Bali Bali

Our week in review.

Well folks, our time in Bali is coming to an end, sadly. We hate to say goodbye to the cheap, colorful, humid paradise!! I will miss the delicious $2 meals and the beautiful sunsets. Also $2 banana splits!! Ryan you would be very happy here, fried bananas and banana crepes for dessert at every restaurant. The money conversion still gets us sometimes, mom i think you would have a tough time here! We might not miss the people calling us into every store or every taxi honking at us, but we will miss haggling. We have become master hagglers!! It's a much better way to pay for things! We are leaving with an extra bag full of goodies that we really didn't pay much for! We probably ended up paying what these things are actually worth vs the markup in stores back home and Australia.... Anyway it was fun and it's so satisfying to name a price, have them say no, walk away and hear "well ok!" :)

We tried hanging by the pool this week but it really is just too hot. Never thought is say that... But I didn't want to swim because the pool water heats up a lot in the sun! We did make friends there which was great. We went with these friends to some really cool restaurants. There is a surprisingly good Mexican restaurant here called TJs. We ate at jimbalan bay for another sunset. It is a beach with a string of restaurants right on the sand. Alexa had fresh calamari and oysters for $10. We were the only people eating at our particular restaurant and so when the band came around they basically serenaded us. They played hotel California and californication. Then they assumed we were Australian and played I come from a land down under for us hah. After the music some girls came out and did a few songs of Balinese dance! Very cool! Can't beat the entertainment, location or price!!
We also went to potato head bar. What a ridiculous name for a really nice bar and restaurant. We sat in a big Lounge cushion on the beach and watched the most beautiful sunset.

We did have a night out in kuta which involved bar hopping to get free drinks. Depending on the time, different bars offer free drinks to foreigners and ladies. The drinks were mostly juice but why not! It was a lot of fun and we did a lot of dancing. I made an ingenious belt finally (never got around to buying one) out of the string on my VIP pass haha. It was one of my best ideas yet! Worked like a charm! I might still be using it as a belt now...

The clubs here are all at least 3 levels it's really cool to go to the top and get a view of all of kuta. So many drunk Australians... We ended up babysitting one of our own that night! There was a girl in the bathroom who was sitting on the floor and not talking to anyone. Her friends seemed to have left her and the staff wanted her to leave (she was clearly in no state to find her way home, she couldn't tell us where she was staying) we walked out with her and these other girls trying to help. The other girls somehow disappeared so it was just us and we had to decide to leave her wandering down the crowded street or take her with us. So in the end Alexa and I snuggled that night. Drunk girl was very appreciative in the morning and said we were the nicest people she ever met! It made up for her accidentally breaking my sunglasses... I hope this earned us some good karma. Now if Alexa ever abandons me in a foreign country i should be ok.... Just kidding parents!!

We hired a transporter, our new friend katut who "is a doctor", to take us on a day trip around Bali. We went with 2 of our friends and paid ten dollars each. We drove to the other side of the island to see a village overlooking an active volcano. On the way we stopped at a coffee, tea and cocoa farm. We were able to see where they grow it and how they make it and had lots of samples :) we learned about some kind of coffee made by an animal eating the beans and then they find the animals "poo poo" and get the bean out and it makes great coffee supposedly. We didn't try that kind so I don't know! Then we had lunch by the volcano as storm clouds rolled in. We drove to a hindu temple and managed to tour it before it started pouring! The temple was beautiful, we had to wear sarongs to cover our legs before entering.

Another highlight of the week was our spa treatments :) heaven! I want a massage every day. They are the best things ever. We did one package for $12 that was a hot stone massage a body scrub and a facial. The massage was 90 minutes and ended with the hot stones. They heat them up in a rice cooker! They really were hot! Like way hot... I don't know how those girls hold them but they are strong! It was amazing and right after was facial time. I didn't get one because my face was sunburned so I just had them wax my eyebrows instead. They wanted me to go next door right away but Alexa and I agreed that it didn't seem appropriate to show up for an eyebrow wax without clothes on so I asked for a minute. Luckily they obliged me and waited but they seemed to think it was weird haha. Alexa said the facial was also amazing, not surprisingly!

So we are now stress free, happily well fed and ready to return to Australia! Can't believe its almost march... Our trip is about half way completed!!

Happy birthday to Ben, who I don't think reads this blog but that's ok! Welcome to 25!! Woohoo! I don't know what it's like but ask Ryan, he's old!

In the jungle...the mighty jungle...

Ok this time I'm serious...I'm never coming home!

Bali is great! I like it way better than Fiji. More civilized and more to do...still a third world country but there's stuff going on, it's not as isolated as our resort in Fiji was!

Our first night I was ready to get back on the plane and fly home...I did not want to be here! No blogging or emails home that night...mom would not have approved. We landed at the airport and the first thing we see is "drugs = death penalty." Good thing we left our heroin and cocaine back in Australia! We met our shuttle driver from the hotel no problem, and he informed us it would be a 40 minute ride to the hotel. We drove down a bunch of narrow, sketchy streets and arrived at hotel 8 minutes later. Who knows. He tried to sell us a couple trips along the way and warned us about not drinking the water and which taxis were safe and to haggle with the vendors. I'm not entirely sure which side of the road they drive on, and I'm pretty sure they don't know either. Kind of like mexico. Except i felt safer driving down the roads in Mexico than I do here...now that's a scary thought! There are scooters EVERYWHERE. I think scooters can drive wherever they want, but cars can only go one way...out of the city? I'm not sure. We've only seen two main roads and they both are one ways in the same direction!

We got to our hotel room and there was a lizard in the bathroom! We called security and asked if that was normal and they said no no we'll be right there!! But then when they got here they laughed at us because the lizard was tiny. I don't want to know what kind of lizard they were thinking of! We insisted they get rid of it but since it was on the ceiling they had to give each other 10 fingers (Balinese people are very short!) and go through all kinds of trouble to catch it. Of course, we woke up the next morning and the lizard was back. So we named her Lizzy (real original) and now we have a pet! She comes and goes as she pleases...sometimes she brings a couple pals...no big deal! She'll be splitting the bill with us at the end, no worries.

Anyways. Everything was better in the daylight as karina described in yesterday's post!

Today we went to Indonesia's "number 1 amusement/theme park," Bali Safari and Marine Park, and had ourselves the perfect day. We went on a jungle safari and saw normal tigers, white tigers, elephants, rhino, Asian deer, lions, brown zebras, normal zebras, storks, water buffalo, orangutans...so many animals! They weren't in cages and came right up next to the safari car!

Then we played with a baby orangutan. I don't think I have to explain that one :) She was so cute running around doing her monkey thing. We also held a huge python...so heavy!

We went on some water slides, did some swimming, had a buffet lunch, watched some animal shows and went to an aquarium (saw piranhas!).

Karina rode and fed a camel! Then we rode and fed an elephant together :-). No rules in Bali (except no drugs)...you weren't supposed to bring your camera but of course we did, and in the middle our guide hopped off and took a photo shoot for us! No need to buy the expensive professional ones!

As we were leaving, we saw a huuuuge spider. Literally about 6 inches long and an inch wide. Creepy!!!

On our drive home (the park was about an hour away), we drive through fields of rice paddys and a couple "cities." Not cities like our cities but still big enough to be considered a city. They have giant statues everywhere. Like almost as big as the Washington monument. Everywhere! People and animals and Buddhist temples and I don't even know what else. The main religion here is Hindu so I'm assuming they're Hindi temples but I could be way wrong. All the entrances to places have dishes on the ground with incense, flowers, coins and a ritz cracker...we've been meaning to ask what the meaning of these dishes are but maybe we'll just google it.

After our day at the park, we got dinner at a delicious restaurant. It was a really nice restaurant...guess how much our meal came to?? $10 for the two of us! Including drinks and a side dish each! My goal for the week is to eat a dish with peanut sauce every day. It's their specialty and it's my favorite...so why not! We walked around some shops and realized we were totally being ripped off by hagglers. The shot glasses we thought we were getting a deal on buying for $2 we're $1 in the store, and all the other things we tried to haggle over we're about $3-$5 less in the stores ($3 goes a long way here!!). So we've smartened up and next time we haggle we will bring our "A" game.

After our long day we decided to have ourselves a relaxing night out. We went to an outdoor restaurant down the street and got 4 drinks, hookah, and a banana split for $20 total! Crazy! There is one main strip of clubs and stores and it's hoppin all night. They don't really understand the concept of Happy hour...it's more like happy night. Happy hour goes from 7pm-3am!! There are no cover charges and there's karaoke, hookah, bars, clubs...everything you can imagine, all within a 10 minute walk from our hotel. The stores stay open late and the streets were still packed when we came home at 1am. Crazy.

Here's what's on the schedule for the rest of the week: lounge by the pool, swim in the ocean (although the beach isn't so great here), do some shopping, visit a monkey forest where the monkeys climb on you and eat bananas out of your hand, visit a volcano, eat lots of delicious food, get a massage...it's gonna be great!

Why not?!

The theme of today (our first day in Bali) is why not?! This philosophy has led to many decisions, mostly good, in just one day!

Let's start at the beginning. We woke up to housekeeping knocking at our door at 8 am asking if we needed our room cleaned. I hope that doesn't happen every morning! Anyway we said no since we had been there approx 9 hours. On to the breakfast buffet!! By 9 am it was already very hot and sticky! Alexa had the omelette station-why not?- and I had some sort of traditional English breakfast.

First order of business, exchange our money! We may have been ripped off but we triple counted the bills so hopefully not. The conversion is basically ten thousand times 1 USD. So something that costs 10,000 rupiah is one dollar. Crazy. We exchanged our money for a million dollars!! Woohoo! Were millionaires!! High rollers.

Next we planned a trip for tomorrow. This involved getting a few price quotes and pissing off one travel agent in particular but oh well. We got the deal we wanted with a discount and we are going to an animal Safari tomorrow with a water park. We will be riding elephants and having a photoshoot with orangutans!! Why not?!

Then... Shopping time! We got practical items like sunscreen and then moved on to more fun shopping! I can't give it all away because a lot of things are gifts but basically haggling is expected and it's rude not to go back and forth. They say "for good luck name one more price" and just when we are walking away we get our price! Very nice. Things are so cheap here it's great!! I got 2 dresses for $7 each and that was with minimal haggling! I should have fought harder....

Anyway we treated ourselves to a very nice long lunch at a highly recommended restaurant. For about ten each we had iced chocolate, lime soda, big entrees and strawberry tiramisu!! Why the crap not? It was so hot and the dining area was in the shade with a fan and free wifi. We were pretty pleased.

After a very relaxing lunch we wanted to keep the relaxation going and went to a spa!! I've never really been to a spa. We had heard about fish that eat all the dead skin off your feet. (our feet have traveled a lot so they deserve some help...) we found one spa that would let us have 15 mins with the fish for 3.50 usd. That seemed manageable so we tried it out. Gotta say it was not easy to stick the first foot in. Basically there was a bench with cushions set up next to a fish tank aquarium on the ground. Tons of tiny little guys swimming around and when the foot was over the water they knew! They all came to the surface! Yikes! But we did it and it was so cool. Felt like our feet were vibrating from all the little fishies nibbling away! We loved it and we were about to leave the spa after when they started asking if we wanted massages. An hour long full body massage was $5. I thought we would want to go but I looked at Alexa and she didn't seem to be in a hurry so I said "ok...?". Once the words were out of my mouth I knew this was a very very good decision. My first massage!! An hour of pure heaven. We got a couples massage...it was great! And we even got free water, and no tipping!! America should take some lessons.

Speaking of America. It's great! Balinese can't distinguish our accents so they always say, you are from Australia? Then we say, no America. Then they say (always) oh! America.... Obama!! And have a big smile. They love him! It's great I want to write him a letter and tell him that poor people working in handbag stores in Bali know and love him. Also someone thought Alexa was mexican because of her name hah. That was a first.

After the spa we went back to the hotel to regroup and take more money out of our security box... Then we headed towards the beach which is about a 15 min walk. Or more if you get distracted by shopping... On the way I bought said dresses. As I paid one woman I turn around to see Alexa having her nails painted by another. Who knew they were so versatile?! By the powers of Balinese persistence we ended up with our nails and toes painted before we really knew what was happening. Why not...? Except we learned our lesson. Don't accept services before learning the price. These ladies were smart and knew and charged us American prices (because american nurses get paid well according to them...) despite a lot of attempts to haggle. Drat! Oh well, they do look nice....and they'll touch them up for free before we go home!

Then we walked to the beach for a beautiful sunset. We are currently at hard rock cafe where we had happy hour and some good ole American food and music! Watching the sun set over the beach from a rooftop while drinking $5 margaritas...what could be better!

End of one trip start of another!

Well we made it out of the haunted convent. It was mostly haunted with cockroaches and extreme heat. There was a little disagreement over the a/c but in the end we were able to sleep with it on which was a lifesaver! The town was basically deserted and we aren't really sure why we had to stay there (vs the nice beach towns..) but oh well it was an experience!

Monday we hit the road early and drove to Perth, arriving at about 1 pm. After saying goodbye to all our new friends we picked up our tickets to Bali!!! Woohoo! If we need to put up with this heat for another week I'd much rather do it near a pool :)

We reunited with our friend Beth! Alexa practiced driving a stick!! Beginners luck, she got it going the first try but did stall out later! Beth's mom cooked us a delicious BBQ dinner complete with Bavarian chocolate cake which made us reconsider leaving for the week...

So we had a night back in Perth to quickly repack, do laundry, upload photos, Skype our families, shower and sleep! It has been a whirlwind but we are now on a flight to Bali. It's one of those things that I forget is happening until I say it out load. I am really going to Bali. Holy crap!!

Days 5, 6 and 7: Beach, Beach, and a 9 Hour Bus Ride!

It's 113 degrees today!!!

We're on the bus driving halfway back to Perth today. At least it's air conditioned...imagine a really really hott day, then add twenty degrees and a hot breeze. That's what it feels like!

We finally reached our destination of Exmouth on Friday. We stopped at the Tropic of Capricorn on the way! Then we spent the day at the beach at Coral Bay. We snorkeled on the Ningaloo Reef...so cool! So many fish and baby turtles and we even saw a baby shark!! We were a little scared but Darren reassured us that since they're babies their mouths aren't big enough to bite. I'm not sure I believe him though. The reef was made up of coral that looked like brains and other coral called Stag horn coral that looked like tree branches with blue flowers on it. Really pretty! The current was real strong tho and it was sooo windy.

Friday night we had Mexican night...finally! All I've wanted since the gross nachos in Tasmania was some real Mexican food. Best meal we've had yet. As a thank you and goodbye treat, Darren got us napkins and a tablecloth and some champagne! It was great.

Friday night the hostel bar turned into a huge party. No idea where all the people came from bc we were the only ones staying there and we were literally in the middle of nowhere but the place was hopping! There was even a dj and a bachelorette party. We taught our friends how to play the card game Kings, so fun. Karina wore gym shorts to the bar just because she could! We danced the night away and ended the night with our lovely irish friends who 1) sang us an irish song-yes! 2) declared they couldnt possibly go to the beach the next day and get more sun! I love them, so pale! Also side note: the German girls that we assumed we're young and couldn't speak English are actually 24 and speak perfect English. Grrr guess they are just not friendly. I was not happy about this!! But on a happier note, we befriended the French girls! And I got to speak French. It was great! Turns out they're both ER nurses. We've been telling people were both nurses, its easier that way. Oh and apparently everyone thinks I'm Italian (some guy made a couple Italian jokes to the group that I didn't realize we're directed at me...oops. I like Italians, I can be an Italian nurse for the next couple months, why not).

After our late night we finally got to sleep in until 8:30am! Spent Saturday at the beach again, this time at a beach called Turquoise Bay. It was beautiful! More snorkeling. It was very hot though and there wasn't any shade so we were only there for a couple hrs. Then we went to see Kings Canyon...cool little canyon I guess, and I think we did something else but I can't remember.

For our last dinner (some people were smart and are flying back for cheaper rather than spending 16 hrs on a bus...why didn't we think of that?!?!) we got pizza at a pub. We got free beer and wedges...it was great! Real food! I guess people in Exmouth can't party two nights in a row because the bar was empty so we went back and hung out at the hostel and went to bed at 10pm. I accidentally stepped on a cockroach...gross! They have flying cockroaches here, it's miserable.and huge beetles that look like they're leftover from the dinosaur days. Oh and we passed a cockatoo convention...they were all yelling and screaming in the trees at 9 pm, not sure what all the fuss was about!

Now it's Sunday and were sitting on the bus. Today was my and Karina's turn to pick the music though so we made a great play list to represent Boston. Hits included American Girl, Boston, more than a feeling and i'm on a boat. I think everyone enjoyed it.

Tonight were having fish and chips for dinner. Darren seems to think fish don't count as meat so I'm not sure what karina is going to eat. Maybe I'll be a good boyfriend and give her my chips. On the plus side, today was out last day of eating ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch! If I never eat another ham and cheese sandwich in my life I think I will be very happy.

We're staying in a haunted old church tonight...if we don't make it out alive, it's been nice knowing all of you!!

Day 4: Dolphins and stromatolites

I have to apologize to our readers...clearly karina is the funnier blogger of the two of us so I will try and be more funny from now on. Or maybe I will just use more exclamation points!!!

Anyways today we woke up at 5:00. 5:00!!! Seriously, who does that? (aside from kickass nurses) Although it is way easier waking up that early when you're going to see dolphins than it is to go in for a shift at work so I guess I can't complain. Breakfast today: you guessed it. Toast with spreads and cornflakes. Our guide informed us that he made himself bacon and eggs for breakfast...what the heck!! Except Australian bacon is definitely subpar to American bacon. Not as greasy and fat :)

We went to this resort called Monkey Mia (no monkeys unfortunately) and got to watch a bottlenose dolphin feeding! The dolphins swim in every morning around 8am to get fed and put on a show. They swam right up to our feet! Some lucky folks from the audience got to feed fish to the dolphins but we were not so lucky. There were five dolphins present for breakfast today, it was great!

Side note about karinas thoughts on Americans being uptight...I know it's for safety reasons but the hiking cliffs and trails we were on yesterday had no barriers or chains keeping people back from the edge! Just signs saying it was dangerous and you hike at your own risk. Not like back home!! And parking is free at beaches! Not $25 like in Gloucester. Nonsense!

Anyways. After the dolphins we went to these cliffs called Eagle Bluff and saw sharks swimming below us!! There were hundreds of them. I think they were tiger sharks...they were small though, only 1.5 meters long. No great whites! They were just hanging out with their turtle and sting ray friends. No biting humans here!

David this is for you...we went to see the Hamelin Stromatolites conservation!! So, I kind of slept through the bus driver's explanation of stromatolites (me?? Sleeping through something?!? Shocking!!) but from what I gathered, they're these 3.5 billion year old bacteria that have clumped together over the years and they were the first living things on earth. I think they made the air into air we can breathe by releasing oxygen! But don't hold me to this! Anyways basically they're really important and according to David we wouldn't be here without them! So thank you stromatolites!!!!

Driving down the road we saw a family of emu hanging out in town and then we saw another family of emu running alongside the road in the outback with us! And lots of kangaroo hanging out under the trees! No koalas up here though. Too hot for eucalyptus trees.

We didn't do much today because we had to drive 800km, which i think is like 500miles? So we did a lot of sitting on the bus. Apparently I punched Karina in the face at one point...i said i must've been sleeping and she says i was definitely awake...clearly she was not too happy with me!

We stayed at an outback sheep station in "Big Sky Country" at a "million star resort" and people slept under the stars!! Get it? Million star resort?!? I i was gonna stay outside but I was afraid of crickets and snakes crawling into my bed :-( karina couldn't be bothered and slept inside.

We fiiinally got to watch an awesome sunset on the beach by the sheep station. The sheep people own 57,000 acres of land and 14 beaches or something like that. Crazy!! They also had two baby goats that they brought with us to the beach (obviously?) that we swam and played with. So cute! There was a horse there but one of the German guys hit it in the face with a ball when playing cricket so the horse had to go home.

After swimming and eating a delicious meal of chicken and veggies (and the special mushrooms Darren made for Karina that she made me eat), we had a bonfire and showed all the Europeans how to roast marshmallows. Apparently they don't roast marshmallows anywhere else in the world! They also dont make smores which is just tragic and we had to keep explaining what a smore was! When it came our turn to roast, everyone chanted USA! USA! But I guess they didn't like our way of catching them on fire and eating them burnt...oh well, more for us!

Karina here- so despite everything I said about goon yesterday I actually enjoyed it tonight sans water! Guess it just took a day to grow on me? Anyway that's good news since we have about 3 liters left of it!