Rice paddies, mountains and beach

This trip is drawing to a close rapidly; perhaps too much so.

The lack of posts can only be attributed to a general lack of internet connections and regular brown-outs.  Since we've been here, at least every other day has had several hours of no electricity.

Enough.

So, from Lovina, we headed inland on steep mountain roads to the town of Moundok.   Moundok is perched on a ridge and has stunning views in all directions.  The slopes of the nearby hills are carpeted in clove, vanilla and coffee trees.  The smell of roasting coffee was ever-present.  We continued upward and reached several alpine lakes in the calderas of extinct volcanoes. One of the lakes had a Hindu water-temple which was perched on several islands.  The variety of plant species is mind-boggling as we found when we visited a botanical garden in the mountains. 

We spent two nights in Ubud, the cultural capital of Bali.  We took early morning walks (to beat the heat) through river valleys and rice paddies.  We visited a few art galleries, but I can say that the real highlight of this town was the food.  Two dishes in particular: roasted duck marinated for 36 hours in a plethora of spices AND suckling pig.  Divine.

From Ubud, we took a five hour ferry ride to the nearby island of Lombok.  Lombok, unlike Bali, is predominately Muslim.  We drove around this island also, which was delightfully devoid of tourists.  We stumbled upon a small homestay where we were the only guests.  We had a pristine beach shaded by coconut palms to ourselves.

The last couple of days, we've been back in Kuta, Bali.  I took two days of 'surf school' while Sou worked on her tan, read, and got massages. The surfing has been a blast: I was able to stand up the first day and I'm now trying to perfect turning....

That's all for now. 

Beachbound in Bali

We are in Bali!  The flight here was uneventful and we had a good view of the island on our approach to the airport, which is on the southern end of the island.  Bali is a beautiful volcanic island with one large volcano and several smaller volcanoes.  The first day, we wanted to get situated, so we headed to the main part of the island, which was only about 10k from the airport.  The main tourist area, Kuta, is a bit like Miami Beach with tons of very tan people, surfing, stores, hotels and restaurants.  There is a Hard Rock Cafe and many other international chains as well. Our first afternoon, we went swimming in the ocean, walked around Kuta, and had a nice dinner. 

The next day, we decided that we wanted to rent transportation.  The public transportation system here is abysmal and very expensive compared to renting transportation.  We'd read that you are supposed to have an international or Indonesian drivers license to rent a car.  Most people we talked to said that not having this was not a problem and that if you got stopped, you paid a bribe to the 'mosquitoes' (aka corrupt police) and are done with it.  I was on the fence about doing this, but the clincher was that your insurance would be invalidated if there were any 'issues'. So, in the end, I decided to get an Indonesian motorcycle license.   What an experience it was at the DMV!  There were long lines and a test in Indonesian.  Fortunately, the answers were also provided to the test and foreigners who pay the foreigner rate are ushered to the front of some of the lines.  After two hours are the DMV, I am now licensed here in Indonesia to drive a motorcycle.... 

So, we went back to Kuta and rented a moped.  The moped is loaded down with a duffel bag between us and a shoulder bag on Sou's back.  Getting out of Kuta and Denpasar, the capital, was a challenge all it's own.  Sou and I tried to follow signs to Sanur, another beach town 15k away.  The lack of signage allowed us to see a fair amount of the capital, like it or not.  We finally made it to Sanur; it took us an hour and a half to go 15k.  Fortunately, we found a hotel just off the beach on the leafy grounds of a museum.  We strolled the beachside walkway, read and lounged on the beach, and had a candle lit dinner overlooking the water while listening to Bob Marley.

The following day, we followed the coast road around the island about 70k.  We diverged from the main road and traffic got much lighter.  We took a non-direct route and followed the coastline around one of the smaller  volcanoes.  The coast went from lush forest with stands of bamboo, coconut palms, banana trees, and rice paddies to a semi-arid landscape of rock and brush.  In Ahmed, a town known for its snorkeling and diving, we found our hotel from a friendly guy by the side of the road (who owned a restaurant next door).  The room was really nice with an outdoor bathroom.  We rented snorkel gear and swam just off-shore to the reef.  The reef was in about 2 meters of water and was teeming with aquatic life.  We saw a wide variety of fish that reminded Sou of "Finding Nemo".  Yesterday, Sou was excited to find a free copy of the last book in the "Twilight" series and spent the day reading with pauses to swim in the pool and snorkel.

The "King of Fruits"

No Durian allowed.

Wikipedia says: "The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia."

We haven't had any Durian yet, but we've smelled the 'sweet' aroma while walking through the markets.

Back in Bangkok

We're back in Bangkok after a 10 hour bus ride from Chiang Mai, Thailand.  The bikes are boxed up and stored until our return trip.  Sou and I just booked tickets to Bali, Indonesia where we'll spend Christmas lounging on a beach.  It's a hard life....

Happy Holidays, all

Christmas decorations in Bangkok

Up the Mekong on a slow boat

From Luang Prabang, we boarded a slow boat and headed upriver on the Mekong towards Thailand. Two days on the boat with an overnight stop brought us to the Thai border. The scenery along the river was beautiful -- limestone karst mountains, sandy beaches and small villages. No roads run to the Mekong along this part of the river, so it felt very remote. You'd travel an hour or two upriver before seeing a small village.....

Luang Prabang and Elephants

Sou and I are now in the world heritage city
of Luang Prabang. We arrived here the other night by bus but first an
update from the last couple of days.

We went to the backpacker haven of Vang Vieng which is in a river
valley surrounded by limestone karst peaks. We rented a motorcycle
and cruised up the valley to visit a cluster of caves. One cave had a
tributary running out of it, so we rented tubes and pulled ourselves
through the cave. We travelled back about two hundered meters into
the cave. It was a very cool experience to be dragging ourselves
through the cave and only hearing the sound of rushing water.

After emering from the cave, we hiked around for a while, went for a
massage, then went back to the river to go tubing. The tubing was a
bit like Cancun at spring break. Enterprising locals had set up
several bars with rope swings and really loud music. Sou and I
bypassed the throngs of inebriated twenty-somethings and headed
downstream.

Two days in Vang Vieng was enough for us, so we got back on the bikes
and headed up highway 13 towards Luang Prabang. We muscled through
several mountain passes, but realized we had too far to go before the
day's end. Moreover, we heard that the passes got much much longer.
So... we decided to bus it to Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang is a world heritage city surrounded by mountains. It
has a plethora of wats (temples) and we visited just the highlights.
We climbed the 239 stairs that led to the mountain-top wat in the
center of the city and visited a few others nearby. We wandered the
streets and alleys checking out the french colonial architecture and
dined at a restaurant on the river. One of the great remanants (in my
view anyway), are baguettes -- the baguettes make great egg sandwiches
for breakfast. For lunch they're eaten Lao-style, mixed with shredded
green papaya, carrots, and hot peppers. Delicous. The other remnant
of the french is bocci ball....

After checking out the city, we were ready to do something else. Sou
saw signs for Mahout training (elephant driver) and was intent on this
trip. So on the spur of a moment decision, we decided to go on a two
day mahout training course. It was just amazing! There were 9 female elephant the oldest being 65 and the youngest 17. We arrived at elephant camp in the morning and went on an hour long ride through the river and forest. It was quite the experience riding on these magnificent creatures. They are so graceful and majestic. After that, we took a Mahout (elephant driver) training course and learned how to drive, mount and dismount. The Mahouts make it look so easy but I can assure you it is not. That afternoon, we took our elephants to the forest where they are left to forage and sleep until morning. We returned for a nice dinner at elephant camp and after a short boat ride under the full moon, were returned to our guest house. The next morning, we woke early to retrieve our elephants from the forest. Another ride back through the forest and then elephant bathing. It was so much fun!!! The elephants walked halfway into the river and layed down submerging us and themselves into the water. With a brush, we cleaned and washed all the dirt away. You can see there trunks swinging around drinking water.

Now we are headed up the Mekong by slow-boat on our way back to
Northern Thailand....