Bali, pictures from part IV

Okay okay my apologies. I'm getting worse and worse at updating this regularly. I'm like 3 weeks behind in updating you all about my life here in Shanghai. I've been working on progress reports (due Thursday) since forever ago! I was in on Sunday for many hours, and I stayed at work until 8pm last night to get them done.

Here are the remaining (interesting) Bali pictures:

Dinner with the Dutch/Indonesians

Delicious food

White water rafting

The raft

Amy and (Dutch) Company

Tanah Lot (lucky?) snake.

Some more of Tanah Lot

Tanah Lot

The sunset at Tanah Lot

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Thursday morning at the beach before returning to Shanghai

View of the beach at Legion

Bali, pictures from part III

Views from the Moped

Views from the Moped, p2

Putu and I

Around the temple and burial grounds

Me wearing a sarong

More of the burial ground area

Monkeys!

Blogspot won't let me add more pictures because there is some problem, so I'll post more (from white water rafting and the rest of the Bali trip) later today or sometime tomorrow.

Bali, part IV

After I was done swimming, Mike and Cathy's driver picked me up from my hotel around 3pm. I then went down south to Legion, where the driver picked up Mike and Cathy. From there we went to Tanah Lot, one of the most famous temples in Bali. It is known for its remarkable sunsets, jagged rocks, and is known for having some snakes guard the temple.

Now I know some of you loathe snakes, but there was only one around that I saw. We walked down to the beach area (that was more of a rockbed with puddles because it was low tide), and in one of the cave areas you could pay to touch a blue and black snake. Of course I did it because it was awesome. You could also donate money and wash your hands with holy water, have a bit of oil on your head and rice put on your forehead to be blessed. Both the snake and the blessing were quite enjoyable.

Sunset was a disappointment actually because it was quite overcast, but in general the temple was breathtaking. We did not have that much time to see the temple itself because once the sun set most of the little cafes, vendors, and shops began to close down. I bought some beautiful wood carvings as well as some postcards for my postcard collection. Exploring with Mike and Cathy was a lot of fun!

We then drove back to Legion where Mike and Cathy helped me find a hotel in the area. It was a lot less expensive than the place I stayed at before but not nearly as comfortable. We then met up for dinner and had a wonderful meal. Mike and Cathy paid--- SO GENEROUS. I honestly have never met people quite like this before. Earlier in their trip, they had met a person at a jewelry store (who didn't earn much money). His English was good and he wanted to become a tour guide but didn't have the money or time to finance the course. It only cost about $80 US dollars (or whatever it was in Australian), and Mike, based on a simple gut instinct, just said to the guy, "If you give us a good price on the jewelry we want I'll give you the money for you to take time off of work, and to pay for the touring license.) And that's what they did. Mike and Cathy then invited this man and his wife into the main city for dinner, where they had never used utensils before. The man and wife didn't even know how to cut the meat properly with a fork and knife. They thanked Mike and Cathy profusely. Honestly a gesture like that to a complete stranger boggled my mind. They really (hopefully) made a difference in these people's lives. If that money is really spent on the training, and this Indonesian man can start earning more money for his family, this will increase opportunities for future generations of the family. I am really moved by what they did.

Following dinner we went out for a few drinks, then I went home and slept at my weird hotel. I woke up in the morning, had a leisurely breakfast at a restaurant on the beach, then walked on the beach by myself for about an hour, went in for a quick swim, returned to the hotel, showered, packed my bags, went to the airport and came home.

All in all it was a great trip. I learned a lot about myself, and frankly traveling alone really isn't that bad. I'm happy I can keep myself company and meet new great people along the way.

Bali, part III

After the burial grounds we stopped by a "bird sanctuary" which consisted of just a few trees that housed at least 200-300 herons. There were so many it was amazing. We returned to the hotel and we went out to dinner afterwards. The restaurant had a traditional Balinese dance performance with many men in strange pirate shorts chanting "chika chik" at different intervals. The effects of these intermixing sounds was unlike anything I've heard before. I tried to record a video on my camera so we'll see if it works. The quality isn't good because it's dark, but listen.. Here it is:

Tuesday morning Jenny and Lars (the couple from Germany) headed out so I walked down to the main street to go shopping. Unfortunately I bought almost nothing. The beautiful island fabrics and dresses looked great on the mannequins but when I tried clothing on it just wasn't flattering at all.

After eating lunch, I wandered down one of the main streets to the monkey forest, an area that is a sanctuary/temple for monkeys. After paying 10,000ruipah (about $1.10) to enter, I was amazed by how much green luscious forest there was. And there were seriously monkeys of all ages, shapes and sizes everywhere. You aren't supposed to touch them but it's okay if they touch you. As a way to prepare before going, I put away my sunglasses and made sure I had no loose things on me or any food. And those monkeys were relentless! One just climbed up my leg and put his hand in my pocket to try to find food. I took some amazing pictures that I will also post soon. At the monkey sanctuary I met a couple, maybe in their forties, and the woman was freaking out when the monkey approached her. I started chatting with them, Mike and Cathy, who happened to be from Australia. They were staying in an area about 40 minutes south of Ubud, near Kuta, in a town called Legion (Leg-e-on). I had asked what they were doing in the next part of their trip, and they told me they wanted to see the temple at Tanah Lot. I had briefly read about this place and had also wanted to go. These people were so friendly that they offered for their driver to pick me up at my hotel, then drive down to Legion, and we'd all go to Tanah Lot together Wednesday afternoon! What luck!

I finally went back to the hotel, but I spent most of the morning getting pricing on hiking a mountain the next day, as well as snorkeling and scuba diving, but they all were pretty expensive. I also felt like the hotel I was staying at was really pricey. Even though $33/night doesn't seem like a lot, there were other places in the area for 75,000-100,000 ($8-$10.50) a night. But after much consideration and thought, I just stayed at the same hotel. It was beautiful, convenient, and the staff there were incredibly friendly. That same night, while I was painstakingly deciding what to do on Wednesday, Putu suggested I go white water rafting. So I decided to, even if by myself. Putu has a friend who runs a white water rafting place so I got a discounted price. As I moved back into the hotel (I originally had checked out), I met a family of people. Of course I introduced myself. It was a family from Holland. Carla and Ricardo had two sons, Gilbert and John, and Gilbert is dating a woman named Negina (?). Ricardo was from Indonesia, and Negina was from Lithuania but had moved to Holland. I asked them if they wanted to go rafting with me on Wednesday morning and they said yes! So we all went out to dinner where I tried a dish with fish wrapped in banana leaves- delicious!

Wednesday morning we got up around 7:30 and left for Ayung River at 8:15. We arrived at the rafting place around 9, paid, signed insurance policies, put on our helmets, life jacket and took a paddle down to the river. We walked down at least 400 steps to get to the river, and we were surrounded by beautiful tropical trees. Putu came with us, and we also had a guide for the river as well. We put our items in a waterproof bag and went rafting down this random river.

Rafting was awesome. We would chant "one, two, one two" in a variety of languages: from English, Russian, Dutch, and German, to Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish. Mid-way we took a break. There was a huge rock that we could jump off of, and also two random waterfalls you could swim towards and stand under. Consequentially, you'd get drenched too, but I was wearing a bathing suit so it was okay! There were also random parts of the river where the rockface on certain sides would have Hindu carvings which were gorgeous. I've never seen anything like it. After rafting we had a nice buffet lunch. We then got back to the hotel and we went swimming. At around 3 I got ready to be picked up to meet up with Mike and Cathy.

Later I'll explain my Wednesday afternoon and the rest of my trip. Tomorrow Jade and I are going to Suzhou, which is supposed to be the Venice of China (gardens, canals, and silk factories included!)

Bali, pictures from part II

And here are some more pictures:

Hotel in Ubud, view of the pool from my porch.

Porch to my room in Ubud.

Riding on a moped through rice fields towards a burial ground.

Putu drove the moped, I was the passenger!

One of the many tropical paths at the burial site (I will get the name of it for you later!)

Bali, pictures from part I

Some cool trees in Bali (Resort in Nusa Dua)

Down the hallway in Nusa Dua

One of the small lagoons at the resort in Nusa Dua

The sea in Nusa Dua

Performers at the beach banquet

Bali, part II

Sunday night/Monday morning:

So Monday rolls around but 8am is very early to get up, especially when you were up until 5am the previous night hanging out by the beach. In Ocean City it is very difficult to walk on the beach at night because it is patrolled by cops trying to stop teens from misbehaving. It was a real pleasure to just sit on the chairs and hang out. There were a few mishaps not worth getting into, but overall Sunday evening was a blast. We took cabs into Kuta and went to a few bars downtown. We were on the road with a memorial where the bombing was which was a bit humbling/disheartening. After two bars, three friends and I got a bit bored so we went to a convenience store, picked up a few beers, and just went to the beach to hang out.

We later returned to the hotel, went to the pool and later to the beach.

Monday I woke up, ate some food, and started to figure out what I wanted to do the rest of the week. We had the option of staying at the resort for a conference discount rate of $85/night, but I wanted to see more areas of Bali. Originally Lindi and I had plans to travel around together, but we never actually got around to planning things, and as I tried talking to her Saturday and Sunday she didn't seem very enthusiastic about traveling around. People seemed to be pairing off, and it honestly felt like high school again. So, despite my anxiety, I did something totally different. I decided to go traveling by myself with no plan. Normally when I travel somewhere I comb through the travel book to see what there is to do, then plan accordingly. While I read a little bit about Bali, I just packed up my bag, picked a random city on a map and told my cab driver to take me there.

I choose a city called Ubud, which is in the center part of Bali about 2 hours north of Nusa Dua. I had the cab driver stop in Celuk which is a gold and silver making jewelry village known for it's 20-24k gold. I of course love jewelry, so I had the cab driver stop in a few stores. Unfortunately what I thought would be good prices for jewelry turned out to be quite expensive. Plus the designs of the gold rings were not what I was expecting. I loved the feeling of the 22k gold on my finger, but I just didn't fall in love with the jewelry, nor did I think a 22k ring with an amethyst was worth $200+ dollars.

After Celuk the cab driver dropped me off at a random hotel in Ubud. I brought my bags in and asked how much for one night. The guy there, named Putu, responded 300,000 rupiah, which is about $33/night US. This was a lot less than the $85/night in the resort! It had a beautiful back yard with a pool in the back. I saw a couple sitting and eating so I just asked them if it was a nice place to stay. They said yes and that I should definitely stay there. So I checked in.

When I came back outside, the couple (from Germany) said they were going to a burial ground of Raj, one of Bali's more famous kings. They were going on a moped, but following Putu there. He had room on the back of his moped, so they invited me to join, so I did! Talk about an adventure. I had never been on a moped before, and I felt very safe. I don't think I'd ever try driving one, but Bali is much safer than Italy or China.

MORE LATER!

Bali, part I

Now, I am sure all of you want pictures posted immediately, but unfortunately I am at school right now. I didn't bring my camera to school because ever since last night it has been pouring buckets. I mean seriously downpours which are not enjoyable to bike in whatsoever. So, in response to the weather I thought it in my camera's best interest for it not to brave the wet, for fear it may be damaged. But I will give you a rundown of how the week went:

Saturday:
Woke up at 4:30am to catch a ride to the airport that left at 5:30. Of course I left most of my packing to the last minute because this is my trademark. The plane left at 8am and checking in, etc was fine. We arrived in Singapore at around 1:30 in the afternoon. Pip, Lindi and I decided to get a taxi to go into town since we had about 5-6 hours in between flights. We just went through customs, rode into town and shopped along Orchard Road, one of the main shopping roads in Singapore. Following that we returned to the airport, hopped on the plane, and arrived in Bali at around 9/9:30pm.

We went through customs, I got a visa, then we traveled on a bus to Nusa Dua, which is a resort area on the most Southern part of the island. It was dark outside which made it difficult to see the scenery. When we arrived in the resort, I just want to say for the record: Oh. My. God. Simply breathtaking. The lobby area wasn't just a lobby, but a huge pavilion type room with a pyramid ceiling going up at least 100feet. Luxurious sofas were everywhere as well as several bar areas. The lobby overlooked the outside lagoon which spanned out at least 200feet in length, maybe 75ft wide, with long corridors of hotel rooms on either side of the lagoon. If you walked down the path on either side of the lagoon, you eventually ended up at the large pool, so long in fact they have a bridge that goes across the middle of it. There was no deep end unfortunately, or a diving board, but these things can be forgiven.

Walking past the pool was a theater that had traditional Balinese performances. I didn't see any shows here, but once you walked PAST the lagoon, pool, and theater, the path wound through even more "lagoon-like" ponds/pools of water with natural flowers, plants, and animal-life. Eventually you arrived at a vast span of fake grass which was accompanied by lounge chairs and umbrellas. FINALLY there was about 20-30feet of beach and then the sea. This piece of property was simply HUGE.

Saturday night after we arrived I of course, wanted to go swimming in the ocean, so after socializing with some of my collegeues, my friend Kirk and I put on our swimsuits and went swimming in the ocean. It was pretty cold but no worse than the Jersey shore. We then went to the pool because the tide was really strong and then got kicked out of the pool because it was closed. I then went to sleep.

We had Sunday morning to ourselves, so I woke up around 9am, went to the health center to work out, then went to our buffet breakfast (included) which was simply delicious. We ate at tables on the lower level (under the lobby) right next to the lagoon, which was a beautiful and peaceful way to begin the day. I then went to the beach, went swimming, and took a walk by myself to where the sand ended and the craggy rock face began. I returned for lunch, then we had our first workshop at 1 which ended up being a salesman from Apple trying to sell us Apple products. Stupid and useless, especially because bragging about Apple programs does not help me or the kids in my classroom. We use Eways, which run on Windows. We had a 45 min break in between sessions, so my friend Sam and I relaxed with a cocktail near the lobby overlooking the lagoon. The second session was an Indonesian language and culture class. There were too many teachers and the people running the workshop weren't very organized. On a good note I did end up with a nice pamphlet with key Indonesian words and phrases.

A few hours later we had a lovely banquet on the beach. There we saw a traditional Balinese dance. The dances wore beautiful costumes!

Okay, lunch duty. More later I promise.