Day 2: Scooters down South!

Not only was my hotel a mere $11.00 a night, breakfast was included! I ordered pineapple crepes, watermelon juice, and fresh pineapple! I could definitely get used to this!

Sadly, it started to rain, so we decided to sit on my front porch and do a little reading (and a little bit of yahtzee with the ipod!)

Aaron reading on my front porch...

After the rain died down, we rented scooters from the hotel and began our adventure! We rode from Kuta Beach all the way down south to Ula Watu (66 km total) on separate scooters through heavy traffic and barren country roads. Aaron said he was afraid if anything happened to me while he was driving, he would fear the wrath from my friends and family! That's why we took separate scooters! I didn't mind at all... It only cost me $5.00 to rent it for the day, and I didn't die! Can't complain. :)

We did have to stop for gas one time because my scooter ran out!! Oops! Notice how they are pouring it from a glass bottle, through a funnel into the gas tank! There are no ARCO's around here! They're all mom and pop stores with bottled petroleum.

While they were filling up my gas tank, I found this little guy...

There are stray dogs and puppies EVERYWHERE!!!

We also found this fake surfing wave, practically abandoned, on the side of the road! We couldn't pass it up!

We finally made it to Ula Watu Beach, 3 hours after our departure from Kuta, and were starving! We had lunch on the top of this cliff, overlooking the beach. The food was good and cheap, and we had women who came over and gave us neck and shoulder massages for the equivalent of $2.50 while we waited for our food! Good food, great view, and a massage... YES PLEASE!

After lunch, we hiked down to the beach... There was a very narrow path that lead to a cave, which then lead to the beach. Nothing like Huntington where you just park and walk straight to the sand. You've gotta do some adventuring to get anywhere around here.

Here it is folks! Ula Watu beach! Unfortunately, it wasn't really a swimming beach. Apparently, it's world renouned for it's waves! 7 currents come together at this beach, which creates a bit of a surfers heaven! The waves were too big for ME, so we decided to head over to Dream Land Beach, which we had heard was where Julia Roberts filmed EAT, PRAY, LOVE!

On our way back to the scooters, from Ula Watu, it started to rain a little... and then within seconds, with no warning, it DOWN POURED!!! Imagine the scene in The Notebook where Noah and Alli are on the boat and it starts to rain and they're yelling at each other and paddling as fast as they can... Well, erase the yelling and paddling part and that's basically what it was like! We were dying laughing, and realized there was nothing we could do but just laugh and get drenched!!

If you look really closely, you can tell how hard it's raining. These were the steps from Ula Watu Beach, back up to our scooters.

We finally made it to Dream Land... It was not as dreamy as we had hoped for. :( There were too many toursists for our taste, so we only stayed for a little bit. Plus, we had to do some doctoring to Aaron's foot and sand was not the remedy. He was pushing his kick stand down and sliced his big toe pretty bad! I had an awesome picture of it, but it's on his little camera, and the computer cord is back in Korea. :(

On our drive back home to Kuta Beach, we decided to take a side road, which lead through the REAL BALINESE NEIGHBORHOODS... I spotted this brother and sister on the side of the road. She was teaching him how to ride his bike! Notice there is no tire on the front wheel... but, hey WHO CARES! :) They were both more than happy to stop and smile for a few pictures!

We made it back, safely to Kuta Beach and were starving, so we looked in the Lonely Planet book and found this food court of sorts, with all of the international food you could imagine! We both decided on Turkish! But before we decided, we were bombarded by the employees who stand in front of each restaurant, who shoved their menus in our faces and told us over and over again how they liked our smile and to eat at their place!

Mmm pita bread!

We spent the rest of the night, exploring the town on the scooter, in the pouring rain! Gotta love rainy season in Bali. It keeps things nice and humid! :)

Tomorrow morning, we're getting up bright and early to go to Gili Meno (The Gili Islands). It's so small you can literally walk around it in an hour! We're leaving at 6am and are arriving at 4pm. 2 busses and 2 boats! We can't wait to get there and lounge! Not sure if we'll have internet, and not too sure how long we'll stay... So check back day to day! I may have an update tomorrow, or next week! Until next time.... Tah tah!

Are you sure this is Bali?

We were so excited to get to the beach when we arrived, so we had a taxi take us straight from the airport to the cheapest hotel in Kuta Beach, so we could start our day in paradise! Here's where I stayed! It's called Puspa Ayu Bungalows. It only cost me $10.00 a night! How ridiculous is that?! Aaron is showing off how awesome my porch was to sit on!

We quickly changed into our bathing suits, and walked (3 minutes) to Kuta beach, which we had read was arguably the best beachfront in Bali! Arguably would be the correct word, because we would argue that it WAS NOT! *** Unfortunately, we chose just the wrong couple days to stay in Kuta! They are doing a clean up project on the beach this week, due to the "red tide" (poison plankton that was in the water) which poisoned some of the fish and turtles. So, they are basically sweeping the water for trash and dead stuff.

Here are some things we found washed up on the beach...

Yes, this is a dead dog and turtle!!! How gross is that?!

As disgusting as it was, we still enjoyed looking for the grossest things we could find in the trash piles to take pictures of! :)

On a more positive note, we did come across this beautiful Balinese beach ceremony to the gods.

After walking the beach, we decided to grab lunch and explore the rest of the area. Lunch was delicious, and cost the equivalent of $2.00!

Balinese are VERY religious, and offering these small handmade baskets of fruit, flowers, and crackers in front of their stores is a daily ritual! By the end of the day, all of the stray dogs had eaten the fruit and crackers, and had left the baskets and flowers in shambles across the sidewalks!

Here's a little cutie-pa-tootie local boy selling bracelets on the street.

Ceremonies happen daily in Bali. It is a known fact that ceremonies come before work, so it's not uncommon for businesses to close down when employees attend religious or cultural ceremonies.

This is the traffic....

... caused by this ceremony! They basically just started walking down the street, so the traffic had to stop.

Balinese are VERY used to waiting patiently for these types of things. They are also VERY used to driving kids and babies on their scooters!! CRAZY huh?!

We walked back to the beach to watch the sunset last night. As you can see, it was GORGEOUS!!!

After the sunset, we grabbed some ice cream and walked back to our hotels, and ordered dinner, which was delivered to my front porch, free of charge! We ate on my front porch, on the whicker chairs, with John Mayer serenading us on my ipod! The locals, working at the hotel, came over and hung out with us for a while, and helped us make plans for this morning. We are going to rent scooters and drive south to Ulu Wata, the beach where Julia Roberts filmed EAT, PRAY, LOVE (coming to theaters soon!) and it's supposed to be beautiful! Here's hoping!!

 

Goodbye Korea!

Aaron and I got to the airport about an hour early, and had plenty of time to kill before our flight! Luckily the airport near Busan is tiny, so security took about 3 minutes!!

Me with my Bali tickets!

We had a night layover in Hong Kong and decided to sleep in the airport! We learned our lesson, and won't be doing that on our way back to Korea! It was FREEZING, but funny, of course!! We are always trying to make the best out of our situations!

Our plane from Hong Kong to Bali was HUGE. It was a double decker and had more movies and TV shows to watch than any plane I'd ever been on! It even had electrical outlets under our seat tables, so I could re-charge my ipod! I can't imagine where technology will be 10 years from now!

Our fligts were REALLY turbulent, but were comfortable! We didn't crash... so I can't complain! :)

 

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Backpack Vacations!

There's something about going on a long vacation with a school size backpack, instead of a suitcase, that makes it feel so much more adventurous!   This is my backpack, all ready to go!  Just zip her up, load her on my back, and I'm ready!  2 more hours till I go!!!

I've learned, when traveling to tropical places, to pack light and shop when you get there, wear clothes over and over again, never bring more than one pair of shoes - Flip Flops are always enough, make-up is optional, a camera is a necessity, bathing suits are a YES, a sudoku book is always a good distractor for the plane, a novel is the perfect companion at the beach, and an ipod is always a nice touch on those long, strenuous hikes!  With all these things, you're sure to have the time of your life!   I know I will!

Next time you hear from me, I'll be on the beautiful island of Bali!  

"Anhekayseyo!"

 

Teacher, what's a microbe?

I never thought, in a million years, that I wouldn't know one of the words that my elementary school kids were learning at their English Hagwon.  Although, today, I was proven wrong!  Check out this vocabulary list that one of my 5th graders had to memorize for her Hagwon test today.  

How in the world is microbe on the same level as pony, staple, and oven?  I don't even know what that means!!  Seriously, who makes these lists?!