Bali: Day 2

Our first full day in Bali started with a run. Hmmm, a run? Yes, that doesn't sound like my typical vacation style, but Krystal and Erin wanted to go. Alright, alright, let's go see some Bali countryside. We started our run in a light drizzle. It has been raining all night and we figured the storm was passing by. WRONG! At the furthest point in our run about 3 km away from our hotel, the skies opened up and I was more drenched and soaking wet than I have ever been in my life! Great start to vacation! :)

We got back to our hotel, had some breakfast and got cleaned up to start our day eventually. Our hotel in Ubud was called Nick's Pension and they had a wonderful breakfast each morning that was included with our stay- fresh fruit of our choice, eggs, toast, and coffee or tea. It was the perfect way to start our day. We usually added fresh homemade yogurt to our order as well.

There are several cities near Ubud known for their handicrafts. Celuk is known for it's gold and silversmithing. Mas is known for its woodcarving (even though Mas means gold in Indonesian...). We wanted to check out these cities and do some shopping. We walked towards the city center from our hotel and were pestered by every male over the age of 30 asking us for "Transport? Taxi? Where you going? Ride?" hoping that at some point, we would understand them in whatever our native language happened to be.

We stopped when we saw a nice enough looking driver. Told him what we wanted to do- hire him for 5 hours to drive us to these cities. "How much?" we asked. "300," he says. We had agreed to pay no more than 350 ahead of time and he was already below that. We probably could have negotiated more, but for about $6/hour we had a very nice, air conditioned Toyota SUV as our private driver. Let's go!

We started our trip at the furthest point in Celuk to check out a batik "factory" and some silversmith workshops.

The silvershop our driver took us to was obviously a little touristy. When we told him we wanted to walk down the street and check out somewhere else, he said, "Please, just look." Ok, ok, we get it, we'll take a look. We made the obligatory loop and then headed down the street to check out some of the smaller shops. We saw a sign for "Custom made silver" and headed down an alley to check it out. We walked through a courtyard of what looked like someone's house before we found their shop in a room of their house. We perused, we bartered, we bought. I walked away with a $4 silver and red garnet ring. Very cute!

Back on the road, we headed towards Mas. We told our driver, not wood carvings- furniture! We want to look at furniture. He would drive slow down the main street til we saw a shop that looked interesting. "Here, here, stop here!" we would shout and then hop out. "Meet us at the end of the street, we'll walk down." This private driver thing had it's perks!

I could have bought a whole house full of furniture if I had a house to put it in! We made note of which shops to come back to when we had all gotten permission from our hubbies to buy our tables.

We had our driver drop us off near an internet cafe when we were close to our hotel so we could do just that. An hour of internet and 80 cents later, we were walking down the street in search of a place to end our evening with some Indonesian food and drinks.

Shopping is exhausting! :)

Balinese Souvenirs

I am super duper excited about one particular souvenir I purchased in Bali. Too bad it won't arrive for 6 weeks in a giant crate.

Remember this post? And then this post? I thought I was either going to have the table of my dreams or be a poor lady. Turns out you only have to fly to Bali to buy the table of your dreams!

Bali had amazing antique, custom, "antique" and hand made furniture for dirt cheap negotiable prices. I got my table for a fraction of what I would have paid from a company in the states. Half the fun of buying it was climbing through all the wood shops to find just the right piece of wood. We spent about a day and a half of our trip in places like this:

There were stacks of "slices" of trees that I looked through and measured til I found one the right size.

I finally found this piece that was the right size and shape!

It is wet here so I could see what the finished piece will look like once it is sealed. This piece is also 3 meters long and my table will be about 82 inches (210 cm) so the curved part on the top won't be included. I can't wait for it to arrive! It should look similar to this when finished:

I can't wait for it to get here!!

Way behind! Bali: Day 1

This week has been crazy with arriving home from Singapore, teaching a full day of classes and then climbing Mount Fuji! I scheduled today, Saturday, to finally get myself caught up. Maybe not on all my blog posts, but at least I can start! Maybe I'll even make it to the commissary for the first time in 6 weeks. The pantry game is going well!

Let's see...I left Japan on July 29th with a 7 hour flight to Singapore. We, Erin, Krystal and myself, spent 6 hours in a transient hotel at the airport (inside of security no less. We had to leave our checked bags at lost and found over night.) Notice that the backpack I'm wearing was all I had for 3 weeks with the addition of a shoulder bag for during the day! I impressed myself with my packing skills!

We left for Bali at 10 am and were at our tropical destination by lunch time! Our first hotel was in the city of Ubud, about an hour from the airport. Our hotel was nice. A cute little cottage about a 15 minute walk from the city center.

We did what any girl would do, we hit the ATM and went shopping at the markets! The conversion from the Bali rupiah to the US dollar is about 9000:1. So when I took out money from the ATM, I would get about 1 million rupiah. It was confusing at times when buying things at the store. How much is this? 80 cents? 8 dollars? Even more so since they rarely list prices with the extra 3 zeros. 80 rupiah? No, that's really 80,000 rupiah. All prices in the markets are negotiable too. By the end of the trip, I was tired of haggling!

We wandered the city of Ubud for our first day, found an internet cafe to email our families and hubbies and ended at a great restaurant with one of my favorite desserts from the entire trip- black rice pudding with coconut milk and ice cream. Let the vacation begin!

Ya Ta!

I did it! I made it to the top of Mount Fuji at 3776 meters for sunrise. The climb sucked, it was hard, the climb down was worse, but I made it and I'm glad I did it with great friends!

Congrats Blair and Mike!

 

Glenn's little sister, Blair, got engaged last night! I stole this picture from Facebook since I don't have any pictures of them. Glenn and I can't wait to meet him! Congratulations!

Working hard for the money

One of Glenn's sailors asked Glenn to perform his reenlistment ceremony. It's a honor since they can choose any officer to perform the ceremony for them. I'm proud of you baby!

You can see the Navy's newest working uniforms here too. He still wears his flight suits when he flies, but he wears these when working in maintenance.

I'm back!

Well not really, but I will be in a few hours. I can't wait to tell you all about Bali, Lombok, Singapore and Glenn!

A roadtrip preview

The weekend before I left on my trip, a few friends and my self took a road trip to the Nagoya area of Japan to check out a few "sights". A few things we would only ever see in Japan. I'll spare you the ridiculous photos and just give you a preview-

Can you guess the theme of our roadtrip? Several names were thrown out there...Breast Quest? Genital Journey? My Body is a Temple 2010? 10 hours in a car in one day will do that to you!

List Maker

I'm a list maker. I LOVE to make lists. In fact, if I make a list and write things that I need to do down on paper, I am 50 times more likely to actually do those things. Something about crossing off an item when it's finished, it feels really good. Since the week before I left on my trip was so busy, I had many lists going. What to do that week. Things to pack. A list of things I thought of while driving that I didn't want to forget to pack. Glenn and I have these yellow pads of paper all over the house mostly on the desk and in my night stand though. I have to write things down when I think of them!

Are you a list maker? Do you secretly add things to your list if they weren't originally there, but you completed it? What? Of course I do that. I'm not cheating on my calculus test.

What's for Dinner? Orzo with Chicken and Artichokes

Before I left on my trip, I of course bought zero groceries (which I try to do anyways), but I had to buy a few things because I was hosting a breakfast meeting for about 12 ladies at my house two days before I left. I made mini quiches and I had some leftover spinach. I also had some leftover chicken from a whole chicken I roasted a couple weeks ago.

So I went to trusty allrecipes.com and types in the ingredients I had- chicken, pasta and spinach. A few recipes popped up and this one had ingredients that I already had in my fridge and pantry! Success!

I substituted regular bacon for pancetta bacon and sprinkled it on top with some parmesan cheese. I also didn't have any white wine (I know...what?) so I used some of the liquid from the artichokes instead. I think the artichoke liquid made it a little salty so I might recommend using wine if you have it. I also had frozen, thawed chopped spinach instead of fresh. Also follow the suggestions to only use 1/2 a box of orzo and not an entire box. And don't forget a drizzle of balsamic vinegar on top!