Monkey Business (Bali, Indonesia)

Once Greg and I had dropped my brother Sam off at Denpasar airport, we took a taxi all the way to the small town of Amed, which is on the Northeast coast of the island. We wanted to do some snorkeling and relaxing away from any touristy hotspot. It ended up being an okay choice. The place we stayed was nice and reasonable in cost, had a pool, a pretty great restaurant, and had a dive shop attached, where we were able to use snorkeling equipment for free. 

The “beach” was just a short 2 or 3 minute walk. 

It was a thin, rocky beach with little waves. We enjoyed a long snorkel along the coast, searching for the wreck site, but never found it. There were some decent fish and lots of bright blue starfish along the bottom. Eventually I got scared out of the water, though, when I spotted a jellyfish. Now that I’ve experienced that brand of pain (in Sarawak, Borneo) I’m not too keen on tempting fate for another dose! 

After several days relaxing by the pool and reading there, we got another taxi to take us to Ubud . . . The place that everyone says is just so amazing! If you’ve seen the Julia Roberts film, “Eat, Pray, Love” then you will have an idea of some of the beauty of Bali and the central part of the island, but as far as Ubud is concerned these days, it’s like a crowded mecca for expensive-yoga-retreat-goers and artists, wannabe artists & art collectors. It’s like a ton of western artists and hippies came and opened shop for other westerners. 

I guess that’s like a lot of tourist-Bali, though. The downtown area is super touristy with tons of fancy boutiques, western restaurants, and miles of souvenir shops and stands. For me, it was incredibly stressful to walk around. And I’ve talked to loads of backpackers since then that have gone to Ubud and come back early because they hated it so much. It’s too bad, really.

However, our hotel was out of the middle of all that, thankfully, and though it was a little more expensive than we wanted, it was relaxing and quite picturesque:

Another highlight of Ubud was when we went on a free walking tour of the organic farm the restaurant sponsored and the village it was in, so we were able to learn about Balinese Hinduism (like, when people die, they bury them for a short period (like a month or so) and then cremate them. Also, there are temple complexes specific to whatever job you do, like if you are a taxi driver, you go to a specific temple, if you are a driver, you go to another temple, etc), rice farming (the Indonesian gov't wants them to use engineered rice so they can grow more crops than normal in one year), the way Balinese families organized their home “compounds” (there are little separate rooms/buildings for specific purposes and people, like there's one that's just for settling family arguments, one for the kitchen, an area for animals, one for the elders or newlyweds, etc), and a little about Balinese art.

One final highlight of Ubud was the Monkey Forest/Temple. It is a nature reserve and temple complex and is super cheap to get in ($2.55) and there is no shortage of monkeys for you to feed, take pictures of, watch, and dodge. They are not shy, that is for sure.

The whole forest is actually quite nice to walk around in and there are lots of interesting sculptures as well:

I think the sculpture above is reminiscent of Munch's "The Scream"

And a hindu temple:

After Ubud, Greg and I decided to spend a few days in Seminyak, which is an expat hub. It has tons of great restaurants, clubs, and hotels, including “Potato Head” and the W. The beaches are great and the water is perfect for swimming! There are a few decently priced bars on the beach where you can negotiate to rent beach chair spots, which is what Greg and I did a few times.

We then flew to KK (Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia) for almost a week, where Greg and I did some island hopping and snorkeling one afternoon, both saw a movie but separately (lol), and did some Crossfit (Greg’s first time - he wasn’t into it, but he was a great sport and got a date out of it!). 

The point of us going there, though, was for me to climb Mount Kinabalu, which I will detail in my next blog post. Then Greg and I returned to Bali for his flight back to SF, but not before we spent another few days back in Canggu in a fabulous and fabulously inexpensive (like $20/night via airbnb) villa in Canggu, where I did my Crossfit and searched around for where I wanted to live because I had decided to move to Canggu in October.

Greg was sick for a few days, which was unfortunate, but thankfully it didn’t get too serious because I had some Cipro (antibiotic) on hand. We enjoyed our last few days together, and though I had struggled with my whiny hermit problem while we were together (more on that in my next post), I was truly grateful to have had him with me, as we have been friends for a long time and do travel well together. (Our first trip together was in 2010 to Barcelona, Spain!) I may love my alone time, but traveling is very lonely. A friendly face was truly what I needed. 

He is one of very few friends of mine in the States that really values travel and have made their lives flexible enough to be able to do so. I look forward to the next time we meet in a foreign country to witness the world together! 

I Want to Be More Like That (Indonesia)

Sam and I braved the nearly 12 hour ride to Mt. Bromo in a van full of french people. At least, I think that was this van ride. Sometimes those long van ride trips all merge together in your brain. For example, I thought I sat in the middle row next two french women, sisters, on this van ride but then I also remember sitting behind Sam who was sitting next to a french couple and at the same time I remember Sam sitting next to me in the back row and the middle row being filled with a french people who never acknowledged our existence. Sam, help me out? It’s like French deja vu all over again.

Anyways, I won’t bore you with the crazy details of when our driver (who I was supposed to pay for Sam and my tickets) dropped us off at this shady travel agency and subsequently disappeared. The whole point of this travel agency is to rip off tourists. By the end of it all I was very glad I had read about this ahead of time. I saved Sam and I a ton of money by refusing to pay bogus park fees or sign up for expensive and crowded sunrise tours where you are driven around in a 4 x 4 (all wheel drive, they have to add each time as though it is a very fancy and necessary thing to mention). They also never asked for our fare for the van ride, which I brought up and paid them for though most likely that money never made it to the right company (am I jaded or what?). Sam and I listened and watched as several van loads of exhausted tourists paid whatever they were told to pay for all the bogus reasons like taxes and park fees that were unnecessary and sometimes nonexistent and agreed to whatever crazy expensive tour was recommended to them that would be picking them up in a matter of 4 or 5 hours just to whisk them away again less than 12 hours from now off to their next crazy expensive tour after another 10 hour van ride . . . Oi, this is why people need more vacation time! It’s too much for me, anyway.

Sam (grateful Sam) and I had planned on sleeping for our first night in Bromo so we could actually, you know, enjoy it? We planned to do a nice day hike and explore and figure out the free path to a less crowded vista for the sunrise the next morning. The only thing I hadn’t planned was where we would stay. I had the name of a place that I had read was okay but by the time the tour agency van took us to our planned accommodation, it was full. No worries, they said, there are lots of homestays. It was probably 11pm. So we went around in the van, our driver knocking on doors and waking people up, finding out there was no room at the inn until we finally found a place and negotiated a lower price for a two-night stay in the place. I have a feeling most tourists don’t negotiate price at 11pm when all the hotels are full, but at this point it’s become second nature to me.

We woke refreshed, had a great western breakfast (our first for Indonesia) and went out exploring . . .

This was one of the highlights of the trip with Sam. We were actually lost. We never found the trail to the rim of  Mt. Bromo. Maybe we’re idiots, but in the end we enjoyed a hike all by ourselves out along a rim of some kind where we got to see stunning scenery while walking through volcanic ash.

The next morning we woke quite early (not sure when) and began the hike up to the viewpoint. The altitude was definitely more difficult on me than Sam, but the guy lives in Utah and I live at sea-level, so . . . Don’t take my Crossfit-cred from me!

I enjoyed this sunrise quite a bit, in the context of the many sunrise-y things I’ve done as a tourist. It wasn’t very cold, I was able to sit comfortably with an unobstructed view, and there were some nice colors.

Sam and I left the viewpoint a little too early probably, but that meant the trek down would not be crowded and we could enjoy the changing colors of the sky and Mt. Bromo on our way to breakfast. We passed several groups of photographers trying to get that nice postcard shot.

Once we reached town again, we had a great breakfast, cleaned up, and found the next crazy-crowded-almost-broken-down-side-window-stickers-filled-with-false-promises-of-wifi-and-a/c van into town so we could catch a bus to Surabaya and make our flight to Bali.

Here’s where I allowed myself to be duped against my better judgment. So this tourist bus took us to another tour agency instead of the bus station, as the travel wiki had said it would. A man started asking everyone where they were going and getting them to come into the agency to buy their tickets. I knew the price of the bus we needed to take and the man at the agency quoted a very similar and only slightly more expensive price but it sounded like it would be a more comfortable option, so I decided to take him up on the ride instead of walking across the street to get the normal local bus to Surabaya. Well, that’s the bus he ended up putting us on anyway. When they asked for my ticket I handed them the one I had “purchased” and they looked confused and laughed as my “agent” most likely explained in Bahasa that he had duped these stupid tourists into paying more. Tourist tax. Oh well.

We reached Surabaya and there were several taxi drivers there trying to get us to pay them to take us to the airport but when we said “no no no, shuttle bus” they not only stopped hassling us, but asked us which airline so they could help us onto the bus going to the correct terminal. Despite my complaints about tourist scamming like above in Mt. Bromo, this experience in Surabaya is far more common in all the countries I’ve been to. People are usually thrilled to help you and don’t want money for it. 

So we got on our plane, reached Bali, our driver was there waiting for us (I booked a homestay that had free airport pick-up!), and we began our relaxing Bali experience. I tell ya, there’s a feeling in the air in Bali, even if you’re stuck in traffic, sweating through the A/C, and thirsty as all-get-out, it feels like it’s all going to be okay, you just need to relax and let things happen. I felt really good about Bali almost instantly.

Sam and I stayed at that place for two nights, which was required for the free airport pick up. We didn’t mind just hanging around there, eating the delicious & free breakfast:

Reading, getting our laundry done, walking around the neighborhood, eating yummy local food, etc (check out the semi-disturbing drawings on the menu!):

After this, we went to Frii Hotel in Canggu, where my friend Greg was going to be meeting us. Sam just wanted to relax and read some more which sounded great to me too. This hotel was cheap and excellent. I think it was $30 a night a few minute walk from the beach, it had a pool, a/c, free GREAT buffet breakfast, wi-fi (slow), and was modern. The only problem was that the keycards didn’t work. Anytime you wanted in your room you had to flag down one of the young indonesian kids to come work their magic on your door lock by slamming their own cards in and out of the slot a billion times. Poor kids.

Mmmmmm . . . BACON!! This must be how Bali really won my heart . . .

Anyways, I was able to walk to the Crossfit box from the hotel (S2S Crossfit) which was basically why I chose that town for us to stay in (I’m an addict, what can I say?) It turned out to be a great gym with fun people and coaches and I absolutely loved my 20 minute walks back and forth. I had to cross this amazing rice field on a brick road each time and it was usually as the sun was setting, which just brought me great peace and calm as my body was rolling on exercise-induced endorphins.

The beach isn’t mind-blowing or anything, and mostly the water is more suitable for surfers. That’s why Canggu draws mostly surfers and not a ton of tourists. But that's okay because I haven't been very enthusiastic about ocean swimming ever since that incident in Sri Lanka. I like to watch the ocean and take quick cooling rinses in it. That's the extent of my contact at this point.

Another great thing about Canggu is that it still hasn’t completely commercialized as its neighbor, Seminyak, has. I’m not saying it won’t happen, but at least there are still plenty of rice fields everywhere and it took me a long time to find a convenience store, and that was on a bicycle and on accident. (I will be posting a lot more about Canggu since I am now living there, so keep an eye out for that if you're interested.)

Sam ended up with quite a sunburn early on, which just meant he had a great excuse to lay in bed and relax and read, which is just what he wanted to do anyway. I think he really needed it; he’s such a busy-body. The guy goes to school full time, works full time, and all of the girls he dates go on missions. The guy needed a break!

I was sad to see him go, but I was also so grateful that he was willing to do something so crazy as to fly to Indonesia just to hang out with his big sister for two weeks. How un-American of him! 

The sweetest part, though, was when I asked him what his favorite part of the trip was; the highlight. He didn’t have to think about it at all. He immediately said that his favorite part was spending so much time with me and getting to know me better. 

*Sniff* My brothers . . . They can really bring me to tears.

Most of my adult life I spent thinking that my brothers thought I was a rebellious-heathen-evil-doer that they “accepted” and “suffered” and “loved in spite of” my evilness. It probably has something to do with the fact that I left our family religion (it was almost 11 years ago now), and that most of my life I would hear people in that church say pretty judgmental and awful things about those that left; that these people were sinful, weak, and were just taking “the easy way out” so they could “be bad for a while”. And though those people couldn’t be further from the truth of my very personal, very honest, very heart-crushing decision to leave, I just assumed that was how everyone really felt inside, even if they were my family.

But I learned a few years ago that all along I was an idiot to ignore the fact that my brothers . . . And my whole family, really . . . They’re smart; smarter than I’ll ever be. And they’re open and strong and just want to know me better. They don’t believe the same things as I do, but Jimminy Christmas they love me. For real, they love me. They love their weird and crazy sister who always seems to take the lesser-travelled paths, usually just BECAUSE they are the lesser-travelled paths (and there isn’t always something to be proud of in that, let me tell you. It’s a character flaw, really!). 

When they open their mouths to tell me what they think of me, instead of the words I had let others from the past put in their mouths, they tell me they are proud of me, that I’m brave and strong, and that they admire me. And it’s not from a distance; arms-length and safe. They want to walk with me and understand what it is I see on my path that makes me who I am now, and who I am becoming. Now that sounds like the Jesus I remember hearing about in church. I want to be more like that.

Thank you, Carl. 

Thank you, Sam. 

Thank you, Neil. 

I love all of you for being amazing brothers.