tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30602472421494474022024-03-04T22:12:26.678-08:00Aaron's Indonesian (and pre-Indonesian) Travelsarunabrown91http://www.blogger.com/profile/01772414059968574899noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060247242149447402.post-74724456171165258252014-07-28T12:43:00.000-07:002014-07-28T12:43:01.568-07:00Aaron's Health and rapid decline thereofLot's to update! But too much for 1 sitting, so I am going to break it up. This particular post will be alll about my health. It'll get gruesome...so I'll hide it for those that dont want to read about it. For those that do read, though, be warned that you'll never be able to unlearn those things about me. Certainly not for the faint of heart. Anyways, shall we?<br />
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And, by the way, this post is gonna sound really complainy....so just bear with me.<br />
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So my time in Indonesia has been loads of fun, but I always have digestive tract...issues...whenever I come here. It was mostly just stomach aches and loose stools, your usual traveller's diarrhea. Then it got worse. I would eat, then about 1-2 hours later I would be in pain. The pain made it so I felt really sick, as if i was nauseous. But I never threw up. I would just spend three hours on my bed because I couldn't really do anything else. I thought it was just some sort of bug (I had something similar the last time I went to Indonesia, it eventually disappeared). I thought I'd just wait it out.<br />
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The problem with waiting it out was that I really couldn't eat anything in the meantime. Eat a meal? Boom stomach pain and a wasted afternoon. A handful of fruit? Nope. I resorted to drinking a formula of Ensure each morning (in hopes that I could stave off malnutrition for a while) and a few bites of things here and there. It was a serious deficit of calories though...so I resorted going to a doctor on the insistence of my family.<br />
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Stomach Ulcer(s)(the wikipedia page is called Peptic Ulcer), apparently. Or somewhere in my gut. They prescribed be a drug called omeprazole that I take before I eat. Works like magic! And apparently my mom and grandma on my mom's side has had this problem before. So the omeprazole definitely keeps the pain pretty much gone. If i forget to take the pill though...hurts like it was day one again...haha.<br />
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So that was the stomach problem.<span style="background-color: white;"> Now for the butt pr</span>oblem!<br />
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Here is the quick and clean version: I had something in my behind that made it really hard to sit down. After about 2 weeks of this, the something started to swell like crazy. I went to the doctor, and he said is was from an infection, due to my poor diet (great, thanks tummy). It was an abscess, which meant it was filled with, yup, pus! gross huh? Oh we haven't even started yet. The doctor gave me antibiotics and told me to eat more fiber and drink more water. Things got worse and I went to see the doctor again the next day (I could barely walk at this point). He looked at it, poked it, and said it was surgery time. You can look up "fistulotomy" if you want a better understand of what was wrong with me. Well I underwent surgery that night, I was discharged the next day, and I am still in recovery mode. Surgery was Wednesday night, this is currently Monday night. Lets just say recovery is a pain in the butt!<br />
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This is the long version of what happened. Read at your own risk.<br />
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STARTS HERE-------><br />
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So the abscess was located right next to my anus, like about a centimeter away. The swelling was disgusting, just this huge freaking lump right on my butt. I couldn't sit down. After my trip to the doctor, the swelling got worse. That night, the pressure from the swelling got so intense, I couldn't sleep. I could barely even walk. My abscess was hot to the touch and throbbing. I was crying, and I don't cry from pain tooooo often (cuz I'm such a manly guy). I went to the ER at the hospital, limping in, tears just streaming down my face. I struggled onto the gurney thing. They had me pull my pants off and turned me over to examine the abscess. That was when I felt it. As they turned me, it felt like a knife plunged into my abscess. The ER docs and nurses asked where it was. I was very confused, as I thought a huge bulge would be pretty obvious. They poked around, prodding different...areas.... which only added to my confusion. How could they miss this swollen bulge growing out of my ass?! I had to point it out, telling them this is where it hurt. So, of course, they gave it a few good pokes, to my increasing dismay. They turned me back around, pulled up my pants, and said they couldn't do anything for me at the moment. They gave me a shot of acetaminophen (that's just Tylenol, by the way) and told me to contact a specialist in the morning. The weird thing was that my abscess didn't hurt quite as much, and I noticed this before they gave me my pain shot. I have a feeling something, somewhere must have popped. It was hard to tell with my tears and screaming and terror sweat though.<br />
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<br />
Well, I went home and managed to fall asleep. I was up the next morning asking if we could go to the specialist right away, seeing as that abscess could start swelling again. If you recall, my experience had taught me that we really didn't want that happening again. The family said that we would have to wait till 4 pm to see the doctor that I had seen the day before. Oh, the one who just gave me antibiotics and sent me home? Yup. So I spent my day in bed, and all I can say is that I am sure as hell glad Tylenol actually works as a pain med! I never take pain meds, so they are kind of like this magical thing to me now. I could feel my abscess growing, though, just as it had done the day before.<br />
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We got to the doctor, and he said we needed to wait an hour for him (he was in the middle of a surgery, so I guess he kind of had a good excuse). 2 hours later, he called me in and looked at the abscess. He poked it, and said yup, I'd need to stay the night.<br />
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Haha, wait, stay the night?<br />
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Why?<br />
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Surgery.<br />
<br />
oh<br />
<br />
Me and my aunt spent a while looking for a room for me to stay in at the hospital, cuz they are like an airline and like to overbook apparently. After two hours, they took me to my overnight room, which I will admit was quite nice. I signed some papers (oh what? Anaesthetics can kill? Okay yes I'll sign my life away, sure, just make the pain stop) and was off to surgery. That was fast.<br />
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I found out that I was only going under local anaesthesia, which meant they only numbed me from my torso down. They put in an IV line (on the second try, mind you. And here's a tip, if you miss the vein, don't dig around for it. My hand is still swollen because of the needle that just wreaked havoc on my hand veins). Then the anaesthetist gave me my spinal injections, which, as it turns out, hurt. I don't exactly know what happened next because I started to hallucinate and the ceiling started to start doing a wave thing. After sometime, I started to piece things together. I was drugged up with something, and it felt absolutely amazing. My legs felt like they were locked in pillows and my arms were strapped down. I looked around and I could see the anaesthesiologist. Naturally, I called him over and asked him what was going on. He told me we were twenty minutes into the surgery. I looked down and noticed that there were some green curtains up and I couldn't see anything. I then talked to the doctor about want to be a doctor and we had quite a pleasant conversation during my surgery.<br />
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I was eventually carted back to my room, still quite awake and rather...high. I fell asleep before the anaesthesia wore off, and slept with a night full of hallucinations of people being in my room. It was jolly good fun. The numbness wore off around 6 am, which was a logical time for me to wake up as the pain was rather...strong. It felt like I had the worst wedgie, mixed with blood, of course. I then realized I hadn't gone poop for about 3 days...which couldn't be good...so I had the nurse try to help me. It ended in failure, as in no Bowel Movement. Then they took the three tampons that had been stuffed up my butt out of my butt. Why they didn't do that before I tried to poop is beyond me. Luckily it didn't lead to anything more coming out of my butt, though. I bled over the rest of the floor as I hobbled back to bed.<br />
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Some of my doctor friends from the hospital I am observing at stopped by to say hi and see how I was doing, which I thought was really sweet. Then my family came and see me. Then some of my other friends came, so I wasn't alone. The doctor came by and said I was free to go home if I wanted.<br />
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The procedure they did was they cut that abscess open, which let all the pus drain out. The problem, though, is that the infection needs to heal itself. If they close the wound, then it'll just became another abscess. So what can you do? Leave that wound open and let it heal on it's own. So, as it is, I have a cut about an inch and a half long that originates from my anus and goes in the direction of my right leg. Maybe "cut is the wrong word, how about "chunk of skin that is missing." Anyways, its a huge open wound where it's generally quite difficult to keep clean (what with all the poopies and whatnot). It is pretty common for recurrence, such that I would get another abscess. If this thing does not heal properly, in that the skin heals before the infection wound thing heals, I'll have to do surgery again. I'd really rather not have that happen. Remember, though, I am also in Indonesia. Indonesia isn't known for being the cleanest of places, and it has its fair share of exotic bacteria.<br />
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So I could stay in the hospital, or go home and try to fend for myself. I elected to go home (I don't like the helplessness of being in a hospital bed).<br />
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These last few days have been....rough. I wake up in the morning, spend about 10 minutes that I need to take off the bandage from the night before, cry as it comes off, examine the bandage, take a shower, tenderly wash my wound with soap and water, soak my wound (and butt) in a woefully-small-but-workable metal dish thing with warm water (it's supposed to help?), clean out my wound with a battery of wet wipes, alcohol, and gauze, look at the wound, notice that it doesn't look like anything is changing, apply a salve that's an extract from cow placenta (??? look up bioplacenton, your guess is as good as mine), then apply a gauze bandage in a way that makes it feel like I have a perma-wedgie, and stick two extra Kleenex up there for good measure. I do the whole process in the afternoon and at night again. At first it seemed like a horror movie, but it has gotten better and easier to do. It just takes about 45 minutes :/<br />
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"But Aaron, how do you poop?" you may be asking. Well, it's shitty. Every time I poop, you guessed it, poop goes into the wound. There is absolutely no way of preventing this from happening. So I just gotta make super duper sure that I get all the little fecal matters out of the wound before closing it up again. If I don't clean it out enough, or if I don't apply the salve ALL the way into the wound (which means up my anus!), I could get another abscess. And that is what is getting me through this. That if I mess up, I could be back to square one. And I don't want that. Like, I really don't want that. <br />
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The doctor said that, if everything goes well, I should be all good to play grab-ass again in 4-6 weeks. So only 4-6 more weeks of this cleaning....hooray<br />
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<--------ENDS HERE<br />
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But other than these problems, everything is going well! Ill update on the work at the hospital when I feel like writing again haha.<br />
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-Aaron Brownarunabrown91http://www.blogger.com/profile/01772414059968574899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060247242149447402.post-78943998080294479702014-06-27T08:24:00.003-07:002014-06-27T08:24:51.113-07:00The end of Bali, and the Beginning of Java~Pemuteran (Contd)~<br />
We traveled to a hot springs at the Mimpi (dream) Resort. We had to get there by riding the angkottan kota, which is basically an unreliable and large van. It's really kind of a mix between a bus and a taxi because it has a designated route, but it stops anywhere along that route. Also, you can haggle the price, as my mom so often does. The hot springs was basically just a large hot tub, and it was nice, I suppose. Not really much to say about it. We left and had to walk rather far to get to the route that the bus-taxis take, and that was when I realized just how hot Pemuteran is. After about 5 minutes of walking I would just be drenched in sweat. I wipe myself on the towel my brother was using so he wouldn't get any more sun burnt (he was lobster red), then I'd be covered in sweat again soon enough.<br />
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So we walk for a while and get to the route, but the angkot doesn't come for a really long time (I said they were unreliable). This thing seats about 12, but a dude is carrying a bundle of leaves, and a few families are packed in there. We make it work, and I am crammed in the back. One of the families attempts to carry a conversation with me, and I stagger my way through a conversation with them. They gave me two oily oranges (oranges in Bali are small and green...meaning they look exactly like limes) and I thanked them out of habit. We got back to the hotel and I just tried to keep my mind off the heat. Don't let that stop you from visiting Pemuteran! It was still pretty relaxing.<br />
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That night we signed up for this special dinner and got to watch the Balinese traditional dancing. Balinese dancing isn't the most technical thing in the world, but it does involved a lot of finger, eye, and head movement. It's very interesting to watch. All the while there is the distinct sound of gamelan music playing. I have absolutely no idea how they synchronize the dancing because the music sounds exactly the same and has, to the untrained ear, almost no distinguishing patterns. Must just be because I am not very in-tune with the Balinese culture. Look it up on YouTube, "Balinese traditional gamelan dancing," you'll see what I'm talking about.<br />
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~Ubud~<br />
We left the next day to go to Ubud, a town that's more or less in the middle of Bali in the mountains. Once again, we made a trip through the crowded, windy, and steep mountain passes. We did at least have a knowledgeable driver that knew the area and made a few stops along the way that made the drive less unbearable. We stopped at a restaurant that specialized in this thing called Kopi Lewak, which is special coffee roasted from the coffee beans that civets eat. It's not drinking their poo perse, but basically what happens is this: Civets are cute little mammals(they'll tear out your jugular) that like to eat the most ripe and sweat coffee beans. The beans pass through their digestive tracts (what gets dissolved and actually eaten is the skin or something, not entirely sure) and harvested by humans. The beans are cleaned by being boiled a few times, then roasted and turned into coffee. We tried it and determined it wasn't half bad. It's just expensive as hell due to the intense "manufacturing" process.<br />
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We got to Ubud and checked into my favorite hotel: Tegal Sari. You gotta book this place months and months in advance to get a spot. The reasons it's so popular is because it's beautiful. It's situated within the rice fields of Ubud and just so serene and peaceful. Definitely recommend this place. Here we met up with my mom's family friends and nearly got lost as we tried to find one of our favorite places to eat. While we were getting lost, we found that Ubud had become a little more developed since we had last visited, which has it's pros and cons. The major con was that there was a ton more traffic, which kinda took the allure of peaceful Ubud away a little bit. Just sad to see my favorite place so developed. As our family friends put it, Ubud is starting to become a Kuta :(<br />
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The next day we did some more walking (Ubud is slightly less hot than Pemuteran, but you'll still bake if you walk that many miles), saw some long tailed macaques at the monkey forest, ate the BEST suckling pig that has ever been on this earth at Ibu Oka's restaurant (seriously, if you ever find yourself in Bali, make it a point to come here for the suckling pig. It's only open for lunch though), and did some light shopping at the outdoor....marketplace thing. I am seriously in awe of my mom's haggling skills, it's almost insulting how low my mom pays.<br />
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The next day we went on a bike ride. It was myself, my brother, and the two kids from the family friends, Nayaka and Bunga. We didn't fully realize what we were getting ourselves into when we signed up for the trip....But they picked us up in the morning and drove us to some coffee plantation for some reason. There they let us sample some coffee and showed us some of those civet things I had talked about earlier. We were confused but went along with it. They then took us farther up the mountain and served us some friend bananas (a fairly common dessert in Indonesia, it's a bit weird at first...some people like it I guess though). They then put us on some mountain bikes, which, surprisingly, weren't in terrible shape, and sent us down the mountain with a guide and two Australians.<br />
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We rode on the side of rather unbusy roads for about an hour before we stopped for a bit. The ride was...fun? There wasn't really a whole lot going on. The only thing that was noticeable was that my ass was getting more and more sore on the bike seat and that my bike was woefully small for myself. Then we rode a while till we got to stop and take a tour of a traditional Balinese house. I was just damn thankful to be off the bike. The house was...interesting. It's broken up into parts with a yard, a temple, a kitchen, and bedrooms for different ages. As they age, they move up in the housing levels. They also had a pig pen where they kept a few pigs (gasp), which they keep as currency and sell off to pay for food and supplies.<br />
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We got back on the bikes, much to my chagrin, and rode some more. Luckily it started raining, so we got to get wet too. Eventually our tour guide said that we had made it half way! Some more riding occurred and we were led through some rice fields, which were actually quite beautiful but also tricky to traverse with the Bali Bikes. We finally got to the end of the ride after about 4 hours of mostly sitting on that uncomfortable small bike saddle. I was just glad to be done with it....Umm I cant say that I would terribly recommend it unless you really like biking. I don't think my mom would have been able to make the trip due to the physical demands, and I was quite sore afterwards. Yeah. They did give us the food we paid for at the end though.<br />
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I spent the rest of the day recuperating and we spent our last night at some rather fancy restaurant called Ibu Rai's or something along those lines. The next day we had to leave our family friends and Ubud and Bali to get to the main Island of Java. <br />
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~Surabaya~<br />
We flew Garuda Indonesia from Bali to Surabaya, which is on the East part of Java. I think Garuda has the least amount of planes lost of all the Indonesian airlines, so take them when you travel, as opposed to Lion and Adam Air, which lose planes apparently. We got to our hotel and then went to visit one of my moms college friends. It took so long to get anywhere in Surabaya due to the crazy amount of traffic that just seemed to always be there. We went over some new bridge that connected Java to the small island of Madura. We then met with some of my family relatives that lived five hours away but came all the way to see us cuz my mom said they had to. And so began the parade of cousins that we met.<br />
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So, as far as I know, this is the story of my family in Indonesia. My great grandfather came to Indonesia from China with his dad and two brothers. He had a few kids, as did his brothers, and those kids also had kids. It's actually quite a net of people I am related to. So far we meet about 4 people I had never heard of before every day.<br />
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Anyways, the day after we get to Surabaya we meet up with cousins I do know, the ones that I had stayed with the previous time I was in Indonesia. I got to see my two little nieces, Neva (7) and Felicia (4) and the 9 of us (my mom, stepdad, brother, me, great aunt, second cousin, her husband, and the two kids) bussed out to a little town in the mountains called Batu.<br />
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~Batu~<br />
Batu is actually really nice. It's cold here, as in upper 60's lower 70's cold. We continue to keep meeting cousins and our bus driver gets lost all the time as he is not even from near around here. It's fun taking care of the two kids though...at least when they aren't fighting.<br />
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Today we got to go to the Batu secret zoo, which was freaking huge. For a scant 12 USD each, we got to see a ton of exotic birds, monkeys, plants, fishies, tigers, lions, small mammals, and just everything. Also, halfway through the zoo was a theme park with rides and stuff. We barely made through the whole thing in the 7 hours that we stayed there and we were way too pooped to do anything else. Ill try to upload some pictures to this thingy somehow....<br />
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And we stay in Batu till tomorrow, when we will go back to Surabaya, then go to Semarang the next day. So much traveling, I think I may die.<br />
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~General Comments~<br />
So we totally forgot to get me a special Visa to stay in Indonesia for as long as we had planned my stay...so we have been doing the best we can to find out ways to extend my Visa. We have had to do a number of sketchy things, including giving my passport to some guy to delliver to some place and just hope he brings it back, which he did. Hopefully we will find a way to extend it a second time, which is kind of what this whole go to the hospital thing is riding on...haha...ha...<br />
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The bugs are freeeeeaking huge here. I have probably said that before at some point, but jesus I just have to make that comment again. The ants are the size of my fingernail, flying things are the size of fingers, and the lizards are just everywhere. Girls like swarms of things right? I counted about 10 lizards on my ceiling the other day. Luckily they eat all the malaria and denguefever carrying mosquitos.<br />
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Well, thats all for now. Stay tuned!arunabrown91http://www.blogger.com/profile/01772414059968574899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060247242149447402.post-83155016074056966922014-06-20T20:47:00.002-07:002014-06-20T20:47:11.788-07:00Oh man! What an adventure it has been so far. I'll break up what happened into segments.<br />
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Travel!</div>
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I left from San Jose airport and arrived in Japan roughly ten hours later. I flew ANA Air and actually enjoyed the in flight meals as they were all Japanese. Each seat had it's own little TV thing packed with new movies and games. There was a short 2 hour layoever in Japan before a 6 hour flight to Bangkok via Thai Airways. My layover in Bangkok was 12 hours, though, so I had already booked a room in a very cheap hotel. When I say cheap, I mean I could hear everything through the walls. For some reason I was waking up every fifteen mintues :/ I then left at 6 in the morning to catch the flight to Bali and waited at the airport for my family to catch up to me.<br />
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All in all, it was about 36 hours of transit. I have made the trip dozens of times, but it does not make it any easier. The worst thing about traveling is perhaps the constant state of jet lag as you pass into new time zones waiting for your body and mind to catch up. Oh well, just another price to pay to get to far off places I suppose. </div>
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Kuta Beach!</div>
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This was our first stop in Bali and a major tourist destination. Bars, nightclubs, and Starbucks litter the streets. This place is just crowded and noisy. But it's not without its charm. The hotels are extravagent and exotic. The one we stayed at had a beautiful balcony pool that overlooked the ocean. </div>
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The first night was pretty boring since the entire family was jetlagged. My brother and I tried to explore the nightlife, so we walked around for about 2 hours before giving up and going home since we were so tired.<br />
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The next day we lounged around(it's vacation right, we dont always have to be doing stuff) and got full body massages. Here's the funny thing about massages though. They always sound like a great idea. Who wouldnt want to get all the tension out of their muscles and become utterly relaxed as the massuse works away all the stress. But then the massage starts, and you start remembering why massages might not be so great. First they douse you in body oil. Then they start with the pressure. I have never quite understood how such a tiny massuse can generate so much force, but I guess that is just another one of those "mysteries of life" kinda deals. After about 5 mintues, your skin feels like it is going to fall off. Sweet, only 55 more mintues of this. The rest is just a pure test of will power and the mind over matter thing. Thankfully I survived, and all I can think is how I never want a massage again.<br />
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The rest of the day was spent hunting jewelry for my mom. We then went to one of my favorite restaurants, Made's Warung, and walked around the shops. I don't particularly like shopping, so I just looked around and walked. We finally made it back to the hotel, and I just lounged around the pool for the evening.<br />
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The next day was our last day in Kuta, and I spent it trying to learn how to surf (again). For a scant 12 USD, you can rent a board, a rash guard (I cannot understate the importance of the rash guard. Without it, I had a very tender underbelly...and nipples), and an instructor. They are nice enough to teach you the basics on land and then they take you out a bit into the ocean and push you into the waves. It was quite fun, and I managed to get up a few times. Luckily we werent in very deep water, so my ocean-phobia didnt set in too much. </div>
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Pemuteran!<br />
Once we left Kuta, we undertook a 5 hour journey to a place called Pemuteran, which is on the Northwest part of Bali. We all packed into a Toyota Avanza (not available in the US) and went up super windy and super narrow (I mean like two cars barely fit on the road narrow) roads. That centerline in the middle of a road is an exact measurement and tells drivers just how far another car will come out. Luckily I was asleep most of the time so I was not clinging for dear life as we narrowly avoided other cars/motorcycles/chickens/free falls.<br />
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I gotta say though, Pemuteran is one of the better bits of Bali. It's very small, and the scene is almost the opposite of Kuta. There is nothing to do here, in a good way. The hotel pool is about 20 feet from the ocean. The beach is very short and lined with chairs and trees. It is very calm and soothing to just sit on the beach and listen to the waves hit the shore. I especially enjoy that no one is in my face trying to sell me stuff. So, if you are into relaxing and beautiful, try out Pemuteran!<br />
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Today, I went out for a bit of snorkeling. I saw some fish, along with some coral, and I was back on shore kissing the ground. I love the ocean, I just dont love being inside of it. Afterwards I got a nice relaxing facial. Oh man, it was probably the most relaxed I have been in a while. I got some time to think and just not be around my family haha.<br />
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General Comments:<br />
So here is just some general observations I have made about my trip so far:<br />
-The drivers here are super scary, but they are also super good at driving. You feel like your life is about to come to an end at nearly every moment, yet these guys know the exact dimensions of their cars and are able to pull off some pretty crazy stuff. I dont think I ever want to drive here...<br />
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-The price of living is very cheap in Bali. Getting a nice house would probably cost under a thousand a month. The food is very cheap, roughly 5USD for a good meal. Alcohol, on the other hand, is quite expensive.<br />
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Anyways, more to come! I am enjoying this trip very much and you should all think about coming to Bali!</div>
arunabrown91http://www.blogger.com/profile/01772414059968574899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060247242149447402.post-60253080767299797642014-06-16T11:44:00.002-07:002014-06-16T11:44:49.671-07:00Going back to Indonesia!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am at the San Jose airport awaiting my flight to Tokyo, where I will catch a flight to Bangkok, wait for twelve hours, and then make my way to Bali. I believe my travling should be finished within two days...hooray! Anyways, just wanted to say I am bringing this blog back to life, and I'll post all about what I see and hear as I go through Indonesia and observe in the hospital again. Subscribe if you want to incessantly follow me :D</span>arunabrown91http://www.blogger.com/profile/01772414059968574899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060247242149447402.post-89049798271719785962011-07-17T22:54:00.000-07:002011-07-17T22:54:57.652-07:00Semarang so far...Well we left Jogjakarta a few days ago. We stopped by Muntilan, which is the town my mom grew up in, on our way to Semarang. We visited some old friends and then went over to the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtv_GAm5f3cNseiuEyAlMozP4A40Oufk-V-VwPmvEf9ivhX9jzzgSfSIYWH3-8tdTUrSGVBbVREHjJ4slShWF1mXFBE9Nafi-U0OKGEMk_Dr6qZjc-M6mTZ3gitwjlHcTPSK5El_7sDLrD/s1600/candi-mendut.jpg">Buddhist temple in Mendut </a>to visit the monk who is responsible for my name. Aruna is my Sanskrit name, and it is supposed to mean the morning light. But i heard this interesting story about the <a href="http://forums.steves-digicams.com/attachments/panasonic-leica/32328d1122810609-flower-cannon-ball-tree-naga5.jpg">Sala Flower</a>. Banta Panya (the monk) told us that on the bottom of the flower, there is a small mound that is supposed to represent the Buddha. Surrounding the mound is a lot of little stalks, which are supposed to represent the monks listening to his teachings. Above them are the longer stalks, which represent the deities. I thought it was pretty interesting. Then we started the long driver to Semarang (okay only 3 hours, but long in my mind). But driving in Indonesia isnt like driving in the US. hahahaha. There may be lines on the road, but they are mere suggestions as to where cars should be. A good was to describe it is to imagine the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhguwCSnIZc">Harry Potter night bus scene</a>. Then dont change anything. Except that every car is like the nightbus, there are more chickens, horses, and motorcycles, and the roadsigns dont really make much sense. So yeah, if you ever come to Indonesia, i suggest trying to sleep in the car, or at least close your eyes because you will get sick if you see the kind of crap that your driver is pulling (it's a constant game of chicken). I wish i was kidding. <br />
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Well we got to Semarang still alive somehow, and then we went to dinner at some vegetarian restaurant (didnt know they existed here). It is considerably hotter in Semarang than in Jogja and Bali, and there are a ton more mosquitoes. It's not like they carry any infectious diseases though right? oh wait....<br />
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The next day we spent bumming around town. We went to the Paragon mall, found that there is nothing there, and then my brother and I went to a game place to play some more games. After i developed a mild case of carpel tunnel syndrome, we went back to the paragon mall to eat. I had the luxury of eating food that made me cry because it was so freakin spicy (that was my fauly though. we had soup and i put in three helpings of chili sauce after my mom said it wasnt hot at all. Thanks Mom). Then something very strange happened to me.<br />
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I like to think of myself as someone who is perceptive and aware of their surroundings. Not much gets passed me. Well now im pretty sure there is a lot that does after what happened. Well we were waiting in a lobbyish place of a parking garage and i sat down on a bench/couch thing. This is what happened according to what i saw: I sat down at the edge of the bench. There was some guy next to me but not too close. I started playing with a balloon with my niece. The man got up at some point and some woman sat down in his place, she was dressed completely in black, but i ddint really see anything else. didnt see her face at all. I continued playing with the balloon and then my aunt comes and sits right next to me. I thought it was strange but didnt think much of it. Then we left. Here is the story according to my aunt and brother: When the man left and the woman dressed in black sat down, she was a prostitute seeing me as a potential victim. Not just a regular prostitute though, a transvestite prostitute wearing lots of heavy makeup. "She" kept making eyes at me and playing with her ear and stuff while looking directly at me. So my aunt came to my rescue and sat between us. I NEVER NOTICED THIS! After we left, my aunt told me about it. needless to say, i kind of freaked out and was quite surprised i never noticed a thing. So this means two things: prostitutes are so subtle that i would never be able to tell a prostitute from a regular person, and i am completely oblivious of my surroundings.<br />
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Well we then went home and i got foot reflexology done on me by my aunt. Usually a foot massage is a pleasant things and i was looking forward to it. She uses these little metal tools to get pressure points too. I guess i forgot how much they hurt. Things started well as she was reteaching me all the pressure points on the foot and what part of the body they correspond to (it is, after all, one of my objectives to learn reflexology again). Then she started using the metal things. It was so freakin painful, my entire foot went numb. But she said that was normal as i screamed out in pain. I dont think i have ever made anyone elses foot numb...at least i hope not. But she said my intestines were in pain cuz of the transition from vegetarian to eating meat again.<br />
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The next day (yesterday) we went to the fruit garden. I learned a lot about the different fruits that are grown in Indonesia. There is <a href="http://www.drgranny.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Dragon-Fruit.jpg">Dragon fruit</a> which kind of tastes like a less sweet kiwi,<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoFPHrXmQoOciTq91s6hz02b19zuVgFOKoontCfqRJsFe3QD1VRhKaiW2NJqfHU75-Ir0DjABP7qasoaAbIZKWvms2Jif1tnWQf-vndq5f9UTYdZQ-bZHOyTq7jgEQpkbbFzt6b5Ur87HS/s1600/rambutan-s.jpg"> Rambutan </a>(tastes like...hmm lychee sort of....), <a href="http://www.tuvy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/logan.jpg">Longan (like lychee</a> but with a pit that is hard to not eatcuz it sticks to the fruit), <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPKlGVYsbJdUqIkjalnSp9SnBZUjEkEObAxOB22wiKmE8DAIhP7JQeJ5aLszIeRrYz2c-VK1vAVq60PioP5nlxRYPEdkvL3VQQfwLgQr1D81_MQEsev4Msm_Qj86iSBtMIgBHqoXlEgyE/s1600/durian.jpg">Durian (the king fruit, tastes very interesting and smells so strong that most hotels wont allow them in the rooms)</a>, and Papaya. It was a very interesting tour. Very informational too, or at least im sure it was. If i could understand what the tour guide was saying i might be more help....<br />
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We left there and stopped by tofu making "factory" and had some interesting soy milk...then continued on our way to koepang. In Koepang, it isnt a billion degrees but a very chilly mid 70s. Oh, and there is a high ropes course with flying foxes and all sorts of aerial obstacles. It was so much fun. My hands had all sorts of blisters afterwards though haha. maybe ill upload some real pictures soon...maybe. If i can<br />
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Well that has been my days so far in Semarang. not sure what is up next but im sure itll be not boring.arunabrown91http://www.blogger.com/profile/01772414059968574899noreply@blogger.com2Semarang, Indonesia-6.9666667 110.41666669999995-7.0611997 110.29755319999995 -6.8721337 110.53578019999995tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060247242149447402.post-4823654660797332202011-07-14T07:26:00.000-07:002011-07-14T07:26:32.899-07:00BeechdaiWell i made it home yesterday haha, and i didnt even die one time! After the internet cafe yesterday, i met up with my mum and some of her friends at this <a href="http://www.batamtoday.com/media/news/Bakso_Kampung_Bule.jpg">bakso</a> place (bakso is a soup with what are essentially indonesian meatballs. one of my more favorite foods i must say. along with <a href="http://inforesep.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/sate-ayam-madura-lg-dipanggang.jpg">sate</a> , <a href="http://palantaminang.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/rendang.jpg">rendang </a>, and <a href="http://ipoenkcatering.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/gado.jpg">gado-gado </a>to name a few.). Then we had my moms friend's driver take us to find that damned computer game place. We eventually found it and played there for three hours! after my eyes started bleeding, we decided it was a good time to leave. We went back home and my mom took us out to dinner to get the famous fried chicken at Suharti's. I think they pressure cook it because you can eat the bones of the chicken. Not the bigger ones but the rib cage and all of he wing. Pretty nifty.<br />
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All we do on this trip is eat i swear. haha. if i dont come back 300 pounds heavier itll be a miracle. After dinner we went back home and slept.<br />
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This morning i finally did a mini workout and we went to the beach. We went to the south sea, however, which is a very treacherous place. treacherous as in you swim in the ocean, you die (i kid i kid...*cough*). Well it was a nice two hour driver from Jogjakarta and the beach we went to has sentimental value for my family. It is the place which we throw the family ashes into. Although we didnt swim in the water (seriously i was scared by just looking at the waves....but i get like that at home too so my word doesnt have much weight to it...), we were able to explore the tide pools. There was a lot of different colors and we got to see some sea urchins. I think i also saw a<a href="http://www.tideandcurrenttaxi.org/images/myownfreeway/joe/IMGP0791.JPG"> jellyfish with a sail </a>just sitting there. pretty cool stuff. We also ate more food on that beach haha.<br />
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Well those were some good adventures for the day. Tomorrow we are supposed to leave for Semarang, which is my final destination on this trip (ill be staying there till the 25th of August). But we are trying to stay one more night in Jogja. Who knows whatll happen.<br />
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-Aaron "Antelope" Brownarunabrown91http://www.blogger.com/profile/01772414059968574899noreply@blogger.com4Yogyakarta, Indonesia-7.797224 110.36879699999997-7.8339525 110.33848749999997 -7.7604955 110.39910649999997tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060247242149447402.post-59806001515593415652011-07-12T22:41:00.000-07:002011-07-12T22:41:09.376-07:00Jogjkarta!Well my Adventures in Bali are over. But my adventures on Java begin (Java is one of the islands in Indonesia. It is the one with Jakarta on it.) I did end up going surfing one last time yesterday. met quite a few people in the ocean, some dude from Holland and another guy from Japan. Didnt catch many waves (more like 3) but it was still fun nonetheless. I had to walk about 5 blocks in Bali in the sun and i was just roasting. I was sweating as if i had completed an intense workout. next time, perhaps, i will take a cab instead....But then we left Bali and came over to Jogjakarta, which is the big city near where my mom grew up.<br />
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So this morning my brother and i were trying to get to a place where you can play games online (like counterstrike and dota and whatnot). THe name is called Rumah Mirota.We have no clue as to where it is located and all we can say is "its a place you can play games." So we first took a <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRPE5e2sHG1T8adHAGMs3EL4IRtZNk6nXXccLqfl79rG1C9unF1Djj6t-kDumpdfqmD58t6XN60drHKxfRTLMv9YIqGs0lYyrAlQ9u8s_yhBXc2AkyihR4Mzxl5HBG72K9Q-3YSloq63sT/s1600/becak+jogjaicon+1ab.jpg">becak </a>, which is a carriage pushed by a bike rider. Now, the driver we had was old and pretty dainty. He was pushing these two rather large Americans in this carriage by a bike. I was scared he would die of exhaustion right on the spot. He did not, but he took us to this restaurant by the name of Rumah Mirota. We explained that this was the wrong place, so he then took us to a batik clothing store by the name of Rumah Mirota. We said that this was the place and just let him leave, as he clearly had no clue as to what we were talking about. My brother and i then walked a bit and asked another becak driver,(this <a href="http://www.google.co.id/imgres?imgurl=http://bulletinmetropolis.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/becak-motor.jpg&imgrefurl=http://bulletinmetropolis.com/home/%3Fp%3D2472&usg=__qnmRQHZQUWaa8W42aN84f3sHmdg=&h=300&w=400&sz=41&hl=id&start=0&sig2=Eujm1ELFXTLaJJ0D04bfJA&zoom=1&tbnid=fZsD2r14xTIHCM:&tbnh=157&tbnw=221&ei=ti4dTrSHMoLlrAfY9IygDA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dmotorized%2Bbecak%26um%3D1%26hl%3Did%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D604%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=165&vpy=256&dur=778&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=177&ty=104&page=1&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0">becak was different because it was motorized</a>) to take us to the game place. He said he knew it, and he drove us to a shopping mall by the name of Rumah Mirota Kampus. So, my brother an I, out ten bucks from transportation costs, just gave up and now we are at an internet cafe. Maybe, one day, we will find the place we are looking for....<br />
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I was at least slightly proud of myself though. I could kind of navigate a foreign city right? I mean, the places we went were of the same name. Its just like when you use autocorrect and it corrects bad to badger. sorta correct right? whatever.<br />
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So hopefully we will be able to find our way back to the hotel. Because honestly, i have no idea where we are right now. :D<br />
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-Aaron "A Hopelessly lost person" Brown arunabrown91http://www.blogger.com/profile/01772414059968574899noreply@blogger.com3Yogyakarta, Indonesia-7.797224 110.36879699999997-7.8339525 110.33848749999997 -7.7604955 110.39910649999997tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060247242149447402.post-61732259298423514972011-07-11T22:07:00.000-07:002011-07-11T22:07:38.411-07:00Klapa Klab and mooooooarNot really much more though. And there will be many spelling errors in this as the keyboard i am using is super sticky. I apologize.<br />
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Yesterday we had Padang foor for the first time since being in Indonesia. This is food from a certain region in Indonesia. The connotation, for me at least, is horrifically spicy. anyways i ate that super spicy stuff and it was quite tastey....er im sure it was if i had any taste buds left. Whats interesting though is the way they serve the food. Its like a pick and choose place but <a href="http://indonesia-ok.com/picts/about-2.jpg">they bring everything to your table</a>. You just eat what you want and get charged for what you take.<br />
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After that we went to <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq0uyG-RmdfwqOicQtbbiI8aBR5Glk6u-sioC0rm68c4as-qHV0RtZi1nJgTWsy9ww_9ECyO0U6W5zuvNyRpPE9uFl0fDMgwrfRGaJMzYt9k2-ZzEAU5EHv1zSWBiq7ln1OUjQcOrAmUat/s400/sunset.jpg">Klapa Klab</a>, which i think is an exclusive place with a pool and beach access. My mom had the hookups with her friend from college haha. The waves there are just brutal though. I mean, it's fun and all but if you dont pay attention you can just get slammed by a wave. My brother was wearing goggles and i was slightly ahead of him. I saw a huge wave coming so i ran towards it to get it before it broke. By brother wasnt so lucky. He got slammed. When he came up, his goggles were gone. I also lost a good pair of sandles to the unsatiable and wrathful ocean. RIP.<br />
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Today is our last day in Bali sadly, but then we go to Jogja tomorrow. im about to go to the beach again, who knows maybe ill surf once more....<br />
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-Aaron "Adder" Brownarunabrown91http://www.blogger.com/profile/01772414059968574899noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060247242149447402.post-25268377314522207952011-07-10T03:27:00.000-07:002011-07-10T03:27:36.211-07:00Kuta Beach!Woke up at 10 am this time. I just love sleeping in and wasting the day away....okay not really but we weren't doing anything today so i had nothing better to do. Anyways, we went out to lunch at this place called Furama, which is a Chinese seafood restaurant. Good stuff! I ate beef for the first time in a really long time. We'll see how it turns out tomorrow....After Lunch we went directly to the beach.<a href="http://www.google.co.id/imgres?imgurl=http://www.indonesia-travel-guides.com/gallery/kuta2.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.indonesia-travel-guides.com/kuta-beach-bali.htm&usg=__mVWSh1JNSzaw2RRoKQq-IjtM5fQ=&h=371&w=550&sz=199&hl=id&start=15&sig2=h8EapT0tOKrmwCOfSRiVxw&zoom=1&tbnid=fhbiTOkyCy9_RM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=164&ei=2X0ZTtK2JsPKrAfY08nPAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dkuta%2Bbeach%26um%3D1%26hl%3Did%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D558%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=475&page=2&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:15&tx=124&ty=113"> Kuta beach</a> to be precise. We sat on the sand and my mom got a massage, and then i got a massage. It felt okay, but for as cheap as it was, i couldnt complain. Afterwards, we got up and looked for a surf instructor. They wanted 25 bucks for an hour, but my mom bargained down to 13.....<br />
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Awlright, sew tewday eye tuk aye crak att tha wip four serfing! My Instructor was a dude by the name of (something i couldnt understand or remember) and he was ....26? anyways, luckily he knew how to speak English, although i think it would have been okay if he didnt. Well we go out into the ocean and he holds the board for me as i attempt to jump on. Success! i lay down on the board and he sees a wave that is just right. He tell me to paddle with my extremely weak arms as he pushes me. I catch the wave! now he tell me to stand up on the board. This bit is slightly trickier than the flailing around i was doing before. So i push with my arms off the board and get a foot underneath me. Okay, everything okay so far. Next foot now...uh oh im losing balance. I get the other foot on the board but i am already falling off the surf board. Sploosh! I feel like a newborn dear trying to stand on its feet. Well i run back out to my instructor as he laughs and laughs and we try again. This time i am able to stand on the board and take it all the way to the shore! I was excited. So this goes on for a few more times and now he refuses to help me. He tells me i need to catch my own waves, which i agreed to. I get on the board and paddle out a ways. He tells me to catch the next one. So i eggbeater with my legs to turn the board around and lay flat. I start to paddle as fast as i can (my arms just wont do it for me though) and i surprisingly catch the wave! I do that for a while and then there is a spell with no waves whatsoever. We wait there, the two of us, talking about various things. I tell him he should come out to California sometime as the surfing is nice there too. He informed me that he is originally from Sumatra, another island in Indonesia, and he has only been living in Bali for three years. He said he moved to Bali because he loved the surfing. So now he is a grom.<br />
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Well that was a fun Experience. I highly suggest surfing if you ever find yourself in Bali. The waves arent bad and the instructors are very friendly. Also, it is super cheap out here. Oh, and the water is really warm! dont even need a wetsuit.<br />
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Tomorrow is my last day in Bali, not sure what we will do yet. Perhaps we will go Visit <a href="http://www.google.co.id/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq-kDNbR-a0xuYnqy6oHhKSeeIZxLcJowqeZ75jVAJSkSpHsDu33Jf9xtgwuSKsRPnzG74hqvghoaVgy2Kxpzu6tVlUv8kduniQ8bA-_ydSPdcn-aOpFSWKM-JO-UpBk4xl-yd8v2iACY/s1600/other+side+of+uluwatu.jpg&imgrefurl=http://balibeloved.blogspot.com/2009/11/uluwatu.html&usg=__CGHodZxZ8TOBoqE8sC8LBL_6teA=&h=392&w=650&sz=53&hl=id&start=0&sig2=1GDqhUPuwNJQtwU2bmGFgQ&zoom=1&tbnid=BUDEppaWmFLOIM:&tbnh=100&tbnw=166&ei=rH0ZTqf0IceJrAed24HQAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Duluwatu%26um%3D1%26hl%3Did%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D558%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=335&vpy=160&dur=1913&hovh=174&hovw=289&tx=200&ty=89&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:13,s:0">Uluwatu. </a><br />
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-Aaron "Abalone" Brownarunabrown91http://www.blogger.com/profile/01772414059968574899noreply@blogger.com4Pantai Kuta, Pujut, Indonesia-8.894189299999999 116.26870789999998-48.7317498 56.503082899999981 30.9433712 176.03433289999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060247242149447402.post-80567438898953821672011-07-09T07:25:00.000-07:002011-07-09T07:25:50.627-07:00Visit to Ubud!I have completely lost track of time since coming here. I dont have a watch and i am unable to tell time with a 24 hour clock (anything past 12 is just too confusing). But i think i slept in the most i have this entire trip (all the way to 9am!). didnt do much this morning though. I did take my first official Indonesian Shower though! So what we do is we take a bucket. Fill it with warm water. Get a smaller pail and scoop water out of the bigger bucket. That's it. You use far less water this way, esp since heating water is quite harder to do here. So say what you will of the techinique, it's golden.<br />
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So after my induction to Indonesian hygenic habits (they also use bidets, which i use too now) i had some bread and waited around till we decided to go to ubud. Ubud is, to my knowledge, a small mountain village. It is home to the monkey forest, which is a forest.... that has monkeys in it. We didnt go into the forest this time just because we have done so many times beforehand. The monkeys are naughty and steal anything you have. they can even get into you backpack and take things from there. So, needless to say, it is something you only want to do a few times. well we went to ubud and...shopped. I bought a little painting for my room, but we didnt do much else. We had dinner at a restaurant called Warung Wayan and i ordered the <a href="http://www.balibreizhdivers.com/assets/images/nasi-campur.jpg">Nasi Campur</a>, which is a sample dish that has rice and a ton of different other dishes. Then we got lost on our way back and took super long to get home haha...<br />
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I have also been put on duty for helping to take care of the little tykes. The kids are so cuuute. But i gotta say, the 18 month old definitely has a nice set of lungs. She can shriek when she is upset. And the 4 year old can definitely be mean sometimes haha. I guess that is just the way kids are. <br />
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So anyways I have been here for a day or so and here is what i am noticing again about Bali and Indonesia in general:<br />
SO MANY MOTORCYCLES! seriously there are too many! They are like cockroaches weaving in and out of every nook and cranny. With <a href="http://www.picturescolourlibrary.co.uk/loreswithlogo/2029252.jpg">5 people on them</a>! I think it is because they are so much cheaper than buying a car. I mean if you can fit 5 people on a motorcycle, whats the point of owning a car right?<br />
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When you are shopping around for stuff, you must bargain to get a good price. There was a pair of sunglasses (obvies fake) that someone wanted to sell to me for 50000 rupiah (a little more than 5 USD as the exchange is 8500 rupiah = 1 USD). I got it down to 5000 rupiah. I mean, i still didnt want to buy it but thats not the point lol.<br />
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Anyways, tomorrow i think we are going to the beach to take surfing lessons or something. Hopefully i dont get swallowed up by the seaaaaaaaa!arunabrown91http://www.blogger.com/profile/01772414059968574899noreply@blogger.com2Denpasar, Indonesia-8.65629 115.22209900000007-8.733804000000001 115.17150600000006 -8.578776 115.27269200000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060247242149447402.post-75482949239102432412011-07-08T07:54:00.000-07:002011-07-08T07:54:28.507-07:00Finally! Bal(l)i(n')!After i last wrote, we stayed our last night in Phuket. I bought one more banana and Cheese pancake thingy and went to bed. We woke up at 7 am the next morning to go for a morning swim in the ocean. Now most people probably think that swimming in the ocean without a huge crowd of people in it is great. I am under the assumption, however, that the less people that are in the ocean with you, the higher your chances of getting maimed/killed/eaten/stung/hurt/injured/burned/electrocuted/defenestrated by local marine life goes way up. Luckily none of those things happened for my little swim, but it could have! Worse thing that happened was i was attacked by a soggy piece of bread. Still very scary but much less lethal. Then we had our final breakfast at our hotel and packed. Oh, did i mention that we recovered our lost luggage? Apparently Frisco sent them to Honk Kong for some reason. So we were paid 400 bucks as hush money i assume and we were on our way. We were reunited in Phuket so everything worked out. Anyways, after packing our stuff up again, we got on a taxi and left for the airport.<br />
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Our taxi driver was extremely friendly. Most of the time we sit in an awkward silence, asking occasional questions to the driver. Of course the driver has no clue we are trying to speak to him, so our questions fall on deaf ears and we just give up all together. Not this guy though. He talked so much about the different fruit that grew in thailand and where it grew best. Probably would have been better if i could understand him, but i gut the gist of it. Well we got to the airport, took off with air asia, and flew into Bangkok once again. We had all our luggage, then we went to our hotel (same hotel as our last stay a few days before) and the taxi driver was again silent as a stone. Got to the hotel, went for a swim, then hit the town. We bought some fruit and ate diner and a pretty nice place in the food court of a mall (seriously though it was good thai food). Bangkok was very hot! then we did nothing and woke up at 5 the next day to get to the airport yet again. We arrived in Bali and met up with some family. We went to one of my mother's friends house from college (a trillion years ago) and we went downtown for some food. I got to get to know their kids, Neva and Felicia who are 4 and 18 months respectively. So cute! Ill show some pictures once i can. Anyways, tata!<br />
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-Aaron "anteater" Brownarunabrown91http://www.blogger.com/profile/01772414059968574899noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060247242149447402.post-38110753814281537932011-07-06T04:41:00.000-07:002011-07-06T04:41:12.985-07:00Journey to Phi Phi Island!So last Night my family and I hit the town of Kata Beach in Phuket. We stayed out way past our bedtimes till 10 oclock! Bought some small souvineers and im getting a tailored suit! We went to this massage parlor and it was very very painful, in a good way though(well at least afterwards it felt nice. During the massage...not so much). Much harder to bargain in thailand than in Indonesia. Perhaps this is attributed to the fact that i know how to speak indonesian but cant speak a lick of thai...whatever. We also got this thing that was kind of like a crepe. Inside was banana and cheese which turns out to taste really good (seriously try it. the two pair very well together). We then went home and immediately fell asleep because we had to wake up at 5:30 am (again!) to get ready for our adventures to pee pee island. I mean Phi Phi island.<br />
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Our breakfast was at the hotel. I swear every tropical ish hotel that is big enough has the same type of breakfast deal: an egg station where you can get whatever you want that was eggs, some kind of weird sausage looking stuffs that you really should learn to avoid by the 15th time but still havent, fried rice, fried noodles, some kind of chicken pooridge that was clearly been left cooking for far too long, "bacon", either french toast or waffles i have never seen pancakes, salad (why salad is served for breakfast is beyond me. I still partake however), lots of fruit (mostly pineapple, papaya, dragon fruit, and watermelon and cantelope), sweet pastry items, and some other traditional food. I am not complaining, im just saying its all the same wherever you go.<br />
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We then took a rather long bus ride to Phuket town where we disembarked on the pee pee cruiser, which was this luxurious ocean liner with many many ammenities....haha no. it was a rather nice boat with three stories. Thats about it. Oh and it had TVs with which they could play this commercial for some product that keeps your ipod dry when you go to the beach (because nothing says your sexy like a lanyard around your neck with your ipod when you are at the beach ) and Mr Bean. I dont know which program was more insufferable. So that took a good 2 hours and we got to see the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRKav8FtlMFw0tEx3q5PIHYd_0OHhwDi1kbqTUHt6p8y9THp2HnjkCYPIvY-upPl59xSouch_zU9Vu1Y8EUeN5rPQX5xEtPnWPKTei7ZTo7iqzTWnIs-kcAghhYqjfcqs7-xunC5NL5kc/s1600/phi-phi-island-1.jpg">Beautiful Phi Phi Islands</a>. Then we finally got to go Snorkeling around 11 am (that is 4 hours of traveling beforehand). Let me just start that i am terrified of fish. No idea why, i am just scared that they will amass and as a single unit, engulf me and leave nothing. Slightly irrational but i still cling to that belief. So when i went out today, with the 50 or so people, i was hesitant at first. It did not help that the damned things looked a little like piranhas. But i did it anyway and jumped in and swam around for about an hour. I just always made sure i was not the furthest person in one direction and kept my arms and legs as close to myself as possible. There were some schools of fish that swam into me but none, thankfully, brutally murdered me.<br />
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Then we took this rather dingy looking <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVd5vz4JwxT1gzAhn2Q8l6tQImLqA4TuYc8WaG_s6rmycPQ3T4aJ9y-ZmXlpdnLZxnL44gMWAsqxIKr5VN3lsnGZ1Knlo-KqLfAf-C0g1gWtEEUbDDrD5zSSFu0Rw7cB_JKsR78FT-wF0/s1600/Phi_Phi-Boat_on_Phi_Phi_Island-Main.jpg">boat</a> across the bay and into a small island, one of the pee pee's. We had a buffet lunch there (some thai steamed vegetables, sweet and sour fish, "fried" chicken, rice, and spaghetti. which one doesnt fit) Oh yeah, i eat meat now. just chicken though. too scared to go for anything else. Lunch was good though and then i layed down on the nice, searing beach. I dont know how common it is in the states, but usually when i go onto the beach and lie down, i am relaxed and comfortable. Its a very different reality here. I lie down for two minutes and it is really hot and i am sweating buckets. i turnover just to see sweat dripping off me and onto my towel. I look at the person next to me and see that they are covered in sweat too. It looks like they are cooking in the sun since they have this very discomforted look on their face. But i figure that it's the norm and i stay put, literally cooking on the sand. My left arm started tingling and i couldnt see anymore since sweat was in my eyes so i figure its a good idea to jump in the ocean out of fear of overheating. So i jump in and see some people next to me. I make a remark about how i think i see flying fish and they respond in this unintelligible babble of a language. I give them a confused look, they give me a confused look, and i ask them where they are from. No so sure what they said, but i heard "australia" in the mix and all of a sudden i was relieved. They werent speaking English to me, they were speaking Australian. So i pretended to understand and told them i was from California after they gave me a series of gestures and grunts that i took to be "where are you from". Then we all got on the big boat and came back to phuket. All in all, i would say it was a rather nice trip, but there was far too much traveling and the snorkeling wasnt super great (i went to bali last last year and saw much better things and had to do no traveling whatsoever (i mean aside from the initial traveling to bali(which i just wont count because that's silly))). Hopefully I'll survive another night! And look at this pictures of <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/James_Bond_island.jpg">James Bond Island</a>. It's neat! 5 points if you know what movie it's from!<br />
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-Aaron "Applefish(thats a real thing right?)" Brownarunabrown91http://www.blogger.com/profile/01772414059968574899noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060247242149447402.post-63895071723446328952011-07-05T00:32:00.000-07:002011-07-05T00:32:28.244-07:00Phuket (pronounced Poo-ket(hehe))Hey! i am in Thailand now, more specifically on the island of Phuket. Geographically i have no clue as to where i am in relation to the equator or really any country. And i am too lazy to look it up. Anyways ill tell you all about the flight....<br />
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It was boring and long as...something that could be described as really long. Flew out of Frisco on July 3rd at like 1130AM. Flight took about 12 hours and we arrived at 2:30pm on the 4th of July (HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOMINIC!) into Beijing. I couldnt stop thinking about how I was in pressurized aluminum can travelling at 600 mph about 7 miles above ground. It helped me sleep. Then our next flight left at 5:05 pm and we arrived in Bangkok at 9:00 pm. We arrived to find that our airline lost 4 out of 5 suitcases along the way (luckily the one we did have half of my stuff)....so that kind of sucked. Still no word as to where the luggauge is...they claim Beijing but i dont doubt it was stolen (it would be extremeley easy to steal baggage anywhere for that matter).<br />
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We stayed a night in Bangkok, woke up at 5:30 am and we rushed to the airport to get to Phuket, just barely making it to the gate on time. So Now i am on Phuket, a really small island that i assume is in the Pacific Ocean? We are going to go to an island Phi Phi(pronounced Pee Pee (hehehe)) off the coast tomorrow to go snorkeling and shtuff. I would love to post pictures of my adventures....but i dont have a camera. Plus i wouldnt know how to do that...posting pictures. <br />
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Just a few things that i think i have learned these two days of traveling:<br />
-When speaking to people who dont understand your language very well, only talk about one idea at a time. Anything more will confuse the hell out of them<br />
Actually that's all i will talk about. Now im going to try and relax by lounging at the pool :D see ya!<br />
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-Aaron "Alligator" Brownarunabrown91http://www.blogger.com/profile/01772414059968574899noreply@blogger.com1Phuket, Thailand7.9843109 98.3307468000000435.1942919 97.209890800000039 10.7743299 99.451602800000046tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3060247242149447402.post-28984837886082594312011-07-02T16:59:00.000-07:002011-07-02T16:59:47.252-07:007/2/2011 Pre-FlightI am sitting on the back porch of my home in Watsonville, listening to the Beatles and hanging out with the fam fam (my brother happens to be eating some steak to my right). I leave my house tomorrow morning at 7 am (my santa cruz house) and my flight leave SF at sometime thereafter. I have definitely thought about packing for my trip, none of those dreams have manifested themselves into any actual packing yet but within a few hours im sure panic will set in and ill pack like the wind. Anywho, this was more of a test blog to see if i could actually do it. OH! if you want anything from Indonesia, leave a comment (i think you can do that) saying what you want. I'll see what i can do about getting my hands on it. And no, i will not bring back anything that breathes. Ta-Ta!<br />
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-Aaron "Aardvark" Brownarunabrown91http://www.blogger.com/profile/01772414059968574899noreply@blogger.com3