Random sidenotes....

Couple random sidenotes:

Life here is completely different. Everyday if I take a ride on the back of a motorbike (they won't let us take them ourselves....crappy...can't rent them here either...) I'm blown away at how different everyday life is here. I just can't get used to it, and it's hard to explain. It's exhausting almost, having none of the comforts and luxuries of home. The smells, the diseased animals, the garbage, the flooding, all craziness. I liked Bali better cuz we had ocean, here just inland Indonesian life. Cool to have experienced...but I want beach.

Oh yeah, besides Freddy, I've yet to see one other white person...or black person for that matter. All Asian. It's funny, everywhere we go people stop and point at us, laughing to themselves...hilarious. Also, most of them know a few words of English and will shout them out at all costs. Even driving down the street if they catch a glimpse of the color of our skin, they'll shout "hey mister", or "be careful", or "good morning!"...even if it's not morning. I just play it up and yell back, usually something stupid like "hey mister, Kodak, Kodak"...hahaha, I'm a jerk :)




I love learning the language here, even the language is backwards! When I get tired I get dyslexic and mix up the letters. For instance, apa kabar means how are you?, but I said apa bakar once, apparently it means what's burning? It makes them laugh, so I just keep saying apa bakar, they love it. I hear them saying apa bakar to each other all the time now, awesome.

Pontianak

Arrived in Pontianak about 5 days ago. A bit different than Bali, traffic is still chaotic but not as much as Bali. Pontianak seems like a big city without bit buildings. It's dirty, stinks, classic Indo. People burn mass amounts of garbage all the time, and you see a bunch of random goats going through mass piles of garbage on the sides of roads. Freddy and I are staying at the YWAM base here, he has friends there. Very basic, made my $8/night room in Bali seem like a 5 star hotel. Everyone is super nice here though, a few speak decent English, a few very broken English, most I try to communicate with through facial expressions and body language....pretty much we pretend to know what the other is talking about. Some people will talk to me in Indo, I explain "no Indonesia, English", so they keep talking thinking things will change and I'll understand them eventually. Ridiculous. They were nice and even found me some toilet paper after looking for a while. I hate to be a Nancy, but honestly if I can use toilet paper, I will. I don't like there bathroom system, a hole in the ground, a bucket and water to wash yourself with after....I didn't even see soap...sketch. I'm staying in room that's 10'x10'....and there are 4 of us in there!! They're super nice though and let me sleep in the only bed.

Our room

Freddy and I helping cook dinner

Yeah, not much happening here. The base is about 20 minutes outside of Pontianak, pretty much get to town to use the internet and check stuff out when I can find a ride, rest of the time I hang out, talk to a few people, play badminton, ping pong, get whooped in chess, a lot of lounging. I go for adventures when I can....there is a guy Tino there who took me to his church on Sunday, went on the back this little scooter. The helmets here are crazy, pretty much toy helmets, they would do nothing in a crash. Went to his church, I didn't know they were going to do this but they asked me to come up from and tell about who I am, where I come from....AND my whole life story. Tino translated, it was crazy. I think we are going to try and visit a village around here sometime and then I think we're taking a night bus for 12hours to a city called Sintang??

Oh yeah, thanks for all the bday wishes, meant a lot!! I wasn't going to say anything about my bday out here, but Freddy found out about it a day before (someone asked how old I was). He told everyone and they made me a few cards and bought me a few treats from a bakery. Oh yeah, and instead of fish, rice, and stewed seaweed type stuff (the usual) they cooked me an egg sandwich!! It was funny cuz I make them every morning (can't handle the rice, stewed seaweed stuff, etc) and they think I'm weird. I even bought cheeze and ketchup, beautiful. So yeah, bottom line is that it was very touching. I'm really going to miss the team here....

Bye Bye Bali

Well, the time has come to say goodbye to Bali. I've had fun here, but looking forward to moving on. Flying out tomorrow for Pontianuk in the Borneo island of Indo. Meeting up with Freddy and staying at a YWAM base for a few weeks....I think. Anyway, I've heard the internet sucks there so there may be no posts or emails for a few weeks. Bonvoyage.

Places I've been to in Bali:
I stayed in Kuta (south west), been as far south west as Uluwatu. Been as far west/north as Medewi (actually to a town about minutes passed Medewi). Been as far north/slightly east as Penelokan (Mt. Batur), then a bit farther east to Besakih. As far east as Klungkung.....and LOTS of places in-between!!

Mt. Batur

This mission had both success and failure. First off, I didn't get to rent the big bike. I had been told I could rent it, when I went to pay for it I was informed it was already rented. They tried to track down another, as did another individual unsuccessfully. I decided maybe this was a clear message that I shouldn't get that bike, so I rented an older manual shifter scooter. It actually turned out to be a good thing in more ways than one which I will get too.

So, woke up at 12:45m with little sleep to embark on my journey. Got the hang of driving the scooter quickly, not many vehicles on the roads at 1am. Getting to Mt. Batur was a challenge in itself. First of all, not many clear street signs pointing me in the right direction, the roads are twisty and you lose sense of North East etc fast. Oh yeah, the bloody dogs! At night going through neighbourhoods you notice that none of the dogs are inside, none on leashes....they make dog gangs and they HATE scooters. They'll come right at you and try to nip at your feet on your way by. A few times I tried to pull over and take a look at my ridiculous little free map when dogs come on the attack and I'm forced to peel out of there. Remarkably I found my way after 2.5hrs and a few turnarounds on gut feeling. I saw a young truck driver getting into his truck (hardly anyone out and about at that time) and asked him how to get to Penelokan, he said I was there!! He pointed me in the general direction of the volcano (it was dark , really dark). I found a lake which had two large looking mountain type silhouettes on either side...both looking to be about 10kms away. I then realized that I was ridiculous. How did I think I was going to show up to a mountain I've never seen before, find the correct spot, and climb the bloody thing in the dark?? Sometimes winging it works, sometimes it sucks. So, I was sitting there, freezing (this is the first time I've been cold in Bali...and I was REALLY COLD....shivering), exhausted, and defeated. I could've turned around...except I didn't even think I'd make it back to Kuta with the Petrol I had. All I wanted was a blanket and a bed. I found a little boat on the shore of the lake, decided to try and sleep in it. All I had on was a sleeveless quick dry shirt, board shorts, and luckily my MEC rain shell. I was freezing from the motorbike ride and couldn't seem to warm up. My hands were ICE! I tried to sleep for a couple of hours on the wooden seat of the boat but ended up tucked in a ball trying to get warm, shivering for a few hours. FINALLY the sun came up @5:30ish am. I saw which mass of land was the volcano and headed for it.

in the boat

the boat after sunrise

I found this crazy little maze network of trails leading towards the mountain, starting out wide and not too bad....ending in ridiculoulsy narrow little walking trails I would consider mountain biking. I took the scooter up these trails anyway, see how far I could get. It was nuts, roots sticking out, steep ledges on either side, rocks, steep banks....the scooter ruled! This is why I'm glad not to have had the big bike, I would've died. I had a few close calls with the scooter but came out unscathed. Found some cool stuff in the bushes: A temple thingy, cool farm houses, a few farm families (unsuccessfully tried to communicate with them)...yeah, crazy. So I parked my scooter at one spot and tried to climb my way out of a deep gorge canyon thing. Took me a while as I couldn't find a path, it was the worst case scenario of bush wacking. Didn't get to high up before deciding to tuck tail and turn around, at the point of getting lost and losing the scooter!! Anyway, found a cool place to eat breakfast after with a sweet view on the lake.

getting gnarly on the scooter!

where I hiked too

peaceful breakfast view!!





BESIKAH
The largest cash grab.....I mean temple in Bali :)

After my morning with Mt. Batur I check out my map and found I wasn't too far from the largest temple in Bali, Besikah Temple. On my way there I was stopped by a lady on the side of the road...she asked if I was heading to the temple, put a burning insense on my bike, and attached a little basket offering thing to my bike (didn't want to offend her and decline). Then she said, "ok, you pay money now". I said "for going to see the temple", "yes, 100,000 Rp". I told her that was too much and I'd give her 5000 Rp. We argued back and forth for a bit, I told her 5000 or nothing...she accepted. I drove away and felt like an idiot....who was she? Was she even part of the temple? I was still a long ways off from getting there, but I didn't know that at the time. Anyway, got near the temple, had to buy a ticket for 10,000 Rp....ok. He said I would need to rent a sarong type thing (or else you're not allowed to see the temple??), I asked how much, he said he wasn't sure but he thought around 5000 Rp. Drove another km to park my bike where I was outfitted with my sarong. 50,000 Rp to rent....couldn't talk her down. They know they can charge whatever at that point, you've spent too much to turn back. FINE, 50,000 it is, even though I know they BUY them for like 4000 Rp. On my way in, a gentleman asked me for my ticket, then wanted me to follow him to a table and talk. He said "well, today is a special day, it's a big celebration. I can only allow you on the very front step. IF you want to go further, you need to be accompanied by one of our guides". I said "let me guess, that's going to cost more money correct?"...."yes" he replied. Then I got a bit mad, I told him that this whole thing seemed like a ridiculous cash grab. That for an island who claims to have their religion and their sacred temples as being so important to them, they should want to share it, not act like a market and rip people off. I was so choked I asked for all my money back, everything....I didn't want to see the temple. He said "ok ok, you can give our guide whatever you want, big or small". I told him fine, then I wouldn't give him much. He escorted me to the front step and then said I needed to negotiate a wage with the guide. Hahaha, I told him not to go back on his word and that I'd give hime "whatever I wanted". He agreed to take me for 3000 Rp, not much. Anyway, the whole thing got to me. AND, inside the temple area (the area is made up of tons of little temples and stuff, not allowed to actually go inside) there are persistent little hawkers trying to sell you postcards, all in your face and stuff. I'll bet this is what it was like when Jesus snapped and turned over tables and crap. Oh yeah, I asked where this big celebration was (the reason I wasn't allowed to enter the temple area myself that day)...he said it wasn't starting until later that afternoon....unbelievable. Anyway, the whole thing was ridiculous, looking back I should've put that $ towards organizing a guide up Mt. Batur to see the sunrise. You live you learn.

curtsy in the temple area



After that I just had fun touring around the island on the scooter, those little things rip! I started getting pretty confident with that sucker and drove like I was a local. Two lanes pretty much turn into 5 lanes on a bike, the shoulders, the lanes, and the middle!! Haha, it was so much fun, I was even passing most of the locals and keeping up the fast ones. BUT, I was cautious most of the time mom :)


Cool door carving on the door of the temple I found in the bush

random toilet shot at the breakfast place. You're right Kristen, they don't use toilet paper!! Nastified.

Apprehensive....

Well, haven't been up to much. My days go as such: Wake up @5:40am, surf (more like paddling and stacking - Auzzy Dave's word), eat breakfast, sleep. Walk around Kuta, eat, surf, eat, watch a movie at a little restaurant down the street on their 30" "big screen" while drinking a large Bintang (Indo beer)....then sleep. That's it, that's all....pretty chill. Just sold my surf board today, and have decided on a new adventure.

I'm going to trek up Mt. Bakur, apparently an active volcano on the north east part of the island...I'm on the south west part. I could take a tour leaving here @ 2am, drive there for 2 hours, hike for a few, and watch the sunrise. Problem is that most places want more than one person for the tour, and it's expensive....and it's a tour. SO, I've decided to rent a bike and try to find this volcano myself and hike it alone. I've also decided to rent a bigger bike than the little scooters, some sort of Honda touring bike. Not going to lie to you, I'm a little nervous about this one. Why?

-The only motorbike I've ever driven was a mini-dirtbike when I was 9, and only a few times.
-I don't know how to ride a manual bike...period.
-I don't know where I'm going, the maps suck.
-There will be no one to ask directions from at that time in the morning (I'm leaving here @1am because I know I'll need the extra hour...getting lost etc)
-The roads here are crazy, traffic, potholes, etc. On top of not knowing how to drive this bike...sketch.
-Once I get there, I'll need to hike this active volcano by myself for hours not having a clue where I'm going.

It's true....I'm a bit scared. You know who I blame?....Dennis. That's right, if Dennis would've let me try his bike back home I would feel a lot better about this. Damn you Dennis. Anyway, wouldn't mind some prayers thrown my way :) I'll let you know how it turns out. Oh yeah, mom.....you shouldn't have bought me that book "into the wild"...... hahaha, jj.

Authentic Bali Experience

Alright, so I knew on this trip I was going to encounter non touristy authentic local experiences....I just didn't know it would happen this early in the trip! There is a security guard named Maday that works in the hotel Freddy and I are staying at, he invited us to stay with him and his family in a village about 3 hours away (I think he just wanted a ride)...so we agreed. We also wanted to go surfing in a place called Medewi which was about 20 minutes from his village, perfect. Showed up at his family's place, it was a bunch of little shacks on a piece of land, his whole extended family lived there. This was not like Kuta, hardly anyone understood a word of english, we had many awkward moments when nobody would talk, or we'd pretend to understand what the other was saying. We headed to a shady little building down the street, Freddy and I bought about 20 little 5 inch fish out of a shady looking container for 30,000 Rp ($3). Headed back to his family, they cooked the fish over dried burning coconut shells. A whole bunch of people in the neihbourhood came by to check out the white people, too funny. They all wanted us to eat first, so we did. I've never eaten a meal like this with my hands before, we rinsed them in a communal dish, then dug in....rice and all, with my hands....awesome. I was a bit worried I was going to get sick, but I was fine. Then we went surfing in Medewi, best surfing we've had yet, only 4 other people there, big waves, lots of fun!! Went back to Maday's place to hang out. I've noticed that pretty much EVERYONE smokes in Bali, not only that, but they smoke alot. I had a piece of something black lodged into the ball of my foot pretty deep, so we tried to get it out. It turned into a big deal, about 5 people tried to get it out using scissors, tweezers, a pin, and a flashlight...too funny, came out. That night we were heading to a "drama", a traditional play put on by the village, it was a celebration of some sort. On our way there Maday wanted to stop at his friends house. They were sitting around on a porch, drinking some homeade brew called "ara", talking and playing guitar. A few spoke a tiny bit of english, one guy was actually not too bad. Not wanting to be rude Freddy and I tried some of their ara, drinking out of the communal glass :) haha, actually turned out to be lots of fun. They loved us, we were part of crew. Headed down to check out the drama, it was ridiculous, but funny....although I didn't understand it. It had to do with fighting the powers of evil; Bali is pretty much Hindu, but most of Indo is Muslim - a few years ago the Muslims dropped bombs on Legion...exactly where we are staying!!
Our room was a bit sketch, blanket on a piece of wood, we shared a bed. We were woken up at 5am to the sound of a pig squealing frantically. Got up a bit later and found the pig being roasted on a spit...again, their celebration. We took off as they were going to start praying or something. As cool as the experience was, it was so nice to leave. It's exhausting being in that situation, but super cool!!

Anyway, Freddy is off to Pontianek tomorrow and I think I'm just going to lay low for a week in Kuta and treat it as a holiday, these last 5 days have been intense. Probably won't have much to blog about.....

Canggu

Reflecting after getting pummelled at Canggu

Another adventurous day. Woke up at 5:20am (ridiculous I know) and went surfing near our place, ate breakfast and lazed around for awhile. Then we decided to find another surf spot called Canggu (pronounced Chang-ooh). We always say it's not the destination....it's the journey. This is very true when driving in Bali, numerous wrong turns, lack of proper road signs, unbelievable traffic and crazy drivers....but I'm starting to get used to it and learning how to drive Bali style. Oh yeah, I had my first crooked cop experience today. We were pulled over because we stopped too far forward on a red light, we tried to explain this to the cop and ask that he let us go. His english was hard to understand but we knew that he was saying that he could give us a ticket that had to be payed at the dept of justice for 100,000 Rp, or we could settle it there with him for 50,000 Rp. I pretended to understand him less than I actually did in hopes he would just get frustrated and let us go. Not the case. Ssssoooo, after bargaining a bit :) we talked him down to giving him 20,000 Rp which would go directly into his pocket. Haha, you can bargain EVERYTHING here. Finally after a beautiful drive into the rural parts of Bali we arrived at our spot. Went surfing, I got pummelled as usual. Then we just hung out on the beach and enjoyed the setting; tons of Balinese people came to hang out on the beach as it was Sunday evening, super cool. Just us and the locals. Came back to Kuta and decided to eat junk tonight, went for a walk down the main strip and gorged ourselves with MacD's and Dunkin Donuts....mmmmmm.

Flooded road, rainy season here

Rural areas we drove by

The locals hanging out at the beach on Sunday evening.

Uluwatu!! and pics...lots of pics.

Freddy rockin out in Uluwatu

This day was a good day :) Freddy and I woke up at 6am as usual, headed to the beach to surf for a bit as usual. Ate breakfast at the hotel, then we rented a suzuki vehicle (like a sidekick, but called something else). We asked around how to get to Uluwatu, a world famous surf spot. Normally we wouldn't think of going there because it can get really dangerous, massive waves and a razor sharp reef....BUT, we heard that the waves weren't that dangerous right now. Freddy was a wee bit apprehensive about renting a car, but I assured him that right hand drive and these crazy roads could be learned...we could do it. As soon as we left the hotel it turned into worse case scenario. The alleys are as busy as major streets, and so narrow that two cars don't have enough room to pass each other...you just have to hope that two cars aren't trying to go opposite directions (80% of the vehicles are mopeds). When two vehicles are passing each other, one has to find a spot with extra room on the side, the other has to inch by....excess room is no more than a few inches. Freddy was terrified, my heart was racing...I turned the wrong way done a one way (there are no signs!!), had to have traffic stopped for me and someone direct me to correct it. I definitely made contact with a parked moped at one point, eventually making it out to a "normal" street". The regular streets are ridiculously sketchy as well ...honestly there aren't many road rules, mopeds pass on both sides of you, cars will drive down the dotted line if they see an opening to split traffic, it's out of control! I had to be completely focused at all times, completely insane.

After 2 hours and a bunch of wrong turns we made it to Uluwatu (normally takes 40 minutes). What a beautiful place. Amazing cave entrances to the water, turquoise water, you can see the reef as the first few hundred meters are only a few feet deep. There were tons of surfers there, probably 100....way too many. I'm sorry to say that I didn't actually "ride" any waves, but I definitely got destroyed a few times trying to ride them. I'm stoked to have gone to Uluwatu, people come from all around the world to surf there (we heard all sorts of languages out there).

To top the whole day off I got to talk to Kristen tonight, it's amazing how much you can miss someone after only one week.

More exploring the island of Bali tomorrow!!


Just hanging out...wow, that was awesomely (is that a word?) cheezy.


Cop who pulled us over ended up loving the camera.
This kind of thing is everywhere....and this was a crazy busy street.

We asked if we could take a picture in the "Padang's" kitchen.

Freddy's here!

A few days ago I went to the beach in the morning, as usual someone came up to try and sell me something. I actually bought some sunglasses from him, and asked him about renting a surfboard. He brought me to one of his friends who drove me down some crazy alleys on the back of a moped, I ended up finding a 2nd hand surf board to buy for 850,000 Rp (~$85). Bought a rash guard off a guy on the beach, bargained him down to 10,000 Rp. Figured it was better to buy, if you rent at $4 for 2 hours, take it out 2.5 times a day (2 times one day, three times the next...) for 2 weeks, that equals $140. You can find a place in the back alleys to rent one for $4/day, but they're usually cracked, then they break, then they charge you whatever they want. This way I don't have to give any collateral, if it breaks...it breaks. AND I might be able to sell it when I'm done, the whole plan is brilliant.



Picked up Freddy at the airport yesterday, bargained a guy (I love bargaining here) to drive me on the back of a moped for 22,000 Rp. The roads here are crazy, it's kind of a rush :0 So that's about it, we've been trying to surf (Freddy has a boogy board) last night and this morning....but the waves in Kuta beach have been small....too small to pick me up (fatty) on a 6'7" board. Ssssoooo, we've been talking about renting a jeep or something and driving around looking for bigger waves. Kuta has been fun though, pretty cheap too. Signing out.

Singapore, and Bali

Left HK on Monday morning and flew to Singapore via Singapore Airlines. What a sweet airline....had a singapore sling (drink invented in singapore...obviously), ate decent plane food, and played megaman on my personal tv screen, beautiful. Headed for the skytrain and made my way around the city (after a few mistakes of getting off at wrong stops, wrong transfers...etc). Went to Orchard Rd, nothing but high end retail shops, Kristen you'd love it!! :) Obviously I purchased zilch. Decided to check out Singapore Zoo's night safari. Kind of cool, but mostly too expensive and a bit cheezy, not what I expected. I must have been still fighting the jetlag cuz I fell asleep like 8 times at the safari, super sketch. Singapore is ridiculously clean, and it feels like it's really safe to be anywhere at anytime. Kind of creepy actually, reminded me of "demolition man". Slept in the Singapore airport last night.

My Singapore night safari dance.

Singapore airport...free feet massagers!


Took a plane to Bali this morning, man...Bali is nothing like Singapore or HK. Things are cheap here, I get hassled like CRAZY to buy this and that, and more of this - I've had to turn into an ass when I get approached, otherwise they smell blood and WON'T leave you alone. I had no idea what I was doing when I landed, I sat down and looked at a map, decided to head to Kuta because it was 20 minutes from the airport (I have to come meet Freddy at the airport in two days) and it's on the water. Found a hostel type place for 100,000 Rp/night which equals about $10/night. I've got my own room with a fan, not the ritz but it'll do. Man things are different here, pretty poor. Saw a poor little cat on the side of the road that kept trying to get up but couldn't. Broke my heart, people tried to pour water on it to get it to move but the thing was knocking at death's door. All I wanted to do was kill the cat, put it out of it's suffering. Whatever, not my place here....but watching the little cat suffer will never leave my mind. I miss people. I can't wait till Freddy gets here, this place is sketch.




No pics, can't find a computer with a USB port!! haha.

** found a usb port.... >10 minutes / picture....do the math. **

Hong Kong

After a long plane ride, I arrived in Hong Kong last night. A friend of mine from Edmonton (Michelle) lives in Hong Kong with her boyfriend. She had to be in Thailand this weekend for work but her boyfriend Rex who I had never met before said he wouldn't mind showing me around this weekend. I had a sign waiting for me at the airport....kind of exciting. We walked around Hong Kong last night, went to Lan Kwai Fong and Wyndam St. Hong Kong is crazy....like 4 million people live in the size of Edmonton. Went for a cool hike today then checked out Stanley Park (maybe that's why Vancouver has a Stanley Park??...maybe not) and the market there, Hong Kong is actually really beautiful. I'm off to Singapore tomorrow. Rex was more than hospitable, I had an awesome time here.