Category: Travel

Bali in a Coconut Shell

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Indonesia does not share the same views on efficient immigration as Thailand and Singapore. Getting through customs took two hours.  This includes the part where you have to pay 25 USD simply to enter the country. Whatever, I’m in Bali I thought. Then I looked around and scoped the people. I’m going to put on my pretentious hat….I thought I would see all of these beautiful, earthy,  yogi’s. What I saw was America and Australians finest. Mullets, missing teeth, a cut off Skynard t-shirts  and even one looker with sweat pants hiked up so high they were now daisy dukes. WTF are these people doing here?
Eventually I got through customs and arrived at my “hotel” for the night, the Gong in the south, Ulu Watu. It’s run by a typical Balinese family. When I walked in, the father was dressed in white and throwing holy water on the grounds. Unfortunately and fortunately, they gave away my room. Instead of a basic twin bed I had been upgraded to an apartment with a living room, dining room, huge king size bed and ocean view terrace. Score! In the morning I enjoyed coffee and ocean breeze before I headed to the beach to sunbathe on the sandy cliffs, watch surfers and waste the day away. In the afternoon I went to the seaside temple and fought off the monkeys who were trying to defend their territory and Asian tourists who wanted their photo taken with a white American girl.
After sunset, Balinese dad drove me to Sanur where I planned to meet up with the girls. We chatted and I was surprised to hear that he has never left the island. This is typical for a lot of Balinese considering the hefty air ticket expense. In Sanur we were hooked up with another huge room and terrace and I splurged on a pedicure and foot massage while I waited for the girls.
The next morning we took the boat to Nusa Lembogan and did nothing the whole day. This is a little island an hour boat ride west of Bali known for seaweed farms and mangrove trees. Believe it or not, there was another girl from Michigan on the boat. It was my favorite leg of the trip. Laying on the beach, listening to the bar play Jack Johnson, reading, swimming in the infinity pool and enjoying our gorgeous beach bungalow that we only paid $30 for. Our 2nd day in Lembogan was spent snorkeling in the morning and biking the island in the afternoon. We weren’t prepared for the hills which was comical to the passers by who intelligently rode motorbikes. It was a fantastic way to see rural Bali and a few of the secluded beaches. Sadly, our plan was to leave the next morning.
We thought it was a joke when this little fisher boat pulled up to our hotel. Nope. This was going to take us back to Bali. We braced ourselves with sunscreen and Marjorie took a motion sickness pill. Fortunately, we survived and washed ashore our first black sand beach. From there we hit Ubud and hiked through rice terraces, which are truly works of art. After a couple strenuous days we felt it was time for massages, milk baths and body scrubs. So we paid $15 and spent the evening at the spa. The next morning was spent visiting Ketut Liyer, the famous palm reader from Eat, Pray, Love. I could write a whole separate blog about that experience, but I’ll summarize. Basically he told me I was good, pretty, smart, lucky and a good driver. What a waste of $15.
Then the real adventure began. We rented a car and drove to the north city of Lovina. The cars are right hand drives and they use the other side of the road but fortunately, Marjorie is well versed having lived in South Africa. The drive was picturesque and included more rice terraces, a ride up a volcano, a crater lake and many surprised Balinese. I guess they don’t see three white girls in a green car that often. Lovina was a tad disappointing considering the dirty beach so we only stayed there a day before heading to Balian Beach for our last evening. There we splurged and stayed in a huge guest house with ocean and rice field views. The last day was spent like a lot of the others – laying at the pool, reading and napping.
Bali is a magical place. I went to there expecting to find the “balance of worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence” just like Elizabeth Gilbert did. I didn’t and the reason is because I already have it and visiting Bali just just made that clear. But I did find a great vacation and a fun adventure with two great new friends.
This Sunday I am off to Beijing to conquer the Great Wall with one of my favorite partners in crime, Holly.

Better Than Bangkok

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My flight to Singapore was from Hong Kong and it turned into quite the chore. 4 hours (when it normally takes less than 2) of finding the bus station, waiting for the late bus, going through China and Hong Kong customs and then trying to check in to my flight. The airport is vastly enormous and terribly inefficient. Then, Jet Star is probably the worst run airline I’ve ever encountered. Nothing is free (not even water) and the cabin crew even tries to sell you items from their Sky Mall several times throughout the flight. Also, the plan was full of people hacking, coughing, farting, snoring and doing whatever they can to totally gross me out. My only hope was that one of the hackers spit in Singapore and would receive a sentence of some grueling physical torture.
 
Singapore is one of those places in my life I never gave much thought. If you recall, back in 1994, Singapore sentenced 18 year old American tourist, Michael Fay to 4 months in jail and 10 cain lashings because he stole and vandalized something. After the American Embassy went crazy his sentence was graciously reduced to 6 lashes. So, basically, I really made sure that I followed all the laws. No chewing gum, no urinating on the streets, no crossing against the light, etc., etc. 
 
I really loved Bangkok but Singapore is the nicer of the two. The cities share a lot of the same positive attributes. Both are hot, sunny, bi-lingual, beautifully religious and have the same view of efficient immigration. Singapore’s leg up is the absence of political distress, cleanliness, ease of navigation, being less smelly, adorably cute and booming economy (to name a few). Picture Asia meets Europe meets Mackinac Island. 
 
I arrived late at night and was instantly happy hearing new pop songs in the shuttle bus to the hostel. It’s been so long since I’ve heard new music and it was great. I was hesitant to stay in a hostel because I never have but hotels in Singapore are so expensive that I was willing to try it out. Pleasant surprise and I will definitely stay at others in the future. The staff at the Betel Box even helped me map out my day and told me all the good, must see and don’t see, places. I ventured out to China Town (better than the real China), the Riverfront (stunning) and Little India (simply that). I picked up a couple custom gifts in China Town and got an eyebrow threading for $3 in Little India. Ladies – never again will I get a wax. I have to brag a little and say that I am really proud of myself and how city savvy I’m starting to become. Never once did I get lost! After a long day of walking in the hot sun, I headed back to the hostel to pick up my stuff and head to the airport for my Bali flight.
 
On the way back, I stopped in Singapore again. Sold on the hostel thing, Julia, Marjorie and I headed to Little India where most of the guest houses are located. We laughed because it was 1 am, we are walking in a place called “Little India” and we had no where to stay. Eventually, we found a place that wasn’t full called Checkers. Being so tired, we all slept like logs. In the morning Marjorie and I had breakfast with a group of girls from Ireland who have been traveling for a year. They booked around the world tickets and have been to South America, Australia and almost all of Southeast Asia. Around the world ticket = brilliant. Having already looked into them I was shocked to find that they run around 2000 Euros. Why didn’t I think of that back in January? After breakfast, the girls and I ventured out for a walk and enjoyed the morning smells of spices, vegetables and flowers threw the streets. Then they departed for the airport and I spent a few hours shopping on Arab street and the evening watching the street shows in Little India turned Bollywood on a Saturday night. I should’ve done more with my day but, to be honest, I was over it, tired and ready to get home to Fabien. 
 
Basically, if you ever have the opportunity to visit Singapore, you have my encouragement and blessing!
 
I would love, love, love to show you the pics BUT the photo uploader has decided not to work. Welcome back to China and their crappy internet. :)

Bali on the Brain

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Words can not describe my excitement about going to Bali. I’d be lying if most of my excitement didn’t have to do with the fact that my all time favorite book, Eat Pray Love, partially takes place there. If you know me well, you know that this book is my Bible. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then you must watch the movie trailer (in theaters August 10th) for the story. I may have watched it 100 times since booking my flight. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZzmqHJ0gPU

I know, it’s a total chick flick and I totally love it. I read the book at the most perfect time in my life to read such a story because I was going through many of the same things the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, was going through. I won’t bore you with those details here, but basically, I can’t help identify with the author, Elizabeth Gilbert. She loves yoga. I love yoga. She leaves the US to experience another kind of living. I am doing the same. She meets an amazing, romantic man with a great accent. Me too. Basically, I love her, she is my idol and I can’t wait to see and experience some of amazing things that she describes in the book (including a visit to Ketut Liyer aka yoda). I’m not alone in my quest because the Lonely Planet has a special section titled “That Damn Book”, where it describes Gilbert followers……..”A mixture of self entitlement, and too much yoga, with just a hint of desperation that they hadn’t yet found their Felipe.” Haha…I don’t care.

The book concludes in the magical place of Bali, which is one of 17,700 islands in Indonesia. Bali offers everything from amazing beaches, picturesque volcanos, rice fields surrounded by tropical forests, cliff side temples, hot springs tucked away from civilization, cheap lodging, tasty food and all in within miles of each other. As of right now our plan is to stay the night in Sanur, hop on the boat to Nusa Lombongan, then back to Ubud and finishing the week in Lovina. Click on the links that have had me dreaming for the last month. And if you are asking yourself, “Where the heck is Bali?”, then see below.

Agrandir le plan

My travel companions are two French girls, Marjorie and Julia. Marjorie is amazingly interesting having traveled all over the world including a year of living in India and another in South Africa. She is my China running buddy and through our long chats during night runs in Zhuijang Park I can vouch that she is super cool. Julia works with Fabien and has all the great french traits of beauty and style topped off with being really sweet. Her MO on his trip is relaxation and I’m on board with that.

On the way back I plan to stop in Singapore for a day by myself because who knows if I’ll ever make it back. There I plan to visit the city and experience my very first hostel.

Then shortly after I return Fabien and I will be welcoming various friends and family from the US and France. With them we will be traveling to Hong Kong, Macau, Beijing and the Philippines. The next couple months promise to be jam packed, but I promise to keep you updated with pictures and stories from our travels.