The end of Part 1

We have continued to explore and enjoy the rest of Bali over the past week.  We spent a few nights in Ubud, then back to Kuta Beach, and now we will be finishing off our stay in Sanur.

Ubud is a really interesting little place.  There are so many artists centered there and the 2 main roads in town are lined with unique and interesting boutiques.  I went out to shop one evening and only made it halfway up one street in 2 hours.

When we arrived at our hotel, we were "upgraded" to the sister hotel up the road, only to later find out that we were actually downgraded to a lesser rated hotel.  But the manager comped us some spa services for our inconvenience...and a girl is never going to turn down free spa time! We ended up with a huge room in a 4-plex with a very nice, large bed and patio.  The Pool area was a bit suspicious...2 chairs on the grass and a pool...and that was it.  We only spent about half hour there anyway, and it did what it was meant to do.

For Easter, we enjoyed our free 3 hour spa treatment, which I will admit, more than made up for the downgrade from a 3.5 star to a 2 star.  I'm not sure the star scoring system really applies here anyway.  We have been in a range of 2 to 4 stars and they have all been very similar.  Now I'm rambling...back on track. 

Andre, being the culinary adventurist, was dying to have the Babi Guling (suckling pig), which Bali is well known for.  We got a recommendation for a little place that serves from 11-3 each day...otherwise you have to pre-order 24 hours in advance.  The restaurant was not air conditioned and set up with low tables with guests sitting on the floor, and was PACKED.  We got spot at a table right away, and almost immediately after we sat down, there was a long line down the street.  I wasn't quite as hyped about the pig, but tried to put on my game-face for Dre.  The menu was comprised of 3 different "specials", deep fried pork and pork soup.  Okay, so special it is!  Our plates arrived with a scoop of rice, some kind of veggie, a slab of fatty pork, some deep fried pig fat (yep, that's right), and a bit piece of skin.  I had a few bites to say I tried it, and Andre enjoyed both plates and some soup.  Later that night we found a busy pub and had pizza for dinner and a 4-piece cover band for entertainment.  There really isn't anything I get a kick out of more than the Asian covers of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eric Clapton, and the likes...  All of this made for a very memorable Easter!


The past few days we have been in Sanur, on the south east coast of Bali.  It is a really quiet spot with beautiful beaches.  Unfortunately, I have had the flu for the past 48 hours and have only left the room for a total of about 90 minutes.  Thankfully it was pouring rain today, so we didn't feel we were missing out on too much.  Hopefully our last 2 days here will be more ambitious.

We will be flying to Perth on Wednesday and so, it will be 'so long South East Asia'!! 

Around the island in 3 days

After one week in Kuta, it was time to see the rest of the island.  We hired a driver to take us on a private, 3 day tour of the less-touristy Bali we heard existed.  We had a very full itinerary, and would have a difficult time relaying all the details, but there are definitely some highlights to share.  

Day 1:
We began the tour traveling from Kuta (West Coast) through the center of the island to Lovina, at the Northern tip of the island.  The roads run through endless small towns and villages, winding their way up, down and through mountain valleys.  We visited 2 temples, a huge waterfall, a coffee plantation and fed monkeys on the side of the road.  

Entry Gate to Tanah Lot

Tanah Lot Temple

The monkeys were surprisingly gentle

Awwww...

At the plantation we had a tasting of numerous Bali coffee and tea, including "Kopi Luwak" coffee.  This is the world's most expensive coffee as the beans are harvested from the droppings of Luwaks.  That's right, these little animals eat the coffee berry, it ferments in their belly for a few days (or weeks...??) and then is returned to the forest floor.  The droppings are collected, cleaned, and then the beans ground into this amazing and expensive coffee.  It is actually really delicious coffee...very smooth.  :)

Roasting coffee beans

The BEST smell!

Grinding the beans

And sifting

The white cup on the right is the Luwak "Pooh" Coffee, around $4.50/cup

Black sand beach at Lovina

Day 2:
We left Lovina, traveling down the east coast to the village of Amed.  Amed is a narrow fishing village built along the coast where the mountain meets the ocean.  Along the way, we drove up to Penginapan Volcano.  Unfortunately, it was very cloudy and photo ops were limited.  We had the most scenic drive down and once we were below the cloud line, there were rice paddies as far as you could see.  We also stopped to visit the Royal Water Palace and the Pura Ulun Danu Batur temple.  The last stop was a natural hot spring shower/pool (not very refreshing after touring around in the 30+ heat all day....).  At the end of the day we found accommodation at a small guest-stay with an amazing view.  Aside from the power outage and loss of our cooling system (a fan), and endless entanglement in the mosquito net, it was the most peaceful stay we've had in 4 months. 

Beautiful Rice Paddy fields

Natural Hot Springs

Royal Water Palace at Tirtagangga

Nothing like morning coffee with a view like this

Day 3:
We woke up to a gorgeous day with a thermos of coffee waiting for us on our veranda.  Had we not had another day of touring ahead, we may have been convinced to stay.  But onward to Ubud!  We had a light itinerary planned for day 3...thankfully, I'm not sure we could have pretended to be excited to visit another temple or palace or historic site.  So, we grinned and bear-ed it through a tour of a wood carving operation and yet another temple.

Hand carving wood sculpture from Hibiscus wood

The ladies do the sanding and finishing work

Puto (our guide) and I at Candidasa

The king sized bed and hot shower awaiting us in Ubud was enough to brighten our spirits for a 4 day stay.

So this is Bali?

Hello from Bali, Indonesia!

We finally arrived on one of the islands we were most looking forward to visiting.  The first thing I will say is that first impressions AREN'T everything.  

Like most tourists, especially our Aussie friends, our first stop was Kuta Beach.  Kuta is best known for the unbelievable surfing and Poppies district for guesthouses and bars.  We made our way to the beach the first evening, weaving our way through numerous market-style stalls filled with "I love Bali" souvenirs and "Ray Ban" Sunglasses, only to be welcomed by a pile of garbage running the length of the beach.  We embraced this first impression with hopeful optimism as we continued our walk further up the beach.  I mean, it couldn't ALL be like this....could it??  

Our first Bali sunset

Day 2, second trip to the beach.  Ok, so they attempted to rake up some of the garbage, at some point in the night.  Now there were piles dotting the beach, but only part way down.  We found a couple of chairs and an umbrella (further down), with a good view of the late morning surfers.  I settled in with a book and a beach front pedicure while Andre went in search for a rental board.  

Surfing...Day 1

Paddle! Paddle! Paddle!

Maybe the next one

Up on the first wave!

My "Wade, Splash, Exit"

We repeated this itinerary a few times throughout the week.  Andre had fun working on his self-taught surfing, with some friendly and valuable tips from the locals.  And I continued to bask in the sun.  To clarify, one does not swim at Kuta unless you are so hot you can't stand it any longer, in which case you wade in to your knees, quickly splashing yourself before making a quick exit back to your sunning spot.  Clearly we were able to see past Kuta's downside and have a very enjoyable time there.

Surfing...Day 2

Bigger waves, smaller board, more excitement

Another hard day at the office

Doing what I do best these days

Bangkok: Shopping, Eating and another New Year

We flew from Phuket to Bangkok with an uncertain time line and no definite itinerary in place.  It was a treat to have, what we consider, 5 star hospitality, for 2 star prices.  We had huge a huge room with luxurious, crisp linen and a large soaker tub and shower.  This may sound silly, but after some less than comfortable beds and cold showers (at times shared with bugs), we welcomed the city indulgences.  

We did some basic touring around Bangkok.  The BTS skytrain system was easily navigated and we had a station less than 5 minutes from our hotel.  As the third large city we have visited in Asia, we found Bangkok to be the most clean and least polluted.  With numerous shopping centers and restaurants, we did our share of shopping and eating.  There was shopping for everything from market goods to luxury automobiles.  That's right, you can stop at Siam Paragon for a CD, pair of shoes, oh, and a Maserati (located on the 5th floor).  It is surprising to get off the escalator and find a sporting goods shop sandwiched between the Lotus and Lamborghini shops.

Our Korean BBQ Dinner--Quite Tasty

Although I still had to do the cooking...

Possibly THE best dessert we've ever had. Sticky Toffee Toast. That's right, it's French Toast, more like French Loaf. I think it was half a loaf of bread...but tasted like a sticky bun, sticky and gooey...we may need to franchise this in Canada!

Halfway up the 7 floors of the shopping center

What else would you expect to find on the 5th Floor?

The Market Floor

Would you like a fitting room? Or a shower curtain in the corner of the shop...

The 2011 Thai New Year, Songkran, is celebrated on April 13.  We were in Bangkok for the New Year's celebrations (our third New Year this trip), which involves sprinkling of water on Buddha's and the hands and shoulder of one another, bringing good luck and prosperity.  Also, it was tradition to cover one's self in talc or clay in a purification ritual.  The Songkran celebration has been adapted to a very large water fight in the city streets, and mixing talcum with water and smearing it on others' faces.  It is unexplainable how many people mob the main streets that close for the water fight that lasted all day and well into the night.  The sidewalk was somewhat of a safe zone with endless street vendors set up selling water guns, talcum powder, food and cold beer.  We enjoyed the celebration early in the day, but had an early night before our 4am departure to the airport.

I made Andre buy a beer so I could take the photo

Andre eating a street dog, post purification

Silom Road

The sweetest water fighter we encountered

The street view from the skytrain above

Koh Phi Phi and Phuket

Walkway to our little bungalow on Phi Phi

Phi Phi is only about 90 minutes by ferry and was made famous by the filming of the movie, The Beach.  The island is very small, only accessible by boat, and has no motorized transportation on the island.  There are only bicycles and push carts used to transport goods, but the island is so small that anything larger is unnecessary.  Phi Phi is also known as the party island.  I would describe it as a never ending Spring Break spot.  We were finally among the majority population in age, and I think I only saw 3 children that were not Thai the entire time.  Bars line the small bay with each one trying to outdo their neighbour with the volume of their music.

We were lucky to have one sunny day on Phi Phi before the rains and flooding began.  We spent that one day crisping up on the beach followed by another 3 wading through calf deep water in the lanes.  It really didn't seem too bad to us at the time, but we were lucky that we left when we did.  There were a number of ferry cancellations due to the rough sea and many people we spoke to were unable to get to Koh Lanta.  We were happy to be sailing to Phuket as they have one of the larger ferries that continued to operate through the rains. 

Once we landed on Phuket we learned of the floods and slides happening on many of the other islands.  Koh Samui and Phangan were hit very hard in the Gulf and happened to be next on our itinerary.  Travel was not advisable to these islands, so we cancelled flights and planned to spend a few more days on Phuket. 

Lo Dalam beach - the water is at max waist high

Lucky to have one sunny day in this beautiful bay

Streets through town, push carts and bicycles only

 

The village is nestled between the two bays

Lo Dalam on the West side

Ton Sai on the East side

The viewpoint atop one of the mountains

 

 

 

Ongoing re-building after the 2004 Tsunami

 

 

 

 

Phuket's west coast is lined with beach, split into a few main areas.  We spent our first 3 days in Patong City.  Patong has some westernized attractions that got us through the first few rainy days.  We went to McDonald's the first evening, and no matter where you are in the world, McDonald's fries are the same!  Oh, and fountain Coke…AMAZING!  So we had our fix in the way of fast food, after nearly 4 months without.  There was also a shopping centre at the end of our street with a movie theatre.  I don't remember what the last movie we saw in the theatre was, but we went daily for around $4 each (including popcorn and pop)!  We spent one evening checking out the red light district of Patong.  We drank really expensive drinks listened to amusing Thai renditions of hits by Guns and Roses, Pink, and even Tina Turner, and took in some of the seedy entertainment the Thais are so well known for (I don't think I need to go into any further detail on that).

As the rains eased up and the forecast was for sun, we moved to Karon Beach where we planted ourselves on the beach for a few days.  The beach was beautiful and much less crowded than Patong Beach.  We spent 2 nights in a cliff-side bungalow with an amazing balcony view overlooking the sea.  Our spirits were lifted in the few short days in the sun, but it went by quickly and before we knew it, we were off to Bangkok to regroup.

 

 

Karon Beach, Phuket

Our bungalow was nestled back in the trees just above the blue awning

A long stretch of beach lined with umbrellas and lounge chairs

Tide going out