Wordless Wednesday: Start/Finish

Lombok: Day 7

After listening to our British friends' idea, we thought renting scooters sounded like the perfect way to see the island! Especially since our hotel was a little outside the city. We asked our front desk to help us locate a few "motorbikes". Note, that is not what we wanted. We wanted scooters. Automatic. Small, easy to control scooters. After a trip to their shop, they returned to the hotel with what wanted.

Next, we negotiated a price. We got them for the day (til the next morning) for 65,000 rupiah. That's like $7. Awesome! We signed a sheet of paper with the license plate number and our hotel name on it and when they asked is we had an international driver's license and we replied "No", their response, "That's ok, no problem." No insurance, no credit card, no medical waiver.

We rode with them back to the shop to get a different helmet for Krystal and a map and we were off! First stop, the Scuba shop. We found the place recommended by Lonely Planet and signed up for a two-dive trip the next day.  Next stop, gas. They brought the bikes to us with no gas, but assured us if we returned them with more, "it would be alright..." I'm sure it would be buddy.

Gas is either sold at a station for about 4500 rupiah a liter (like 50 cents) or on road side stands like this for about 6000. Yes that's gas. And those are probably old vodka or whiskey bottles.

We found a road side stand and got some gas. Here's a video Krystal made:

Our original plan was to check out a few markets in the towns further south of Sengiggi. Most of the towns turned out to be pretty sketchy so we didn't make many stops. We just zipped around and enjoyed the scenery. Well, I did. Krystal, the nurse, kept thinking about the head trauma we might suffer and how there were no hospitals. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.

We stopped for lunch at a hotel that we had tried to stay, but was booked. It was a bummer because the scenery there was beautiful! Sand between my toes while I eat lunch, perfect!

We continued our drive along the coast and stopped to take pictures at some of the look outs.

We stopped in a few antique shops and did some shopping before heading to one of the highest points on our side of the island to watch the sunset.

This was another day we thought we might die, but that's probably pretty obvious. I really enjoyed the scooter when we were on an open road, but when we got to an intersection with no stop light, cars, scooters and horse-drawn carriages, then it got a little sketchy. It ended up being one of my favorite days of the trip. Maybe I'll have to get a scooter when we get back to the states!

What's for Dinner? Chicken Bruschetta

Ok, so I really had it for lunch today, but I'm not starting a 'What's for Lunch?' series. So anyway, I bought some tomatoes the other day for a different recipe that I'll blog about later. Buying tomatoes in our house is a rare thing because Glenn hates them. He'll eat tomato sauce, but a fresh tomatoe? Forget about it. A small and insignificant thing, but one for the "+" side of deployment I suppose.

I also had some basil in the fridge that was quickly going bad, so I need to use up both...allrecipes.com to the rescue and I found Chicken Bruschetta on Garlic Bread. I didn't have green onions or fresh garlic so those got exnayed, I used garlic powder instead. It worked.

The recipe also called for canned tomatoes, but like I said, I used fresh. I also used some boiled/shredded chicken instead of canned chicken. It was yummy! A perfect, light summer lunch. And have I told you about my love for feta cheese? More recipes with feta cheese to come!

Lombok: Day 6

Day 6 of our trip was mostly a transportation day. We needed to get to our new hotel, the Jayakarta Beach Resort, on Lombok Island.

If you click on the map and make it bigger, you can see that Lombok is directly to the east of Bali (which are both to the east of the much larger Java island). To travel from Bali to Lombok, you have a couple options. One, you can take the ferry. This only costs about $5 or less, but takes about 6 hours. Also, one sank last year so Krystal and I voted "no" on this option.

Two, you can fly. This will cost you about $60 each way. Lastly, you can take a speed boat. Since this option was the cheapest and is only about 90 minutes each way, we voted for this option. Also, the speed boat company would pick us up from our hotel and drop off off wherever we wanted once we returned to Bali. That would save us $20-$30 on each side of the trip. Sounded like a great choice!

Krystal and I sat in the back figuring the bouncing over the waves would be less severe closer to the engines. Well, we may have been right about that, but I don't think we could have ever predicted the water splashing on the top of the boat, running along the roof and dumping directly on us!

Here's a video that Krystal took. I'm not sure if you can tell how wet we are in this picture, but my hair to my shoes were drenched! People were hiding under seat cushion and towels. Whatever they could do. It was the longest 90 minutes ever! I had one dry spot on my leg where my bag was sitting. At least the luggage was put in a closet (halfway through the trip) so it was mostly dry.

We're smiling in this picture, but 20 minutes ago, not as much. :) We finally made it to Lombok and were dropped off on a random beach. Our hotel was about an hour drive away in Sengiggi. After negotiating with an obnoxious taxi driver for the two of us, a French couple and two British girls on holiday, we were on our way to our hotel- finally!

Krystal and I joke that we almost died at least 3 times on our trip. This boat ride was number 1.  I don't care if it's more expensive. Next time, I'm flying!

We couldn't get in to our room yet so we had some lunch, enjoyed the free wi-fi and relaxed. We also planned our next 3 days since we didn't really have a plan when we showed up in Lombok. After talking to our British friends, we decided to rent scooters. I knew I wanted to spend one day scuba diving and after making a stop on the speed boat at the Gili islands, we decided to spend a day trip there!

The rest of today consisted of eating and pool time!

People Magazine

Brooke has a love for trashy magazines too! That's my neice. :)

Good luck!

Adam, Laura, Connor and Brooke are making the flight to Minneapolis today to go HOUSE HUNTING! I hope you guys find what you are looking for and I can't wait to see it in January when we come home.

It is going to be so nice to be able to visit my entire (immediate) side of the family in a single trip home. Now we just have to get back to the States. Good luck and I can't wait to see what you find!

Bali: Day 5 Last Day in Ubud

Our last day in Ubud was pretty uneventful (for me). Krystal and Erin woke up at 2:30 in the morning to climb Mount Batur for sunrise. I kept sleeping. Fuji was only 2 weeks away, no need for 2 volcanos. :)

They climbed to the top and didn't fall in and made it back in time for breakfast. I spent the morning sleeping in, emailing Glenn and reading my book. That is a vacation morning to me! By the time everyone got cleaned up, it was noon before we headed anywhere.

We wanted to buy a few more souvenirs before we left Ubud and since Erin was flying back to Japan the next day and not continuing on with Krystal and I, she was on a mission. We bargained like experts at the market, and walked all over Ubud looking for perfect gifts.

Before dinner, we headed back to our hotel with the intention of cleaning up a little. "What's this?" $6 for a one our massage? $5 for a spa pedicure?" Sign us up! So a detour to the spa before dinner. Sounds like a great way to spend our last night in Ubud!

We found a nice restaurant and ordered our favorite, Araq Attack and enjoyed our last dinner together.

Krystal and I were headed to Lombok in the morning via a speedboat and Erin was going back to the airport to hop to Singapore and then Japan. Time for our next adventure!

Bali: Day 4

Our 4th day in Bali started with furniture buying. We hired our driver from our other shopping excursion again and had him pick us up at our hotel in the morning. By lunch time we were hungry and poorer, but up 3 dining room tables, 2 benches, a coffee table and kitchen table! Note: only 1 dining room table was mine. :)

The afternoon for Erin and I was filled with a tour that we signed up for through our hotel. We were visiting 3 different locations. First, we stopped at a traditional Balinese temple. This one was the Royal Family Temple. It was neat, but I'm a little templed out after living in Japan for 2 years. We spent less than an hour there, got some pictures and moved on.

I'm glad this rule was on the honor system:

Next stop- monkeys! We stopped at the Monkey Sanctuary and enjoyed more baby monkeys. When we bought our tickets we were greeted by a lady in an official looking outfit with a nametag. We figured we didn't need a tour guide, but if it's free, why not!? We started our walk through the sanctuary asking her questions like, "How long do the monkeys live?" "How old are these baby monkeys?" We got answers like, "Probably 15 years or more" and "Maybe 6 months or older." Interesting....interestingly vague, but whatever.

We got to the end our of walk when our "tour guide" urged us to stop in her shop! Ahhh, I see now. "Please buy something so I can make offering". "You are first person in shop today, I give you good price." Yeah, yeah, lady we get it. Thanks for the crappy tour!

Our last stop was to Tanah Lot. It is also known as Temple on the Rock. It was pretty crowded because we arrived about an hour before sunset which is the most popular time to visit. We couldn't actually access the temple because we're not Hindu, but the sunset was still pretty breathtaking.

Another day in paradise. Are you tired of hearing about my trip yet? Only 2 more weeks to go!

Bali: Day 3

Our third day of the trip was the only day we had planned before arriving in Bali. We signed up for a bicycle tour with a company that Krystal used last year. She highly recommended them, so much so, that she wanted us to do the exact same tour as last year. Erin and I were not disappointed.

The tour company picked us up from our hotel around 8 am, we stopped to pick up another couple and then we headed to the northern part of the island. Our first stop was a botanical garden of sorts. Our tour guide, Yeoman, pointed out several of the plant species we were seeing. A funny thing about the name Yeoman: about every 4th person in Bali is named Yeoman since the Balinese name their children after their birth order. Yeoman was the 4th child in his family. We saw cinnamon plants, "marijuana" plants (not really, they just look similar), all sorts of crazy fruits, cocoa and coffee. I was especially excited about the coffee because I wanted to buy a souvenir for Glenn. He is quite the coffee snob and I knew this coffee was one that he had never tried! Poop coffee!

"These little mammals live in the trees and one of their favorite foods is the red, ripe coffee cherry. They eat the cherries, bean and all. While the bean is in the little guy's stomach, it undergoes chemical treatments and fermentations. The bean finishes its journey through the digestive system, and exits. The still-intact beans are collected from the forest floor, and are cleaned, then roasted and ground just like any other coffee. The resulting coffee is said to be like no other. It has a rich, heavy flavour with hints of caramel or chocolate. Other terms used to describe it are earthy, musty and exotic. The body is almost syrupy and it's very smooth."


The coffee is pretty expensive and not appetizing to some people, but I thought it tasted alright. Same price as a frappachino from Starbucks, for one cup at least. I bought Glenn about 6 oz of coffee beans for $25.00. Definitely a new coffee experience for him!

We continued our tour to a local restaurant for brunch. The food was mediocre, but it could be cause the view made up for that-

Behind is us Mount Batur, Bali's most active volcano, that erupted as recently as 2000. It was recently infamous when a Swedish tourist slipped and fell to his death inside the crater. We enjoyed the view of the volcano from our seats at the restaurant.

Our next stop was the bicycles. In total we biked about 30 kilometers over the next few hours. Stopping to see the rice fields, understand how a Balinese household runs, take lots of pictures and fix a broken chain. It was a wonderful way to see the countryside of Bali.

Our day finished with my favorite meal of the entire trip. A home cooked Balinese meal by Yeoman's mom! I can't even name everything she made, but it was spicy and delicious!

After we finished lunch, Yeoman and his brother took us back to Ubud. It was still before dinner time so we had him drop us off at the Monkey Forest. A must see tourist destination in Ubud.

Most of the tourists were stupid and had food in their bags, which the monkeys quickly discovered despite numerous signs advising you otherwise. We laughed at their stupidity misfortune and stayed away from the aggressive ones.

We took the long walk back towards our hotel and found an internet cafe (I may seem obsessed with finding internet while on vacation, but that's the way I communicate with Glenn about 98% of the time, so yes, I am obsessive unless I am with him.) and found a fun restaurant.

We ran in to a Hindu parade and witnessed a beautiful sunset. I love Bali!

Tuesday 10: Eating in Indonesia

1. Fresh pineapple and watermelon juice

2. Curry, rice, chicken and veggies:

3. Mushroom risotto at the White Rabbit in Singapore

4. Coldstone Creamery. What? I haven't been to America in 13 months. I also ate Pizza Hut. :)

5. Bintang Beer while enjoying the sunset over Tanah Lot in Bali.

6. Hawker Center

7. Cookie and Arak (Bali palm liquour) picnic while enjoying the sunset.

8. Locally brewed Singapore beer.

9. Lunch in Jahor, Malaysia.

10. "Room service" during our last evening together. Take out and grocery store wine- perfection!