Beautiful Bali

Our hotel in Bali is pure bliss.  There are not enough words to describe how fabulous the hotel is. 

But so is Bali.  We arrived at night so I did not get a sense of Bali's beauty until the next day. 

We did a lot of fun things in Bali but there is so much we did not do or see.  I feel like it would take weeks to do all the things I wanted to see.  We did go to the monkey sanctuary and feed bananas to the monkeys.  They are adorable.  They are used to interacting with people and will literally climb on you to get the bananas.  They will also sit next to you or in your lap while they eat.  Here is a great picture of Jan (from another team) with one of the monkeys in her lap:

But you have to stay on your toes.  We were warned to hold onto our things because the monkeys will take them.  What happens is that you are holding something and they climb on you and you freak out and let go of what you are holding.  I had brought along a bag of cookies from the hotel.  I was trying to get a cookie when all of a sudden a monkey jumped on me and grabbed the bag.  He sat and had himself a snack.  Another monkey snatched someone's sunscreen and was trying to eat it.

We also attended a kecak dance and fire walking ceremony.  This was a traditional Balinese dance that included a man that walked on fire.

Bali is a beautiful place and I didn't want to leave. In fact, I am keeping the guidebook because I plan to return.

Next stop...Singapore

Yogyakarta Trip Report

We took at 5:50 AM flight on Tiger Airlines to Yogyakarta, Indonesia.  We had a quick layover in Singapore on the way.  Not often can you say you were in three countries in the same day (Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia).  We arrived in Indonesia that night and learned that over the next few days, we had to make our way to Bali (YEA!) by ourselves.  You could fly or take land transportation. 
The next morning we were up at 3:15 AM and took a taxi about an hour and a half to see the Borobudur sunrise. It is this magnificant temple that you ascend upon in the dark and watch the sunrise.  It was kind of foggy so not as breathtaking as it probably is on a clear day, but the view was nice.

We then started our way to Bali.  We first took a train to Solo.  The train was like a subway car but without air conditioning.  Did I mention that it is super hot here?  The train ride was an hour.  In Solo, we went to do a scavenge and got a taste of the corruption there.  We took a taxi to a nearby temple and when it was time to leave, a man out of nowhere approached demanding a parking fee.  Being warned about this ahead of time, I wanted to argue but my cab driver insisted we pay the fee and even chipped in.  You could see that he wanted to avoid any confrontation with this man.  

From Solo, we then boarded our next train for Surabaya.  This train was air conditioned and we had first class seats so it was a comfortable ride.  But it was about a 6 hour train ride or so.  We were traveling with Zoe, Rainey and Rainey's daughters.  By the end of the Surabaya train ride, we were all starting to get tired of this neverending journey.  Most of us were asleep when we thought we needed to get off the train.  We exited the train in a mad dash only to realize (once the train had already left the station) that we exited one stop too early.  Things went south from there.  We were in the middle of nowhere, where EVERYONE stopped what they were doing and were staring at us and we really had no one to help us.  One half of our team felt a possible threat and kept a watchful eye on the insurgents.  The gameing half just started pointing and asking who spoke English.  (Of course, David added these last two sentences).  There were even a few meltdowns within our group.  After asking the security guards several questions with hand signals and several bad pronunciations of native words we found ourselves on the next train headed for the next stop. 

We finally made our way to Surabaya, and boarded yet a third train to Probolingo.  This was one of the worst experiences of my life.  When we boarded the train, there were cockroaches crawling on the walls.  There was NO air conditioning and it was hot as hell.  Sweat was pouring down my back, legs, etc.  The train smelled really bad also.  We had to ride this train several hours to Probolingo.  It was truely misreable.  When we finally arrived in Problingo, we were so relieved to be off the train.  Little did we know that it was going to get worse.  It was now around midnight and we exited the train to find three lonely rickshaws and nothing else but crickets.  No taxis, no people, no hope.  The rickshaw drivers finally convinced us to get in the rickshaws and David and Rainey ran along side until more rickshaws showed up.  The drivers took us to their friend's house in what felt like a secluded neighborhood in the middle of nowhere.  I was convinced we were being set up and were going to be robbed at any minute.  I started shoving our passports and money into my bra.  But I was wrong.  The "friend" was a travel agent in Probolingo and was exactly who we needed. 

Before we headed to Mount Bromo to start our climb, we desperately wanted to shower.  We were informed that the only hotel near our climb was probably booked and that we should get a hotel room in Probolingo at the best hotel in the city.  It was a dump.  There were bugs in the bed and bathroom, the place had not been cleaned in ages, no shower curtain, and I could blow more air than the air conditioner was releasing.  It was HORRIBLE.  But I was desparate after having been a sweaty mess all day.  I took the plunge and took the shower. 

We left for the mountain at about 2:30 AM and arrived around 4:00 AM.  We were taken by a 4 wheel drive Jeep a part of the way and then climbed the last short distance ourselves.  We made it to the top for the sunrise and it was spectaculur.  We also got a great view of several other volcanoes in the area.

After the sunrise, we had breakfast and then boarded an 11:30 AM bus to Denpasar.  This bus ride was 8 hours.  When we arrived in Denpasar, we still had an hour taxi ride to our hotel in Bali.  I thought the ride was never going to end.  We arrived to the hotel around midnight and were exhausted (having been up for 48 hours).  But it was all worth it because we arrived in paradise...

Thrillas in Manila

    What's up y'all??  Please be patient with us and our blogging game.  We are getting about 4-6 hours of sleep at a time and we argue over who's turn it is to do this.  In fact tonight one team has a 2:30 A.M. wake up call. 
    We left Seoul for Manila.   The Philippines is a cluster of islands the size of maybe Calfornia and the population of nearly the entire continental U.S.  We have yet to see trafffic that we complain about anywhere in the U.S as we saw here on a Monday morning  We were only in the Philippines for a short time and here is what we did: we first vited a hospice and we donated a few supplies that were needed and we could quickly get our hands on from a local pharmacy.  They wanted lactose free milk, baby formula and Pedialite.  We took a short tour of the place ,which was very uplifting and sad at the same time .  We are blessed belive me. 

We then went to a local mall to try some local delicasies tht we found were not to our liking, but we were glad we tried.  This is lechon, roasted pig or fat with meat.

After leaving from there, we went for some "foxy boxing."  The cab took us to a creepy joint where "ladies " "trannys" and midgets box.  The place was a dump and when I opened a beer the waitress even wiped the bottle for me.  But we got a funny picture:

     The next day we negotiated with a previous cab driver for a "three hour tour, a three hour tour" to a  sea side town for some "R and R."   We swam for a spell, had lunch and massages and then high tailed it back to Manila.  We then went to a gun range in the basement of a mall.  Once again scary due to the cheap ammunition and locally made "guns."   We then visited two local churches after walking through some suspect neighborhoods.  We even took a local means of getting around in a very funny by stateside standards vehicle called a jeepney that are decorated with various paintjobs and have names like "Playboy" and "Transformer."  We are not writing that much tonight due to a lack of time and sleep.  And besides pictures speak a thousand words. 

Octopus Video

Here is the video I took of the octopus trying to escape the bucket.  Look towards the back of the bucket.  The video cuts off right as the lady scoops up the octopus and puts it back in the bucket.

Seoul Trip Report

We finally have some down time so I am going to do a trip report for each leg of the journey so far. 

Following a 12 hour flight from LA, we landed in Seoul, South Korea around 5:00 AM on Sunday.  Because of the time change, we actually skipped Saturday and went from Friday to Sunday.  We stayed at the Ritz-Carlton and it was as nice as you expect.  We were given a few hours to unpack and shower and then we all met at 9:00 AM with Bill to start off on our first set of scavenges.  We received our booklet of scavenges and we were off.  The number one rule is that you cannot use the concierge to help you.  The purpose is that you interact with the local people and "trust strangers in a strange land."  Its hard to do when you are in an Asian country where very few people speak English.  But we did it and it was actually quite fun.  We did several things the first day including taking a tour of the Jongmyo Shrine and the Secret Garden, walked through Insadong and ate some samgyetang (boiled chicken and rice soup), and even went to the Seven Luck Casino (but no, we did not gamble - its very different than what we are used to).

 As we walked to the Jongmyo Shrine, we came upon a small park where there were hundreds of men playing Go.  I never quite understood how the game is played, but was more mesmerized at the amount of people in the park all playing the same game.

 

Our highlight of the day was going to a Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) game.  We saw the LG Twins take on the Lotte Giants.  And it was a zoo.  The place was packed and we had to stand in the outfield.  It was like nothing we have ever seen.  You are allowed to bring in your own food to the game so everybody brought coolers of food.  I saw people eating everything from noodle soup to fish and grapes.  The crowd was divided almost equally with half rooting the for the Twins and half for the Giants.  Both sides had cheerleaders and a guy that was the equivalent of an A&M yell leader.  They had chants that were sung to the music from different 80's songs including Dancing Queen and different songs by Kiss.  The crowds were rowdy and everyone was having a good time. When one team would make contact with the ball, its fans would cheer, but then the ball would be fielded and the batter would be out and then the other team would cheer.  They cheered for everything.

We ended the night with a Korean BBQ that was actually pretty tasty.  But we could have done without the red bean paste that was served for dessert.  David ate it but it was literally smushed red beans with sugar.

The next day we took a train to Busan to a fish market.  It was worth the three hour train ride.  There were just a bunch of stalls with fish laying out.  No coolers or ice but just fish everywhere.  My favorite part of the trip were the octopuses.  Before the trip, I had only seen an octopus in the Seattle aquarium.  Vendors at the fish market had small buckets full of small octopuses.  The octopuses were alive and would crawl (or swim) out of the buckets and onto the concrete. The vendors would continuously have to put them back in the buckets.  I have a video of this but cannot get it to load.  Our internet is too slow.  I will try again later to upload.

Some thoughts on Seoul.  This is my kind of place.  There is absoultely no crime.  Not even pick pockets.  You feel safe everywhere you go (which for me is really hard).  There is also no litter.  The city itself is modern and very sophisticated.  But most of all clean.  And its weird that it was impossible to find  a trash can.  It seems that Koreans leave no waste.  But, the food is horrible (except for the BBQ).  They eat a lot of fish and it smells awful.  I have never smelled anything like it.  It goes without saying that we spent most of our meals at the Ritz buffet or eating Korean BBQ.

Next stop...Manila, Philippines.

Seoul

  If we say it you can see it, Seoul is as advanced as any city stateside.  The communication barrier is beyond obvious.  The people are polite and gracious.  We both have had our breakdowns due to the spirit of compettition. We ate Korean BBQ acouple of times drank Soju (Korean Vodka).  On the first day we purchased a tour book and visited some super old palaces and gardens.  The second day we tok a train to Busan.  We visited the Fish Market and a sacred guard house on top of this hill overlooking the city.  The climb alone was exausting  both up and down the hill.  After that we went back to Seoul for a another set of sight seeing escapades.  We are now on the way to Manilla.  We have seen  one other black person so yes I get the "fish bowl" eyes everywhere I go.  No blood no foul!!  The natives mean no harm. 

Daweed and Natasha

'All eyes on me'-Tupac

Let the games begin

   Good day today, we met our fellow travelers.  Everyone seems to be in great spirits and are excited.  We had dinner tonight at a restraunt in a small airport in L.A.  On the menu were larvae, crickets and an entire fried catfish in black bean sauce. No I did not try any insects and everyone let me know that I did not have any balls.  Yes Natasha has taken them.  Look for something on Sunday from KOREA. 

Los Angeles

Yesterday we made our trip out to LA.  It was quite uneventful (except for a ladybug in my salad and running into one of my brother's old friends that we haven't seen in a decade).  This morning we woke up with one thing on our mind...In-N-Out Burger.  No trip to California is complete without a cheeseburger, fries and a vanilla shake.  Lucky us, there is one just a mile from our hotel.  So we made the trek and it was totally worth it.

We have a meeting at 3:00 this afternoon to meet the other teams and go over the rules.  We are stoked.

A shower? Really?????

David is the only person I know that showers before he goes to the gym.

..... DRUMS PLEASE

     Before we start, we would like to say thank you to everyone who has helped us to make this voyage possible.  Also to everyone that has wished us a peaceful journey. 
      To begin, neither one of us are the type to get nervous or scared (unless it's around 8:00 P.M in our front yard) about very many things.  Natasha had to come up with things to say, because she could tell that at one point I was not looking forward to this trip.  I almost always need to see the control element in every situation.  Outside of acquiring  personal affects, stopping the mail, and locking the doors to the house, I feel we do not have any control.  I still feel this way, but we can only control ourselves at this point and not the journey.  We promise to each other and to all of you to keep you informed as much as possible on this journey AROUND THE WORLD.  We leave on Thursday morning to L.A.  We will spend the night in L.A. We have an afternoon meeting and luncheon with fellow travelers and we are off.  So please expect postings at random times as we plan to be doing fun things at all times and sharing mishaps and adventures with all of you.  So this may be the last post for a few days.  We will be safe and we hope you all do the same.

   Natasha and David
"Everybody dies, but not everybody lives"-Drake