shame on me!
i can't believe i've gone this long without updating!!! i had all these grand ideas about writing about each wonderful day we had in indonesia and here it is NOVEMBER! OMG! lol sorry to say you're going to get a much more summarized version of our trip (and of the past couple months).
indonesia was amazing! we spent all our time on bali and the gillis which are tiny islands off the coast of lombok (which is the big island to the right of bali). bali was my favorite. i wanted to live there. it's a gorgeous tropical island- lush vegetation everywhere, white sand beaches, huge volcanos, friendly people, dogs on every corner, and hinduism surrounds you. it's wonderful. i love it. i couldn't figure out if i actually love it more than france! :oO
we spent a couple days in jimbaran bay- near the airport, all beach, bungalows and restaurants in the sand.
then we moved on to ubud- the cultural center of bali and where i fell in love with the island. we ate all kinds of delicious foods, shopped ALOT, and went to the sacred money forest and fed bananas to its inhabitants. we also saw a couple hindu temples which were amazing. they're ancient looking. like nothing else i've ever seen. a couple days i did yoga at a studio called the yoga barn. omg- it was bliss. it's a two story wooden building with a thatch roof. the upper floor is open all around except when the bamboo shades are rolled down. when they're open you look out on vibrantly green rice fields, tall palm trees and other thatch roof buildings in the distance. it's the perfect place for yoga. i wanted to be a yoga teacher just so i could do yoga there everyday for the rest of my life!
we saw a couple dance perforamces while we were there. since it's a hindu society their dances are based on indian dancing and tell stories from hindu texts. the dancers wear extremely colorful and vibrant costumes with golden ornaments and energetically bounce and fly around the stage. one dance was called the barong dance. the barong is a benevolent god that keeps away evil and it may be unique to bali. it looks like a giant lion dog and it reminded me of chinese dragons. it was my favorite dance because i was astounded at how the people inside this big costume could make this scary looking character actually seem really cute :o)
another dance was call the kecak dance. a bunch of men sit in a 3-layered circle and chant words like ke-chak over and over and it sounds almost like percussion instruments. it was amazing! if you've ever seen the movie "the fall" there is a scene in that movie with kecak dancers doing their thing. it's awesome. a fire dance was right after the kecak dance and boy was that an adrenaline rush! it was at night and we were sitting around an outdoor stage. it was really dark and they set a bunch of coconut shells on fire. a man came out dancing around on this metal horse. i thought he might walk on the burning coconut shells but then all of the sudden he RAN through them and kicked them all around! some of them came just feet away from our chairs! everyone screamed! lol a man came out and swept them into a pile again and the horse-rider ran through them a few more times until the pile was barely burning anymroe. it was so cool- i got some great pictures!
one day we took a tour of some other sites around the east side of bali- we saw some temples, a holy spring, a 14th century stone relief carved with scenes from daily life, a botanic garden where we saw coffee plants, chocolate plants, ginger, cinnamon and many other plants i'd never seen in person before, and we went to see a big volcano and lake but it was too foggy to see them lol it was a great tour though. just us and two balinese brothers in their rackety old jeep lol
after about a week in bali we took a bus to padangbai and then a boat to gilli meno. the boat ride was the worst i had ever had. i had even taken motion sickness pills and they didn't do a thing! i had to lie down on the floor in the ships cabin to get any relief. it was 4 hours long but we made it! gilli meno is the least populated of the 3 gillis. only 300 people live their permanently. there are no cars on any of the gillis which was really nice after all the traffic and car fumes on bali. we got a wood and thatch bungalow near the beach and it was pretty rugged but it worked. we had an "outdoor" bathroom (meaning no roof) and only cold sea water. in fact gilli meno had no hot water and only had fresh water for cooking. but to be on this island was so peaceful and laid back. all you've got is ocean, some tiny outdoor restaurants along that beach (that all serve the same thing lol) and your bungalow. you can totally relax. we had done all our site-seeing, gourmet food eating, and cultural stuff on bali. gilli meno was all about sleeping, eating, reading swimming and relaxing. it was really nice.
it was a desert island which was really interesting. it was quite the contrast from lush bali. there were cacti everywhere, the grass was all yellow and it was much hotter. but we had the shade and the ocean :o) there's actually a bird park on the island that we went to and it was much cooler than we expected. they had so many kinds of birds! most of them i had never seen before. and they also had a couple monkeys and an alligator...or crocodile...don't know which lol they also have a salt lake near the center of the island which was interesting to see.
after we found a scorpion i our bungalow and our neighbor was stung by one we moved down the beach to a nicer set of bungalows that were completely enclosed. we stayed there a couple nights and went snorkeling one day. THAT WAS AMAZING! i love snorkeling now! i had always thought i wouldn't like it because i usually don't want to know what's under the water but it was actually awe-inspiring. the first time i tried it with jens near the shore and i scraped my knee really badly on a giant piece of dead coral. i got back on the horse though and tried it the next day and did well so we took a boat trip out to deeper water with some indonesians and two dutch women. that's where we saw the cool stuff! jens saw 3 giant sea turtles and i saw one. we all saw a shipwreck with coral growing all over it and then we went to a coral garden which was just....glorious! there were tons of colorful fish and beautiful coral of all shapes and colors. wow! i was kicking myself for not going snorkeling sooner! and also for not having a waterproof camera!
after that we went to gilli trawangan- the most populated and "happenin'" of the 3 islands. it was definitely more touristy. there was more of everything and everything was nicer...and therefore more expensive. but it was nice to be able to transition back into the busier life before going back to bali. we got a really nice place with hot water and ac! and they had a pool which we took advantage of :o) our two days there were spent eating, reading an walking around.
then we took a boat back to bali and THIS TIME we got on the fast boat! it only took one hour! :o)
back on bali we spent one more night in ubud going to my favorite restaurant one more time (a vegetarian place called kafe) and seeing one more show- a traditional puppet show.
the next night we went to kuta for dinner because we heard there was a good mexican place there...and there was! and it's close to the airport. man! i wish we had gone to kuta for a couple days because there was TONS of shopping to be had! they had ALL kinds of stores- western brands and otherwise. of course jens was HAPPY we only had a few hours there so i didn't shop too much lol
so that was our indonesia trip! pretty awesome!
so to sum up the past couple of months:
jens turned 26!
we started the 2nd semester of school.
jens and i were on tv! we did a korean cooking contest show for foreigners and it was fun! we lost the contest though! :oP
we went to seoul for chuseok! we saw some sites we'd never seen and we went to lotteworld- an amusement park!
we met a bunch of new teachers that started in august.
we became more interested in politics than ever before and started watching cnn almost everyday.
i went to the dentist and had two fillings without any gas or antisthetic for the first time in my life and it didn't hurt AT ALL!
we went to the jinju lantern festival and saw some huge lanterns made into all kinds of shapes and characters floating on a river!
jens hosted a chess tournament!
jill- jens's sister- came to visit and she'll be here for one month!
jens and jill hiked up wolchusan- a giant mountain near here.
we had a big halloween bash here in mokpo which raised money for the local orphanage: i was a vietnamese girl, jens was a magician and jill was the economy- it was tons of fun!
we went to a maple leaf festival near gwangju and the changing leaves were gorgeous!
now our plans for the next month are-
daewonsa- temple in gwangju
open mic night
nagan folk village
korean wedding
seoul
jill leaves for texas
another chess tournament
a baby shower for a korean friend
and thanksgiving!
and if you don't know already jens and i will be coming home to visit texas on december 20th! yay! i'm so happy we're going to be home for christmas! :oD
indonesia was amazing! we spent all our time on bali and the gillis which are tiny islands off the coast of lombok (which is the big island to the right of bali). bali was my favorite. i wanted to live there. it's a gorgeous tropical island- lush vegetation everywhere, white sand beaches, huge volcanos, friendly people, dogs on every corner, and hinduism surrounds you. it's wonderful. i love it. i couldn't figure out if i actually love it more than france! :oO
we spent a couple days in jimbaran bay- near the airport, all beach, bungalows and restaurants in the sand.
then we moved on to ubud- the cultural center of bali and where i fell in love with the island. we ate all kinds of delicious foods, shopped ALOT, and went to the sacred money forest and fed bananas to its inhabitants. we also saw a couple hindu temples which were amazing. they're ancient looking. like nothing else i've ever seen. a couple days i did yoga at a studio called the yoga barn. omg- it was bliss. it's a two story wooden building with a thatch roof. the upper floor is open all around except when the bamboo shades are rolled down. when they're open you look out on vibrantly green rice fields, tall palm trees and other thatch roof buildings in the distance. it's the perfect place for yoga. i wanted to be a yoga teacher just so i could do yoga there everyday for the rest of my life!
we saw a couple dance perforamces while we were there. since it's a hindu society their dances are based on indian dancing and tell stories from hindu texts. the dancers wear extremely colorful and vibrant costumes with golden ornaments and energetically bounce and fly around the stage. one dance was called the barong dance. the barong is a benevolent god that keeps away evil and it may be unique to bali. it looks like a giant lion dog and it reminded me of chinese dragons. it was my favorite dance because i was astounded at how the people inside this big costume could make this scary looking character actually seem really cute :o)
another dance was call the kecak dance. a bunch of men sit in a 3-layered circle and chant words like ke-chak over and over and it sounds almost like percussion instruments. it was amazing! if you've ever seen the movie "the fall" there is a scene in that movie with kecak dancers doing their thing. it's awesome. a fire dance was right after the kecak dance and boy was that an adrenaline rush! it was at night and we were sitting around an outdoor stage. it was really dark and they set a bunch of coconut shells on fire. a man came out dancing around on this metal horse. i thought he might walk on the burning coconut shells but then all of the sudden he RAN through them and kicked them all around! some of them came just feet away from our chairs! everyone screamed! lol a man came out and swept them into a pile again and the horse-rider ran through them a few more times until the pile was barely burning anymroe. it was so cool- i got some great pictures!
one day we took a tour of some other sites around the east side of bali- we saw some temples, a holy spring, a 14th century stone relief carved with scenes from daily life, a botanic garden where we saw coffee plants, chocolate plants, ginger, cinnamon and many other plants i'd never seen in person before, and we went to see a big volcano and lake but it was too foggy to see them lol it was a great tour though. just us and two balinese brothers in their rackety old jeep lol
after about a week in bali we took a bus to padangbai and then a boat to gilli meno. the boat ride was the worst i had ever had. i had even taken motion sickness pills and they didn't do a thing! i had to lie down on the floor in the ships cabin to get any relief. it was 4 hours long but we made it! gilli meno is the least populated of the 3 gillis. only 300 people live their permanently. there are no cars on any of the gillis which was really nice after all the traffic and car fumes on bali. we got a wood and thatch bungalow near the beach and it was pretty rugged but it worked. we had an "outdoor" bathroom (meaning no roof) and only cold sea water. in fact gilli meno had no hot water and only had fresh water for cooking. but to be on this island was so peaceful and laid back. all you've got is ocean, some tiny outdoor restaurants along that beach (that all serve the same thing lol) and your bungalow. you can totally relax. we had done all our site-seeing, gourmet food eating, and cultural stuff on bali. gilli meno was all about sleeping, eating, reading swimming and relaxing. it was really nice.
it was a desert island which was really interesting. it was quite the contrast from lush bali. there were cacti everywhere, the grass was all yellow and it was much hotter. but we had the shade and the ocean :o) there's actually a bird park on the island that we went to and it was much cooler than we expected. they had so many kinds of birds! most of them i had never seen before. and they also had a couple monkeys and an alligator...or crocodile...don't know which lol they also have a salt lake near the center of the island which was interesting to see.
after we found a scorpion i our bungalow and our neighbor was stung by one we moved down the beach to a nicer set of bungalows that were completely enclosed. we stayed there a couple nights and went snorkeling one day. THAT WAS AMAZING! i love snorkeling now! i had always thought i wouldn't like it because i usually don't want to know what's under the water but it was actually awe-inspiring. the first time i tried it with jens near the shore and i scraped my knee really badly on a giant piece of dead coral. i got back on the horse though and tried it the next day and did well so we took a boat trip out to deeper water with some indonesians and two dutch women. that's where we saw the cool stuff! jens saw 3 giant sea turtles and i saw one. we all saw a shipwreck with coral growing all over it and then we went to a coral garden which was just....glorious! there were tons of colorful fish and beautiful coral of all shapes and colors. wow! i was kicking myself for not going snorkeling sooner! and also for not having a waterproof camera!
after that we went to gilli trawangan- the most populated and "happenin'" of the 3 islands. it was definitely more touristy. there was more of everything and everything was nicer...and therefore more expensive. but it was nice to be able to transition back into the busier life before going back to bali. we got a really nice place with hot water and ac! and they had a pool which we took advantage of :o) our two days there were spent eating, reading an walking around.
then we took a boat back to bali and THIS TIME we got on the fast boat! it only took one hour! :o)
back on bali we spent one more night in ubud going to my favorite restaurant one more time (a vegetarian place called kafe) and seeing one more show- a traditional puppet show.
the next night we went to kuta for dinner because we heard there was a good mexican place there...and there was! and it's close to the airport. man! i wish we had gone to kuta for a couple days because there was TONS of shopping to be had! they had ALL kinds of stores- western brands and otherwise. of course jens was HAPPY we only had a few hours there so i didn't shop too much lol
so that was our indonesia trip! pretty awesome!
so to sum up the past couple of months:
jens turned 26!
we started the 2nd semester of school.
jens and i were on tv! we did a korean cooking contest show for foreigners and it was fun! we lost the contest though! :oP
we went to seoul for chuseok! we saw some sites we'd never seen and we went to lotteworld- an amusement park!
we met a bunch of new teachers that started in august.
we became more interested in politics than ever before and started watching cnn almost everyday.
i went to the dentist and had two fillings without any gas or antisthetic for the first time in my life and it didn't hurt AT ALL!
we went to the jinju lantern festival and saw some huge lanterns made into all kinds of shapes and characters floating on a river!
jens hosted a chess tournament!
jill- jens's sister- came to visit and she'll be here for one month!
jens and jill hiked up wolchusan- a giant mountain near here.
we had a big halloween bash here in mokpo which raised money for the local orphanage: i was a vietnamese girl, jens was a magician and jill was the economy- it was tons of fun!
we went to a maple leaf festival near gwangju and the changing leaves were gorgeous!
now our plans for the next month are-
daewonsa- temple in gwangju
open mic night
nagan folk village
korean wedding
seoul
jill leaves for texas
another chess tournament
a baby shower for a korean friend
and thanksgiving!
and if you don't know already jens and i will be coming home to visit texas on december 20th! yay! i'm so happy we're going to be home for christmas! :oD