A big post, take your time! Rest of NZ, and Banda and Bali in Indonesia

April 5, 2008- April 20, 2008 The Rest Of My Time In The N-Zed

The rest of my time in NZ was filled with boring moments and awesome memorable times. In Palmerston, I hung out at the house while Paul was at school and I procrastinated and held off on writing what I could have written for my Banda project. Oh well. We went to quiz night at an Irish pub one night and we also went out on the town for Paul’s vet happy hour. We had to dress up as a stereotype for the happy hour and I was a schoolgirl and Paul was a gangster. It was a fun night; we went to a couple bars and got pretty wasted. Not much else exciting to report from Balmy Palmy.

I made a quite a trek up to Northland to see James and that part of the country. I first did a 3 hour bus ride to Lake Taupo (in the middle of the north island) and had to stay the night at a crappy backpackers there. I’m traveling with so much stuff now it sucks. I’m not a great backpacker. I’m not horrible with stuff, but I just have to keep weeding out stuff that I really don’t need. It’s hard to do, but I really don’t need half the crap I’m carrying around. After my stay in Taupo, it was an 8 hour bus ride up to Whangerei, where James stays with a woofing family. I thought no problem, why not make the trek up there. 8 hours later with only 1 bathroom and food stop, I was rethinking my reckless idea. No, it wasn’t that bad, and I made it. It was bad weather for most of my stay up there, but still fun just to be somewhere new. James and I stayed in a tent pitched outside the house and it was a little weird, because he stays with his boss (for Oceanswatch) and his broken down family. A 16 yr old adopted daughter just got pregnant and is keeping the baby, for one example. One day it cleared up a bit and we took a fishing trip down at the beach with a bunch of extended family that were visiting. It was fun, and we caught heaps of small fish from an outcropping of rocks off the beach. It started to rain and the tide was coming in, but we stuck it out to the last second we could without losing our rocks to get back to the beach.

After my weird stay in Whangerei, James and I picked up the pink car again and he drove me down to Auckland to spend a few days before I caught my flight to Bali. Such a cool stay in Auckland though. James met this random couple from California that keep their boat at a marina in Auckland and offered the boat to James and I when we were passing through. What a deal! A free place to stay in Auckland, those are hard to come by. It was such a nice, maybe 40 ft sailboat. We got to use all the appliances, water, propane, and the batteries charged up by solar every day. The marina was across the harbor from Auckland and the view of the city was so picturesque. I think I took about 50 pics of the city at all different times of the day from different angles! So handy too, we would just jump on the ferry ($5) into town, for about a 10 minute ride and we were there. In Auckland we explored around a bit. Went to a hippy/urban arts and crafts show in the center of town I was all stoked to get a chance to go to, but it wasn’t all I hoped it would be. Broke down and bought a few souvenirs there. I also went on an afternoon windy sail on an old Emirates America’s cup boat. 78 ft, reefed sails, gusting 21 knots, sailing at 9 knots, it was such a great experience. Got heaps of fun America’s cup facts too. I worked the ginders and stepped up as the first tourist to take a turn at the helm.



April 21- 24, 2008 Freakin Bali (how did I make it here!)

The next day I was off to catch my plane to Bali. Well you would think Auckland International Airport would be in Auckland….well its not. First off we woke up an hour later than I planned and pushed it to get out of the boat and on the road to the airport. The 2 alarms I set didn’t go off! The ride to the airport was in rush hour and we passed the exit and took a couple wrong exits, but we made it. I was there in just enough time before boarding the plane. Again, it was sad to leave James, we have so much fun traveling together, and now I have to go it alone.

The plane to Sydney was only 3 hours, then my next plane to Bali, left 8 hours later. 8 hours in 1 terminal of Sydney airport= slow torture. No, it wasn’t that bad. I couldn’t sleep really, so I just kept myself busy walking around and people watching. There was a free internet kiosk and I spent a bit of time on that when I wasn’t waiting for freakin Asians instant messaging for hours on end. I sat by a bunch of surfers on my 6 hour plane ride out to Bali. They all seemed really cool. When we touched down at the airport in Densapar, Bali the 5 of us took a mini-bus to Kuta. Dropped them at their hotel and then I took a taxi around the block to my hotel. They went out that night, but I just crashed, it was midnight and I was exhausted after traveling all day. My $25 a night hotel was alright, but mostly Japanese tourist families and not so much of the younger scene. It was also a bit out of the center of it all. I was up at 7 am that next morning, and took a long walk around bustling town of Kuta. Really quite a beachy, touristy town, but there are Hindu shrines around every corner and you have to be careful of where you step as there are small offerings in palm leaves at almost every step you take. There are 2 main roads, Poppies I and Poppies II, and they run perpendicular to the beach and the main road along the beach. I figured this out after get sufficiently lost a few times on that first walk around town. I priced a few hotels along the way, and finally came across a sweet place with balconies, pool, bar, and restaurant on Poppies II street (in the heart of Kuta) for only $16. What really got me was a room with heaps of beer bottles stacked up on the table outside, must be party central. Well, it turns out every night of the week in Kuta is party central! I don’t see how parents bring their kids on vacation here.

I did get what I needed to get done in my 3 busy days in Kuta. I figured out my 2 different domestic airlines I needed to take to get to Ambon, and I fed-ex an expensive box of things back home. I did some shopping, but all the small stalls on the street sell the same souvenir crap. Did manage to scoop up some sweet new DVD’s and a new suitcase on wheels. There was even a 4-story shopping mall of sorts. I think just for the Aussies too, on every block there seemed to be some big surfing brand store. Volcom, Rip curl, Roxy, Rusty, Quicksilver…it must have been really cheap for them compared to prices in Australia, because they were just buying the goods up. I thought the prices were comparable to the states, so didn’t buy any surfer stuff.

One afternoon I decided to see Kuta at night and go out on the town with those surfer guys from the plane who were actually now staying across the street from me. It turned out to be just like other nights in SE Asian countries I’ve visited. Lots of prostitution and che-long= lady boys…where local guys dressed up as girls, look more and more like girls the drunker the loud, obnoxious, shirtless Aussies get. It happened several times to different guys in our group. Too funny! We actually went to the new club from the Bali bombings. There was a bomb in this club in 2003, and then a couple bombs went off at the same time at a couple restaurants in 2005 too. Kind of sketchy. Where the old club used to be there is a nice big memorial set up remembering the tourists and locals that died from the event. The next morning after I went out with the guys, I was signed up to go on a tour and see some more of Bali, temples, monkeys, rice fields… It was at 11 that next day, but I couldn’t bring myself to make it! I was hurting with a major hangover that next morning, and didn’t want to spend the day on a bus with a bunch of tourists. I did have to pull it together and get my plane ticket sorted that day though. Ugh!

The day after I had booked my plane ticket out to the small island of Seram to Ambon, I get an email from PCRF that we can no longer do the study in Banda! Great! How great is that?! I freaking got myself out to Indonesia and took this extra time to go back to the ship, did some previous research, and paid all the expenses to make it out here…and what no study?! What a let down! Freakin PCRF! It turns out that they had problems with their visas and doing the science study in Banda, as someone saw the web page and said oh they’re more than tourists on that boat Infinity. Damn! Cover blown. Michel had to basically import Infinity into Indo with his green card as a bribe. So I’m still headed out, what else am I going to do, all my dive stuff is there and I can’t get on a new flight home… It’s crap, but I have to make the best out of the situation. At least I get to stay in Banda for free on the ship and dive there which is supposed to be amazing!

All in all though, Kuta was Crazyness! I really should have got out and seen some more of Bali in my 3 days there, but maybe on my way home, I’ll make a stop and explore some different areas.



April 25-26, 2008 Ambon, Indonesia

Ambon is actually like Alotau, as it’s a pretty sketchy town to be hanging out in. Recently there was fighting between the Muslim and Christian communities in the city. I have managed to stay at nicest hotel in town. I met Joetta and Charith early the next morning, and they went right asleep after traveling for 24 hours, so I walked around and explored Ambon a bit…bought ferry tickets to Banda, ATM, local market. The market was really big in Ambon, with so much good food in huge quantities being sold. I really wanted to load up and take some to the ship. All in all though, it was a pretty boring day, just hanging out. We arrived to the ferry terminal way too early, and sat in a hot, smelly waiting room for about 7 hours. We arrived at 3 because we didn’t want to miss it and ended up boarding the ferry at 10 at night! We were jam packed like sardines in there! Our bags kept moving closer and closer around us. It was quite an experience to go on an Indonesian ferry, definitely only a one time thing for me! First class is definitely the only way to go too, with a cabin and everything. Similar to the cabin on the oil rigs I stayed on. Boarding and unloading the ferry is a fiasco! People are carrying all their possessions and just shoving and pushing each other down to get on this ferry. I guess if you’re not in first class, you have to grab and bunk and a mattress, before everyone else gets one. It was overloaded by 20x at least! We met a really nice Indonesian English teacher that used to live in Holland and he answered a bunch of our questions about customs and things. We watched a movie in our ferry cabin and then all fell sound asleep after such a long afternoon waiting around.



April 27, 2008 Banda Banda woah, Banda Banda spice!

The 3 of us, Charith, Joetta, and I, spent overnight on ferry and woke up to see huge volcano of Banda, Gunung Api! We arrived early in morning with no sign of Infinity in Banda, maybe they will arrive later today? We booked a room at a local hotel, walked around a bit, took a nap, and were woken up my Michel from Infinity in the afternoon.

Weird to be back on the ship, without even a purpose really. It’s such a better crew on board now, and that makes all the difference in your time on the ship, 10 girls and 4 guys. A few new people, but most I know from before. Kris is pretty bummed about the science study as that’s why she stayed on the ship an extra month and did the voyage with them to Indonesia, she and I are just thinking 3 weeks and we are done with this PCRF stuff!

I am going to leave the ship in Ambon (so I don’t have to go on that ferry again!) and try to change my plane ticket to an earlier date. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll be in Bali anyways, so I’ll either head up to Ubud this time or the east coast, or even Lombok and the Gili Islands and do some more diving there.



April 28, 2008 Bandaneria

Today a group of us took a trip into town and saw the renovated Dutch fort, Mama Nuna, and the market. Mama nuna is a really nice little old lady that knows us from the last time the ship was here, and she just loves company and loves to cook for us.

Another morning meeting! Ahh! Not back to morning meetings! We bought a huge yellowfin tuna from local fishermen, that will last at least a few days. We are still deciding to do science training or not. Maybe vitareef the northern slope of volcano while we are here, even if we can’t do anything with the data…semi-pointless, and they want to make a video of the site and me to use it at ICRS (Yeah right, like a video would be sufficient at a scientific conference. These hippies have no idea!). I’ve been having fun with Kris and Heidi on board. I helped out with their dinner, and then we watched Atonement that I bought in Bali.



April 29, 2008 Gunung Api diving

First 2 dives in Banda!…well in Indonesia at all. Dove the northern slope where the lava really came in and wiped out everything. Its literally a sloping carpet full of coral now, you can’t even see any lava rocks or any old coral rock at all. On one dive, we started before the lava flow and it was what you would expect of a volcanic fringing reef, a wall with scattered corals along the side. Swimming along we got to the lava flow area and again it just got so immense and lush with corals. Semi-diverse corals, not too dramatic, but nice table Acropora, so big as you can get underneath, like an umbrella. Also, delicate foliaceous plates of Mycedium and Echinopora. Pretty dives. Not so many fish, just small damselfish scattered about. I did have a decent size trigger fish come and attack my BC as I swam along! A little scary to have a fish charge at you a few times, triggers have teeth too! I guess she was protecting her eggs and I was too close for comfort. Maybe at night the fish life would be more abundant as there are so many places to hide during the day. Such a shame to see crown of thorns and their eaten white spots left on the coral. There’s talk of us removing them and burning them on the shore. In the afternoon, I volunteered to fill dive tanks with Maeve (all the tanks had to be filled, pretty big job!). Mama Nunu catered our dinner and we had a Gunung Api night on board.



April 30 - May 10, 2008 Banda

I was sick with a bad stomach bug with a very high fever, mild stomach cramps, and cough and flu like symptoms. Again, like in the Solomons I have no idea what caused this sickness. I was sick for a good week, and then I took a Z-pack and started to feel better within a few days. Crazy to just come down with it so abruptly though. Sucked to be so sick though. They did vitareef on the northern slope where the lava flow went right into the water. They did it in spite of the immigration problems, secretly, but still I’m not going to do the Banda study for the symposium in July. We’ve come up with another plan for the conference now. I will be presenting Paul’s poster from the Solomon Islands, the one he did for his thesis, and I’m just going to add in 2008 data. It works out perfect really, and he is totally ok with me doing that as he can’t make it to the conference.

Currently, I’m still trying to make the best of being in Banda. Only 6 more days! Not that I’m counting! I just really want to get back home already. I haven’t even been able to dive as much as I would have liked to, while being here. I was sick sick for a week, and now my ear is buggered up and I can’t hear out of it. I’ve been snorkeling, but I don’t really want to mess with screwing up my ear. I did see a moray eel, and a baby lionfish while snorkeling today. Anna, the on board doctor, says it’s the ear drum that’s blocked and I’ve been doing antibiotic ear drops from her. There has been quite a lot of activities going on every day on Banda Neira. They are celebrating 200 years of Gunung Api, and there are all these important ambassadors and people in town. Lots of dancing and different ceremonies. The king of Banda, well pseudo-king, Des Alwi, is really a nice guy. About 82, and just big, warm, and funny, not to mention the Bandanese love him. TJ is in Banda for the events. It was so weird to just see him across the crowd, staring at us, not saying anything! He’s a weird one, that’s for sure.

I’ve almost finished 2 books since returning to the ship. The crew now is so great too. Almost all girls, and fun because most of the crew is the same from when I left. Maeve and John are sure a lot of fun. They are real characters, I’m always cracking up around them. Today I managed to shoot granola out of my nose I was laughing so hard at them! Man did that burn! I am definitely counting down the days though, I think I might even make it home for my birthday which is great news! The ship will be getting to Ambon earlier than expected and I just have to book some plane tickets to Bali and then once in Bali, I have to talk to the United counter really nicely and hopefully not have to pay heaps of extra money to change my plane tickets for 2 weeks earlier.



May 11-13, 2008 Banda

The kora kora boat race was cool to see. They race halfway around the island of Banda Neira on skinny canoes with 42 men on them! I bet on the shirtless team (less drag) and Maeve bet on the tank top team. I won, and she bought me a beer. It was fun to watch the race though. Eibes took a few of us out in the dinghy and we followed the race along with at least 50 other boats packed with people all yelling and cheering. Different teams came from the surrounding islands, so it was pretty competitive. The guys from Ai won, supposedly because it’s 30 miles away and they get a lot of paddling practice.

I did my 3rd dive in Banda to this large protruding rock off of Lontor. It was pretty sweet. A little bit of a surge and current, but we made it around the whole rock. There were lionfish, barrel sponges, heaps of colorful fish, and moray eels galore, sticking their necks out everywhere. Michel happened to go diving right on the same spot with the police and their huge boat. I looked up from the dive at one point and their twin engines were right over my head. Michel and Kitty were there! They should have known better than that! I came up from the dive furious! They were literally right on top of us. Back at the Infinity too, neither one of them apologized. Guess there was so kind of problem with their ladder in the front of the boat and they were fixing that. My bum ear did ok for the dive, which was good. Thought it would suddenly fix itself, but no such luck.

Mama Nunu cooked us dinner on the ship. She is such a sweet heart. It was a fun night. After dinner we sang the group of them the Banda song and some sea shanties. I’m back to cooking dinners and producing on board…yuck. It’s not all that bad though, I like to be in the galley sometimes, when I’m in the mood. I have officially 5 more days and then back to society! All of us volunteers are pretty tired of hanging out in Banda, and there’s still a huge list of things to do here, but I can’t really be bothered.


May 14-15, 2008 Banda

One night we had dinner with king of Banda, Des Alwi. The younger crowd of us (the volunteers) didn’t really care that it was an important dinner we had to attend and be on our best behavior for, so we played rummy and got wasted before dinner. Dinner was pretty amazing as Michel tried his best to impress the king with steaks, delicious gravy, scalloped potatoes, and flan. The next day we had a big lunch on the ship with Des’s paralyzed son Raymond. He has so kind of muscle degenerative thing and can’t walk so well unaided, but he’s such a card! He used to do hard core drugs to help with his leg and told us all about his time in San Francisco doing crazy drugs and smoking out with the cops at the Golden Gate park. He was so funny telling us exactly how to do these drugs. One story he had was about a group of pills called the Globe and you’re only supposed to do a quarter of it, well he took the whole globe once, and was out of this world! He’s been clean for ten years now, since he really became an addict, but now he can’t walk so good and is in pain a lot.

I did my 4th and final dive in Banda to this deep wall and swim thru spot on Lontor. I freaking wasn’t able to do the swim thru as my ear was messing up, but it still was a really pretty dive with huge barrel sponges, sea fans, diverse fish life, morays, lionfish, and big groupers/jewfish. In the afternoon I tended Michel’s dive/exploration around Gunung Api with his friends for 2 ½ hours! Pretty ridic that he made me do that and sit there and stop wherever they wanted. They went on two dives, a snorkel around a live fish trade house, stopped to watch some tuna kite fishing, and a drive through a bat cave. Only one more day in Banda, and then onto Ambon, and I’m off! Ok, yes I’m counting now. I’m really have a one track mind at the moment.



May 16-May 19, 2008 Banda and Ambon

Our last night in Banda, I cooked dinner on the ship with Mama Nunu. I made this lemon grass marinated fried shrimp, and she brought deer stew…not the best combo together, but oh so good. They actually have wild deer on the island that they trap. There were tons of kids running around everywhere on the boat, it was a fun night had by all. My last day in Banda, I just spent lounging around and doing some packing and weeding out of my accumulated crap.

The voyage to Ambon went ok, it was only a 24 hour trip. It was my one last time on watch. I was on the 4-8 with Heather and Joetta. Joetta is a pretty loud and obxious Aussie and I’ve grown quite sick of her, so I kept my distance from her on the watch. It was her first watch so I had to teach her how to helm. After she assured me that she had it under control, I went back in synthesia and she was totally turned in the opposite direction and we were sailing downwind! Idiot! We pretty much almost did a forced gibe and the sails banged against the shrouds for a few minutes, but it was ok. A huge pod of pilot whales welcomed us into the large bay of Ambon. They got scared and diverted their course, when Michel (oh his totem animal is the dolphin, and he can feel what they feel) drug behind the boat naked. Ha! I’d be scared too!

Ambon is a busy, smelly city that I explored a bit more on this trip back to the city. I got a flight back to Bali all arranged and Heidi and I rode on the back of motorbikes around town to run some other errands. We anchored far away from town. It takes about a 20 minute bus/bemo ride into town. We’re so far away because of the violence of the city; just last year there were bombings in the main Ambon harbor. The violence was from the big civil war between the Christians and Muslims back in 2002. The town is really split between the Christian side and Muslim side with ornate, huge mosques. You can tell the Muslims have the money. Most areas still look like dilapidated bomb sites, but you can see where the government money ended up every once in a while, with big, barricaded, new buildings.

Some vital news has unfolded about our immigration problems into Indonesia. It turns out that that little prick, serial killer type, TJ, got off the ship in Sorong and told immigration about the science on board the Infinity and that they shouldn’t let the ship into it’s waters. What an asshole! The Banda police told Michel all this when he went out diving with them. He sure cost me a good chunk of money getting myself out to Indonesia. I’ll be in touch with him when I get back to the states. He went to Ambon, spoke to the police there, and then to Banda too, to see if the ship would really make it. Well we did, and when he found out we were there, he booked it over to Ai Island. Still can’t believe there are people out there that are such jerks. It all seemed a little too planned and too perfect, how he just happened to be in the Solomon Islands when we were there. I have suspicions that something is connected between him, Max, and Max’s dad maybe. Getting back at the ship for the accident or trying to bust PCRF. Quite the news though…



May 20, 2008 Ambon to Bali

I’m in en route home! Finally! I couldn’t keep from smiling when boarding the plane out of Ambon and touching down in Bali. My 4:30 AM taxi never showed up at the hotel, so a group of guys hanging out on the street arranged for their friend to drive me in his bemo all the way to the airport, an hour away. I really thought the bemo wasn’t going to make it there, but it did. I’m starting to feel more comfortable traveling on my own here in Indo. Not to get caulky, but I kind of know when people are cool to try some Bahasa with, and when I should shut up. The plane in Makassar to Bali was delayed 2 hours before we were able to board for operational problems…ahh! We made it though.

So…here in Bali, I come to find out, with my itinerary I can’t just change my flight to a different day this week, the next Garuda flight to Nagoya, Japan is June 2nd and mine is June 5th, so that doesn’t help. They can’t refund the flight here either. So I’m pretty stuck. I went ahead and got a hotel room for the night in Denpasar (another stinky city) and spent some time on the internet asking the company I booked these airlines through for some help. Hoping that they can arrange me some other way to get home sooner, but I’m not holding my breath. Once I got squared away in my hotel I took a motorbike to the internet and this shopping mall. I’ve succeeded to have a burger at McDonalds and a pizza at Pizza hut in day one back in Bali. I got a few new movies at the mall and spent my night in the nice hotel room eating pizza and watching ‘Horton hears a Who.’

I’m heading to Ubud tomorrow afternoon to see some more of Bali. Ubud is quiet and serene with rice paddy fields, temples, and a monkey forest. I will maybe stay there for a week and then head back down south and stay in Ulu watu for the second week, again a quiet, chilled out beach town with cliff top temple…then I’ll be close to the airport to leave for my flight in that first week of June. So I’m semi-planned. Sucks really, but I guess you just have to roll with the punches. I did want to explore Bali some more, the Hindu culture here really intrigues me.



May 21, 2008 Ubud, Bali

I really just like driving around Bali. This morning I took a taxi for about an hour’s drive out to Ubud with my driver Caka. Yes, that is really his name. I had a list of a few places to stay from Lonely Planet, and of course I go in with all intentions to actually check the places out before I stay there. Well, I have this thing, I always feel bad if they open a room for me to look at and I can’t just say no, I don’t want it. That’s rude. So we get off the main drag (Monkey Forest road) and then a side street with a few places to stay on it, and then to this alley and there is this small sign for Hibiscus Cottages. A few minute walk down by some rice fields and you finally reach this place. It’s so quiet and quaint. It’s pretty much just a few bungalow style rooms and then the owner’s house. Balloon is the owner’s name, and he is so excited to have me stay at his place. Guessing they don’t get so much business? I have a nice big room, mosquito netting over bed, fan, bath tub, hot water, and modern toilet…what else could I ask for. After getting all settled in, I took a bit of a stroll around town and used the internet. Ubud is so cool though, it’s in the middle of the island, surrounded by forests, rice patties, and small villages. Ubud is a little touristy, but not overly. Where I am staying too, is away from the main tourist area. Ubud is very artisty too. There are lots of museums, art galleries, batik and silk shops, tailors, and cute little restaurants with great views. Balloon got me all set up to go white water rafting tomorrow morning, so I’m excited to go do that.



May 22, 2008 Ubud, Bali

Rafting was so cool! I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Bali. A must do! I again thought it was such a steal of a price too. $65 US for 2 hours of bus ride, 2 hours of rafting, and a great Indo buffet lunch. It turned out to be pretty much a whole day venture. Driving through the country and all these small villages was a treat again. I can see why Bali is known as the land of a thousand temples, between every other house is an ornately decorated temple. We even got to see everyone coming with their offerings to the temples. Big fruit and cake offerings carried on top of the head. ‘We’ as in the Sweedish couple I went rafting with who were in the bus before I arrived. It was pouring down rain in the early morning when we left Ubud and the couple told me 2 people died last time there was rafting with heavy rain with this company we had chosen to go with. Ha! It was so funny! They were so scared. I was a little frightened, but nah! The rain let up anyways and it turned out to be a sunny, nice day. Rafting down this river was such a good way to see Bali though. Fast flowing river, with lots of rapids and I was in front, but most of the time I wasn’t even paying attention to the rapids, I kept looking around and admiring the scenery around me. Waterfalls flowing down off the sides of steep cliffs everywhere, tiered rice fields, birds flying around, and sometimes it was almost as if we were going through a gorge with such steep sides around us. We stopped at this huge waterfall to get some pictures, and it looked like the waterfall was shooting right out of the side of the mountain! Vines and trees had grown over the top, so it looked like it was shooting out of hole. Along the river there were several bamboo bridges crossing the river and we had to duck down so low, the raft barely made it a few times! Another highlight was at the very end of the trip, there was a 4m drop off this dam. It was fun to have a big thrill like that at the end. I had to sit with my feet up in the very front and sit on the bottom of the raft. All in all, it was a great time.

I got so laundry done in the afternoon and my haircut. That night I had a guy that works at my hotel take me to a local ex pat bar called Naughty Nuri’s. I had delicious bbq ribs with a Balinese flare, a beer, and watched the season finale of American Idol. What else could I ask for in this day! I told the owner that I really appreciated a place like this, and he sat me down with his local friends from England, Australia, and America and we had a great time cracking up. They called me Gladis! Ha! There was this one guy, a British painter that has lived here for 20 years, Jason Monet. I had read about him in one of the news bulletins I picked up earlier that day. He has just built 2 bamboo houses and raves over them. Fun night, glad I found out about that place.



May 23, 2008 My birthday alone in Ubud, Bali Yeah!

Today was a rainy overcast day, which went with my mood. I still wish I wasn’t here on my birthday, but what are you gonna do? I spent an hour on the internet while it was pouring, and made a short expensive phone call home. I decided to man up and go see the monkey forest. I was a little scared to go in as I heard sometimes if you have something they want, they will show their fangs at you and scare off tourists. Ahh! Had to go do it though, when else am I going to get a chance to see the monkey forest in Ubud. When I bought my ticket, these 2 older guys, New Mexico tourists, were going in too, so I tagged along with them. There were monkeys everywhere! 300 monkeys in the whole forest, and they just roam around and are so cute! Little babies eating bananas were especially cute. No close calls with the fangs either! I did see one yawn and man those fangs are intense! Glad I did it and went in to see them though.

I did a big of rainy day shopping. I splurged and bought a beautiful silk tube top dress for $25 US (which at home would be at least $60!). A few other small things, and then stopped out of the rain to the Lotus restaurant for some delicious wood fired pizza. At 6 that night I saw the Barong and Keris dance at the fancy ARMA museum/art gallery with just 4 other tourists. The dance was a story from the Ramanyana (Hindu story) with all these crazy characters. It was in Indonesian, so I got a little bored about halfway through, as I had no idea what was going on really. It was still fun to watch with bright colorful costumes. Stopped in for a bite of sushi at Saigon’s (Michel’s friend from the Infinity, doesn’t stay in Ubud though) restaurant on the way home. I had offers to go out and have a martini for my birthday at the bar I was at last night, but I just played it low key and watched a movie at my place.