Ubud, Bali

So my time in Kuta, Lombok went from awesome, to really really terrible in a very short time. I am not sure what I ate, but a severely upset stomach turned to fever, sweating, chills, hypersensitivity, body aches, head aches, nausea and being bedridden for three days. So far I have really enjoyed a lot of what traveling alone allows you: ultimate freedom, easier approachability, self reliance. Getting sick is one of those times when being alone absolutely sucks. Anything or any medicine that you need, you have to get on the scooter and go get. One thing that really sucks about getting sick while traveling also is there is no TV to distract you and I couldn't read so it was just me staring miserably at the ceiling fan in a 90 degree room. Horrible. Okay, enough venting about that. After being sick I realized I was out of money and had to make the hour long scooter ride to Praya where the nearest ATM is located. In the city I of course got lost because there is no reasoning to any of the street layout, but eventually got there thanks to a couple helpful locals. While at the ATM I was also approached by a guy named Dunn or something close to that. He was very excited to meet me to practice his English and invited me to his house for lunch. On the way he also brought me past the village where his sister weaves traditional cloth that takes sometimes up to a month to make one shawl. There he insisted I put on the traditional wedding outfit. I just laughed to myself while writing this envisioning how funny I must have looked getting a full tour of the village while wearing a brightly colored shawl, jacket and headdress, but he insisted even in the heat. Then he took me to his house where I met his parents and wife and gave him am hour long English lesson over lunch. Near the end it started to get a bit awkward when he started openly asking how to get a tourist wife with his wife only 10 feet away in the next room, but it was an interesting experience. Back at Kuta I spent two more days surfing, then made the 10 hour day journey back to Kuta, Bali to start working to extend my visa. The process is a real hassle. You go in the first time to fill out paperwork, then they give you a date about 4 days later when you have to pay, then give you a day about 4 days later when you have to pickup the visa. 3 trips for 14 days more is a lot of hassle. From Kuta I made it through the hassle of the first visit to the zoo of an immigration office where they hold your passport for the whole process. After getting back to Kuta, I booked the first ticket to Ubud. Ubud is amazing. Up in the lush more mountainous central region of Bali, Ubud is the cultural and artistic center (drawing a big tourism industry too) It has gotten recent fame and an onslaught of middle aged women travellers being the location of "love" in the book/movie "Eat,Pray,Love" Getting to Ubud, I found a nice homestay where an unbelievably friendly Artist named Sulendra lives with his family and rents out two rooms. I think one of the best things about traveling on a budget is staying at homestays and getting to know local families. The room I am staying in has a balcony that overlooks a calming jungle river gorge, very tranquil. The second day here I signed up to go river rafting, which was definitely a good way to see some jungle scenery. Also im Ubud, there is a monkey forest with a temple right next the the village. The excitement and exoticism of seeing and playing with monkeys is very short lived. They are aggressive little bastards. I had bought fruit at the market that morning as soon as I pulled out the bag to give a little bit to a small monkey, I was swarmed with monkeys climbing on me and showing their teeth. I just dropped the bag and had to retreat. I also made my first trip to the doctor here. My stomach was still not better after getting sick a week ago so I went to the Doctor and got all sorts of meds that have made things a bit better, but I still lack an appetite. I think I may have a parasite so if things don't get better in a few days I may have to go in for blood tests. Fun. While here in Ubud I have also gone to a couple traditional Balinese dances which most the time are a bunch of guys chanting in a circle around a storyline usually involving a king fighting against a devil or animal of some sort to protect the queen or princesses. I can't say that I am particularly entertained by the performances, but the costumes and temples which they are held at are very visually cool and its good to see more of Balinese culture. I have to say that for the first time since leaving I have felt homesick. Ubud has been great, but I haven't put the effort into meeting people and when your traveling alone and you don't make the effort in Asia, your going to stay alone because its mot like Australia where you are in a Hostel set up for meeting people. Don't get me wrong, its good to be alone. I causes you to face your own thoughts and I have had the most in depth internal reflection that I ever had in my life, but everybody needs some social aspect. Its weird here though, because there seems to be a ton of solo travelers, but its difficult to build up courage to at a restaurant or cafe to simply ask "can I join you" and there are not many bars here. I guess I just need to set a goal to be more out going this week. I have to admit that I'm a bit jealous of the snow in Seattle right now sweating in the 90 degree heat of this Internet cafe. I think the heat is finally going to force me to cut the tangled mess of hair that I've let grow. Tomorrow taking 1.5 hour bus back to Kuta to do the second visa visit, then coming right back to Ubud. Will post soon. Memiliki minggu yang baik

Around Lombok, Indonesia

Wow, so much to write about since my last blog post. So after spending the 5 or so nights in Kuta to get adjusted, I decided to move east in order to escape the hawkers, crowds and traffic. On my way to Lombok, I took a bus to the little fishing/diving/ferry port village of Padangbai.Only stayed their one night so there is not really a lot to say about the place, but spent the night drinking terrible tasting moonshine Arak (made from coconuts but definitely not Malibu) with some local fisherman and dive guides. The next day I decided to make the journey to the Backpacker haven known as the Gili Islands just off of Lombok. I had my first experience with Indonesian Ferries which are not very fun. Sitting on the sundeck was blistering hot, but seemed like the better option than below with the funky smell, chain smokers and blasting US country western music from the 50’s. On the boat it was also evident the who the experiences travellers were because they were able to create tent like shade out of shalls and pick the best places where the sun wouldn’t hit. After the painfully slow 4 hour ferry, caught a bus to the next harbor and started to learn the meaning of rainy season. It started pouring like I have never seen before and at one point the van was driving through almost 2 feet deep water that kids were swimming in. It was also pretty epic scenery on the drive though and for the first time in my life I saw monkeys in the wild. Finally after another two hour layover (schedule determined by when the transport is full not when they tell you it is going to leave), we took the fishing boat to Gili Trawanagan. Gili T is the largest and most visited of the 3 Gili islands and has the reputation of beautiful beaches and good nightlife. It was definitely a nice change of pace because there are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island. Thinking back on it Gili T is a place where you sort of lose time. I had planned on staying there 3 nights and ended up staying a week, just snorkeling, reading on the beach and relaxing. The clubs were also very fun. The locals there sure like to party. It was kind of funny because the average Trawanagan is probably 4’6’’ so looking across the dance floor you could easily pick out the groups of travelers towering above. Another kind of funny thing that happened while there was the TV show the Amazing Race had the island as one of the stops. Originally walking by and seeing the elaborate set I asked and they said it was a corporate video, but I asked one of the local carriage drivers dressed in traditional garb rather than the usual surf T-shirt who was part of the transport and he said it was for the amazing race. Seeing a couple teams of two along with a camera men in toe walking back to town I think confirmed it (Inside info for Vegas bets anyone). I am just wondering how they are going to edit out all the white people walking around from their helicopter shots. After the week on Gili, I decided to head back to Lombok in route to the other Kuta Beach on the southern part of the Island. All I have to say is Kuta Beach Lombok is better in every way than Kuta Beach Bali. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was pretty happy to getting dropped off to see just a small village of shacks on the beach and guesthouses set against some of the most amazing white sand beaches and coastal mountains I have ever seen even from post cards. Renting a motorbike and a surfboard here are about 4 dollars each so I have been spending the last few days just exploring and surfing. The surf here can get pretty heavy at times and the shallow reef is a bit scary too, but it is still fun. The drives to the beaches have some spectacular scenery too, but it’s unfortunate you can never look at it because the roads look like they have taken years of shelling form bombs and it is kind of like navigating a maze. Along with this you have to avoid the occasional buffalo or goat running across the road. Originally I had planned to spend a bit of money and do a 4 day sailing trip to Komodo to see some Komodo dragons, but the visa situation here is a bitch and I will not get back in time to extend my visa which you are detained and fined if you do not do. So it looks like I am heading back to Bali, extending my visa, then heading west to Java to trek around the Jungle a bit and where a reliable train system should ease traveling. Off to eat some Nasi Campur. Post again when I can.

Kuta Beach, Bali

Asia...wow. Love this place but it definitely takes some getting used to. After the six hour flight I stepped off that plane and was so out of my element. Arriving in Bali at midnight, I got a taxi to Kuta Beach because that was the place I had heard from other travellers come up the most, what I didn't realize was how hectic it was. I got to the area where I planned to stay and there were scooters whizzing by everywhere, fireworks going off, people hustling you to buy things or get a ride on their moped. I looked down the street where all the Losmans or cheap places were supposed to be and it was just a dark alley along the street. I finally found any place (and not a very nice one) to stay and was able to calm down a bit. I woke up the next morning still fully immersed in my culture shock ready to take things on in the daylight. Bali is a really unique place. While the vast majority of Indonesia is Muslim, Bali is over 90% Hindu which is very evident in the architecture and monuments found here. Almost every shop has a small palm leaf dish with flowers and bits of food as an religious offering. Kuta Beach, however, is a bit different than the rest of Bali in that it is the tourism hub for Australians which also brings a lot of tacky souvenir shops and people trying to sell you everything. The surf is good in Kuta, there are still places to escape to western society, and there are plenty of things to do here so I decided it was a good place to chill and get used to Indo. Let me describe a day in the life at Kuta: get up at seven and have a full breakfast for $1.50, surf all morning, eat lunch for also very cheap, get a $5 hour long massage, go surfing in the afternoon, eat dinner maybe have a few beers. Not too bad. I have made friends with some Indonesian surf instructors and have been tagging along with them to all the best and cheap places to eat. Most of them are from Sumatra and moved to Kuta after the Tsunami hit in 2004. They call Indonesia the land where Mamas always crying because if its not one natural disaster its another. Even right now in the news A tsunami hit the islands off of Sumatra and there is a volcano erupting in Java. Along those lines I also visited the memorial about a half kilometer away from where I am staying where in 2002 (and 2005) there was a bombing in a nightclub here. Its amazing how popular this place is though because despite this its as popular as its ever been. Alright enough downer talk because Bali overall has very happy people who are very welcoming (cliche statement but true, except for the store hustlers). Today I finally mustered up the courage to rent a scooter and go explore the island a bit. This is not for the faint of heart. Driving here is crazy where lanes, street lights and common sense are thrown out the window. It is kind of an andrenaline rush at first, but gets tiring having to constantly always be aware of everything. I had to keep $5 cop bribe money in my pocket because I didn't have an international license, $2 is the standard rate but I wanted to be safe. Setting out I decided to go to the coastal temple Tanah Alot. Taking directions from the guy I rented the bike from got me very lost, but it ended up being really cool exploring random backroads in the countryside filled with rice paddies and volcanoes. That was one of those moments where I just smiled about how different a situation I am in from just two months ago and it made me smile. Finally,after 3 hours I finally felt my way to the right place. Tannah Alot was cool, its a temple carved inot the side of a seaside cliff. Unfortunately there is also a maze of "Kuta" souvenir shops you have to walk through before getting to the temple and combined with the crowds of people kinda takes away the spirituality of the place. Wish I could post pictures, but I lost my cord that connects my camera to the computer and can't get one until probably Singapore. Tomorrow I think I am moving and taking a boat to Lambok in route to the Gili Islands and possibly a three day trek to the top of the Ranjin Volcano crater, but my plans are still pretty lose. I had to buy a guide book and reading it is making me possibly rethink my itinerary. Will post soon when I can.