Trip Update #7

Warning!!! Warning!!! Contents of this e-mail may not be nearly as exciting as previous e-mails with similar subject lines. But the experience is better, and I'm happy for that. Monday, June 24th I lost a lot of weight today. Unfortunately, it was weight from my backpack - I sent home about 5.7 kg of clothes that I won't need for the remainder of the trip because of climate differences. Now my backpack doesn't even feel like it's there. Today is transition day (T-Day for those of you who cannot exist without some sort of acronym in your lives). We officially transitioned from a modern Western-style civilization to third world nations, where we will spend the remainder of the trip. Fortunately, this also comes with the benefit of being less costly. We arrived on the island of Bali, Indonesia at about midnight. Okay - geography check here... how many of you actually knew that Bali is an island and not the name of a city? That's what I thought. Yeah, yeah, I know. Flying into Bali isn't exactly throwing ourselves into the middle of nowhere of a poverty-stricken nation, but I wasn't complaining. Upon arriving to Bali, we were met full-force with the realization that we are in a completely different world. Since we did not have onward plane tickets out of Indonesia, we had to slip a little cash under the table to get our visa to get in. Otherwise, I'd be writing you from the airport right now. Our next rude awakening occurred moments later when a porter who grabbed our luggage asked for a 50,000 Rupiah tip (8500 Rp = $1 US). The absolute most he should get tipped is 5000 Rp, but I wasn't in much of a mood for fussing so I settled for 10,000 Rp to get him out of our way so we could get to the hotel and catch some sleep. Checked into the hotel in Kuta on the island of Bali somewhere around 1:30 a.m.. This was a much fancier place than I had actually anticipated staying at - 180,000 Rp for the two of us for one night. But it was nice to stay in comfortable bed in an air-conditioned room after a long day. Since it's so cheap in Southeast Asia, it's unlikely that we'll often have to stay in shared facilities accommodations like we did all of Australia and New Zealand. Tuesday, June 25th Woke up and met Brian (Rayman's friend from business school), who'll be with us until we get to Bangkok in late June. At that time, both Rayman and Brian will fly home and leave me all to my lonesome. Please do your best to hold back your tears. Kuta is a tourist trap. Pretty much full of beach-going tourists, everything required to cater to these tourists' whims, and that's about it. As such, it was our intent to get the heck out of there as soon as possible. So, we headed to Ubud about 40 km or so north. From here, we will explore the rest of the island and hopefully see some Balinese culture. We were aboard a so-called luxury bus for our 3-hour journey. Along the way, we picked up so many people that there were backpacks all through the aisles and people sitting wherever it was possible. Having experienced much worse overcrowded transportation systems in India, this brought back fond memories. I think Rayman and Brian were a little shell-shocked. In Ubud, we decided to stay at a local fellow's little Bed & Breakfast type place for Rp 25,000 each. Pretty cheap. Our first agenda item for the day was to walk through the Monkey Forest, where a bunch of monkeys wait for you to walk by and hand over your food. If you are dumb enough to hold onto your food, the monkeys WILL get it. They're very good at this. Rayman and Brian loved this place. But since monkeys are evil, I was a little indifferent. But I did like the forest aspect - it looked like a jungle out of the movies, complete with an ancient Hindu temple situated in a narrow crevice at the bottom of a valley where a stream flowed. I don't even know how to describe this place to you. It was just cool. So, for those of you trying to picture all of this at home, now would be the time to say "wow" so that we can continue with our story. Wednesday, June 26th We hired the owner of the place we were staying at to drive us around a bit to see the sights. Most of these sights were old and had something to do with Hinduism - an old cave temple, a Hindu relief carved in the side of a small cliff, a temple at the bottom of a very large valley, and a bunch of temples near a volcano (which erupted about 15 years ago, destroying many of the 1000+ year old structures) collectively called Pura Besakih, otherwise known as the "mother temple". I personally have no idea what "mother temple" really means with respect to the practice of Hinduism. I guess they just meant to emphasize the fact that this was a large complex of temples. Perhaps the monikers "kick-ass temple" or "da bomb" were already taken by other temples in the region and this one had to scrape by with whatever was remaining. The food here so far has been rather exceptional. Went to a buffet for lunch, where Brian apparently somehow obtained a bottomless stomach and had eight servings of food. Perhaps he just wanted to make sure he got his money's worth. I think he did. Brian is not a large human being by the way - about 170 lbs. Rayman and I immediately fell to my knees and praised "we're not worthy" to him. Thursday, June 27th Slept in today. Unfortunately, the neighborhood roosters don't quite understand the meaning of sunrise and were pretty much crowing all night long (like the Lionel Richie song). It's times like these that I'm thankful for the invention of earplugs. I got these from Rayman, and not from work, so I can't get fired for stealing company property. Brian went out on his own to buy some traditional Balinese paintings, while Rayman and I went shopping to get some lightweight pants and shorts for the remainder of the trip. At one of the shops, we had the pleasure of meeting the most beautiful saleslady in Bali. Cute face, wonderful smile, long wavy black hair, the right height (meaning shorter than me!), 23 years of age, and of course a great body. She even called me handsome! (I refuse to believe that this was a ploy to get me to buy something. If it was, she was successful.) Then I found out that she was married and my day was ruined. We boarded a bus at 6pm to leave the island of Bali and enter the island of Java. We were on our way to Probolinggo in the eastern part of Java, from where we were planning on seeing the sunrise the next morning over the Mt. Bromo volcano and surrounding mountains. Unfortunately, we were delayed by 4 hours at the ferry terminal and didn't make it there until 6am or so. Friday, June 28th In the bus were two other tourist couples who were planning on doing the same thing as we were. So, the seven of us pooled our buying power into getting larger discounts for everything in the area - transportation, hotel accommodations, jacket rentals, everything. This was fun. We headed up to a small village at the base of the mountains where we checked in and took a nap. Buses are not the easiest places in the world to catch some zzzzz's. I thought it was rather interesting that this bus had more legroom than I have ever had in a bus, especially in a country that was full of short people like me. After napping, we walked around and enjoyed the scenery. Being that we were already about 1000+ meters above sea level, it started getting really really chilly outside. Pretty amazing considering how warm it has been otherwise. Saturday, June 29th Woke up at 2:30 am to hike up a mountain to a lookout point to see the sunrise at 5:30 am. Okay I lied. Since I napped for so long the previous afternoon, I couldn't sleep at all. So I pulled an all-nighter. So, here we were, 5 of us hiking up a hill in the middle of the night. Surprisingly enough, we didn't need a flashlight - the moon was directly overhead and was radiating more than enough light. This made for a rather surreal hike along with a clear sky and stars that went forever. With me were a Canadian couple that we had met on the bus and two British girls that I had never met (Rayman and Brian decided to be driven up the mountain by jeep). Turns out that this Canadian guy, who happened to be half Indian, was born on the same exact day as me - July 1st, 1974. (By the way, that means that for most of you, today is my birthday. So get sending me those e-birthday cards already.) This guy told me that July 1st is Canada Day, and so he was bragging that the entire country celebrates his birthday. Entire country? What - all 18 1/2 people? That's not a country, that's a suburb. I topped him by explaining that the entire world celebrates my half birthday every year by going to parties and getting drunk and lighting fireworks and even making resolutions that they will never keep. (For those of you not well versed in the art of using a calendar and basic 2nd grade math, my half birthday is on January 1st, otherwise known as New Years Day.) The sunrise was spectacular. No other words to describe it. Just a lot of pictures. This digital camera was an excellent pre-trip purchase. After getting back to the hotel and packing up, the three of us began a 9 hour journey in a minivan to Yogyakarta. This minivan had air conditioning. But there was a minor technical issue in that this air conditioning didn't work. So, we had to leave the windows open the entire trip, during which passing buses and trucks gave us large presents of toxic gas to breathe in and irreparably damage our lungs. Gee. And you thought New York City driving was bad. Our driver was nuts, but he got us to our destination in one piece. Rayman even refused to sit on the right side of the minivan (the side facing the oncoming traffic - yes, these people drive on the wrong side of the road) because he was scared that we were going to hit another vehicle. The roads here have one very simple rule – size is king. If you are in the larger vehicle, you have the right of way. No ifs, ands, or buts. Lane demarcations mean nothing. They should really just save the paint and leave the road blank. But in the midst of all this seeming chaos, I never saw a single accident. And the overall volume through these roads is far greater than any road in the US because of the lack of enforced rules. Makes you wonder if we got it right or if they do. Checked into a place in the heart of Yogyakarta. We've pooled our resources and got the VIP poolside room with an extra bed for about Rp 170,000 - still less than $8 per day per person. Can't beat it. Actually, we could stay in a room as little as Rp 20,000 per person if we wanted to. Sunday, June 30th Hung out in Yogyakarta all day. Walked along the streets a little, rode in the bicycle rickshaws (as little as Rp 1000 for 1/2 km), visited the sultan's palace grounds, and checked out a local Batik art gallery - where all three of us made some nice purchases. And, of course, we watched Brazil beat Germany in the World Cup finals. Great game. Wish you folks at home were actually awake to see it. We've decided to go directly to Malaysia from here. The initial plan was to go west and explore the Indonesian island of Sumatra before heading over to Singapore. But because of time constraints, we're just going to cut out Sumatra and Singapore. Supposedly, there's nothing really that great about Singapore anyway - other than the zoo. But certainly it cannot compare with the world-class zoo we have in Cincinnati. This also means that I'll get one less visa stamp in my passport. What a shame. I can't believe that my trip is half over already. That sucks. Somehow it still feels like an extended vacation. On the other hand, I can't imagine having to go back to work anytime soon. Thank goodness that I have almost two more months to come to grips with this reality. Tidbits: 1. Everything is negotiable here. Nothing is really a fixed price (with the possible exception of postage stamps). We even bargained down the price of a buffet at a restaurant. To newcomers, this bargaining thing can become addictive quite quickly. Brian met one person who has been buying things that she didn't need just because of the thrill of getting a much much lower price than initially quoted. Something tells me that she's not the real winner in these transactions. 2. The rapid Westernization of countries like Indonesia has left its mark. The government is ill equipped to deal with things like the overcrowded highways, excessive pollution from vehicles, and litter lining each and every street and highway. Indeed it makes you wonder whether or not it is truly in the people's interests to rapidly Westernize these societies, or is it in the corporations' best interests. The two are not the same. You get the real sense that the rich just got richer and the poor just got poorer. 3. There are hawkers absolutely everywhere. You can't walk down the street without someone walking up to you trying to sell you something. There are even hawkers shoving things through the windows while you're at the gas stations. Just like India. In a strange way, I feel very much at home here. So much at home that it feels weird not being able to converse with the locals in my broken Hindi or my parents' native language of Marathi.