Home!

I'm now home and settling back into America--almost a reverse culture shock. I definitely missed good beer, but I have to say I am going to miss how good the food was. Good thing I have a cookbook from our cooking class in Bangkok! I love that I can actually change clothes whenever I want now!

It's quite the luxury after only having 4 outfits for 6 1/2 weeks. I brought everything in a school backpack and daypack--and I definitely got some surprised faces at the airport when I told them how long I'd been gone. "And you're not missing ANY luggage?" It gave me a good laugh.

Like I said before, when I have a bit more time I plan on doing some reflection pieces and maybe adding more to previous posts (like location information or background). For now I need to do laundry and sort out gifts and pictures. Soooo many pictures.

Thanks for reading so far, and if you are on your way to Asia happy travels! If you have any questions feel free to ask in comments and I'll help as much as I can.

Back in Bali, about to head home!

I had a great time dive bumming in the Gili's, but unfortunately due to rolling power outages had a hard time getting Internet to post updates. I got into Seminyak, Bali last night pretty late and treated myself to a nicer hotel room so I could get one good sleep before the 30+ hour travel marathon to begin. I also went to Seminyak beach today, and was in awe of the "everyday" swells that surfers come to conquer.

I will probably post more when I get home as reflection pieces on my time, but for now I have to pack for the flight! I have fallen in love with Southeast Asia and, though there is much of the world left to explore, I can say for certain I want to come back here some day. Until then: Goodbye, beautiful Bali and wonderful Southeast Asia. And thank you for the experience of a lifetime.

Gili T--fun in the sun and water

I'm safely arrived in Gili Trawangan and did a first dive an hour after getting off the boat. I did another this morning. The island is beautiful and I have already seen so much just from the first two dives! We've seen a couple octopus, a couple sharks, a sea snake, lionfish, a cuddlefish, and a giant clam, just to name a few.

The second dive I was able to see my first wild clownfish and another white tipped reef shark. On our wall dive this morning we went to 40 meters (130 feet), which is the deepest dive I've done. They gave us bigger tanks so we were still able to get in a 65 minute dive. "going deep" is a big deal here, as the owner of our dive shop at one point had the world record for deepest dive with a rebreather and discovered his own WWII wreck off the island (which we will be diving tomorrow morning) at 45 meters deep.

I also love the island at night. Because we are on a small island next to a slightly bigger one and neither has a high population density, there is almost zero light pollution. Last night the moon wasn't even up either, and I was able to clearly see the Milky Way for the first time in my life. It looks like a thin, light cloud stretched across he sky. How appropriate that when you are on a remote island, miles from "real civilization", you're also reminded of how small you are in the great expanse of our galaxy. And, because I'm in the southern Hemisphere, I was also able to see the Southern Cross for the first time. Closer to home, there is also a good amount of phosphorescent plankton the glows blue whenever disturbed--so you see little blue lights flashing as waves break and the waves will leave them twinkling on the shore as they recede back out to the ocean. I feel like I could have stayed out there for hours, but since I had a morning dive I called it a pretty early night.

I'll be in Gili T today through Wednesday morning. On Wednesday afternoon I'll get some shopping done in Bali and then head home on Thurs! So if anybody has specific gift requests let me know before Tuesday night your time!

What I'm glad I brought--a six week traveling perspective

I haven't talked about trip practicals in a while, but as I've gone through this journey I think it's a good idea to share some information as my vacation wraps up. I'll compile a list on this post (possibly to be added to later) with some of the things that were essential to making this trip easy. Lonely Planet and other guides have similar lists and, who knows, they may be essentially the same. That's for you to find out, because I have no reason to look back at them again :)

• Torch/flashlight/headlamp
• Earplugs and Eye mask (especially for sleeping on night trains/buses and hostel dorm beds)
• A small towel or sarong (in case your hostel doesn't have one or other unexpected times you need to dry off)
• A plug adapter
• Two of EACH: credit cards and debit cards (I will explain why in another post--but basically just have your bases covered)
• Some cash in US$ (sorry, people from other countries, but USD is almost universal)
• Lots and lots of ziplock bags and a couple trash bags
• Quick drying clothes
• Liquid detergent for doing your laundry in the sink in a pinch
• Laundry line that can be put up anywhere (lots of places have drying contraptions, but not everywhere)
• Lots of DEET lotion for bugs--it really is miraculous
• A medical kit--used it the second day all the way up to yesterday for myself and other people
• Good sunscreen that will stay on with water, time, and sweat--don't cheap out on this
• Shoes or sandals with arch support--you will be walking a lot! I have Chaco's (below) and they were fantastic. I mixed them up with flip flops every few days--it's nice to give your feet variety, and avoids weird tan lines :)

         

• A backup camera (mine was my iPhone)
• iPhone or similar (Skype is cheap, FaceTime is free, backup camera, watch and alarm, computer for when your hotel has wifi but no desktops--which happens frequently, it has pictures of home and family to show curious locals... Should I keep going?) 
• If you do bring your iPhone or iPod touch, back it up on iCloud and make sure you can find it with the "find my iPhone" app. That way, if it does get stolen, you still have your pictures and you can lock it and wipe it remotely (and locate it if you're lucky) so none of your information is in a thief's hands.
• Clothes that are temple worthy (pants and sleeves for men, skirt covering knees or pants and sleeves for women)
• Long pants, though they sound impractical for the heat, are helpful because they keep bugs and sun at bay, help you blend in more (people here don't wear shorts) and are generally better accepted at nice restaurants with dress codes. And I don't even think there's that much of a temperature difference anyway.

And for the random things:

It's a good idea to memorize your passport # and expiration date. You'll need to recall it so much that saving the hassle of taking it out will be a huge relief.

Knowing hello, goodbye, and thank you in every language you encounter is really probably all you need--and it works wonders

Monkeying around

Just visited the monkey forest sanctuary and had a great time communing with the cute, albeit aggressive, monkeys. Luckily, once they realize you don't have food they leave you alone.

Dorothy, we're not in backpacker land anymore

Ubud has been very lovely so far. Unlike the rest of Indonesia which is predominantly Muslim, Bali is Hindu, and a very unique breed of Hindu at that. They mix it a lot with animism and it is very prevalent on a day to day basis. So, on top of the fact that the island is beautiful and blooming, as you walk by every shop they have carved chairs, statues, etc. with small fruit and flower offerings set aside that are changed multiple times per day. The doorways and walls of most dwelling reflect a style much more ornate than you should expect for such a small plot of land. Beauty isn't some goal of the Balinese--it's a given and essential to their way of life.

Because of this and its close proximity to Australia, Bali has been on the forefront of the backpacker scene for quite a while now. And what follows when backpackers call a place paradise too long is an expected conversion to more touristy travelers that have more money and more needs. They won't settle for third rate accommodation or food, so nicer places crop up and prices rise everywhere. Even the museum price has doubled since my guidebook was written. I have seen families with children for the first time in my trip, and they are everywhere! Bali seems to be the Quintana Roo of Australia. Luckily, that means they have good diving close by.

I went to the art museum yesterday, and fell in love with the rich, cramped style of Balinese art. I saw a few temples and then did a three hour traditional wood carving class, which was fun but definitely not easy! Today I'm headed to the monkey forest, complete with temples, and some traditional dancing tonight.

Tomorrow I head off to the much anticipated Gili islands for some world class diving. I may do a wreck dive on Sunday and will see what other sites they have for Monday and Tuesday. Then I have one day to relax and enjoy the main island before heading home! Crazy how the time flies.

In Ubud, Bali

I am in Ubud, Bali, which is beautiful and has absolutely mouthwatering food. I'll update more later but for now, bed!

In Kuala Lumpur after a relaxing couple days in Lake Toba

I had a lovely time in Lake Toba in northern Sumatra. It got as cool as the 60's at night and was a great break after the jungle trekking--which was fun but a little tiring!

Now I am getting ready to board my connecting flight in Kuala Lumpur, a fantastic airport. They have a jungle walk that is open air inside of the international terminal, with trees labelled and explained. There are even birds and butterflies flying around in the little rainforest. And, like Changi airport in Singapore, plenty of duty free shopping: be it alcohol or perfume or Versace. It's such an interesting contrast to see women walking around in burkas past Starbucks and duty free alcohol retailers. Truly a diverse airport if I've ever seen one.

Should be in Bali in about six hours, where I will go to the reportedly serene and beautiful town of Ubud for a couple days before heading to the Gili islands for some beach bumming and diving. Then, if I feel up to it, I'll head down to Ulu Watu, the Bali everyone wants to experience but can't find in the cities closest to the airport. I'll post more soon!

A little about Sumatra

I've been in Indonesia long enough to get a decent impression of the culture, and so far I really love it and find it more tourist friendly than anywhere I've traveled so far. And, as opposed to the other places that have plenty of tourist traffic in down season, this is high season and one would expect a lot of people to be competing for tourist dollars. For example, when I got out of the airport I didn't get hassled at all by drivers asking to take me somewhere. I was politely approached by only one person, ad got a good price for a ride to my hostel without trying to convince me to go anywhere else. He was very talkative and pleasant and seemed genuinely interested in learning about my travels and America. The one thing an American will hear absolutely everywhere in Indonesia the second they tell someone where they are from is "Barack Obama", because he went to primary school here for a few years and his sister from his stepfather is from here. Therefore, Indonesia basically claims him as their own and is very, very proud of their ties to the president of such a prestigious nation.

The guides at Bukit Lawang were very nice as well, buying big amounts of food and giving some of it to us and helping us out in ways you wouldn't expect as part of just a "trek". One of the guides even brought me to his friend's wedding, which was very fun. He said that there is no real "normal" age for marriage in Indonesia, as some girls get married at 15 because of unexpected pregnancies and others wait until their twenties (the latter was the group our wedding belonged to, thank goodness). About half the women were in head scarves and half weren't--so far it seems like religions, though pervasive here, don't really come into much heated conflict. One of my guides was Protestant (they only have Protestant/Catholic, not further denominations) and said he feels safe and welcome in the community and never has had problems. Good to hear.

 

 The language also hasn't been as much of a problem here, as the phonemes and cadence of Bahasa Indonesia are a lot closer to English than other languages in Asia. The guides could all speak a decent amount of multiple languages, like French, Dutch, Danish, etc. And even though Sumatra is primarily Muslim, I fell like there is less of a culture shock here than in the rest of Asia. Maybe it's because the guides I work with  are always in contact with westerners, or maybe the cities in Sumatra are just more relaxed. Maybe it's because they all listen to American music (most of Asia listens to some, but mostly they listen to music from their own country). Either way, I don't feel like as much of a foreigner here, even with the light skin.

The saddest thing I've encountered in Indonesia is the strong memory of the tsunami of 2004. Everyone was affected by it in many ways, and there hasn't been one person I've talked to who didn't know someone who died during it. The most poignant story was a guide's friend whose child was 3 at the time. The eucalyptus trees grow here very infrequently, but they float really well. One happened to get uprooted during the tsunami and his child, who was about to drown, clung onto it and they didn't find her until the next day, 20 kilometers downstream of her house. She doesn't remember the event anymore, but her parents make her retell the story every few months to she will always know why she is alive now.

Bukit Lawang Bliss

I had an incredible time in Bukit Lawang trekking in Gunung Leuser National Park. I got into my hostel later because of a delayed flight, but luckily was able to book a trek right at the hostel. We left the morning of the 5th for Bukit Lawang, a city right on the border of the park that is about 3 hours away from Medan. They drive on the left side of the road, just like Thailand and Singapore, but significantly more crazy. Even our driver seemed surprised by some of the maneuvers people in other "lanes" tried to pull. Luckily, he was safe and defensive and I felt as safe as I could on those roads.

We got into Bukit Lawang at about 1 pm and met all of the guides that work through our company along with a few from other companies. The guest house we stayed at has a bar that he locals love to come to. Their favorite thing to do (and something I've noticed all around Indonesia, including on TV) is sing. An ideal night is to have a few beers, break out the guitar an bongo drums, and belt out the favorite times everybody knows until late into the night. They love American songs, including John Denver, and old songs that they gave their own lyrics to (instead of Jingle Bells they sing about Bukit Lawang). The rest of the afternoon it rained (their "dry season" is relative) so we played cards with the guides. The other girls in my group were from Holland and Denmark. Apparently a lot of Danish and Ditch come there, because the guides spoke their respective languages very well and even knew a few songs in each language. And, of course, they also spoke excellent English. I also met an American man traveling around for a few months who had befriended one of the guides and had been in Bukit Lawan for a week already. He showed me some great videos of the jungle critters and through him I got to know the guides better.

The next morning we woke up bright and early to start our trek. We got to the National Park by passing some rubber plantations and palm oil plantations. Few people were out that day because it was market day for the town, so we had the plantations to ourselves.

After entering the park, we almost immediately got our first glimpse of orangutan: a semi wild female and her little one. The baby was about a year old and was having a good time swinging on its own a few trees away from mom. The orangutans in the park are separated into two groups: the wild and the semi wild. In the 1970's, some orangutans were kept away from the wild and were raised around people. The government outlawed the practice, but since some orangutans had never grown up wild they couldn't be counted on to find all their own food. To help, a feeding center was established as a sort of orangutan safety net to aid their transition into the wild. These are the semi wild, and since these distant relatives of ours live to be about 50 years old in the wild they still comprise a significant portion of the population in the park. The wild orangutan, on the other hand, were never in contact with humans and don't know or care about the feeding center because they can get their own food and don't trust people. When you go into the park, your likelihood of meeting a semi wild orangutan (like our first two) is highest, followed by the offspring of a semi wild (though thy never come as close), with the fully wild being the least common to see.

Along with the mom and baby orangutan, we also got to see some Thomas's leaf monkeys, which are beautiful monkeys that have a striped grey, black, and white patterns on their face and aren't found in many other places in the world.

Our campsite was beautiful and felt totally isolated--I felt like Tarzan in the wild, amidst giant trees with massive vines and hearing the loudest bugs of my life.  The morning after our trek we were even greeted by some monkey friends that like to visit to try to get some of the food scraps left at the camp site.

A little about Singapore

I really enjoyed my time in Singapore. It is amazing to think of how much they did with their country in only a few decades, and that the man who made modern Singapore is still alive. Singapore built its economic strength by maintaining its base (which started mostly in the 19th century) as a massive port city. Even today, many of the commodities we use have passed through Singapore at least once. Two days ago I went to the top of the Marina Bay Sands, and aside from the beautiful view of the island and ocean what is truly remarkable are the vast number of ships that crowd the coastline. They are all either leaving the harbor or waiting to dock and relieve their loads. The shipyards are massive, with giant crates piled on top of each other taking up what appear to be acres of land. Looking from the ships back to the gleaming buildings on land is the clearest explanation I've ever seen to how a nation acquires wealth. You can trace cause and effect in a mere glance across the horizon.

That day I also went to the Asian Civilizations Museum, which has excellent exhibits on all Asian cultures: south, west, straits, etc. They had an array of artifacts, from giant drums to wedding garments to illuminated copies of the Quran. Every exhibit has multiple multimedia stations that you can stop at that play videos and display more information on any topic you could possibly think of. One thing people in Singapore do right is give you ALL the facts.

I also went to the Peranakan museum, which celebrates the rich history of the Peranakan people. Peranakan is like mestizo, it means someone who has mixed native ancestry with some other county--in this case India and China. Men who traded with the native people in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia interacted a good deal with the women and sometimes decided to stay put and marry to make a family there. Many people in this region identify as Peranakan, and have unique foods and traditions that set them apart from their fully Indian or Chinese counterparts.

I also had a good deal of Singapore food. They absolutely love toast, so there are toast-themed restaurants to be found everywhere. It's served with kopi (coffee) or teh (tea). The accent and phonetic spelling confused me at first, but you get used to it once you hear them talking long enough.

One of the last things I did was very fun but not very cultural: visit the Harry Potter exhibition, where they have on display many of the real props and costumes used in the lining of the eight Harry Potter movies. This is the first time the show has hit Asia, and I was offered a discount ticket when I went to enter the Marina Bay Sands viewing area. Of course I couldn't say no! And it was a very fun time indeed: I got to see wands, gowns, even the creatures they used in the films. The best part was I wasn't the only adult woman there--I meet a teacher from the Philippines who was traveling, like me, and just couldn't say no to the opportunity.

I'd like to tell more about Singpore, but unfortunately I am leaving on a trek to see some wild orangutans! Wish me luck! I should be back on the 7th. Take care until then!

Safe and Sound in Sumatra!

Got into Sumatra tonight after a short flight. The people here are very nice and luckily it's relatively cool for SE Asia. Tomorrow I leave for a three day guided trek in Bukit Lawang to see orangutans, as Sumatra and Borneo are the only two places that still have wild orangutans. Can't wait!

About to leave Singapore for Medan, Sumatra!

Hello, all! I'll be writing more when I get into Sumatra but just wanted to update you that I'm leaving for the airport now--can't wait for my next adventure. Until we meet again, Singapore!