Ramble On

I ate a quick breakfast at my hotel after the dolphin outing and then hired a driver to take me south to Ubud.  It cost an extra 5 dollars to stop for photos along the way but we all know how O'Reillys are such big spenders, so I didn't worry about it too much. My driver, Made, was very helpful and stopped at the Gitgit Waterfall and at a monkey hangout. He was also very patient with me as I stumbled through our conversation in broken Indonesian. After having studied French in a formal setting for so long, it's quite fun to discover a language like Indonesian, by just interacting with people and noticing words during day-to-day life.

"...just stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to..."

Distant cousins

 We pulled in to Ubud and quickly found Dewi Antara Homestay.  I thanked Made and said goodbye to him for what I thought would be the last time. (More on that later). I was staying in a traditional Balinese family compound, so all three generations were living there together. Nyoman, the grandmother, was very sweet and wouldn't stop complimenting me on my blue eyes. (Thanks Dad!) Kadek, her grandson who did most of the work and spoke English, showed me to my room and I was stunned. For a mere 150,000 rupiah a night (roughly $15 USD), I had a private room with hot water, a marble porch, Wifi, and breakfast. If the whole grad school thing doesn't work out, then I think I might just move back here. 

Who wants to come on vacation with me now?

I dropped my stuff and went out for a walk to get myself oriented with Ubud. I stayed here for three nights and could easily have extended it to a week or more, but you can't always get what you want. Here are some of my favorite random photos from around Ubud.

some offerings to Ganesh

breakfast on my porch

Wayan Esa, Kadek's son and Indonesia's cutest baby

Lovin' Lovina

After returning from the scuba diving adventure, I went for a long walk on the beach.  The black sand beaches of North Bali are one of the most intriguing attributes of the area.  They look absolutely stunning, and if walked on for long enough, give quite a decent pedicure for those with road weary feet. Another sunset passed and it was time to grab a quick dinner and head back to the room for an early night's sleep before the 6am dolphin watch the next day.

 world's cheapest pedicure

another sunny day has come and gone away

The next morning, I woke up and walked down to the beach to meet the boat to go out dolphin spotting.  The boats used for this look like long wooden canoes with bamboo poles for arms on either side to prevent from tipping over. There were about 30 or so other similar boats out on the water with the same goal of seeing those dolphins. At first they all milled about in the same area, waiting for the first sign of the elusive dolphins, but then as more and more groups of dolphins appeared, all the boats veered off in different directions trying to get as close as possible for all of us Flipper fans. My boat was able to get  close to one group in particular. Please pardon my lack of great photos, but I was too excited to see a dolphin in person to care much about the pictures I took.  I tried to catch one to bring back to LeMoyne, but no such luck. It was nice to hang out with some fellow 'Phins, even if it was only for a little while.

other canoe boats headed out

dolphins :)

"For a short while, I lived like a dolphin."

Trying Not to Drown

My first morning in Lovina came with the usual complimentary banana pancake breakfast. I've never liked bananas before. I don't like bananas that much now. However, during this holiday, bananas were just what the doctor ordered. Soon after breakfast, the dive shuttle bus picked me up to head out to Menjangan Island, out in West Bali, for the scuba diving trip. Unfortunately, this ride did not allow Megan O'Reilly, world renowned singer, to have an encore, but I digress. 

Sunrise glow over some rice paddies

There were six of us in my dive group and two instructors. During the boat ride out we were given a brief introduction to diving, quickly suited up, and fell backwards off the boat to either sink or swim. If you think this sounds scary, you are incorrect because IT WAS TERRIFYING. My first attempt at scuba diving was not successful for a few reasons:

Reason #1: People aren't supposed to breathe underwater. Period.

Reason #2: You can only breathe through your mouth. Weird.

Reason #3: Shallow breaths are the norm. Even weirder.

As a result of the combination of these reasons, I have now discovered that if I got to choose how to die, drowning would be last on the list. Set me on fire, hit me with a train, or set me on fire and then hit me with a train, but please don't let me drown.

 Who knew there was water this clear?

I spent the next hour or so snorkeling and marveling at the aquatic life around the island. If reincarnation is possible, I would totally love to come back as a fish. Fish are cool. Anyways, it was soon time for lunch and then back into the water for Round 2 of trying not to drown. SUCCESS!

SCUBA DIVING IS AMAZING!!

Once I got over the initial terror of my brain thinking I was going to drown, I was able to thoroughly enjoy the marine life thriving around me and quietly hummed The Little Mermaid's "Under the Sea".  I had paid the extra money to use an underwater camera and here are the best in show. 

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."

Everyone can stop looking. I found Nemo.

This fish was ridiculously bright in real life. I think it was on one of my Lisa Frank folders back in the day.

Having a blast!

Riding on Bikes with Strangers

This day was filled with a variety of different methods of transportation. I started off on Gili Trawangan and ended in Lovina, North Bali.  The first vehicle of the day was a fast boat that took me from Gili T to Padang Bai, Bali. Once I landed in Bali, there was the task of finding transportation to North Bali. As my friends and colleagues here in Indonesia will tell you, arguing with taxi drivers is the worst. Most taxis here aren't metered and the advantage is always theirs as the bule or foreigners, are usually unaware or naive about the actual cost of services. Lucky for me, my Indonesian has been coming along well and I was able to bargain with a driver and get the cost down to 350,000 rupiah from the original 600,000 he had demanded. While I waited for him to retrieve the car, I purchased an ice cream and some water from a nearby stand and chatted with some of the locals using what little Indonesian I do know. Word to the wise folks, I don't care where you're traveling or how long you're there, it's polite to learn at least some rudimentary phrases in the language of the land. Terima kasih. (Thank you) For the final Gili post, here are some random pictures.

LOOK. AT. THAT. WATER.

Some local kids asked for a photo and with those faces how could I say no?

The three hour drive along the coast to Lovina was absolutely stunning. I nearly killed my camera battery in my attempt to get as many pictures of the scenery as possible. On top of the beautiful scenery, I had a fully charged iPod, and after asking my driver's permission, proceeded to belt out such great tunes as "You Can't Hurry Love", "Paper Airplanes", and "Another One Bites the Dust". Did I seem crazy? Yes. Did people stare? Yes. Would I do it again? YOU BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR. 

"Are you ready? Hey, are you ready for this? Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?"

We pulled into Lovina and Wayan, a man who works at my hotel, was waiting on his motorcycle to escort us down the road to the hotel. As Bali is the capital of Indonesia's tourism, everyone is extremely helpful when it comes to getting the tourists to spend their money. Once I dropped my bags in my room, Wayan lost no time in asking me which activities I would like to do in the area,(dolphin watching and scuba diving) and then volunteered to drive me to his friend's shop to sign up for scuba diving. Many times during my stay in Indonesia I have had to disobey one standard rule that my mom told me while I was growing up: Don't take rides from strangers. Nonetheless, moments after I arrived in Lovina, I found myself on the back of a stranger's motorcycle, riding through crazy Indonesian traffic, to an unknown destination. I guess you only live once. I signed up for a scuba diving trip bright and early the next morning, and wandered around the village until a few consecutive yawns told me it was time to catch another ojek or motorcycle taxi, back to my hotel for a good night's sleep. I could get used to this.

Another Day in Paradise-August 20th

My second full day on Gili T went similarly to the first. I woke up for the sunrise, ate some breakfast and made a few phone calls back home. By the time I was finished chatting, the sun was pretty high in the sky, and I decided to go out for my afternoon stroll and indulged in two scoops of cherry swirl ice cream on a waffle cone. As I was enjoying my cool treat, I happened upon some goats, cats, and stairs. Like many animals in Indonesia, neither the cats nor the goats seemed to have any particular owner, and neither did the stairs, so I took this opportunity to climb the stairs and was in turn followed by one of the cats and some of the goats for a while. When I reached the top of the stairs I found myself next to the island's radio tower in a field FULL of goats. From up there I could see Gili Meno and Lombok. My feline companion who I named Katie, after my Aunt Lyola's cat of similar coloring, soon became bored with the photo shoot and ran off back down the hill, as did I, shortly thereafter.

Goats!

Katie taking a purr break

Gili Meno

Once I descended from the hill, I realized that sunset would soon be happening on the other side of the island so I found a path across the island and snapped the other half of my sun bookends. Here are my favorites from my last day.

Mohon maaf lahir dan batin or "Forgive my wrongdoings"

Gili T and Me-August 19th

I was so eager to wake up and take sunrise photos that my eyes opened for the first time at 5:30 am, an entire HOUR before the sun actually came up. However, the sunrise was beautiful and I couldn't have been happier that I chose Gili T as a vacation spot.

After returning to my room, I sat on my porch, ate some breakfast, and relaxed for a bit before heading for a walk around the island.

The first of many banana pancakes

The weather was gorgeous and I took my time walking along the beach, stopping occasionally to dip into the unforgettably blue water.  This place is bursting with phenomenal picture opportunities and any moron could easily wave a camera around, snapping at random, and still end up with great pictures. Here are some of mine.

Looking to Lombok from up on a hill

I closed out this day listening to the mosque loudspeakers proclaiming the end of Ramadan and the start of Idul-Fitri, the reason for my week long holiday. I know that many of my students are happy that the fasting month is over but I will miss it as classes were shorter and I actually had a dinner break. Ramadan was fun while it lasted.

Day 2-August 18th-Gili Trawangan

I woke up early to take a taxi out to the Perama Boat Tours office in Senggigi where I picked up my boat tickets and caught the shuttle bus out to the harbor. The drive was beautiful as we drove along the winding coastal road, flanked by palm trees on the right and the ocean to the left. At many points I feared that we would all have to get out and push the dilapidated bus up the next hill, but as usual, our Indonesian driver was able to overcome the minor issue of a lack of horsepower.

(I think I can, I think I can...)

Once at the harbor, it was only an 30 minute boat ride out to Gili Trawangan. Gili T is the biggest of the three Gili Isles but it only takes about 3 hours to wander around its circumference, so it's still a pretty small island. As there aren't any docks, the boat pulled right up on the shore and I hopped out onto the beach to go in search of my homestay.

The first of many beach photos

I quickly found Padanta Homestay and was greeted by Gunta, the German man who owns the place and Mahson, the Indonesian guy who runs the show. For a mere 150,000 rupiah/night ($15 USD) I got a private room with a fan, hot water, and breakfast! After settling in, I went for a walk to become oriented with my surroundings and decided to rent a bike to ride out and find a quiet spot on the beach to relax. This seemed like the perfect plan until the wheels of my bike became mired in sand and I ended up having paid $5 to PUSH a bike around the island. Either way I found a nice spot and spent the rest of the day swimming and sunbathing. C'est la vie!

My private beach for the afternoon

Day 1-Palembang to Mataram

My first day of vacation started off with a morning cab ride to the lovely Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II airport for my 11am flight to Jakarta and then the connecting flight to Mataram. My favorite thing about flying in Indonesia is that security is an absolute joke. It is possible to carry all the liquids your heart desires in your carry-on, and on top of that, if you can't be bothered to turn off your electronics, you go right on ahead and play Words with Friends. To all the Alec Baldwins of the world, Indonesia is the country for you!

Thankfully, my travel day to Mataram, Lombok passed uneventfully and I arrived at my hotel safely, however a bit exhausted, from traveling halfway across the archipelago. I dropped my bags and went for a quick wander, found a pizza place and indulged in my first bites of good pizza in 7 months. After that it was back to the hotel for an early night before waking up to head to Gili Trawangan.

One of the many Indonesian airports I've visited

Mmm, a refreshing bottle of Ades water!

from the top

Before I jump into recounting my holiday, here is a quick overview of my itinerary:

August 17^th-Fly from Palembang west to Jakarta then again on to Lombok and spend one night in the capital city of Mataram

August 18^th-21^st-Take a ferry out to Gili Trawangan and spend 2 days and 3 nights relaxing on the beach

August 21^st-23^rd-Speedboat over to Padang Bai, Bali, then hire a car to drive up to Lovina in North Bali for 2 nights of black sand beaches and dolphin watching

August 23^rd-26^th-Drive down to Ubud in Central Bali for 2 days and 3 nights (and so many activities!), then fly back east to Palembang, South Sumatra.

                                                             Let the good times roll!

here i go

Hello friends and family! I hope all of you are well. Most of you know that since January I've been teaching English as a Second Language in Indonesia. I've only decided to blog about it now because I've realized how fun it will be to look back on when I'm no longer here.

My apologies as I attempt to rebuild the beginning and middle of my Indonesian adventure. This will have to be a story in reverse as my most interesting (and best) pictures are from my recent holiday.

I hope you like reading about my memories as much as I enjoyed living them :)