The end of Bali, and the Beginning of Java

~Pemuteran (Contd)~
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.

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.

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.

~Ubud~
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.

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 :(

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

~Surabaya~
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.

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.

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.

~Batu~
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.

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....

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.

~General  Comments~
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...

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.

Well, thats all for now. Stay tuned!

Oh man! What an adventure it has been so far. I'll break up what happened into segments.

Travel!

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.

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. 

Kuta Beach!

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.  

Pemuteran!
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.

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!

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.

General Comments:
So here is just some general observations I have made about my trip so far:
-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...

-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.

Anyways, more to come! I am enjoying this trip very much and you should all think about coming to Bali!

Going back to Indonesia!

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