Saturday, June 28, 2008

Deep in the Thailand Jungle

We returned from a 3-day jungle trek a few days ago which is quite possibly one of the best adventures we've had so far! Picked up at our guesthouse early in the morning, eight of us loaded into the back of a covered red pickup truck on bench seats. Poor Andy couldn't sit up straight for 3 hours, but thankfully we stopped a couple of times for a nice stretch and a fried banana snack as well as the bizarre tourist police station.

Bat (pronounced Baaht), our trusty guide, led us along the dense jungle track in Khao Yai National Park near the Myanmar border to his village of the Karen indigenous hill tribes people. (See photo album.) The 5km track we hiked into the village was the path he and 17 other children walked twice daily to and from primary school. The village is a bunch of huts made of bamboo in a valley surrounded by green mountains on all sides. As we walked down the dirt footpath, chickens ran freely as we exchanged the greeting "amuchopeur" with the locals. Each family of the 270 villagers owns a pig and a chicken. Since there is no electricity or refrigeration, when a pig or cow is ready to eat the whole village feasts and shares among one another. They are completely self sufficient by growing their own vegetables, rice and tobacco as well.

We feasted hungrily on green curry chicken, bean sprouts, tofu and green beans for dinner by candle light which was cooked in a wok over an open fire. We laughed the night away playing games around the campfire and drinking warm beer. Our accommodation consisted of a large open room for all 14 of us to sleep including a mat, blanket, pillow and an obsolete mosquito net covered in holes. The group of us from California, England, Finland, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Australia fell asleep to a chorus of jungle frogs.

The next morning we awoke early to - you guessed it - the sound of roosters. Seems like our daily wake up call in SE Asia. After breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, we headed out in the heat towards the next village 7 km away. We stopped at the village rice paddy and helped the villagers plant rice for a while which was an incredibly humbling experience - planting rice is backbreaking work!
The hike was uphill from there when suddenly, when I thought I could go no further, a glimpse of an elephant came into view from a river down below. The elephant camp! It was a beautiful sight: six elephants basking in the afternoon sun along the rocky river's edge with a few bamboo huts dotting the leafy shoreline. Noodle soup and pineapple was served for lunch as the elephant trainers doused the pachyderms with cool water to ready them for the jungle walk. We hopped on and cruised along the river Indiana Jones style with our friend Issac sitting bareback on its neck! My knuckes were white with fear, gripping the metal seat as we went downhill but over time I relaxed like getting used to hot water. Large orange tip and turquoise/black butterflies flitted about as we hobbled along the jungle with the sounds of cicadas and crickets in the air. Finally, we reached the village and we all ran straight for the swimming hole! The group of us from all over the world frolicked and bathed in the cool water before relaxing or playing a game of football ( soccer) against the locals during the afternoon. Another delicious dinner by candlelight with more stories and laughter.
Our last day was spent on homemade bamboo rafts floating down the wide river that runs all the way from Burma through Bangkok to the south of Thailand into the sea. We used giant bamboo sticks to steer off the back of the raft as we cruised through Level I & II rapids. I felt like I was on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland as we passed river cows and elephants along the way.
Unfortunately, on that last day Andy wasn't feeling so good and had run a pretty high fever by the time we returned to our guesthouse in Chiang Mai. The doc says it's some sort of Asian flu. So lots of rest for him while I have been exploring the city and checked out a crazy Muay Thai boxing match with some friends we met on the trek. As soon as he gets better we'll take a Thai massage class then hit the road to Laos.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

More lessons learned - Thailand style

The image that comes to mind for me is from the great 80s blockbuster, Stand by Me. You know, the one about the 4 pals who skip town on a whim to go search for the body of a missing boy. They pack their camping gear, one of them swipes there ole man's pistol and they set off on their journey down the railroad tracks skipping stones and humming songs about candy. Fond memories for me, no question. Now, in my mind I transport these kids to Thailand, on the same mission, doing the same thing, singing the same songs (although I doubt the singing would last as long) & maybe even getting sicked by Chopper the stray Thai dog. I try to visualize them walking on the train tracks, picking up rocks and bending down with their ears to the tracks to listen to the vibrations of an approaching locomotive. I try.

Problem is, in Thailand and probably more places than I'd like to think about, septic tanks on trains are not, shall I say contained. Septic tanks on the trains here, to be more precise are not, here. Nothing, nada, no dice. If the picture is not yet crystal, here goes...

We traveled on a 14 hour sleeper train last night (an 8hr one the night prior as well BTW) and when I awoke at O dark thirty AM to do what lots of men my age do in the middle of the night...pee, I thought nothing of it. Sure it wasn't a westernized toilet or "throne", but that was no biggie, they tend not to be in public zones in SE Asia anyways. It was a floor-level basin with ribbed footpads for traction if one needed to squat. Not my issue at this time, mind you. I returned to my upper bunk opposite the aisle from my bride and crashed. Then, as the light began to filter into the train car and the train rocked around turns, my half of ambien had worn off and the urge again came over me. I ambled down the aisle (built for tiny Thais by the way. Geesh!) opened the tiny Alice in Wonderland door, shut it behind me and paused. I craned my neck forward and down, nearly taking a misstep or unfortunate lean against a not-so-clean surface. What the? My future pee and everybody's past, present and future #2s were not piling up like an underground pyramid like so many of have seen while camping. No. All of these aforementioned pleansantries were gone, left behind, they had exited stage right. Maybe the light I had seen filtering into the train car earlier hadn't been through the windows at all. But up from the toilet!! A hole of light and railroad tie met the gaze of my craned head. Out the train and onto the tracks. An offering for the villages we passed by? Maybe the stray Choppers sniffing about? Who knows? Definitely not a stringent Board of Health here I imagine.

So back to my vision of the 4 fine fellas picking up flat rocks, dropping their bags on the tracks, kneeling or really just walking. Note to self, the next time I get the urge to pull a Stand By Me moment and do an old fashioned train dodge or give Stacy a big hug on the tracks somewhere in the northern mountains of Chiang Mai, I won't. She won't and I hope you won't.

Lesson learned!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Traveling Buddies

Stacy & I. Andrew Nathan and Stace Marie. Hubby & Wife. Best Pals. All of those things before we embarked on our world-wide journey and all of those things still.

Its just...well, different some how. Don't get the wrong idea, its great. Different can be good too ya know. Traveling together on a 2 week vacation can be trying at times as I'm sure we all can confess too. So many decisions to make, details to plan for. A sun burn here gets us cranky, maybe worries about work back home get us riled, maybe someone wants to sleep in and the other wants to watch the Lakers get killed by 40 points in the Finals. You know what I'm saying. With all the good also come the tricky.

Its the tricky that make us work and make us think and make us concede and hopefully urge us to compromise. After all, if things were always pie in the sky great, life would be mundane perhaps, uninteresting? We all love it when things go our way of course, its fun! But how do we grow when that is always the case. What do we learn when we are not challenged by life? We are often best judged (I don't want to use that word, but) in difficult situations. "When the going gets tough, the tough get going". As for Stacy and my extended travels go, we have had unbelievable adventures and many moments of sheer bliss and excitement together. It has been remarkable and wonderful to do this now, in the way we have and to the places we've been.

As far as memories go for me, however, I may end up 20 years down the road, remembering this trip for what it did for my growth as a husband and friend of my wife. We are 24/7 together, traveling buddies, compadres, connected at the hip in many ways on a daily basis. We do have our alone time - me to watch the Lakers lose by 40 in the Finals and Stace to email or do a yoga class or take a walk. But generally we are seldom apart. It is interesting this dynamic. Much more so than life before Fiji. When we'd wake up in the morning together, but go to work for 10+ hours, deal with other stimuli, frolic with the doggie, talk on the phone, see friends and then come back together in the evenings or the weekends. Its always.

We have our disagreements, or battles sometimes. Why are we doing that? Wouldn't it be better to do this? Some big ticket items, like to train or bus it? When do we leave Thailand for the next place? I don't care about Vietnam. But I do! But generally, in the 24/7 nature that is us, we tend to squabble over the little things. Why'd you get 2 bottles of water? They are heavy to carry. I don't know, I thought we'd need them. Or what hotel (I use the term loosely) are we going to? How about this one? No, lets keep walking. UGGGG. In these times it can be frustrating for sure. Easy to take sides and hold ground. Or, maybe give in but hold that as a grudge until dinner when the anger manifests itself into a pissed off remark or petty disagreement. There can be no denying it, we have had plenty of these episodes in the 4 months of our trip. Sometimes we handle them and communicate well and other times we aren't so graceful about it. I have learned a lot about myself with each and every setback. I realize I do judge. I do think there is a better way or more efficient matter to get somewhere. It eats at me when something goes against this 'obvious' way. But why? Isn't this trip about adventure? About being together through thick & thin, rolling with the punches the world throws and loving each other more than anything? Again, if everything went swimmingly, we wouldn't have a blog audience. All anybody remembers are the fights and and struggles. Who really cares about the beautiful Milford Sound? Do you even remember that blog?

I have become so much more aware of myself and what I am made of. What my tendencies are and when to push my beliefs and to defer to my better half. It really wasn't until today after a brilliant Thai massage (for $3 US!!) and visit to a Buddhist meditation site that I really want to be in tuned with this. To let go of the need to efficiency or the right way, whatever that is in my mind. I want to be satisfied with my lovely wife, with everything she does, what she chooses and what SHE wants. I have been guilty at times of judging her choices in the past as not as good as what I would have done or maybe given her a look or held a grudge when we got off the train at the wrong stop or temporarily misplaced some Baht (Thai $$). Why? The trip of life is about the adventure, the unknowns, the good and the bad, the ups and the downs. Its about us and going at it together, with understanding and love. Compromise and deference. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger I believe.

I know what I will remember most about my trip around the world, my wife.

Sawat dee kaa from Bangkok

In the last 15 hours we have been on a boat, bus and overnight train from the tiny island of Koh Tao on the eastern side of the southern peninsula and back to Bangkok. You'd think that arriving at 4:30am the town would be asleep, but when they say the Thais wake up early they are not kidding. That's me in my bunk on the train. We slept with our bags at our feet and a curtain to offer a slight bit of privacy in a room of 30 other people. Surprisingly, there were no bugs, animals or stink and the sheets were fresh (or so it seemed)! Just a layer of dirt on things which I've come to accept as a SE Asia way of life. Though a rat did greet me in the train station. We opted for coffee.

The local city bus doesn't quite stop to pick customers up so you sort of have to time it right to jump on as its rolling forward. Along the damp street, Buddhist monks are dressed in pumpkin orange robes and bare feet as a constant reminder of the importance of letting go representing their detachment from the physical world. Vendors receive deliveries of fresh vegetables and flowers in palm leaf woven baskets and sell everything from fried crickets to dentures to brass charms with a photo of the king. Smells of BBQ, fresh flowers, moth balls and exhaust sporatically fill the air with sounds of motorized engines, honks and Thai music. Giant photos of the king and tangled power lines are ubiquitous. Tuk tuk (3 wheeled taxis) drivers call out to tourists trying to give them a lift to their hotel (they are mostly scammers, don't do it!). A mess of Thai characters are sprinkled about with the occassional English words. The little Thai we have picked up has been a grave help.

Comparatively, Koh Tao Island is very westernized. We spent most of our five days on a boat and scuba diving (we saw a black tipped reef shark!!!) as well as swimming, snorkeling and reading books on the beach. Pad Thai and fried rice were daily meals, along with delicious fresh fish caught right off the island. We rented an ATV one day to explore the 21 square km island and found loads of dirt roads with deep crevasses that dropped off vertically. With little tread on the tires we slid out a bit and certainly got the adrenaline pumping! Today we shop in Bangkok, get visas for Laos and Cambodia and head out on another overnight train to Chiang Mai.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Dear Matt,

What can I say, cuz? Indo was more than our bodies & minds would have ever expected. We are looking back on our impromptu visit to Bali as a highlight. Not only because is was neato and fun, warm and sunny, but because it pushed us! Pushed our comfort zones, introduced us to experiences we'd never even considered and really broadened our horizons, both for this trip and life in general. Sharing space with you for such great QT for so long was the yogurt on the fruit plate, the wasabi in the soy sauce - it made it something special, something memorable. Thank you!

Starting with our 1:20 AM pick-up at the Denpassar airport to having our room with a view and patio dialed in upon arrival, you made the experience special & us so happy! Introducing your older cuz to your motor bike has changed my perspective for sure (not that I'm rushing out to buy one when I get home though)! And it allowed us to see the country in a way that not many 2-week tourists get to; zooming past locals and flying up and down back country roads with the wind and crumbled crackers (inside joke) flying past. Having your nearly seamless Indo linguistics accompanying us for most adventures proved most invaluable and those monkeys that were riding on Stacy's back and scratching themselves in Uluwatu, what was that all about?!? WOW I say.

We got the tour of our lives in Bali and also into Lombok! That little beach on the southwest coast, Banko Banko was epic! Talk about the real Indo experience - friendly locals (we loved Gusto by the way & that little bald grom, what was his name again?), basic but tasty eats, plenty of Bir Bintang & awe-inspiring surf (at least for a day or 2, right?). I loved filling our petrol tanks with the 40s of diluted petrol on the side of the road, when will that happen again? Uh, never (well, maybe when we meet again, right?). Traveling with you to the Gilis or simply sitting perched on your veranda playing cards and listening to Bob, we felt so comfortable. Talk about a good travel buddy, it was always easy and fun - so many laughs and interesting factoids. Seeing you operate was really something special for Stacy & I. You are living the dream and making your world what you want it to be. Despite your simple life, you are anything but simple & doing it so great! We learned more about SE Asia from you than we had from Lonely Planet and really got interesting insights from you about Taoism and living in the now. Keep those memories of the past right there, in the past, huh?! Live for the now, like RIGHT NOW! That is truly all we have, right now! (hmmm, I'm in Bangkok & sitting inside in an internet shop w/2 loud Welchies right behind me...What am I doing RIGHT NOW?)

Anyways, Stacy & I are wishing you all the best and cannot throw enough love your way. We had an adventure never to be forgotten, but hopefully duplicated sometime soon. Good luck with the ladies by the way.

Much Love,

Andy & Stace

P.S. - That early morning after Sapporos & Sake, tossing the Aussie boomerang we got you. That, was icing on the proverbial cake for me. I had to go all the way to the sands of Kuta Beach, Bali to throw my first real B'rang. I even caught 2 of my own! WOW!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Indonesia: Nightlife

On our first night in Kuta we hung out with a friend of Matt's named David from Santa Cruz. Matt and Andy were jonesing to play pool and grab some Bintang beers so we headed out. Good pool tables in Indo are hard to come by, so we found ourselves at a brothel with two sweet tables. Evidently prostitution is criminalized in Indo (unlike Oz and NZ), but the party still goes on. Girls in short skirts and heels flirt with the men and I understand that once they decide to go to his hotel room, he pays $15 US to the bar and $35 US to the girl. Remember that the average Balinese lives off of the equivalent of $70 US per month. It was an entertaining sight to watch the scenes go down but we left before it got too late so I assume we only saw the tip of the iceberg!

On our second night in Kuta a couple of American friends of Matt's were having a birthday BBQ at their place. It sounded delicious, they were going to pick up some fresh fish from a local fishing village and cook it up for everyone. Thinking we were fashionably late, we got there with only fish heads left on the plate. Alas, we grabbed some nasi campur instead while drinks and dancing ensued in the living room. Since it was the host's birthday, his girlfriend whispered to us all that she wanted to take him to a ladyboy show as a surprise. And a surprise it was (for all of us)! We were greeted at the entrance by some strangely sexy women and the show was already on the road, complete with catwalking, lip-syncing, sparkly costumes and colorful make-up (Steve-o, I was thinking of you the whole time). Suddenly, the birthday boy was on stage dancing with the ladyboys, clearly full of beers but took it in stride.

So the first two nights: brothel and ladyboy show. Matt, what is next?! And we laughed. It was tame from there. We got pretty hooked on playing cards - Golf and Rummy 500, a daily occurrence along with enlightening philosophical and intellectual conversations. I loved getting to know my new cousin with uninterrupted time that may never happen again in our lifetimes to this extent. Matt also has a TV and pirated DVDs are quite a business so we watched a few movies as well.

On the island of Gili Trawangan there was a great Indo reggae band that played plenty of Bob Marley to get the island vibe groovin'. We also went to this giant outdoor restaurant/bar/disco called Ocean Club in Kuta that had costumed actors on stilts pouring shots from the bottle Rosarito-style. We witnessed a security guard with a giant machine gun pug a beer then smile for the camera (pictured). Good times, thanks to Matt!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Indonesia: Scuba Diving

Eleven dives each are now in our log books! Amed was by far the best scuba diving and most memorable bungalow experience. We left Kuta at 8am on our motorbike while Andy drove and I wore a backpack to get us through the next 7 days. Even though we had a map, we got pretty lost leaving Kuta since there are no street signs anywhere. Four hours later, we found ourselves in Amed with sore arses and tired shoulders with a layer of grime on our faces. Andy looks down and the key is suddenly gone from the ignition. Whaa? He swore he just saw it so we drove up and down the same 1km stretch no no avail even though it had a bright red lanyard attached to it. Andy pulled into a garage shop and explained the problem while both of us are emphasizing "Don't turn the motor off" and what does the guy do, he shuts it off. An F bomb dropped out of my mouth while Andy remained very calm. Luckily these guys had a motorbike ignition so we waited for 20 minutes as they fixed us right up for a whopping $10 US.

We found an absolutely stunning hotel on the waterfront called Kembali Bungalows with Jukung Dive shop across the street. We were exhausted by then and the hotel pool on the water was glistening on this gorgeous day so we set it up to dive the next day, which was quite possibly the day I could repeat for the rest of my life. We awoke early to the sound of roosters (well ok, maybe this part not so much) and enjoyed a breakfast of banana pancakes, fruit and yogurt in the open air restaurant. Jukung Dive was ready for us as we suited up and headed out. They have a relationship with the local fisherman so we used their tiny jukung boats from the black sand beach directly in front of the hotel that fit max 3 people. We headed up the coast and saw the stunning and majestic Agung volcano in the background and dropped in to Amed Wall II. Too many beautiful fish and coral to recount on this dive and the second one in the afternoon, so I will leave it at that. The dive shop fed us lunch afterward of nasi goreng and we enjoyed the seaside views next with our dive buddy Charles from India. We spent the afternoon lounging by the pool (see photos, this hotel was amazing) in the warm sun and reading the Bali Times and Asian Diver Magazine. As the sun was setting we shared a bottle of white when and went for dinner on at a nearby warung on the beach with nothing but the sound of wooden wind chimes and ocean waves with views of sparkling stars. Très romatique!
Ok but this post is about scuba diving. Gili Trawangan Island is a tiny 1km long island off the coast of northeastern Lombok that caters to travelers - the most Western people I have seen in one place in Indo! Pillow seating underneath palm bungalows lined the dirt path with no motorized vehicles, only horse pulled buggies. We found a sweet place complete with mossy nets with an upstairs patio overlooking the ocean. We did 4 dives off the coast, two of which went towards our advanced diver certificate - Deep Water and Night Dive. We can now go 30 meters, anytime! Plenty of sea turtles and the moray eel were the highlights here. The night dive, however, was frightening to say the least. The current was quite strong underwater and with just our torches to light the way my breath was shortened in a mild state of panic as I tried to avoid slamming into the rebar biodome that our instructor found necessary to swim against the current towards. The one interesting part of the dive was turning the torch off and waving our hands to see a sea of phosphorescent lights surround us - I felt like we were on another planet! Very luckily I found a mooring rope and grabbed on for dear life as I was at 50 bar and needed the group to ascend. The current on the surface was worse and tried for dear life to avoid slamming into moored boats. Frankly, I don't feel much like writing about it anymore since I was so frightened so I will leave it at that. Needless to say we are fine, but in the future I will never go on a night dive with a strong current.
The strangest part about Gili Trawangan was the Muslim Mosque and its SIX TIMES DAILY call to prayer, starting at 5:30am. Thank heavens for earplugs!

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Indonesia: Eats & Drinks

Spicy and sweet are the favorite flavors of the Indonesians. If you don't ask for no sugar in your coffee or tea it's dripping with sweetness and spicy chili sauce accompanies most savory dishes. Good thing we like to eat rice, as nasi is the staple of most Indonesian cuisine. Nasi campur (pictured) is a favorite street food of ours. Street vendors, usually older Indo ladies, cook up home made individual dishes of fried tofu, vegetables (cucumber, green beans, spinach like greens), chicken and beef and you choose which items you want over steamed rice. It's wrapped in a brown paper, tied with a rubber band and eaten with the right hand (left is used for bathroom business). Nasi goreng is a fried rice dish with chopped carrots and cabbage and topped with a fried egg and shrimp crackers. Indos tend to eat when they are hungry so they eat alone, unlike Westerners who enjoy eating together as a means to bring people together socially. Warungs (Indo restaurants) now dot the cities for tourists more than the locals and in many places serve Brazilian, Chinese and Aussie food as well.

A giant banana pancake is a breakfast favorite and served with fresh fruit such as pineapple and papaya. Super sour yogurt chock full of acidophilus is a treat to have on top of fruit drizzled with a bit of honey. Jaffels are another breakfast and lunch item which is 2 pieces of sweet white bread put in a sandwich press like a panini and filled with savory items like cheese, tomato and avocado or sweet such as bananas and honey. The bread is smothered in butter so it gets crispy and delicious like toast.

Bintang is the beer of choice! A pilsner, it comes in a 22 oz. bottle. Since it is so warm outside, you have to drink it fast. Arak is the local spirit derived from palm trees and usually mixed with fruit juices. All fruit juice is the fruit thrown into the blender, nothing packaged. Lassi is another popular drink that is fruit and yogurt blended together.

The diet staples we are missing is anything with whole grains and good wine! :)

Indonesia: Surfing

I wish I could say we rip it up on these perfect Indo waves, but we don't. Matt is an excellent surfer and has taken us to a couple surf spots on Bali and Lombok, one of which is arguably the best surf spot in the world: Tablet.

We took a 4-hour ferry across the Bali Strait to the island of Lombok. Thankfully, we had our International Driver's license obtained from AAA before we left. It turned out to be a brilliant last minute after thought as the police definitely check for proper license and registration at the borders. A 3-hour drive south landed us in Banko Banko and finally Tablet, a very small and basic surf village at the end of an incredibly rocky and pothole filled 5 km dirt road. Alas, the back of the bike slipped out going up a steep and very dry dirt and rock portion and Andy and I tipped left on the bike, and thankfully were caught by our left feet on the ground. Unfortunately, our right lower inside calves landed on the hot muffler, mine a bit more than Andy's and left me with a second degree burn. Upon arrival we met Augusto, a native Lombok surfer with dreadlocks, who manages the bungalows and warung (Indo restaurant). I smiled with relief as he handed me a chunk of ice for my quickly swelling and throbbing calf. Made purely from bamboo and palm leaves, our bungalow was very basic but comfortable with a couple of beds and a roof. The camp is adjacent to a small fishing village and farm so roosters and chickens ran freely along with the locals. We bathed with water from buckets in a deep well. We were fortunate to arrive after a squat toilet was recently put in. When I went to use it for the first time, it was already dark so with my headlamp I braved the way. I heard cowbells and saw wide apart glowing eyes and finally a roofless square built from palm leaves and Eureka, I had found it. We slept very well with the only sounds of the crashing waves and crickets until dawn when the multiple roosters gave us a cockle-doodle-doo wake up call. Earplugs are by far the best travel accessory in my bag!

The Tablet wave is a perfect barrel reef break. Andy and I watched intently from the bamboo lounge chairs facing the bright blue water, somewhat jealous but also thinking it's kinda scary to get pounded by 6 foot waves over the reef! Surfers came in with bacteria infested cuts that need to be treated quickly and thoroughly with antiseptic or a bad infection will prevail. Instead, we decided to snorkel and swim past the break but the tide wasn't low enough and the waves just pounded us. I lost a shoe that floats soI found it, but Andy's mask and snorkel that doesn't float for some odd reason got ripped from his neck and is now sitting on the ocean bottom somewhere. He tumbled a bit and the reef scraped him in a few places. Walking in from that semi-scary experience we decided that we are moving too fast! We should have just been patient, waited for the waves to settle and walk around the point. I realized in addition to the leg burn that the lesson here is to slow down. Just slow it down. There is no need to rush or act like a hero. We counted our blessings that we were safe and sound and really it could have been much worse. I did go for a snorkel myself (since I still had my mask, sorry Drew!) after the tide went lower and walked around the point. Deep channels of reef dropped off into the ocean as I entered very carefully and slowly (per my lesson learned) and relished in the cool, calm waters around the point. I received the wonderful and memorable gift of seeing a giant sea turtle along with beautiful fish.

Another great surf spot we visited was Dreamland in south Bali. Another beautiful wave, this time a barrel shore break. Matt surfed and Andy body surfed while I laid on the beach and got a massage. You can't sit on a popular beach in Bali and not get harassed by locals selling you jewelry, DVDs or watches. It's their livelihood so I can't blame them, but as you might expect it does get a little annoying so we've learned the stern yet important phrase of tidak mao meaning no way! But I did surrender here on the beach as I slept on a crummy pillow the night before and my neck was tweaked. I laid down and felt a pair of hands on my back then wait...another pair of hands then yet another? Is that six hands?! This was a first! So for an hour I relished in a massage by three ladies listening to their Indonesian banter while the boys enjoyed the waves. I overpaid them all (a total of $10 US) since Matt knew them and they showered me with hug after hug after hug. It put a smile on my face to know how happy the extra money made them.

So surfing...well, I decided it's not for me. Since we are back in Kuta now for the next few days with a gentle wave break Andy is going to brave it. I will be quite content on the beach reading the novel Shantaram and allowing my burn to heal.

[Photos hopefully coming soon...the connection is slow here and the power has already gone out once, wiping out the hour and a half of downloads I started...]

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Indonesia: Motorbiking

Don't kill us Mom & Dad, but we rented a motorbike for $2 US per day (with helmets of course) and it's how we've been getting around Bali and Lombok for the past week. I never, ever thought that I would be up for this type of crazy adventure so you can blame it on Matt for giving us the gusto. Andy first practiced around town in Kuta gaining confidence while I rode with Matt and let me tell you, the Kuta environs have to be the most hectic. There is nothing like trial by fire! Cars, trucks, motorbikes, bikes and pedestrians zooming every which way, all participating in a delicate dance of organized chaos on the narrow two lane roads lacking shoulders or sidewalks. Admittedly, the feeling is simultaneously both exhilarating and frightening. When in Indo do as the Indonesians do, right?

With the warm wind blowing on our faces we are quite fortunate to witness daily Indonesian life. Hindu temples with intricate carvings are interspersed in the villages between shanty-like brick and plaster buildings. Ladies donning a cotton t-shirt and brightly printed sarong carry a tray of palm leaf boxes full of flowers and the occasional cracker as a daily offering to the gods and gently place it on a doorstep. Sadly, the garbage business doesn't seem to exist so instead rubbish is liberally strewn about. A small fire crackles along the roadside and the smell of burning plastic negatively greets our nose. Another small fire burns and just as suddenly the beautiful aroma of barbecue meat passes by. Then we pass a bus or a motorbike spitting out black fumes from the exhaust pipe as I quickly pull up a bandanna over my scrunched face while emaciated stray dogs sleep and trot along the dirt roadside. Shops and storefronts line the streets selling nasi goreng (a popular rice dish), bottled beverages, knicknacks and petrol out of an old Absolut vodka bottle. We stop to fill up since the petrol station was out of gas and the locals immediately engage with us. "Where are you going? Where are you coming from?" They want to know. It is important for them to know. We communicate with hand gestures and broken English before we graciously say terima kasih (thank you). Up and over the hill and occasional pothole or dirt road section we come upon an incredible panoramic vista of rice paddies dotted with workers wearing triangular straw hats. The mountainsides are covered in brilliant green palm trees and the sea shows off blues varied from aquamarine and turquoise to a deeply brilliant purple. The dark brown hard-lined faces of men and women of all ages glance up at us from rock quarries of a grueling day's work. Old ladies in printed dresses walk with a giant u-shape curved knife in one hand and and a bundle of sugarcane on the other shoulder. Children dressed in uniform walking home from school wave and give us the wonderful gift of a giant, white tooth smile and a boisterous "allo!" and the occasional high five. We are a bit of a wonder, these white-skinned Europeans passing through their small village - no doubt a story to tell their friends.

The items carried on motorbikes still leaves me in awe. It's quite common to see two adults on a bike with a baby, or sometimes even a baby and a small child - the local family wagon going where is necessary. Ladies riding side-saddle breast feeding a small child. Men carrying a giant stack of cardboard boxes, a stick of bamboo 4 meters long (where is the red flag!?), a giant birdcage balanced on the back, half of them not wearing a helmet and every man over the age of 18 with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

Today, as we were driving from Banko Banko in Lombok to the ferry to Gili Trawangan Island, we took a much needed break to rest our sore behinds and relish in a pug of water on the roadside. We happened to stop in a Muslim village across from a school classroom. As if the school children took a break to watch us kids covered the windows with waves and smiles to stare at us from across the narrow street. While I searched for a restroom (to no avail), a teacher's aid in the alleyway eyed Andy and Matt and gingerly blew kisses at them. We stopped to talk with a few children who were asking the ubiquitous "Where are you going? Where did you come from?" with more smiles and engaged in a broken conversation. It was a delight to experience. No, we are not in Kansas anymore and I like it.