It’s amazing how exciting life can be, just traveling from one little island to another. I had such a good time in Bali, caught up with friends, stayed a few days near the beach in Legian and then moved up to the hills in Ubud, had some good laughs and even managed to get some work in the http://www.balispiritfestival.com/ Bali Spirit Festival. It’s a nice place and has a different feel to Samui…in Bali you’ve got waves so there are lots of surfers running around - it’s kind-of fun to see all the tourists in their surf camp lessons on the beach every morning. It’s also a Hindu island, so instead of Buddhas you see Ganesh’s everywhere, definitely know from that alone that you’re not in Thailand anymore. The festival was great, just wish I had more time to enjoy it all! Next time….
My last night in Bali was good fun, I had a free night at the Four Seasons Resort!! Below are my video clips from my villa, what a great little crash pad, not a place place to watch the time slip away!
Even though I’ve been to Bangkok many times now as it’s pretty much the’home base’ for travelling in SE Asia, there is still always something new to see or experience here. Last night it was an elephant crossing 6 lanes of traffic in downtown Bangkok with a reflector sticker stuck to it’s tail. It was the reflector sticker actually that made it so damn funny.
So I’m back in Bangkok from Indonesia now…running around and doing all my post-one trip and pre-next trip errands - resupplying toiletries, swapping out old books for new ones, downloading all the pictures from the camera, and hopefully having time to catch a film at Siam Centre or the World Trade Center. Oh yeah, gotta do a software/Playstation 2 run at Pantip Plaza as well, filling in some orders for some folks at home. The later tonight I’m meeting Dad at the airport - yeah! Really excited to see him. His flight gets in pretty late, like 11:30pm, and I told him I’d just meet him at his hotel, but I think I am going to surprise him and meet him at the airport. It’ll be a short stay in Bangkok for him as tomorrow we’re on a 7am flight to Ko Samui, an island on the Gulf side of southern Thailand.
Hey Kathy, do you remember when we crossed the border at Mae Sot into Burma back in October? Mainly because I had never actually WALKED into a different country and I thought it would be cool to go to Burma for the day? Well, it’s a good thing we did it when we did because I was reading in the paper today that Burma closed all of it’s land borders with Thailand yesterday, leaving tourists and Thai merchants stranded on the Burmese side! Man am I so glad that we weren’t there for that. Seems it was a statement against recent artillery fighting between Thailand and Burma. No word yet on when or if they will be re-opened…
Ubud, Bali. I’ve been shopping ALL day and am now officially silver jeweleryed, saronged, batiked, incensed, Buddha-ed, Vishnu-ed, carvinged, wicker bagged, and local arted OUT!
No, I don’t need transport, Thank You. No, I don’t want a wooden box or mask. Thanks, but I don’t want to buy the newspaper or a map. I’m going THAT way Thank You. I’m from America.
I’m exhausted!
And all I bought in the end was a silver ring and a couple of pairs of earrings. It WAS fun though…I have to admit there is really good shopping in Ubud. And I’m quite sure that after I have a good rest tonight, I will be out and about again early tomorrow morning before I have to leave and head back to Kuta to catch my flight to Bangkok.
The locals here aren’t actually THAT aggressive about buying stuff either. Well, except about the transport thing and that’s mostly because there is no official taxi or bus service in town so literally every other guy you pass is trying to make a quick rupiah by offering transport. You can’t really blame them I guess.
The real reason why I give kudos to this town though is for the BAGEL I had today - a real, authentic, dense, tasty, toasted sesame bagel (with hummus)! It was at an all-organic restaurant which of course I just had to check out. When I saw bagels on the menu, I thought hmmm, should I? I mean, it’s the first time in 7 months I’ve even see them on a menu, and hell, if it sucks well it’s only 50 cents lost and I’ll just order something else. So I tried, and it was PERFECT! I will always remember Ubud for that. Who would have ever thought, best bruschetta in Vietnam, best coffee in Thailand, and now best bagel in Indonesia!
Ubud, Bali. So now I’m in this nice little town called Ubud which is inland from the beach, and is every bit as good as everyone says. There are lots of cafes, good restaurants, nice shops, and museums here. I’m spending one full day here tomorrow and then I’ll be on my way back to Bangkok after that.
Yesterday was a GREAT day of diving in Bali. First of all, I can say that I would highly recommend Euro Dive, the dive center in Amed that we used for our dives. They are so nice and their dive master was really, really good.
We did 2 dives at Tulamben, first at the Drop-Off (or reef wall), and then at the famous U.S.S. Liberty Wreck. The Drop-Off dive was good…we went to a maximum depth of 26 meters. There was a lot of nice and interesting coral on the wall, but nothing really unusual or spectacular. Still it was a good dive with very little current and decent visibility (about 15 meters). Our group was small, just myself, Joni, a Frenchman, and the divemaster, and there were only a handful of other divers at the site. What a nice change after diving in Malaysia with over 100 other divers!!
The second dive was amazing. This particular wreck, the U.S.S. Liberty, is 120 meters long (395 feet) and is less than 40 meters from the shore! It was torpedoed by the Japanese in 1942 and towed to Bali, but it became beached at Tulamben. Then, in 1963 when the volcano Agung erupted, earthquakes from the eruption caused the ship to turn belly-up and sink. It’s a diver’s paradise, being such a big vessel and close enough to the shore that you can do a beach entry.
We were so lucky too that there were only about 20 other divers there. Our divemaster told us that in high season (June, July) there are over 120 divers in the water at any given time!
It was just Joni and I who went diving yesterday… Anton isn’t certified but he STILL wasn’t feeling well anyway and wound up staying in bed ALL day feeling weak and generally ill. Well, Joni and him went back to Kuta today since Joni flies out tomorrow and Anton really wanted to go to the clinic. It’s a really good thing he went, because I got an email from him already saying that the doctor told him he has Dengue Fever!! Dengue is similar to Malaria, also transmitted by mosquitos, although usually it is from daytime mosquitos. It can be fairly serious if not treated, and sometimes (although rarely) fatal. In any case he is really, really lucky that he went to the clinic. Anton, hope you are feeling better now!
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I’ve just finished adding photos from 4.28.02 to the most recent journal entry of 5.20.02. That covers mainly Malaysia, Thailand (Ko Samui), and Indonesia. There are a few pics before that that I still have to add but I don’t have that disc on me at the moment (to be updated later). To view the pics, please click on’Journal’ at the top of this page and then scroll to the’Last’ entry and work your way back.
Hope you enjoy!!
Does this look like a guy with Dengue Fever (answer: yes)…poor Anton!
