Here are some more pictures and videos I could get the slow internet to upload at the Villas. The video with the rocks is mostly for the sound
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Tag: Bali
Tree Top
Yesterday I hired a driver to take me around and see interesting things. The hotel/villas I’m staying at helped me set it up. Most of the drive was on part of the Holy Fucking Shit Road that I drove in on a couple days ago. It was nice to be a passenger in a proper vehicle and for it to not be raining. By the light of morning, it’s still a scary road. This time when we rode on the top of the ancient crater, I could actually see the lakes below. It was so beautiful.
We went to the botanic gardens. They have a zip line ropes type course there that I wanted to do, but I only had flip flops on and you have to have closed toed shoes. The gardens were huge. It was more like a giant park with some gardens here and there inside. It was big enough that we drove around and then got out to see certain things instead of walking. One of my favorites was a fern garden. Since ferns are thought to have been here since prehistoric times, the building that housed some of the ferns was in the shape of a dinosaur. The gardens were wonderful.
Then we went to a spice market. At first, I almost said no to the market, but then decided spices would make a good gift to take back to the other teachers at Sam Ngao so we stopped briefly. Spices are not cheap.
Next was Pura Ulun Danu Beratan, a temple on a lake. I have seen pictures of this one and was excited to see it. If you’ve ever seen a picture of a Bali Temple, it was probably this one. It’s on their 50,000 rupia bill. It was crowded with people, of course. It was beautiful to see, although it was not in the middle of nowhere as pictures I’ve seen made it seem. It was in the lake, but not far off shore.
Then we made our way back up the HFS Road. I asked if the driver knew of a good place to eat lunch. He took me to his friend’s place. It had an eating area overlooking one of the big mountains and the valley below it. This might be one of the best restaurant views I’ve ever seen. Then to top it off, there were hundreds of dragon flies buzzing around and very cool breeze. I was almost cold by the end of lunch. Such a great feeling after being hot for so long. I’m posting a short video of the dragonflies.
The last stop of the day was the Munduk Waterfall. Why do all trails to waterfalls go down first? You want to hike up first, then your reward is a waterfall to cool off in and an easy hike back down. It doesn’t work that way. At least it’s not too hot at this altitude (3000-4000 feet). On the way up we got to one spot where some bugs were calling out so loudly it sounded like a cross between a squeaky swing set and a 5 alarm nuclear melt down. I’m posting the video just so you can hear the sound.
Then back to the villas. I just sat by the pool and read the rest of the day. I sat and talked to a nice lady that works at the villas for a while. I’m the only one here tonight. That’s kind of a weird thought. It seems so deserted. The really loud frogs from last night are not even making noise tonight. But, I can hear the tokay off in the distance and there are lots of other sounds of nature out there.
Two nights ago, I looked at flights back to the US thinking I could spend a week with Mom before I had to go back to school. Flights were over $3,000. What is going on? That is ridiculous. I may never be able to come back. I battle back and forth between feeling like I should go back and I’m supposed to be here (Asia). Going back for a week won’t accomplish much anyway. It’s a more permanent decision, not a temporary, one week decision. I felt quite at peace most of the day although I haven’t made the decision yet.
Today I had to take the POS up the HFS Road again, part of the way. It was better than in the rain, but still quite a challenge. Twice a car in front of me decided to stop on a steep hill. Twice I had to back down to a less steep portion because it was just to steep to get up in 1st gear from a dead stop. There’s no way to pass as the road isn’t even 2 lanes wide – more like 1.5 lanes wide. It’s like if you paved the road to my house and then hit the edges with a jackhammer, and then threw 70 vehicles, 100 motorbikes and 10 dogs on it.
I went back to the botanic gardens to do the Treetop Adventure Park. It had 7 different courses involving zip lines, rope nets, wooden bridges, swings, and other difficult things to traverse. I did 3 of the courses. During the second one, I was behind a big family who was much slower than me so I had to wait a lot. Then I heard this loud noise like an airplane was coming down the hill. It was rain. We watched in horror as it came down the nearby road and picnickers fled to their cars. There was nothing we could but watch it approach. There was no way down from the trees except to finish the course we were on. It dumped and I couldn’t go any faster than the group in front of me. By the time we finished I was soaked to the bone. At that point, I no longer care. There’s something uncomfortable about watching the rain come and the process of getting soaked when you didn’t want to. But, once the soaking is complete, it’s no longer uncomfortable. Maybe it takes that long to stop thinking “oh no, not rain” or maybe you can’t get any wetter so you give up caring. I had lunch and when the rain stopped, I did one more course. This last course had a part where you clipped into a rope and then swung Tarzan like to a large rope net. Then you had to climb the rope net. I turned into a girl and decided I didn’t want to do it, but there was no other way down. The workers below kept encouraging me. I kept saying “I don’t want to”. I don’t know this girl. Who is she? Where did she come from? I finally did it and it was ok.
I’m now in Ubud. Going to dinner with my friend Gwin tonight. My half sister, Carly gets here in a couple days. It will be nice to have company.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Jungle Rice Field
Today I had booked a tour through my hotel. It didn’t turn out to be a tour so much as it was a 15 year old kid leading me through the jungle to see a waterfall. I wanted to see the waterfall and some rice terraces and that’s what I got so it was ok that it wasn’t a tour. The waterfall didn’t seem to have any way to it other than the tiny trail we took and there was no tourist parking lot and no other people so that was cool. The rest of the walking was beautiful too.
I can’t remember if I wrote about this before or just thought about it. When I was in Vietnam and got sick, I didn’t want to eat. Part of it was because everything made me feel bad, but part of it felt like my body wanted to fast. I’ve never fasted before and I know that if you fast for more than a few days your body starts to heal things and it becomes like a full body reset. I felt very strongly like my body wanted to reset, but because I was traveling, I felt scared to fast. Since I didn’t have time to exercise for a few months before I left the US, I haven’t exercised since I moved to Thailand, and I was sick for so long, I’ve lost a lot of weight and it’s mostly muscle. My arms and legs are super tiny. For whatever reason, I’m still holding some fat in the belly just in case? I don’t feel overly concerned about it though. It kind of feels like a reset, like I’m down to muscle ground zero, and when I start exercising again, I’ll start re-growing muscle from a reset place without all the old stories I use to carry in my muscles. I’m not sure if that’s even possible, but that’s what it feels like. I count the tiny walk I did today as the first day of new muscles.
After hiking I went to the pool. It was sooooo delightfully cold. I tried to work on lesson plans and some engineering work, but the wifi here is so spotty, I didn’t get as much done as I hoped. I changed into the room I booked. It’s huge. There is a queen bed and a twin in here. The balcony is bigger than the entire room I had last night. It overlooks the rice fields and has a rushing creek behind it. It has a roof that is open where the roof meets the wall so I’ll be one with the bugs again!
I took a class at the hotel in making offerings. They weave intricate baskets and decorative things out of palm leaves, then put flowers and other things in them and use them as offerings. It’s like paper cut out snowflakes meets origami. So, one lady who didn’t speak English tried to teach me how to make them. Another lady joined in. If I didn’t get it right immediately, the second lady would take it from me and do it. I’m not sure if it was really difficult or if they were really bad teachers. Considering I am quite artistic, I’m going with bad teaching. It basically became an exercise in watching them make things and then decorating them with flowers.
Now it’s dark and I’m sitting in my giant room. The amount of things out there calling to each other is ridiculous. I assume the really loud ones are frogs, but I am not sure. This is the noisiest place I’ve ever been. I grew up in Florida on a marshy creek and there was never this much going on at night. There are at least 20 different bug/frog sounds, the stream behind my room, a cat with a lot to say, random motorbikes, and off in the distance, a gong. But, so far, no tokay!
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
HFS
Sitting at breakfast looking out to the ocean. It’s not hot – it’s overcast and there’s a nice breeze. At some point I change my focal point and notice the there are a bunch (100 or more) dragonflies buzzing around a few feet above the black sand. It looks like a miniature helicopter fly-in. Fascinating.
So, I remember thinking the other day that I hope I don’t have to drive the POS in the rain. After breakfast, I packed up and checked out of the wonderful little hotel in Amed and started the journey to the next place. The plan for today was two waterfalls and an overlook into the crater of an old volcano which is now a lake. On the way to my next location in the mountains.
First waterfall at Les was easy to find. The last bit of road had me questioning if I was lost, but I wasn’t. A guy helped me park and then said I could pay 20,000 to go see the waterfall or 70,000 and he’d go as a guide. 70,000 is around $6 so I took the guide option. He told me all about all the plants growing that we passed as well as other tidbits of Bali information. The waterfall was beautiful. I wish I had brought my bathing suit, but waded in the stream until the mist cooled me off.
Then I started heading up into the mountains and got google maps back on line for the next waterfall. Google maps lied. It lies a lot. It was starting to rain and the road was quite steep and narrow so I decided to not try to turn around and go back for the waterfall. But 15 minutes past where google maps would have me go there was a sign for the Gitgit waterfall so I didn’t miss it after all. The entrance fee for this one was way more and I almost turned around. But, I put on my rain jacket and went anyway. It was rushing brown water and extremely loud. It was eerie and dark in the canyon. I put some of Scott’s ashes in the waterfall.
Now it’s raining harder and google maps decided not to map the next location. Google maps will still show me where I am, just not where I’m going. So, that should still work, but it’s annoying. The road got narrower and steeper and the rain got harder. I had to drive with the windows open most of the ride to keep the window from fogging. At least the windshield wipers worked. I turned on the lights, but have no idea if they were working or not. In a lot of places it wasn’t wide enough for 2 cars and the oncoming cars would be over the centerline. Sometimes the road was crumbling away on one side or the other. Then the POS started singing a horrible screeching song in 1st or 2nd gear, but I refuse to go fast enough downhill to use 3rd. Every other switchback is some horror or another. I must have the world record for the most times anyone has said “Holy Fucking Shit” in a two hour period. In Colorado there is a road between Idaho Springs and Central City called the “Oh My God Road”. The road from Gitgit to Munduk must be named the “Holy Fucking Shit Road”. I got to the overlook of the first lake. There should also be a hot springs nearby, but there is no way I am looking for a hot springs right now. My fingers are freezing because it’s cool at this altitude and I have had the AC blowing full blast and the windows open to try to keep the windshield from fogging. A hot springs actually sounds great. It’s raining so hard, there is no crater lake view to be had.
I finally drive down some side street forever into the middle of nowhere and find the villas I am staying at. Everything in the area looks run down and deserted. I hope the villas exist. It’s far enough away from the village that I won’t be walking into the village later. I find the place and someone comes out with an umbrella and helps me with my suitcase. I walk into the reception / open air restaurant area and see that there are a bunch of buildings surrounding terraced rice fields. What? My villa is in the middle of a rice field. It’s beautiful. They bring me coffee and a snack. Then they tell me the garden (rice fields) room I booked won’t be available tonight, but they will move me there tomorrow. The room they give me for tonight overlooks a small waterfall.
The wifi sucks. The dinner was fabulous. I signed up for a tour and a class tomorrow. Right after the sun set the rice fields and area around came alive with sounds I’ve never heard before. Probably frogs and snakes and bugs. It’s creepy and wonderful all at the same time. I came back to my cute little room above the rushing waterfall. The water is so loud, but I can still hear some of the chattering sounds outside. My door is slatted so I get to live with the bugs. I put bug spray on after my shower just to be safe. Then I heard the very loud unmistakable sound of a tokay. It sounds like he’s in my room. My room is slightly less wonderful now. I guess it’s training for going back to Sam Ngao. After moving most of the furniture to check behind it and use it to stand on to see up high, I have determined that the tokay is not in the room. He must be outside by the window or on the thatched roof. I’m not going outside to confirm that. I’m just going with that story.
The wifi sucks here so not all my pictures uploaded. I’ll try in a few days.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Muck Diving
Today I went diving. I had almost private diving again. There was another guy diving and since we were different experience levels, they gave us two dive guides so that I could do deeper and longer dives. Wow, I’ve never had a dive company do that before. It was shore diving. They drove us 20 minutes to the next town. The shore operation was fascinating. It was a 5 minute walk from the parking lot down a trail to a rock “beach”. There were quite a few other divers. There were porters that brought all the stuff down. Woman would carry bags or bins of gear down to the beach on their heads. I saw some carrying tanks on their heads as well. Then there were guys that rode motorbikes down while carrying 4 tanks and weight belts. I’ve seen a lot of things on motorbikes, but four heavy tanks of air balanced in front of them was just nuts. Then, the whole process would reverse itself as they brought stuff back up to the parking lot.
Getting in the water was tricky as there was no sand, just rock and the rock moves as the water and your feet connect with them. The rocks are all black and when you swam out to the sandy part, it was all black. I’ve never dove blank sand before. It looked so alien. Because it’s so rocky, there is very little coral as it’s difficult for coral to attach to rock. There is a wreck not far off shore which is full of coral and fish life. The ship was the USAT Liberty which was a cargo ship that was torpedoed in 1942. They were able to beach it on Bali and get the cargo off. It stayed beached until 1963 when the tremors from a volcanic eruption caused it to slide into the water and sink. This area is known for what is called muck diving. Not a ton of big fish, but lots of tiny things hidden in the rocks, sand and the little bit of coral that has managed to grow. There is a small royal blue fish about 1 to 2 inches long that I’ve seen on almost every dive everywhere around the world. My favourite part was seeing schools of these swimming above the black sand. The black background made the blue so sharp it looked like the fish were glowing with blue light. I’m not a huge fan of wrecks, but this one was pretty cool. The amount of coral and fish life was amazing, probably because there isn’t much else around. The wreck was very large too. Saw another sea turtle. The second dive was like Easter egg hunting – swimming from one tiny bit of coral reef to the next looking for tiny creatures. My dive guide was good at finding them. He found an itty bitty sea horse about a quarter inch big.
After diving I ventured into town. I think ‘town’ might be a big word for where I’m staying. I think it was small enough that I actually walked the length of two towns. There is basically one street and that is all. It is lined with guest houses and homestays, restaurants, and dive shops. It’s mostly still a fishing village. I got a massage. They use oil so now I’m just hot, sweaty, covered in oil and sand. Everything is sticking to me. I had dinner at a different place and wanted to stay out and check out the place with live music, but I couldn’t stand the oil anymore and I love the place I’m staying so the thought of a shower and then camping out in my wonderful bed won over live music.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
The Plan
My experience with making a plan is that 90% of the time nothing goes according to the plan. Still, we make plans. Today was no different. The first beach I chose was supposed to have the blackest sand on this side of Bali according to the guide book. I got there and it was a construction zone. Machines were moving large boulders around. The tide was in so there was no beach. I could tell that if there had been a beach, it would have had very black sand. So, back into the POS to find the next beach. I got to see rice fields on the way to and from the beach so, check! – Picture of rice fields. Now, one of the side roads I was going to take later to see rice fields didn’t need to happen. The next beach was supposed to have a ton of mica in the sand so it’s extra glittery. I like glitter. There was a parking lot and some Bali restaurants and not much else. Since the tide was still in, the water came up to the wall. I could tell from the parking lot, that, yes, this would be a glittery beach, but not right now. I tried to order lunch, but all they had was fish. How do you have fish, but not shrimp? Then again, Google Translator could be lying. It does that often. I gave up and decided to eat lunch at the next beach. The next beach was not part of the plan, but I was determined to get a beach. No, not a beach. It was a harbor for a very large ferry and more dive operations than I’ve ever seen in one location. I did find a restaurant for lunch though. So, that’s the end of the beach portion of the plan and we are 0 for 3.
At many points of the day I am sweating so hard that I think water is pouring out of my face. I didn’t think a face could sweat that much. I grew up in Florida, but I don’t remember heat and humidity like this.
I decided to head to the place I’m staying tonight. The road goes more inland. There is a water temple on the way which is the next part of the plan. Google Maps decides to not work so we are going by signs and the map in the guide book. It shouldn’t be an issue to get to Amed without google maps, but the water temple is probably a loss and hopefully the resort is easy to find when I get to Amed.
I’ve finally figured out what the white stripes on the road mean. If you see a white stripe on the road, there is a driving lane to the left of the stripe, a driving lane to the right of the stripe and a driving lane straddling the stripe. At some point the road narrowed and buildings lined both sides of the road so there was no way to pull over, stop and check the map. The road wound up and down with huge curves. Often, the buildings would go away on one side of the road revealing stunning views. I couldn’t take pictures of any of it because there was no where to stop and I need both my hands to drive. The signs did not lead me astray though. I only missed one turn – the one to the water temple.
I saw an area with about 20 cars parked so I assumed that might be the temple. I had to drive quite a distance before I found a place I could turn around. I wasn’t going to miss everything on the plan though so I went back and it was the parking for the water temple! Actually, it wasn’t a temple, but a water palace. Taman Tirta Gangga was built in 1948 and has two swimming ponds, and a bunch of other ponds with fountains and koi in them. My favorite had stepping stones at water level so it felt like you were walking on water. They led different paths through the water like a labyrinth. As I headed back to my car there was a guy with snakes you could pay to pose with for pictures. He also had a bat and tiny owls. OWLS. My distaste of animal tourism out the window. Hell yea, I’ll pay you to hold a tiny owl and get my picture taken.
After that I headed to Amed by way of sign instead of electronic map. The road got smaller and smaller until it was slightly larger than one lane. Yet from the signs advertising guesthouses and scuba diving, I knew I was on the right path. I almost missed the sign that pointed to the place where I’m staying, but managed to hit the brakes and turn at the last second. I parked near the entrance and a guy asked if I was Kim.
This is no five star resort, but I’m in love with it. The dive shop is at the same place as the hotel so I was able to check in and I don’t have far to go tomorrow morning. There are a row of rooms on either side of a courtyard. Almost the entire courtyard is taken up by a pool. There’s a restaurant and a short distance from the restaurant and the pool is a black sand beach. You can see huge mountains when you are in the ocean. Each room has a covered deck looking out to the ocean and the decks all have bean bag chairs on them. My room is large, very yellow and has a bed built into the middle of the room. I can hear the ocean from my room. I stayed here for dinner because I’ve had enough venturing out for today and because I love this place. The food was great and I got to catch up on yesterday and today’s blogs.
I checked in with Mom. My brother is there again. They were getting ready to go to the funeral of my cousin’s son. The funeral for my Mom’s husband is Saturday. I wish I could be there. I’ve been struggling with feeling like I should go back and feeling very strongly that it isn’t the right decision. There’s a huge part of me that doesn’t want to go back to Sam Ngao and teach. That part is telling me to move back to the US. To stay in Sam Ngao would be the more difficult choice. I don’t feel that it’s the right time to go back to the US. I’m stuck again in the place of what “should” I do. I’m thinking of the future instead of being here. I’m feeling like I need to have a plan, make a decision, control the situation. But, I know that this is all part of the learning. The truth is that I don’t know the right answer, I don’t have to make a decision now and if I control the situation, it will not turn out happy for me. So, as uncomfortable as it is for me, I wait. I wait for life to unfold and happen the way it should.
I also had the thought on the dive boat yesterday that I would love to be on a boat and diving every day. Then I had the thought that I don’t have the money to get my dive master certification and it would be a hard life financially. I see that I took something wonderful that I was enjoying and in my head made it impossible to have that as my life. Instead, my life will be teaching in Sam Ngao, moving to Wisconsin which I have no desire to do, or some unknown other thing that is also ok, but I don’t love it. So, the belief that there’s not enough for me is still in operation at a very subtle level. I can never really have what I want. This has been one of my core issues. I want to love my life. I want to love my work and have it be enough financially. I want to put an end to drama and the need for there to always be some hurdle to get over. And it’s tied to doing and planning. And it’s tied to what’s going on with Mom. And it’s tied to the dissolving of the ego. So for now, I have no plan and I don’t know what I’m going to do in a couple weeks when vacation is over. I have no idea how I’m going to get that job I love or what that job is. I’m just watching what comes up and noticing it.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Diving Bali
I got up early, had breakfast at my hotel. They have a cute open air kitchen and made me a fried egg and toast. I love this little hotel. The dive shop picked me up, thank god. I need a day off from driving that horrible vehicle on tiny roads.
A lot of buildings here look like temples with ornate stone entrances, but they are just homes or businesses. In fact, I’m not even sure what a temple looks like at this point. The dive shop was the same. I large stone wall with a grand entrance. Inside was a stone pool that looked like a temple in it’s own right. It’s so hot here, maybe it should be a temple. There were a lot of people and it had a wonderful feel to it. It looked like a higher end dive shop. Not sure if I mentioned it before, but I’m thinking of getting my dive master certification and working as a dive guide as a possibility after teaching. I chose 3 dive companies based on their dive master internship programs. This one is off to a good start.
I had requested to dive Nusa Penida which is an island nearby. So, they put me on a boat with 8 dive interns, their instructors and my dive guide. So, basically, it was private diving with a boat full of other people. It was neat to watch the dive intern class too. I read later on line that my dive guide, Wayan, has over 10,000 dives in Bali. Holy crap. I have 156.
I did my back roll into the warm water and felt at home immediately. After adjusting my gear and telling Wayan I was ready, I looked down at the sandy bottom with a reef off to our right. As we decended, I felt like I was in an aquarium. It was clear and there were tons of fish. The coral wasn’t the brightly colored coral I remember seeing other places, but it was alive and moving in the current. Most of it looked like long shag carpet. There were others that looked like gardens of giant cabbage. We hit a mean thermocline. It went from summer to winter in an instant. This was hopeful as the Mola (Sun Fish) are found in these conditions. It’s not Mola season, but still possible to see them. They are huge getting up to 14′ tall and 10′ long. We went to the point of the reef and held on against the current (current another good sign) and waited. No Mola today. Still, this dive was great and I’m relieved that not all the reefs of the world are dead.
The second dive was Manta point. We got to see a manta ray, many sting rays and 3 different octopus. The Mantas are huge and beautiful to watch, but 3 octopus in one dive during the day? That was the highlight for me. Just watching them change colors over and over is fascinating. The third dive was wonderful too. It was a drift dive, meaning that the current is strong enough that you get in, go for a ride past all the coral and then the boat picks you up farther down the reef. At first there was no current. Near the end of the dive, it kicked in. It’s kinda fun just whizzing by and I find it very relaxing. The highlight of this dive was a large turtle. We grabbed on to some reef and watched him chow down on something for almost 5 minutes.
So, for those of you who don’t know Scott’s turtle story, you get to hear it now. One time Scott and I went diving at a small resort in Belize. We were the only ones staying at the hotel and the only ones diving all week. The first dive, the dive master said we might get to see a turtle. Not only did we see one, it came up to Scott and swam around above him in his bubbles. We saw a turtle on every dive that week. Every one we saw interacted with Scott or his bubbles. One came straight for Scott. He dropped to his knees in the sand to avoid touching it and spread his arms out wide. It was almost wider than Scott’s outstretched arms. From that point forward we joked that Scott was the King Turtle. It must be his bald head and big nose – they thought he was a turtle. A few years later when I was researching the memorial tattoo I wanted to get in honor of Scott, I knew it would be a sea turtle. I wanted the symbol of a turtle, not an actual picture of a turtle so I googled Seat Turtle Symbol. What I got was Seat Turtle Symbolism. In a couple different cultures, the sea turtle is the communication link between this world and the next. I remember being stunned. I figured that turtle had been telling Scott to get ready because his time in this world was almost up. I took a bunch of images to my tattoo artist, but didn’t tell him the story or even that it was a memorial tattoo. A couple days later he had his design. While he showed me the design he showed me how he had symbolized past, present and future, the sun, sky, water and earth and gave him a third eye to see beyond this world. Again, stunned. Of course, I cried and shared the story with him and he cried.
My mother’s husband, David, died yesterday morning. I wonder if the sea turtle was bringing me a message from David. In reality, I don’t see an actual direct link between the turtle and death, but I’d like to think it was David saying goodbye.
After diving I ventured out to the beach walk. It’s a sidewalk that runs along the beach for quite a distance in Sanur. It has hotels, restaurants, and shops along it. I saw people doing Falun Dafa on the beach and was reading the information they had posted because I had never heard of it. It’s a Chinese “Traditional Self Cultivation Practice to improve Mind and Body”. A a lady asked if I’d like to try it. Sure. We sat cross legged and she showed me some hand positions that we would hold for ” a minute or so each. I closed my eyes and listened to the waves and the people walking by. My favorite was the sound of the bicycle bells as people rode by. They sounded like little chimes. It would have been relaxing except for the fact that my foot fell asleep and I couldn’t walk for a minute or two after we were done. It was fun to experience and I’m glad I tried it. I went looking for the night market and got sidetracked by a pedicure and ear candling. The pedicure wasn’t maiming like the ones in Thailand – Yay! I got to see my first religious parade. I read in the travel book that it is common to see a parade of people all dressed up carrying offerings to a local temple. They were all dressed in white playing drums and gongs. I found the night market and then decided I’d rather eat dinner at one of the beach side places I saw so I did that.
Then I went back to the cute little hotel and made a plan for tomorrow. I’m going to drive east and stop at a couple beaches along the way, then see some rice fields, go to a water temple, and then arrive later in the day in Amed at my next accommodation. Hey, Sharon, Look – I have a plan…..
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Travel
There is so much travel in traveling. I’ve never had more than two weeks off in a row. I’m now a month into vacation and weary of the travel part. I know, whaaa, quit complaining.
Yesterday, I had breakfast at my hotel and the worked on lesson plans until it was time to leave for the airport. I have to turn in my first month of lesson plans before school starts. The rest of the day was travel to Bangkok and a hotel near the airport. The taxi stand at the Don Mueang airport was amazing. I got there and they were serving number 555. But, where to get a number was not obvious. It must be at the back of that room full of people. It was. I got number 630. This system doesn’t appear to be working very well. Then when I finally got a taxi it took 40 minutes to go the 8 miles to my hotel. Whoa Bangkok traffic.
What a wonderful little trendy, cheap hotel. The staff was friendly and I get free breakfast and airport shuttle in the morning. I ate dinner there because I was too exhausted to go further. I had a grilled cheese sandwich that I’m pretty sure was cooked in liquid sugar instead of butter. Come on, Thailand, stop putting sugar on everything. Don’t try this at home. Sugared grilled cheese is not delicious.
This morning came early – breakfast at 3:30, shuttle at 4:00am. Was I high when I booked a 6:00am flight? Maybe it was foggy brain. The airport was a zoo at 4:15. I made a friend within 2 minutes and we decided to navigate the zoo together. Justine was a delightful young lady and we managed to find our way through a mob with no lines, just angry lost people everywhere, ticket agents yelling, and tour groups looking confused. After landing in Bali, the immigration line was the shortest I’ve ever seen. But I had to wait a long time for my luggage because I waited at the wrong carousel. Once I figured it out, my bag magically appeared on the correct one. Funny how that happens. Unfortunately, that meant I didn’t get to say goodbye to Justine. Enjoy your vacation Justine!
I rented a car while here. It seemed easier for wandering around the island. If I didn’t have the suitcase or if I had the SE Asia ability to tie any thing to a motorbike, I’d rather do that. But, that was just a bad story waiting to happen. The car guy took me to an atm and then to the police station to get a “driver’s license”. I don’t have an international license because I didn’t know that was a thing until I had already moved to Thailand. I would have had to get it in the US in person so too late for that information. This license is supposed to get me out of having to pay a bigger fine if I get pulled over. We’ll see.
So then I have to take this sorry excuse of a vehicle from the airport to my hotel. The doors rattle. The steering is loose feeling. The breaks need a heavy foot. The steering wheel is on the wrong side and it’s stick shift. That was a first for me. Then let’s drive on the left side of the road just for fun. As in Thailand and Vietnam, the striping is just for decoration and a beep means “I’m passing you now”. All that said, it went ok and I made it to the hotel.
My hotel is cute and has a pool. I was in it within 5 minutes. I worked for a few hours, then dinner and now travel exhaustion. Tomorrow diving – fingers crossed that it’s great!
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Rraine Drops 