Thailand, we meet again!

In yet another installment of  "planes, trains, and automobiles" we made the 36 hour journey from Singapore to Koh Samui Island in Thailand. Almost every part of the transport somehow caused us to miss the next leg. This turned all of our 1 hour layovers into 7 hour layovers...but hey, it's all about the journey not just the destination, right? Unfortunately, the western monsoon at this time of year shuts down diving in the Andaman sea, which is one of the top diving destinations in the world. So, running from the bad weather, our first stop was an island in the Gulf of Thailand off the eastern coast, also know for it's beautiful water while being a bit more crowded than the other side. We found Koh Samui (the largest in this island group in the gulf) to be a pretty standard touristy destination with busy streets, and bar lined beaches. Krista came down with a cold almost immediately, and the internet in our bungalow was surprisingly good which caused us to take an unexpected break from jam packed itinerary mind set to just lay around and plan the rest of our way home. As i have been to Thailand before, all this down time and unlimited internet combined to create some wild ideas for alterations to the travel plan. The growing realization that we're not likely to be in this part of the world again helped me to create some pretty amazing alternative plans, each more wild and unrealistic than the last. Krist's response to most of these was: "What? Really? uuuggghhhh..." In the end, we decided to move from Samui to a nearby island popular for diving to help these crazy ideas to pass...

And that's what we're up to now...parked on Koh Tao at a very nice dive shop with rooms. We did a few dives yesterday and being one of the most economical places in the world to dive, Krista had decided this morning to do her advanced open water certification here. That will include a deep dive, a night dive, and three elected dives. There's no good internet...so no uploading photos, but we hope to have plenty when we leave...This place has a really great feel to it compared to Samui and we think we'll hang here a while a see what happens!

Singapaw

Disclaimer: This post is going to be super long, since there is just so much to see in Singapore. Abort now if you haven't had your coffee yet!

Singapore is an interesting place in that it used to be a dangerous place full of pirates, thieves, and prostitutes. Today, it is one of the cleanest, most modern cities in the world, where up until a few years ago, it was illegal to chew gum. Talk about a 180!

Walking through the airport was our first clue that Singapore was going to be nothing like Indonesia. Can you drink the water? Yep! Are there signs EVERYWHERE telling you where to go, in English? Yep! Does it smell like sewage? Nope! Are there taxi drivers yelling at me? Nope, AND there's a metro! A metro that stopped basically at the door of our hotel! Yeah, that's right, we got a hotel... we've decided to splurge a bit since this is our only sophisticated big city experience for a while.

I'm convinced that nobody in Singapore even needs to own a kitchen... every corner has a hundred hawker stalls, selling any kind of asian food you could want, each meal for about $3. They've also got pretty good coffee, or kopi, made with condensed milk. On our first day, we wasted half the morning attempting to do our laundry. In Bali, it was a couple bucks for 3 Kilos of laundry, and they fold it and package it up all nicely for you. Why we didn't take advantage of this, I have no idea. We thought it would be easy to find a place in Singapore, but it was now about 15 bucks for the same amount of washing, and nearly impossible to find anywhere to do it! I don't know what Singapore does with all their tire changers, laundry services, and general non flashy stores, but they hide them well. We finally found a place on the edge of Chinatown, and discovered that today was the start of the Hungry Ghost Festival, where ghosts of their ancestors come back to visit for a whole month. They light candles for specific people, and offer huge feasts for the ghosts so that they don't take out any ill will on the people. They don't recommend swimming (in case a ghost drowns you), going out after dark (in case a ghost latches onto you), or walking alone (in case a ghost befriends you). I think we did all those things. Whoops.

Jared in front of a Hungry Ghost Mobile

Laundry taken care of, we decided to take an informative river boat tour. I'm all about the tours, while Jared prefers to do it all himself. I love reading all the signs, and then he asks me to give him the "condensed, interesting version". So, I've just decided to drag him along on all the tours with me. A super cheerful recorded woman gave us the history of the river and it's settlement by the Chinese, the Malaysians, and the British. Good background stuff for the whole visit.

Jared viewing Singapore's famous "merlion", half fish representing Singapore's original Malaysian fishing village roots, and half lion, for the Lion a prince reportedly saw on it's coast before turning it into a huge port.

Next, it's off to the Botanical Garden. I wasn't too excited about this one, seeing as plants don't really do much, they just sit there and...plant. Can't be all that interesting. But, it was supposed to be amazing, so gotta do it! It was so worth it. They've got medicinal herb walks, jungle walks, river walks, palm walks, etc. etc.! However, the National Orchid Gardens were by far the most impressive. They even had a cool greenhouse mimicking a mountain forest with waterfalls and everything. (And pitcher plants!)

The zoo was scheduled for the next day, and I was super excited about this. Singapore's zoo was supposed to be one of the best in the world...for people and the animals. However, after standing in line for approximately 798 years, I just couldn't get that excited anymore. It was nice, but I think I'd rather watch David Attenborough on the Discovery Channel. The one highlight...Jared got to profess his love to a plastic human sized Mangosteen, his absolute favorite fruit ever that he endlessly searches for at markets and buys as much as our backpack will hold. Tragically, he'll have to part with his true love once we're back in the states.

When he finds them it's kind of like watching Gollum find the one ring to rule them all....

Marina Sands

That night, it was off to downtown to do some sophisticated stuff...Gardens by the Bay light show, then maybe go to the Marina Sands, Singapore's crazy ship in the middle of the air.




The Gardens By the Bay is this amazing light show that is set from these metallic tree like sculptures with live plants all along the trunk. It's set to music, and frankly it's one of the coolest, most beautiful light shows I've ever seen. Unfortunately we forgot to take our camera that night, so this picture isn't ours, but it's better than I could have done anyways.
So it turns out that backpackers aren't good enough for the Ku De Ta restaurant on the flying ship... we didn't have the right shoes. Considering we probably would have blown about $50 on one round of drinks, I suppose it's for the best. While exploring, however, we discovered that it's ground floor is made up of a casino, and the nicest mall I have ever seen in my life. Seriously, it's an indoor Venice. With an ICE SKATING rink! What! Jared quickly steered me out before I could set foot in any of the stores.

Giant whirlpool (named the " Rain Occulace" or something like that) in the ceiling that released a torrent of water into the pool below a couple of times a day...exciting? Yes! Unnecessary? Yes!

The next day just so happens to be Singapore National Day...like their July 4th. It turns out you need tickets to go to the parade/ceremony, however, so we spent the day like most good Singaporeans do...shopping and drinking! First up, Chinatown! Tiny markets crammed everywhere, smells they definitely don't allow in downtown Singapore...still no Tire shops though! We wandered through the fresh produce/meat market, and definitely didn't gain an appetite...there were buckets of slimy wriggling things, fish blood all over the floor, and cages of huge frogs. A Chinese woman grabbed one of the frogs and started beating it over the head with a hammer while she chatted away to her customer. Gross. We escaped into a giant temple across the street. There were no frogs, however, there was the tooth of Buddha! Someone had apparently stolen it off his funeral pyre in India before they burned him thousands of years ago, and it was encased in a total gold little house with the floor of the room paved in gold tiles. In the temple itself, we got to hear monks chanting and read a bit about Buddhism. Overall, Chinatown was a very cool sub culture (some would say the dominant culture) of Singapore.

Monks chanting in Buddhist temple

Next stop, Little India.
We got out and walked around for maybe 15 minutes before we got back on the metro. Creepy stares, the smelliest of smells, and more creepy stares were our souvenirs from this part of town. What the heck, Little India?
Finally, time for a cocktail in the fancy pants part of town again, then back to our hotel to watch the parade and fireworks.

Krista drinking a Singapore Sling

The National Day Ceremony was...there really isn't another word for it...hilarious. It was just so...cheesy! Example: they kept panning to the old president and current president, and if they were doing something noble, like waving their Singapore flag, the camera would stay on them forever. But sometimes, the poor old guys got a bit bored, and were reading the back of their peanut bags. The camera panned away real quick! There were also a bunch of cheesy skits, a CGI Merlion swam over and sang a song with a bunch of kids, and the government said how much everybody loves each other no matter what race, and how we all come together to create a "better Singapore!" Oh yeah, and they say it Singapaw, which Jared and I found quite funny and we will now say it no other way. Still, they sure do know how to do fireworks. We really loved Singapaw, but just cannot afford to stay here any longer. We're off to Thailand, a budget friendlier place!

Ubud, Bali

One short boat trip and looong taxi drive later (road rules don't really exist in Indonesia, and each trip makes you wonder if you really wouldn't just like to walk the 35 miles you need to go), we arrived in Ubud. Ubud is a mountain town in Bali that became super popular after the book and movie "Eat Pray Love". Every shop and tour operator promises the Julia Roberts finding yourself experience, and there are plenty of middle aged and lesbian women running around in yoga pants.

We stayed in a couple of cute little guest houses, which are really more like family compounds with extra rooms.

They are all right on the main street, which itself is noisy, dirty, and busy, but once you step just inside the gate, its like a peaceful family farm, with chickens and cats running around, and the family temple in the center kept spotless with flower offerings every morning and afternoon.

Unfortunately, neither Jared or I were feeling 100 percent after the motorbike accident, so while we had planned some very ambitious hikes around the rice paddies, we actually stuck mostly to the city, where a cheap warong (restaurant) and beer were never far away. We did manage to make it to the Monkey Forest, a national park filled with temples that a greedy little band of Macaque monkeys has taken over. While the temples were certainly beautiful,

the monkeys stole the show. A woman sat outside the park selling bananas (even though the sign right next to her said it was illegal to feed the monkeys), and the smart monkeys would hang out just beyond the entrance and rob all the tourists of their bananas. Glad we had decided to forego the bananas, we watched a french woman hold her last banana high above her head and yell "Not yet! Not yet!" as a monkey scaled her head and grabbed the banana. Yep, definitely right now. Even being bananaless, I still got climbed. I think they thought the yellow straps might have been banana flavored, but when they found out they weren't they tried to unzip everything to see if we were withholding anything. They're cute, but you definitely don't want to get bitten (rabies is pretty prevelent in Indonesia, and we hadn't got shots), so I shook them off as they started fighting over me.

Monkey attack

Back on the streets, we learned to hone our haggling skills after we both got scammed out of about 15 bucks each (me for a sarong, Jared for chocolate!) You'd think we'd be better at this by now (after we got scammed in Perth, anything expensive we would parrot "SCAM!!" back and forth to each other), but it really takes a while to get back into it and realize you're not being rude when you offer them back less than half of what they just quoted you. The first sale of the day is considered lucky, so you're more likely to get a good deal then. Jared walked away with a $4 pair of "raybans" that are falling apart about now.

On our last morning, we took a silver class together. You can buy some really cheap silver in this part of Bali, so it's a popular thing to do. I learned a lot, mostly that I should never be a jewelry maker, but we walked out with some souvenirs and a cool experience. I made a necklace that kind of looks like a 5 year old made it, and Jared, being the perfectionist that he is, made me a beautiful ring I've been wearing ever since.

If we would have had more time, or had been feeling less injured, I would have loved to have stayed in an Ashram (temple like accommodation) and done yoga all day, toured the rice paddies, and tried some civet cat coffee at one of the plantations, but we just weren't feeling up to it. It was nearing the end of Ramadan and the city was PACKED with Muslims coming over from Java for their holidays, so not a bad time to be moving on. Thanks for a good time, Bali. Terima kasih! (Thank you sounds like "Tear out my car seats" if you say it fast, haha)  Next stop, Singapore!

Lembongan Island, Indonesia

Having lived in the desert for over a year, our first thought having left Newman was to put our feet up on a beach somewhere. We landed in Bali on the first night at midnight, got through customs, and it was ON! Taxi Taxi Taxi? Where you stay? Where you stay? You need a room? You need a piggy back ride? RUUUNNN! We jumped in an unmarked taxi a bit worried we were about to have our kidneys removed, but in the end made it safely to a hotel in Sanur, Bali just a bit overwhelmed. We had a walk on the beach the next morning in Sanur, and decided that we were looking for something just a bit further off the track...i.e. less t shirt shops, but still having refrigeration for cold beer. Lembongan, a less visited but still popular island just off the coast was the answer...we boarded a boat for the 30 min crossing...Hello Paradise!


The local boats (left) take people, building materials, chickens...just about anything across to the island, but frequently sink in the deep waters between Bali and Lembongan. As one had sunk just off the beach the day before, we elected to take a speedier passenger boat with life jackets...






Within just a few minutes of hitting the beach we got set up with a nice cheap bungalow on the beach with a sunset view...Ahhhh! That evening, with cold Bintang in hand and kidneys in place, we got our feet up on the beach for our first sunset in paradise.The next day we rented a motorbike and set out exploring the island...beaches on one side and really impressive cliffs on the other with crashing waves, blow holes, and tide pools. Then there was a lot more putting our feet up.

The best thing we found was a snorkel spot on the back side of the island where manta rays come to feed. A boat drops you at a u shaped cliff where water from the depths wells up and crashes on the rocks and the mantas come to filter feed. The guide / captain from our hotel got us there very early, and as there were only a couple of us in the water, they would swim wide circles around us with their mouths open, and sometimes turn and swim right at you only to lift a wing and sweep off in another direction at the last minute...a very cool experience.

 For our last day on the island we decided to step it up a bit. There was another island (Nusa Pedina) behind the one we stayed on which is rarely visited...we thought it would be a unique experience to catch a boat over and check it out. Our friendly guide Ketut from the hotel who had done the manta swim for us agreed to run us over on his boat and arrange motorbikes to show us some interesting places on the island. It was a refreshing step back to just before tourism takes hold...no souvenir shops, the people seem friendlier, and the kids make you feel like a celebrity offering up as many high fives as you could return.


Our first stop was one of Indonesia's most sacred temples inside of a cave, which people (Hindus and Buddhists, but not the Muslims...as Ketut put it) travel from afar to visit and make offerings. Everyone going in was asked to cover up with sarongs, and then we squeezed into a small opening in the rock behind the temple which opened up into a massive cave with several different temples and areas for prayer. It was particularly interesting to see two religions coexisting and sharing some of the same spaces. Services continued as we passed through mostly unnoticed and made our way to a different exit in a cliff face at the far end of the cave. As we exited, I asked Ketut if the monks minded the intrusion by non Hindu / Buddhists into what was a very important place for them, and was told that it made them feel as though their temple was well renowned. 



We then rode to the far side of the island to see the high sea cliffs and a tempting but decaying stairway descending down to the waves. As no one else wanted to go down, I made a hurried but careful descent by myself. Knees shaking, I put a toe out to check the strength of each next rusted step and slowly crept halfway down only to find local workers below carrying massively heavy sections of a new pipeline down the steps as if it was nothing. Not too keen to try to climb over them, and knowing that Krista was imagining all the ways I could stumble and fall, I headed back up full of adrenaline. I was also reminded of how a year of office work and no exercise can take its toll as was evidenced by 10 full minutes of sucking air at the top which cast a doubt in my ability to hike to the Mt. Everest base camp as a climatic end to our travels...we'll see.

  Anyhow, the day was getting late, so we made our way back to the pier to head home and I decided that everything had gone a little to perfectly, so I decided to crash the motorbike in some gravel going around a corner. Having ridden these quite a bit by now, I had assumed that this would happen to me at some point, and I finally got my chance...and just when Krista was starting to trust me as well...bummer. Luckily, we were going pretty slow with the roads being in awful condition and came away with only minor scrapes and bruises to the pride...oh well. Ketut got us off the hook for the scratches on the bike for a small fee to the owner, and all in all we left felling pretty fortunate. On the up side, I did get to leave a little bit of myself on Nusa Penida, which was well documented by Paul, an Australian that joined us for some of our adventures, and if I can get ahold of his photos I'll add them later.

 After that we were pretty well done with the beach and island scenery and got ready to head to our next stop in the heart of Bali, Ubud...

LEMBONGAN ISLAND PHOTO SET 

On the Road Again: 2013

Hello? Is anybody out there? It's been a while...so I don't blame you if you drifted off over the last year or so, but we're back in action as we make our way home from Australia by way of SE Asia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific. There is so much from our last year of working in Newman that there is no way to share it all, so we'll try and put a slideshow of our favorite memories together and post that up soon.


We wanted to ride off into the sunset, but that didn't prove to be very practical...so we sold all of our stuff including our faithful car (baby b), and flew out instead...but this is how it would have looked...

Goodbye Newman! 

Keep an eye on the "trip photos" link to flickr at the top of the page...tons of new photos added (from last year...lazy, i know), and more to come...We'll be back in the states on November 10th!