It’s official, I am too old for staying in hostels. The top bunk was too much. I didn’t hurt myself, but it made me quite grumpy. Then I have to go upstairs to go to the bathroom. My suitcase is in a locker so I have to figure out what I need and throw it up to the top bunk and if I forget something go through the whole locker process again. I know first world problems. Still, I got in around 3:00 and it was a room full of snoring men. I put my ear plugs in, but it wasn’t enough. The sound resistant walls were useless. They were air condition resistant walls though. So, even though the air conditioning was on, it didn’t reach me. Someone packed up all their stuff and left at 4:00am. This involved a ridiculous amount of in and outs and my bed is right next to the door. Then other people got up at 6:00am and more at 8:00am. So, I barely slept. Last night, one of my new friends offered that I could stay with her in the future. I emailed her. The future starts tonight. I went looking for the breakfast that comes with my room and didn’t find that so I promptly checked out and caught a cab to Judy’s. Now I have a queen sized bed and bathroom to myself with air condition that works.
Another travel day. I left Bali way too early. I told my hotel when my flight was and they called a taxi for me. I basically went an hour too early. Oh well, time enough to get some food.
When I decided to go to Singapore, it was just me. Two of my friends told me they knew someone there and put me in touch with these people. They both gave me pointers on what part of town to stay in and said they’d love to hang out in the evenings. Yay! New Friends!
Singapore is so expensive. I couldn’t find a hotel under $100 a night. Hostels ran $28+ per night. I found a hostel that said they had sound resistant walls and looked all futuristic and high tech so I decided to book there. I arrived and the place was so hot. The place has air conditioning, but none of it was on. By the time I had settled in and changed clothes, I was sweating so bad that outside seemed like a cooler option. The beds don’t look all futuristic, but they still look pretty cool. Unfortunately, I got a top bunk. Hope I don’t kill myself in the middle of the night.
So far, I like Singapore. It is a very clean and safe city. There are trees and gardens everywhere. The streets aren’t crazy like all the other places I’ve been lately. They drive like civilized people and stay within their own lane and follow basic traffic rules. Most large cities I’ve been in have an aggressive feeling to them and I figured it was just the hustle and bustle of a big city. Singapore has hustle and bustle, but without the aggressive feeling. Also, all the buildings are unique and have quite a bit of an artistic quality to them.
I headed out to find my way to dinner. One of my new friends set up a dinner with me, his boyfriend, a woman he works with and two other people that were visiting Singapore. We started off with dinner at an Indian restaurant and then went and checked out some of the Singapore night life. Everyone was wonderful and so funny. I had a great night. I’m so glad I decided to come here. Thanks Erin for introducing me to my new friend!
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Leaving BaliArriving in SingaporeMy very expensive bedNew fun friends
Nothing too exciting happened yesterday. We went to a very expensive restaurant for dinner. Just riding around, I think I enjoy the feel of Seminyak better than Ubud. Not sure what it is, but an energetic feel. Or maybe less concentration of people. Still a lot of tourists either way. Maybe it’s just the beaches.
Today we went to see Tanah Lot which is an island temple. It was beautiful, but you can’t go across to the temple. But with the waves crashing on the rocks, it makes for some wonderful pictures. After that we spent some time on the beach and fun beach bar after. It reminded me a lot of beach bars in Florida. Overall, the day was nice, but I am very ready to move on to Singapore tomorrow.
After breakfast and some pool time, my friend arrived at the hotel. We changed rooms in the hotel. We went to Seminyak beach which is a busier beach than the one the hotel is near. It still wasn’t the crowded mess I had heard of. The streets in Seminyak were crowded with traffic and lined with stores, but it had a nice feel to it, I thought. We went in search of a place that would do henna tattoos, but failed on that hunt. Better hunting tomorrow. They do the bean bag beach bars here too, but there’s a lot more of them. I got some pictures of them after they had set up for the sunset crowd. I didn’t get any pictures of them at sunset, but it was nice to just sit in bean bags and watch the waves come in. We also bought a couple of movies to take back to the hotel. I was surprised that Allegiant was already out. But when we went to buy it, they said it might not be good quality. Aha, it’s an illegal copy. We got it anyway. It was ok quality.
I’m feeling a combination of opposites. I’m tired of people. I’m tired of being alone. I don’t want to go back to work, but I’m missing the lack of routine. I’m tired of doing. I’m tired of sitting still. I feel out of place. I don’t like heat. I don’t like heat – oh wait, no opposite there. I feel like I should decide what I’m going to do with my life after teaching. But why do I have to decide that now? How is making a decision now living in the flow of life? I’m trying to live now and the future keeps hopping into my thoughts. When it does, it brings anxiety and “should” and exhaustion. Overall, I spend an enormous amount more of my time living now, but the future still has a bit of a hold on me. And, now that I am so much more aware, I can feel what living for the future does to a body so much stronger. So, I just watch it when it happens and note how it makes me feel and question who is watching. I think this is all part of a bigger shift trying to happen.
I found it easier when I was watching the sunset yesterday to just melt into oneness and now than I did tonight. I think it’s harder for me when I’m with other people. I still have thoughts that tell me I have to be a certain way, have conversations, do things, be witty, be nice, behave like all the other people, etc.
We got up this morning and found a place for breakfast. It wasn’t very good. Then we hung out at the Best Western pool until it was time to take Carly to the airport. They had a really nice pool.
I drove the POS for the last time and was so excited to drop it off. That might have been the highlight of the day. I said goodbye to Carly and got a taxi to my new hotel near the beach. I’ve heard that Kuta and Seminyak are both dirty and over touristy and that I wouldn’t enjoy them. From my one night in Kuta, I didn’t find it to be that bad, but I didn’t find it worth going back to either. My hotel in Seminyak is great.
It was a 13 minute walk to the beach. The beach wasn’t crowded at all. I got there in time for sunset. There was a beach bar that I hung out at for dinner and sunset. I was hoping to meet some people and have a nice conversation, but that didn’t happen. But as I sat there, I just felt how alone I was and then for a while, I didn’t even exist. I could have stayed like that all night, but I had to go to the bathroom and that kinda broke the not existing experience. Now, note, I said “alone”. Did you read “lonely”? Did you put a negative story on the word “alone”? Did you assume that if I had met people and had a nice conversation that that would have been the “better” outcome? “Alone” is not the same as “lonely”, not even close. Now read it again without judgement, good or bad, or should be. Do you get a different picture?
So, this is the right way to do a beach bar. Put on some music, have a bunch of bean bags to sit on, put out some pretty lights, serve drinks and food. This is as simple, brilliant and perfect as it gets. Naysayers 0, Seminyak 1.
Today we had most of the day on Nusa Lembogan. After breakfast, we walked down to a nearby beach and rented stand up paddle boards. It was mostly kneel down paddle boards as the water was quite choppy and neither one of us has done this often. Not too far off from us was the party flotilla. There are a couple of barges with slides, kayaks, food and drink, banana boat rides, paragliding, snorkelling, etc. I think it’s a brilliant idea. Fill a barge with fun water activities and then boats bring tourists out for a day or afternoon of water fun. I think between that, the fast boats coming in and out as well as a surf break not far from shore, all created the choppy water. We still had fun hanging out on the boards, standing up when we got to a less choppy area.
Then lunch. Some days it does seem the only thing there is to do is eat. I feel like I’ve been eating a lot. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool until it was time to get the 4:00pm fast boat back to Bali.
We are staying in Kuta tonight. Kuta is supposed to be known for it’s night life. I haven’t heard anything nice about Kuta, but it’s near the airport and it might be interesting to see this wild night life. We had a room at the Best Western. The website I often use to book hotels is Agoda. They have been great with their ratings, hotel info and ease of booking. They are a parasite to your email as they send way too many emails so don’t look them up unless you actually mean to book accommodations through them. Agoda often gives you a mystery accommodation as an option when you are looking things up. It’s usually 50-80% discounted, but you don’t know which one it is until you book it. I kept seeing this and passing on it. This time I looked at the map that showed possible places it could be. Most of them were on the beach and I knew I couldn’t afford them. A couple were not on the beach. But it was one night so I rolled the dice and lost. We didn’t get a place on the beach, however it was a very high end Best Western and worth way more than we paid.
In the hotel I saw something I haven’t seen since I left the US – wait for it – wait for it – a shower curtain. What what? Top sheets on the bed and shower curtains in the bathroom are lost concepts on SE Asia. This is definitely a high end hotel.
We went to dinner on tourist restaurant row. It had a Bubba Gump, so that tells you it’s a tourist town. We found Mexican food that was pretty good. Then we headed off to the bar district to catch some of this wild nightlife. Either it’s really low tourist season or I’ve spent way too much time at parties and bars over the years. This did not live up to the hype, not even close. Most of the places were blaring music and handing out flyers and drink coupons, but you looked inside and they were empty. One bar had workers dressed in Hawaiian shirts and grass skirts and had that frat party feeling. This is the place the clean cut frat boys on vacation flock to. We decided it would have the better people watching so we sat ourselves down at the bar and I drank our free drinks. It was good people watching, but by 11:30pm the bar was still fairly empty with only 5 or 6 people on the dance floor and maybe 15 others scattered around a bar that could easily hold a couple hundred. There may have been more people working there than customers. Our bartender was funny and looked like the Balinese version of Bruno Mars. There was a tiny Asian lady with an older white man. She was dancing and giggling and just having a great time. That entertained us for quite a time. There were three rough looking ladies that were dressed in high heels, low cut tops and short skirts standing near the entrance looking so bored. Our guess is they were working ladies. Then there were stilt walkers and women in green afro wigs out front trying to convince people walking by that this was the place to be. The rest of the people in the bar fit the frat boy / sorority girl description. Just to finalize the whole frat bar experience, they bar tenders had whistles and they put an armband with the bar’s name on it on us. And half the drinks came in fancy souvenir glasses or had dry ice in them making them all cool and fancy.
As we walked back to the hotel, it didn’t look like many of the other bars we passed were any busier. Amateurs.
Got up early today, checked out of the hotel in Ubud and drove back to Sanur. I had booked diving on Nusa Lembogan, an island nearby. Our instructions were to drive to the parking lot of a big resort and then someone would meet us there and we would take a fast boat to the island. That’s almost as vague as the directions I’ve gotten in Thailand for getting a bus. Ok, it works out in Thailand, it will work out here. We had a bit of trouble at the gate to the resort. They kept asking where I was going and I kept telling them the name of the resort and they asked again. It was really annoying. Finally, they got to the point that they wanted to charge me to park there. Fine. Why didn’t you just say so 5 minutes ago? The parking lot was big and had lots of vans, busses, cars and motorbikes coming and going. This was obviously the place people parked to get the boats. We were early so instead of waiting for someone to come find us we followed the throng of people down a tiny alley barely big enough for two people to pass each other. It put us on the beach board walk I liked so much when I was in Sanur last week. There were a bunch of boat companies. We found the one that was on my email and checked in. They had our reservation and gave us wristbands to get on the boat. When we got to the island there was a guy waiting with my name on a sheet of paper. See, it all worked out, even though it seemed quite vague to begin with.
Diving was good. We went to the same two dive spots I did before. I wasn’t thrilled about that, but they were still good. Carly had trouble on the first dive, Crystal Bay, so it took a while to start the dive. She got it all the equipment bugs worked out and we were able to do the dive. But because it took a while we didn’t do the wall and the point I had done before. So, it was a new dive in a way. I got to see crabs and cuttle fish amongst other things. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen cuttle fish before so that was great. The next dive was Manta Point. We saw so many manta. I couldn’t even count. On the boat, I had told the dive master I saw 3 octopus when I did this dive a couple weeks ago. We joked that he needed to find 4 and he said he’d find more. After watching the manta for half the dive we set out to see other things. We were almost done with the dive when the dive master pointed off in the distance. I knew it had to be an octopus, but I couldn’t see him. They are masterful at camouflage. We swam closer and then I saw him. We watched him change colors and move from one spot to the next. They the dive master looked at me and held up one finger to count one octopus. We didn’t see any others.
I sat down with the dive shop manager after diving and we talked about the dive master program. I got a similar story as the last one. It’s not impossible to make a living as a dive master, but it will be difficult, especially in Asia. I’d have to be an instructor to make any money and even then, it won’t be much. It’s a lifestyle decision, not a monetary decision. And if I want to make a career of it, it will be difficult. I don’t want to make a career of it so I more or less have to decide if I want to do it for a year or so just to do it. The decision isn’t made yet, but it’s not a slam dunk decision either.
We stayed at bungalows next to the dive shop. The island is pretty small so there wasn’t a ton to do that night, but they did have an outdoor movie theatre. The movie is free, you just buy food and drink. So we had dinner there and sat on big bean bag chairs and watched The Beach. I hadn’t seen a movie since I left Colorado. I loved the theatre idea.
I am not a videographer and I’m using my phone and I’m on a boat so the videos are not great, but you’ll get the idea.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Fast Boat and a lot of people
Party flotilla
Nusa LemboganLooking at Bali off in the distanceBungalowsBungalow EntranceNew FriendHappy Hour3 for 2Bali off in the distance
More touristy stuff today. We drove to see the Elephant Cave Temple. There are no elephants there, but the entrance to the cave is supposed to look like and elephant. Some pool time in the afternoon. It’s so hot here. I’m really not sure how people live here. I’m not sure how I’m going to survive the summer in Thailand. I don’t understand why people love the heat. Maybe I need to move.
We did get to the dance show tonight. It was interesting. I love the music (small example video attached). There are several types of traditional Balinese Dance. The one we went to see was Legong. I got some pictures and video of the dancing, but they came out awful. The most fascinating part for me was how eye movements are part of the dance. It’s creepy, but you can’t look away. As with Thai dancing, the program tells you the story of the dance, but there’s no way you can tell that is the story. The hands and feet are highly involved in the dance, like Thai. The facial expressions and eye movements are quite unique to Balinese dancing though. I found this video on you tube that is much better than mine. It was taken at the same place so just pretend I took it.
Today we went to the Monkey Forest. It was a park you had to pay to get in, but it had some temples and lots of monkeys. Then in the afternoon we went to Jungle Fish. This was a little outside of where we were staying so I had to drive the POS. It was a resort in the jungle with a wonderful pool and restaurant. You have to pay 150,000 rupiah ($12) in food and drink and you get to hang out at the pool as long as you want. Deal. This evening we got massages and facials. The people working at the spa were wonderful. They kept trying to fix me up with one of the guys at the spa. They were laughing and joking with each other. It’s so delightful to see people loving each other’s company and the work they do. I have found most Bali people to be genuine and when they smile it’s real. In Thailand, the smile is not always real. This is a nice change in that respect. We were going to see a traditional dance show, but got there too late.
I finally found out when I have to be back at school. I have two more weeks instead of one. I decided to extend my stay in Bali by four days instead of sitting on a beach in Thailand or trying to go to another country. Then I’m going to go to Singapore for a few days and back to Thailand. I’ll probably go back to Chaing Mai in Thailand since it’s easy to get to by plane and fairly easy to get to Sam Ngao from there. A 8-12 hour bus ride from Bangkok again sounds horrible.
Rraine Drops 