I know this post is long overdue… we have been traipsing around having fun with friends! Which is what we’re supposed to be doing, I guess. After we got back from Gili Trawangan, four more of our friends from Maui arrived to visit. We rented a villa in Canggu for the week, which was awesome. It was called Villa Uma Girasole and we felt like rock stars there… such a nice place. Which was well deserved, since Juliana, Sasha, and Shaina all had birthdays there! It was a great week and a good mix of lounging and activity. We took two trips- one to Uluwatu and one to Ubud.

In Uluwatu, we stopped at a beach called Dreamland to watch the surf, which was pumping! We all carefully navigated the shorebreak and managed to stay in one piece. Onward to Uluwatu, where Shaina was accosted by some greedy monkeys that stole her cheese crackers and tried to take a slipper as well. After we managed to get past the monkeys, we meandered around the temple for a beautiful sunset along the cliffs.

 

The next day our driver was kind enough to take us to Ubud, which is up in the mountainous area of Bali, an hour’s drive or so from the coast. Apparently after the book “Eat, Pray, Love” came out, Ubud turned into a bit of a tourist mecca (since it’s mentioned in the book, and where the protagonist finds love), but we found it surprisingly not as overcrowded as we had expected. We stopped at an “elephant temple” which was really neat. It started out feeling like another tourist stop, with women waving sarongs at us to sell, but we ventured down a little trail and were soon in thick jungle with no other tourists in sight. Through the thick jungle we caught glimpses of other temples, and even a random door leading to… who knows? Maybe someday I’ll go back and find out. We stumbled upon a more approachable temple, where everyone stopped to regroup. At that point the mosquitos became an issue and we ascended some steps back into the “real world” of pavement, sunlight and noise. After walking barefoot through the jungle (it was easier than slippers) I was starting to have that peaceful, zen feeling I’d had at Kuang Si waterfall. There is something about connecting to the earth through bare feet that makes me feel like a part of nature, rather than just passing by on top of my rubber slippers.

Our next stop was the Ubud market to do some shopping, which was about as opposite experience as possible from the elephant temple. It was an hour or so of complete mayhem and chaos. Women clutching at my arm, shoving sarongs into my hands and yelling prices at me… I soon lost our group and found myself wandering aimlessly among stalls of vendors. After buying more sarongs and silver trinkets than I needed, I became overwhelmed and made a fast exit. Luckily, pretty much the same thing happened for everyone else and we beat a hasty retreat from the market of madness.

The next few days we remained in Canggu, going out for Shaina’s birthday, recovering the next, doing yoga, shopping and lounging. It was a lovely week with wonderful people and lots of laughs, and we are very grateful that everyone came such a long distance to hang out with us and keep us company in Bali.

 

 

After the chocolate factory, we spent a week around Seminyak getting settled in and taking care of necessities – renting bikes, buying boards, surfing, etc. Yes, surfing is a necessity. .. but I digress. Our friend Jules came out to visit us on the 12th, and for her birthday wanted to visit the Gilis, so off we went.

The word “gili” actually means “small island” in Sasak, an Indonesian dialect. Though there are many gilis around Bali and Lombok, when people talk about the Gilis they are referring to the three small islands off the northwest coast of Lombok. Gili Trawangan is known as the party island, and this they do well. They are quite fair about it too; the bars take turns hosting a party every night so that each place gets its turn. Coming from Maui, where the town of Lahaina shuts down around 10 pm, it was funny to see people leaving to go out at midnight. Of course, we had gone earlier, and were returning to our hostel around then. We passed the young crew from our hostel on their way out, one of the British girls asking, “Was it rubbish?” Presumably because we were returning early. Little did she know it was already way past my bedtime.

Other than partying, Gili T is also now for its pristine and uncrowded white sand beaches as well as diving and snorkeling. The other two Gilis, Gili Air and Gili Meno, are known for the same things minus the party scene. It was a nice change from the crowded beaches of southwest Bali, so a big thanks to Jules for suggesting the Gili adventure!

After the last several weeks of being constantly on the move, we were looking forward to settling into Bali for a while. However, shortly after arriving and unpacking our bags, our gracious host informed us it was time to go to Charles’s chocolate factory. Apparently the swell was the right size and angle for the surf break adjacent to the factory. So there was no choice but to rent a moped with racks and pack up once again, heading for the northeast shore of Bali.

“Settling in” was soon forgotten as the lush green jungle beckoned us onward. The rice paddies whispered secrets of a much different Bali – no traffic, no one trying to sell us anything. The road down to Charles’s was a pothole-ridden dirt road that arrived at a shoreline surrounded by huts looking more like an Ewok homestead than a factory. The factory itself was inside one of the huts. Later, the tour took about two minutes- enough for the worker to show me where the samples were and what was in each of the samples. It consisted of one small air conditioned room (so the chocolate wouldn’t melt) and there were packages of various items for sale.

And the surf was beautiful! And not too many people, at least until about 9 am. After we had enough of the crowd, we decided to explore the area a bit. Sky took us on a ride up a TINY windy, steep “road” (about 2 feet wide) for some killer views, and then onward to the end of another (and thankfully wider) road to a temple at the end. He said from that temple you could hike a few hours to another temple at the very top of the mountain, but we opted to save that for another day. Later, we had some delicious curry at a small restaurant and bungalows surrounded by rice paddies. After feeling like I’d had a good workout surfing for an hour, I felt humbled watching 60+ year old women carrying loads of rice on their heads, walking barefoot up a steep series of steps between the rice fields. Sky says they are a different breed. I guess if you did that your whole life, you would be.

On the way back we stopped by a spring to fill our water bottles, and Sky and Ted took an impromptu bath to cool off. Back at the homestead, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset and then meandered off to our little hotel next door for some shuteye. The next day I enjoyed a smaller but still fun session before heading back to the madness of the city. Now we just wait for the next perfect swell so we can go back… and maybe hike that mystic temple trail to the top.

The last stop in our mini eight day Thailand adventure was a brief visit to Bangkok, where we could catch a flight on to Bali.  Instead of getting back on to another bus for what could be a long eight to twelve hour drive, we opted for the much comfortable night train option. The Bangkok Express departed from Chiang Mai Rail Station at 6:30pm, right before sunset.  For the first three hours of the train ride, the seating was configured so that every two seays faced one another.  Dinner was provided onboard, complete with the challenging task of eating soup onboard a moving train. Promptly at 9pm, the cabin attendant hurried down the aisle and converted the seats into two folding bunkbeds (impressively enough, it took him only about two minutes to make up two beds at a time, including linens and pillows).  The beds were comfortable and provided lots of leg room. We both enjoyed some zzzzzs until the train felt like it derailed around 2am (it didn’t, but the train manuevered some sharp and sudden turns on the tracks- for about 3 hours).

We arrived in Bangkok shortly after 6am, and got to our hotel around 7am. We were on the 25th floor of a hotel located on Embassy Row (directly nextdoor to the US, New Zealand, and Dutch embassies). We had a great view of the Bangkok skyline from our room. When we finally left the hotel later that afternoon, we discovered we were in a very swanky part of Bangkok, where inexpensive meals were hard to come by. We unknowingly wandered into the most expensive shopping mall in Bangkok trying to find a late lunch, The Central Embassy Shopping, where a celebrity save-the-wildlife press shoot was taking place (at least that’s what we gathered based on dozens of photographers and groups of excited Thai gathered around a handful of sharply dressed people).  We finished the day with a fine dinner of crepes and cider at Crepes & Company.   We woke up painfully early the next morning to catch an early flight to Singapore (an airport with touch screen “rating” displays everywhere, so you can rate the quality of the service you just received or the cleanliness of the bathroom you just used), and then on to Bali, Indonesia.