Category: Indonesia

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On our way to visit Malay

We are here at the airport in Kuta. So far, so good. We are awaiting to book the first flight of our round the world ticket. A little confusion with immigration authorities. Nothing that 800,000 Rupiahs could not fix. We are through the gate and then what? I will feel so much better wen we are on the plane. 200,000 rupiahs per person per day adds up fast but we paid the fee with smiles. I’m glad I saved up all my rupiahs for something like that. No yoga classes. No massages. Limited taxi rides. All this, so in the end, the Indonesian immigration would take their share. A small price to pay and I kinda knew at some point we might have been bitten … and in the end we were. I made our Thailand stay for 29 days to avoid any issues in the future. So now I know that your time officially starts at the airport. I think I was video recording some of the interoggation since I always film going into and out of airports, so that clip should be interesting to watch. Viena and Ezra are doing well. They are watching a movie on the good ‘ole Kindle Fire watchin Charlie Brown. Lots of workers in green shirts that Dwana thinks are going to be working on a boat.Not too many places to sit here in the airport. Glad we made the immigration officials happy. We would not want to end up in jail in Bali and need bail.

Mall anywhere

We awoke before the sun and went on a small little walk along the wide beach of Kuta before all the hawkers had risen. A few people were up and about. The weather was cool but we could tell the day was going to be hot. Ezra was just content to be digging a hole looking for clams. A gentleman showed him all sorts of hermit crabs. “I caught one crab. I caught one.”And the list grows of the animals that Ezra and Viena have seen or caught. We rented a boogie board for 50,000 Rupiahs and played in the water. The water was warm and the waves were fairly calm. The waves were not looking like the great awesome Kuta waves that we have heard so much about. We all played in the water and the boogie board was big enough for both Viena and Ezra to ride together with my help to ensure that they were not smacked down into the rough sand. A couple of times they landed on some coral and both had belly rashes that hurt and stopped our play. Nothing a dip in the pool could not cure. A real treat to have these two days before heading off to Malaysia. Viena and Ezra enjoyed jumping from dark tiles to the white tiles in the hallway of the hotel. ANd the Javanese interviews on the beach were hilarious. We finished with a walk to McDonalds late in the evening were we saw HP who is alive and well and still enojing Micky D’s.

Outside the library we saw a grasshopper about ten times the size of the grasshopper that Ezra made friends with. He only had one leg, but he could still jump a long ways. Ezra was talking to an Australian who was taking a Balinese wood carving class. “That’s sure is an UGLY face!”. “”Thanks mate. I want him to be a bit Ugly.””

We took our last trip through the Monkey Forest. The monkeys played alittle bit in the fountain to the ooouu! And aaaaah! Of the crowd. We were on our way back from town. We left too early in the morning for the Monkey Forest gates to be open and actually directed an Australian couple throught the Motorbike-Scooter trail around the Monkey Forest. We felt almost like a local. What to do on our last day? Go to the library! Ezra played with the little library boy again. He loves the toys of the boy outside the library. Ezra also struck up a conversation with a 27-year-old Australian guy taking a wood mask carcing class. “That sure is an ugly face!” “Why thank you, mate, I want him to be a bit ugly!” We also loaded up on DVD’s at $1 each. Just another item to buy for $1. Also a plug adaptor for $1. They were selling cups of coffee on the street for 25 cents. We stayed at the library uploading photos. I ran to Bali Buda and purchased lunch as well as some goodies for the trip and to mail packages off to Mylon and Granma. Hopefully Mylon will take good care of Ezra’s elephant shirt. The day was hot. We celebrated Ezra’s birthday again with chocolate cake and carrot cake. We said goodbye to the talking bird that we have befriended who says “Hello!” and “Art is Simple!” Good things to know. The streets were full of taxi Drivers and Massooses. We arrived home and started the process of packing for tomorrow. Viena and Era were quite content to come back and watcha movie. The elders were lining up for exercise class. The young boys were flying kites. The soccer players were starting to arrive. A typical day in Nyuh Kuning. Jalan – Jalan. Walking Walking. That’s what we do and I need to remember this – the walking people. Make things simple. Our last night was spent under clear skies staring at new constellations that look like a smile, a perfect smile of contentness and a box –  and the clouds that move in. A slient night without bells or chanting or drums or singing – only crickets.

A day with the ants. We found them thousands of them setting up a new home eggs and all in our hanging . towels. Needless to say Dwana said gross. Ezra is now friends with a grasshopper. Today was a day of ants, kites, power outages, fruit bars, sneezes, tissues, downsizing, grasshoppers, Bali Buda, Batman, planning and night singing. We did not move around much today. We walked down to Wayan Bebas house house and discussed our departure plans. Ezra loved playing with his pet grasshopper today. He was so excited when the grasshopper jumped on him. We ordered Bali Buda and had lunch delivered to the soccer field. Yummy food. We spent the day downsizing our luggage. The backpack – “Old Green”  that I have had for 20 years, that has summitted Mount Whitney and the Inca Trail along with many other adventures will be laid to rest here in Bali. We tried to make a kite from the wrappings of the clean clothes and some old bamboo. Ezra’s favorite part of the day was “seeing Mylon and playing with Mylon and wrestling with Mylon and it ended happy”. My favorite part was trying to fly the kite in the field with the Balinese boys looking at our rag-tag kite and thinking”man that kite is not going to fly!” – and they were right. But Ezra was able to fly one of the Balinese boys kites and he had fun running around the field. For some reason, the Balinese boys have been flying kites in th afternoon. Mostly boys, but on my run through the rice fileds, I saw a group of girls trying to fly a kite. The rice fields I should note is not the best place to fly a kite – hard to run around a terraced rice field. Difficult to evene walk through. Ezra and I found this out the hard way the other day. The power went out right at dark dusk – right as I waswalking into the store on the corner to buy Dwana a box of tissues for her sneezes. Dwana has been sneezing all day. I thought the store was closing and that they were just turning out their lights, and I am never wandering the streets at this hour usually. But the power had gone out in the entire village of Nyuh Kuning. I went to the other market and they were helping people find things with flashlights all while laughing and smiling. Finding items in a foreign grocery store in a foreign country is difficult enough, but  now with just a flashlight as a guide was almost impossible. The ants tried to to build a home in our towels that were draped across the shower rock wall and in my towel upstairs. Pretty gross to see thousands of ants with all their little ant egs in your towel. At least they were not biting fire ants – that would be too much like Texas. We had a couple of trips to the market on this hot day to purchase fruit bars. I tried calling a lodge in Taman Negara Malaysia using Skype, but had no luck. Tried to arrange one last Jungle Rice field walk, but had no luck. So, the Monkey Forest it will be. Everyone is powered out – asleep.

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A long walk through the rice fields Up at 6am. Back home by 4 with a stop by the library. Completed the circle with monkeys. Viena has a blister. Along with the moon in the early morning we saw a brightly colored blue bird. Dwana was hopeful for just one fallen feather. Viena and Dwana walked and window shopped while Ezra and I watched the monkeys. Ezra even smuggled a banana past the first line of monkeys in his pocket. “Don’t tell the monkeys I have a banana in my pocket!”

We awoke in the early morning so that Wayan Bebas could make an early morning drop off for the rice fields. When will the Balinese start walking the trails for their own leisure – probably when the rice fields are almost extinct. We did see at the very end of the trail a group of school children walking the rice fields for a field trip. I guess that is where the term “field trip” originated. A Rice-Field Trip. I must have received 20 high fives from the school children of the neighborhood vilalge. The concept of village is so easy to understand now. Now I have seen many villages, I have walked through many villages, I have observed the village people. We did a circle of the rice field walk into Pernestanan and then to Cafe Vespa and over to the Steps of Champuan –  where the rivers meet. A very special place in its own. We caught a taxi at the bottom of the Steps and I was very proud of negotiating 20000 rupiah for a ride back into town. The taxi driver agreed and then seconds later , as if at an auction Viena yells “30,000” and the driver qickly agreed to that price as well. And then Ezra seeing the great laughter and fun that we were having yells out “80,000”. Needless to say, I think having children does help when negotiating prices on things because the Balinese seem to love children – but in this case it cost me an additional 10000 rupiah. We walked through the Central Ubud market before venturing to the library. After the library we walked a quick trip throught the “TAXI” “MASSAGE” Monkey Forest.

DAY 27: UBUD BALI

We have been going over to the soccer fields late in the afternoon to watch the soccer games. Some days we lay down after the soccer players have left and just watch the bats eat bugs and fly and darf around. Did I mention the big snail we saw the other day. Tonight was a little different in that I had ordered a pizza to be delivered. I had two plain pizzas delivered and then one real pizza delivered. The pizza were needed since we are planning a hike in the morning. Is it really Friday? Somewhere I lost track of the days. A beautiful thing … to be lost in time. Time to move on. I am not sure where one of the days went, but we having been hanging around Ubud. We did go to Bumi Sehat on the Full Moon and sure enough lots of women were about to have babies. The smiles. The friendly smiles of the people is what I will miss the most – beisdes the prices of everything. Not much wind and I have not tried out the surf. HOpefully next week when we stay at Kuta I will have a chance. Looking forward to that. I am glad many of the arrangements I have made with only a few unknowns. One thing we have not done is meet alot of tourists or expats. We have seen a bunch, but everyone in that regard has been kinda quiet. I thought there would be more people with children or more people that were open to new people. Besides the Balinese, more foreigners we met appeared to be following their own agendas as we followed ours. I keep seeing more people with banged up right sides – from scooter crashs I think. We are all blessed to be healthy. Ezra weighs 40 pounds and Viena weighs 52 pounds frmo Bumi Sehat. Dwana bought a shirt and more conservative shirt from Bumi Sehat.

DAY 26: UBUD BALI

Somewhere around here someone is burning a little more than incense. The full moon temple celebration was yesterday, but the festivitiesfelt minimal compared to what we have already witnessed. The full moon was seen rising over the Temple and the spooky old tree and the night time clouds. Today Ezra woke up an unruly person so I dosed him in water to really wake him up. Now he is trying to count in Indonesian. Dwana is trying to instruct clean up of the paints that were used this afternoon while I ran and had my head shaved – for 10000 rupiah – $1.We ate breakfast this morning with cold milk. I had the market chill one for me. Ezra and Viena did not even comment, so I guess they are already used to warm milk. MY run was a little challenging. I ended up lost in the rice fields but actually found my way. The street the haircut place was on hadvery few shops for tourists and was like another world from Ubud. I guess – the real Bali, again. I could not find the route back to Ubud central, I think the homestays have blocked the path. Ezra and Viena enjoyed feeding Michaels fish next door. Last night we ordered from the local place and they delivered a whole fish – eyeballs tail and everything. Tomorrow the ricefields.

DAY 25: UBUD BALI

Well the moon is almost full today. Here we are in Nunh Kuning. We left our house for the morning routine of milk and cereal at the corner market. We must have seen the biggest snail we have ever seen – right in front of our door just scooting along. I hope he made the trip to where he was going safely. I wonder where he was going. The people on the soccer field were doing many activities today. Soccer. Frisbee. Baseball. Kite Flying and Tag. We played tag. Ezra wanted to play tag after breakfast. That game of tag lasted about 3 minutes and Ezra was on to the next thing. Both Ezra and Viena have become quite good at the game of tag becase it is one game you can play with the local children. Bisa Amel Ena. Bisa Amel Ena. Do you want this? Do you want this? Another game that the Balinese children like to play. THey hold up an object and say BISA AMEL ENA to a person, for the person to grab the object, but then they pull the object away and start laughing and say again BISA AMEL ENA. After breakfast we walked to the library through the monkey forest. I spoke with  Jerry. I kinda like this activity of calling people from foreign lands. At the library I made all of our hotel arrangements for Malaysia and Kuta. I should probably call the place in the Perhentian Islands. Dwana, Ezra and Viena just read books while I computed away. We took our lunch break at our favorite place – Warung Lokale. A $12 bill this time – we ate all of the food and had some good juice. We were the only ones and there was only one cook and we just gave him our order. He had ne take the order and calculate the bill. We went back to the library and then back home. Viena and Dwana did some window shopping.

DAY 24: UBUD BALI

Tomorrow is the full moon. We were going to hike Mount Batur at the full moon dusk. But no, instead I took a bicycle  ride withour neghbor Michael. He was here for two weeks. He owns the house next door that Eric helped designed and build and acrhitect. Incredible stories. All of them. The bike ride was fun. I have not been on a bike on a long time and then to be out there with the scooters and trucks and cars. We did the loop that I had discovered on Sunday on my run. A pretty safe loop. Michael helped to connect parts of the loop near Pernestanan. He had never been on this trail that is on most Ubud maps. If you build it they will come. Just put a map out with a trail and the buildings start. The Java worker. The Balinese worker. We had some juice at the Alchemy Juice Bar. I guess things are changing so fast around here. Might be difficult to call this a cheap place in a while. No real complications on the bike. Felt good to ride a bike again, and the trail was scooter padded. Ezra loves running from the local children. They are flying kites right now. The Balinese children have been flying kites for the last few days. Most of the children playing are boys. Ezra wanted to ride with me on the bike. He cried and said he misses his bike that we sent to Uncle Cayce. We went to the soccer field with Ezra and met Kelly and Su Tai with Nevan and little Loca. They are here for a year  and she is studying midwifery.

DAY 23: UBUD BALI

Today is Monday. Our water stopped working again today. A different problem. Not sure what the problem is, but Wayan came over after his date with his wife and repaired the pump. Wayan ripped out the pump, banged on it with a stick and hooed it back up and the pump worked. I guess I could have done that much. The day was hot. One of those days when you want to take two or three showers, but we could not. We went to the market many times seeking refreshments and refilling the water. I even tried some Indonesian food of black beans and potatoes with chocolate syrupand milk. Yes, that’s right. Each ingredient is yummy, but together, the taste was hard to handle. We played soccer on the small soccer field while the Balinesemplayed on the big field. Two Bulais joined in but very few conversations. The players are playing soccer for the workout of soccer and for what else? Even the Balinese tend to leave immediately after the last whistle and before the bats arrive and become good and thick. Dwana took her shower a natural shower from the roof during the downpour. The bump on my head still hurts from hitting the store door. I stayed at home most of the day to read the Surfing Indonesia book and help Viena wiht her math and reading. The homeschool/travelschool portion of our adventure. Viena has really enjoyed going to the market and buying things with her own money. 4000 rubiah for an ice cream. 8000 rupiah for an avocado. 2000 rubiah for a bag of chips. The prices are pretty amazing and need to only pay that when we return to the States. I definitely am having fun with all the bargines of going to the market. Every place not only has a dollar menu, but they have a 50 cent menu so you wonder how. Ezra is having fun chasing the chickens that come into the yard. And the big event of the day was watchin the crew of 5 Balinese disassemble th Ballet in the backyard and load it up on a truck and drive off and assemble on some Frecnch Guys lawn in East Bali. Pretty amazing they could do that and made us started thinking of the land on Chenega Island. Yes, it is fun to dream, and even more fun to live your dream!

DAY 22: UBUD BALI

I woke up early – not too early – and went on a run to find the lost trails of Ubud. There are trails on the maps that I want to discover. I feel like a conquistador explored walking through these lands – actualy running through these lands – so I must look funny to the native people. Who is this white guy and why is he running? Am I the first they have seen running through the ricefields. Will others soon be arriving to run through these ricefields. If I can find the trails other people can find them. And the maps are all there with the trails on them. Soon the big hotels will build and absorb the trails and the rice fields wil be no more – and then what will become of Ubud. Very interesting how houses have just carved out a section of the rice fields. When will they say enough is enough?  Do people travel to Ubud for the ricefields? Really seemed like only me out there today running –  no one else. I ran to the Four Seasons hotel and resort and discovered all teh trails except the one heading back towards Ubud and the monkey Forest. I spoke to a guy wh said “Not that trail!” or something like that, which I took to ean that the trail does not exist. At the Four Season they have a security guard at the front, and even though I was sweaty and bleeding on my forehead I was able to make it through. He did say somthing to me as I passed by and I thought they might deny my entrance, but he saw my camera and just wanted a photo of him with another Balinese woman employee. Everyone said good morning as I walked around the campus. The place was empty. One guy asked for my room number and the game was up, but he sent me to the higher level to exit so that I would have ample opportunity for photos on my way out. And the view is quite amazing from the water terrace. I had hit my head on a low market door shortly before arriving at the Four Seasons -still bleeding. So, I must have looked like quite a site. The people in the market all gasped and said something like “boy he sure is tall, or wow no one hit the hangin market door or karme finds you.” I needed a baidaid, but only received a tissue. I caught a taxi back to the house and the taxi driver actually seemed agitated that I did not want to spend the day with him visiting Bali Bird Park or the volcano or any further expeditions, and will this be how the island goes. Early morning here. I feel asleep last night before writing. I made all of our flight arragements and hotels stays for Chiang Mai and Borneo, and the flight to Kota Bharu and the Perhentians. All falling into place and becoming more and more focused. Ezra can be heard around the neighborhood when he wakes up. I guess a combination of age and voice and esires of chocolate milk. His belly is big and is hurting. I hope this is not too serious. We stayed and played at the Pool of Keritasa all day – that’s how long of time to pln our future, and we are almost there. A hotel in Kota Bharu and Kuta. Don’t forget Kuta beach in the end. No monkeys today, but I did see a pig next to a volleyball court – probably soon to be sacrificed.

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DAY 21: UBUD BALI

We walked the main rice field walk of Ubud past Sari Organics. Pretty precarious after you turn the corner and head back along the river. A long way down. I would not want to lose anyone down there. We held onto Ezra and Viena especially tight. Very similar to a “Romancing the Stone” slide. All those movies make sense now. I am becoming better at negotiating with the taxi drivers. $2 not $3 took us to the bridges after we walked through the monkey forest. We started walking early. We woke up, filed up a liter of chocolate milk at the market. Ate cereal at the market and off we go. I have been feeding the children and not really thinking about me. Viena’s cereal was 20 cents. I think the one with the bowl is 20 cents. Next time we will bring own bowl and spoon. Viena walked the entire way. She is definitely a great walker. Ezra tires and has some Travellers Diarhea (TD) issues and required carrying, especailly at the end. Ezra has not been as into the walks as everyone else. He needs some type of adrenaline to keep his interest. We ate some fresh cocnut and some yummy Mangee fruits. Ezra and I also trid to take a shortcut across the rice fields –  a mistake. A rice field worker came out of his hut with a smile and directed us the right way. We spoke to a couple who owned a jojobo house from Java in the rice fields. He was from India. Also, we met Michael who lives next door  – all nice people with a bigger connection to Ubud. Bali is like that.

DAY 20: UBUD BALI

The days are moving by fast now. We have two more weeks. We were going to walk through the rice fields early in the morning but a big dark thunderstorm was brewing on the island ready to unleash a downpour – nad we have seen a Bali downpuor before. April is supposedly the tailend of the rainy season. We had some great down pours that first week were here. No rainbows. the second week has been fairly dry until this morning. I did not want to be in the middle of the rice fields when the rains came. So we waited and the rains fell. And when the trains were finished we packed our bags and headed to the post office through the monkey forest. At the other side of the monkey forest we caught a taxi for $2 that took us to the post office. We mailed off postcards at $1 a postcard and then went to the Buda Bali health food store conveniently located across the street from the post office. They had fresh bread, bagels, pretzels, loaves of banana bread, pumpkin bread, white bread, and wheat bread. After not eating bread for a couple of weeks, we went bread crazy. We loaded up the backpak and started our way home through some new streets of Ubud. I was trying to show Dwana some of the stores on the other streets of Ubud. We found a few less crowded streets and ate our bagels with cream cheese on the foots steps of a temple. Ezra was running out of steam quick, so I took him while Dwana and Viena lingered in some of the shops. Ezra and I found a group of boys playing in one of the tiled open air temple spaces across from the main temple – Temple Pusa Desa of Ubud. The small boys were excited to have a bulai – foreigner – tourist – to play keep awy from with a soccer ball. Ezra was the monkey in the middle until I joined him. The boys really enjoyed themselves with the simple game of keep away. Their play and laughter is so genuine and so great to be around. Dwana and Viena caught up with us and we walked around the Monkey Forest were Viena befriended a small monkey who poked Viena’s toes through her Crocs.

DAY 19: Maybe I could find the children’s yoga class. I went on a run this morning to see Goa Gajah – the Elephant Cave Temple. Instead of parks, they have turned everything into Hindu Temple grounds. The run was not very eventful excepts for the basics of scooters, rough roads, cars, no sidewalks. Amazing to run around these places. trying to train for the marathon must be very interesting. To survive the training runs without an injury causing incident adds a whole new element to things. Maybe I will start my training for the Boston Marathon here in Bali. A dream with Mylon playing basketball and scoring the majority of points for his team – dominating. Peaceful. I was the only one at the Temple, besides the Gods. I tried to meditate – Ha! My mind is so far away and full of thoughts to be clear and that is OK. This is where I am. A good place. Not many other sights. I just must be very careful – very careful with how I run. So many things I am blessed with in this life. The early morning chanting and sunrises can not be beat. On the run back I ran through the monkey forest without incident. On one of my run I witnessed a scooter wreck involving a small child. Must happen all the time. I have been trying to call with teh Skype phone and interent – works pretty good. What else will the day hold. Chickens in the yard. Cloudy blue skies.

DAY 18: Last night was peaceful. Ezra woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to go to sleep next to Dwana. Fine with me. So I carried him down to the womans retreat area in the ballet. This tent sleeps a lot better with 2 people anyway.

We all rested and I had a small fever and big headache.

A day of rest yes
Yesterdays expedition
Weaving water snorkle vomit

No quite haiku format.

I did nothing today except rest! I had a fever and a headache all through the night. /now we are on night number 2 and I do not see any signs of breaking the fever. A fever in a hot place should break faster. I took naps on and off through the day while Dwana rested in her woman’s shelter. It will be interesting how things go once we start travelling again on the road. I am glad my fever is happening now and not later. Sort of like the low grade fever I would get when we were in Brasil that would last 2-3 days and then I would be fine for 2-3 days. Heat exhaustion maybe. Dehydration maybe. I drank a whole liter of Sprite and that made me feel the best. I remember my mom giving me 7up when I was younger and did not feel good. That was the best. Amazing how that remedy carries on with me today. I did not really eat much today. After all the food yesterday, I do not need to eat. I did make one short trip to the market. The Balinese smile alot, but other than our neighbors not to many have taken an interest in us. Putuh and Kadek have not come over in a while. The ceremony season is over. On to the next ceremony. The temperature is so hot here at night. Where is the breeze? The fever has created some interesting dreams with characters of my youth. When will the fever break.

DAY 16

DAY 15

DAY 14

DAY 13

DAY 12

DAY 11

We found a playground. Ezra and Viena were so excited. They played like monkeys. And we are very familiar with monkeyplay by now.

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DAY 10

Kuning means yellow.
Drums of steel play.
Crickets and birds accompany.
Ezra dreams of superheros.
Viena dreams of baking chocolate cookies.
Dwana dreams of uninterrupted sleep which is uninterrupted which creates more dreams.
The heat stays with us through the night.
I could never have dreamed a place like this existed.
The steel drums play on putting all to sleep one by one.

DAY 09

The warm rain softly falls.
Daytime has passed.
Lightning.
An ancient ceremonial bell plays.
Ezra and Viena sleep at my feet.
In tents.
Inside a bamboo  hut.
Indonesia.
The rain falls harder.

DAY 07

DAY 06

DAY 05

The travels.

 O