura Luhur

After 6 days in Kuta it was time to leave the party. We were getting entirely too comfortable there and had even begun to work out a nice routine for ourselves waking up late, going for a run on the beach, taking a dip in the hotel pool, getting a late lunch, surfing, getting a drink at the beach fest, massage, dinner, and all over again. Nice as could be but we need our trips to be about growing a bit and getting out of our comfort zones...at least a little.

This was the nicest part of our Ubud hostel. To show the inside or the bathroom especially would be a health code violation.

View from our Ubud balcony over rice patties.

We went to a place called Ubud next which is from Eat, Pray, Love fame. I have not read it nor do I know the actual connection but the place seems like it is perfectly designed for single 30something women who are on a spiritual quest but don't want to have to get dirty or work too hard or change themselves. If you like Marie Osmond or Subscribe to O magazine then you will love Ubud. Otherwise its just okay. There are so many boutiques its all too similar to nice parts of Santa Cruz, or hippie chic parts of San Fran. A little too granola and expensive for my taste.

I don't want to get too ahead of myself though because the place does have some redeeming qualities. There is the monkey forest which is again infested with macaques. Same little buggers going for your pockets and baring teeth cause you wont give up your sunglasses. These monkeys are generally tame but can be assholes so we were warned not to go in with anything we didn't want nabbed. With no real incident we got some cool pictures and passed an afternoon. The live music in all of the open air restaurants was a serious plus and the smell of incense while always accompanying your day in Bali was particularly strong.

Kelly belongs in the Monkey Forest

Speak no Kelly

We took a walk to the Elephant caves temple which according to our Lonely Planet was only 2 clicks out of town. After walking the narrow strip of path next to bustling roads flooded with truck and mo-peds alike for an hour we popped in to a shop to ask the proprietor for directions. She noted that the Elephant caves were still 20 minutes down the road and this road was decidedly narrower that it had been so we flagged down a passing car. We asked the driver for a price to the temple and he tried to charge us 50,000rp ($5) but we got him down to 20000rp. Well it turns out after about 20 seconds driving down the same road we passed a sign saying 100meters to the caves, so one woman's 20 minutes is another's 2. Bummer.

Elephant Caves

Thinking of putting down roots in Bali

Half the teeth but twice the personality. This man may have married us.

 Once at the sight we got a good look around and got some pictures. There were no elephants. There were caves. We were not going to subject ourselves to that walk again as it was really starting to heat up so we tried to get a ride from the bunch of locals sitting around the parking lot only to be turned away as they were paid to await their fares who were still in the temple. Back out to the street and hitchhiking we almost immediately flagged down a little orange van full of schoolchildren and the driver said he would get us back for 10,000rp total ($1)! Turns out he was a school bus and they don't mind filling up every available space. The kids were nice but they must be from the rich school cause for the most part they were too busy playing with their blackberries to make conversation.

School bus

That evening we fulfilled one of Kelly's desires and took a yoga class with a practicing yogini. She set up our space in the yard of a very well manicured bungalow. We had incense burning and canangs around.

Yard Yoga

The canang is a small prayer box offering made daily out of banana leaves and filled with flowers, coins, rice, crackers, holy water, and anything else. They can be found in front of and inside every shop, taxi, restaurant, and hotel everyday.
 
Our class proceeded for about an hour and a half and was pretty mellow and easy stuff. It was deemed Balinese yoga and was too tame for my preference but both Kelly and I are more often practicing flow or vinyasa yoga. All in all it was very pleasant though. We finished with a very nice meditation guided by her instruction with a perfect voice, accented and knowledgeable.
The next morning we departed Ubud en route to Nusa Lembongan, a small island 15 km away from Bali. And we will pick up from there.

Here is a Google Map of the places we have been on this trip so far.
https://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?msid=207622343178957417675.0004cdbb0406b83aa8795&msa=0&ll=1.713612,104.458008&spn=11.729528,21.643066

Singapore Slingin'

We arrived in Singapore after an overnight flight from Tokyo and were welcomed with the promised hot and humid weather of Southeast Asia. Our hostel was simple and clean with an interesting set-up...there was a small general room in the front with a large futon for lounging, and another huge room in the back where everyone slept.  The gigantic room had very tall ceilings with thick curtains to separate the 12-bed dorm style rooms. it took a second to realize that if the curtain was not there, I was about 6 inches from the bed next door. Three "rooms" total, 6 bunks each, air conditioned (!), and all of the snoring from the room next door. 

English is the first language spoken here but usually the second language learned by Singaporeans.  Needless to say, it made getting around pretty easy but seemed that everyone had learned  We had heard about the strict laws in Singapore and low rates of crime and was reminded on the subway where the sign read, $5000 fine for eating or drinking, $15,000 for carrying a flammable object.  Do lighters count?  Chewing gum is also a no, no.  The import and sale are illegal and was banned in 1992 after there was a problem with people disposing it under tables and chairs.  Maybe they are on to something here...

Our food tour of Singapore took us to sites all around the city and numerous Hawker food centers.  It gives a whole new meaning to food courts.  Let's just say its better than any Sbarros you've been to at your local mall. They are littered throughout the city, all with different specialties.  Our first stop was one of Little India's hawker station. 

Little India Hawker Center

 In this part of town it is common to find menus with murtabaks (I would describe this as an Indian quesadilla), roti prata (flat bread), spicy sauces, curries, and ice cold milk teas.  This city is the Mecca for street food and all hawker stations have food safety ratings!  

Little India

Next stop on the food tour took us to Chinatown.  Before searching for the hawker center that the locals flood to, we stopped for a bubble tea, and then the five story, Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & museum.  There was a ceremony going on at the time so we weren't able to see the main attraction, a sacred tooth of Buddha (experts have doubts about the authenticity of it) but we're able to observe the ceremony.  We found the hawker center after searching for a while in a 2 block radius.  It's hidden above an open market and to get there we had to go through the neighboring department store, up an escalator, a flight of stairs and over a bridge.  We sampled many Chinese dishes like Char kway teow or flat rice noodles with bean sprout and prawns in chili sauce. It paired nicely with the famous Singaporean Tiger beer.  There was a line around the corner for one hawker kiosk selling the simple chicken and noodle dish.  A local basically told us we HAD to try so we waited a half hour for the dish.  It was well worth the wait even just to watch the chef chop about 20 chickens with nothing but a meat clever. The last stop at the hawker center was the Poppia station.  A Poppia is a fresh spring roll and probably my favorite thing I had in Singapore.  It's a perfect mix of fresh veggies with prawns, chicken and a spicy peanut sauce to die for.  Yum!  Sorry Dean, the Poppia lady gives you a run for your money :)

someone's hungry!

Rack o' chicken

To work up an appetite, we ventured to the open concept zoo where the monkeys and lemurs roam freely.  It's renowned for man eating tigers that occasionally get to do just that. One of the zoo cleaners decided it was a good idea to hop the surprisingly low fence, swim the  moat, and wave his broom at the massive beasts. Guess who wins this one. 

Lemur Love

We headed to Raffle's hotel, named after the founder, Sir Thomas Raffles.  It's a classy place built in the thirties with an old fashioned feel and famous for the city's cocktail known as a Singapore Sling.  After an afternoon with the tigers and the Singapore heat, we were in need for a cold beverage and treated ourselves to the classy cocktail.

Most expensive single item we have consumed on this trip!

You can't visit Singapore and not visit the famed buildings of downtown.  The impressive structures circle the bay with the focal point of the Marina Bay Sands hotel.  It is the stand out building with three giant towers and what appears to be a cruise ship/space ship on top of the towers. It's connected to a huge mall with every high-end store imaginable and an ice skating rink which we frequented more than once to escape the heat. From the top of the hotel, you see the cityscape of Singapore on one side and to the other side, the Avatar inspired tree garden.  These massive trees (25-50 meters tall) are solar powered, man-made trees that are vertical gardens covered in bromeliads, ferns, and tropical flowers.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel

View from the top of Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Home Tree