Hello again,
Well it is kind of hard to believe, but we are spending our last evening in Asia. We left our little island paradise of Koh Phangnan this morning and flew back to Bangkok, staying right at the airport, since we have to be here at 0330 hrs. Our trip home will be a bit of a long one, 6 hours from here to Tokyo, 2 hour layover, then 11 hours on to Minneapolis, with a 8 hour layover, then finally a shorter 3 hour flight home at 1130 Friday night. So all added up, it will be about 30 hours of travelling, but we are both looking forward to our own bed and seeing the kittens again.
We both have had an amazing honeymoon, and we really want to thank everyone for the wedding gifts that made this trip possible. We saw ancient temples, world heritage sites, some of the most pristine diving sites in the world, cuddled with elephants, golfed, suntanned and got massaged until we were puddles of goo. We managed to visit 4 countries, taking 16 flights, 7 ferries, 2 or 3 buses and various other modes of transport to get us from place to place. We have had the good fortune of meeting a number of great people, ate lots of tasty food, and stayed at some beautiful accomodations without running into any bad luck whatsoever. We are already looking forward to returning to some of our favorite spots in the future.
Once we get back to the land of higher bandwidth, we will be setting up a photo gallery of some sort and hopefully be able to share some photos of our trip with everyone soon.
Again, thanks to everyone for your gifts that made this trip possible, and see you soon.
Tim and Cat
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Paradise found
Hey everyone,
Well I told you in the last post that we were headed to a little island called Koh Tao in the andaman sea. We arrived there on Thursday afternoon and after a bit of searching, we found a place that looked like it might provide us with a week of relaxation and diving. Wellll...
First the diving... We headed our Friday morning to our first dive site and the visibility was only about 5 metres, which sucked, and our divemaster seemed to be lost, just swimming in lazy circles. We then were told that we had to surface while me and Cat both had tons of air in our tanks. The next dive was no better. We took the afternoon off to think about things and decided (foolishly) to go on a night dive with this same company. They gave Cat a torch that didnt work and the ocean was so rough I got seasick, and almost puked on an american... I didnt actually puke but it was close.
Second, our accomodations... Koh Tao it turns out is a place where people in their teens and early 20's come to do dive courses and party, and our room was in the thick of things. We managed to get our room changed, and then the hotel decided to increase our rate since we werent diving with them. Well, we decided that a change was in order so we left Koh Tao altogether and headed to the neighboring island of Koh Phangnan.
We didnt have accomodations set up when we got there and our taxi driver ended up leaving us on the side of the road in the general vicinity of where we wanted to be, so we started going from resort to resort dragging our luggage behind us, looking at rooms and hoping to find the perfect spot that we could spend the rest of our time relaxing before coming home.
Our luck changed once we got to the Haad-yao Bayview Resort. We are quite literally staying in what feels like one of those corona commercials. Our room overlooks a bay that is about a mile long with white sandy beaches and overhanging palm trees. It is even more dazzling at night. We had dinner 10 feet from the ocean and watched a big electrical storm pass across our field of view while we ate. Today I will get pics and try to post them, but for now, I am gonna go get a massage on the beach, dip in the pool, read, nap and relax... big day ahead of me!
Later,
Tim and Cat
Well I told you in the last post that we were headed to a little island called Koh Tao in the andaman sea. We arrived there on Thursday afternoon and after a bit of searching, we found a place that looked like it might provide us with a week of relaxation and diving. Wellll...
First the diving... We headed our Friday morning to our first dive site and the visibility was only about 5 metres, which sucked, and our divemaster seemed to be lost, just swimming in lazy circles. We then were told that we had to surface while me and Cat both had tons of air in our tanks. The next dive was no better. We took the afternoon off to think about things and decided (foolishly) to go on a night dive with this same company. They gave Cat a torch that didnt work and the ocean was so rough I got seasick, and almost puked on an american... I didnt actually puke but it was close.
Second, our accomodations... Koh Tao it turns out is a place where people in their teens and early 20's come to do dive courses and party, and our room was in the thick of things. We managed to get our room changed, and then the hotel decided to increase our rate since we werent diving with them. Well, we decided that a change was in order so we left Koh Tao altogether and headed to the neighboring island of Koh Phangnan.
We didnt have accomodations set up when we got there and our taxi driver ended up leaving us on the side of the road in the general vicinity of where we wanted to be, so we started going from resort to resort dragging our luggage behind us, looking at rooms and hoping to find the perfect spot that we could spend the rest of our time relaxing before coming home.
Our luck changed once we got to the Haad-yao Bayview Resort. We are quite literally staying in what feels like one of those corona commercials. Our room overlooks a bay that is about a mile long with white sandy beaches and overhanging palm trees. It is even more dazzling at night. We had dinner 10 feet from the ocean and watched a big electrical storm pass across our field of view while we ate. Today I will get pics and try to post them, but for now, I am gonna go get a massage on the beach, dip in the pool, read, nap and relax... big day ahead of me!
Later,
Tim and Cat
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Last stop, Koh Tao
Hey everyone,
We are just about to leave our hotel room in Chiang Mai and head off to the south east part of Thailand, Koh Tao in the Andaman sea. We have had a fantastic time golfing, shopping, eating and of course, playing with elephants here, and when we come back to Thailand in the future, I think we might just skip Bangkok and come back to Chiang Mai.
Now we are off on the last leg of our trip, one week on the island of Koh Tao. Initially, we had been considering Phi Phi or Phuket, which is on the south west side of Thailand, but there have been a few issues over there, including an early start to monsoon season, so we decided to come to the Andaman side. We have been in contact with a number of dive shops, and the rates to dive in Koh Tao are less than half as much to dive in Phi Phi, plus they have all been reporting a number of whale shark sightings, so cross your fingers for us and maybe we will get lucky and see one. I think it would be cool to say we have seen the worlds largest land animal AND the worlds largest fish in the same trip! Although, if a fish the size of a greyhound bus swims past me, I might have a little accident in my wetsuit...
Anyways, since we are going to be on a small island, I am unsure how good the internet connection will be, but we will be trying to post here and let you all know how things are going.
Chat soon,
Tim and Cat
We are just about to leave our hotel room in Chiang Mai and head off to the south east part of Thailand, Koh Tao in the Andaman sea. We have had a fantastic time golfing, shopping, eating and of course, playing with elephants here, and when we come back to Thailand in the future, I think we might just skip Bangkok and come back to Chiang Mai.
Now we are off on the last leg of our trip, one week on the island of Koh Tao. Initially, we had been considering Phi Phi or Phuket, which is on the south west side of Thailand, but there have been a few issues over there, including an early start to monsoon season, so we decided to come to the Andaman side. We have been in contact with a number of dive shops, and the rates to dive in Koh Tao are less than half as much to dive in Phi Phi, plus they have all been reporting a number of whale shark sightings, so cross your fingers for us and maybe we will get lucky and see one. I think it would be cool to say we have seen the worlds largest land animal AND the worlds largest fish in the same trip! Although, if a fish the size of a greyhound bus swims past me, I might have a little accident in my wetsuit...
Anyways, since we are going to be on a small island, I am unsure how good the internet connection will be, but we will be trying to post here and let you all know how things are going.
Chat soon,
Tim and Cat
Monday, May 18, 2009
Well that visit to the elephant conservation park was one of the most amazing experiences we have ever had!
This wasn't even in our plans, we just thought that a visit to an elephant park would be a good thing to do on one of our days while in Chiang Mai. Then Catherine researched it a bit more and found out that we could spend 3 days learning how to become a "mahout", or an elephant trainer. We decided that we weren't going to get many opportunities like this again, so we headed out on Saturday morning not really knowing just what to expect...
We arrived at the preserve at 0830 and were rushed into our "Mahout suits" and taken directly to our elephants, and introduced to the trainers. The spent a few minutes teaching us a few simple commands and how to mount our elephants, and the next thing you know, they had us headed out into the jungle for the morning baths. It was a little tricky to get used to because there are no reins or saddles, so you just clamp your knees behind the big ears and hang on. We both got the hang of it pretty quick, and then headed into the water.
The twice daily baths turned out to be the highlights of our days. The elephants absolutely loved being in the water and having us strangers scrubbing them clean. Once we finished getting them all cleaned up, we would then walk them to a secluded spot in the jungle and "park" them for the evening so they could eat and sleep. Then we were taken back to our cabin and had meals made for us on the deck while we scrubbed ourselves clean. By the end of the day, we were pretty much wiped and rested up to do it all again the next day.
We managed to take a ton of pictures there, and here are a few...
Here is a great shot of Cat and Tantawan
Relaxing during bath time
All in all it was an amazing 3 days, and we are so glad we decided to do it. Now we are back in Chiang Mai for a couple of nights before we head out on Wednesday to the southern gulf island of Koh Tao for our last week of sun and diving before heading back.
This wasn't even in our plans, we just thought that a visit to an elephant park would be a good thing to do on one of our days while in Chiang Mai. Then Catherine researched it a bit more and found out that we could spend 3 days learning how to become a "mahout", or an elephant trainer. We decided that we weren't going to get many opportunities like this again, so we headed out on Saturday morning not really knowing just what to expect...
We arrived at the preserve at 0830 and were rushed into our "Mahout suits" and taken directly to our elephants, and introduced to the trainers. The spent a few minutes teaching us a few simple commands and how to mount our elephants, and the next thing you know, they had us headed out into the jungle for the morning baths. It was a little tricky to get used to because there are no reins or saddles, so you just clamp your knees behind the big ears and hang on. We both got the hang of it pretty quick, and then headed into the water.
The twice daily baths turned out to be the highlights of our days. The elephants absolutely loved being in the water and having us strangers scrubbing them clean. Once we finished getting them all cleaned up, we would then walk them to a secluded spot in the jungle and "park" them for the evening so they could eat and sleep. Then we were taken back to our cabin and had meals made for us on the deck while we scrubbed ourselves clean. By the end of the day, we were pretty much wiped and rested up to do it all again the next day.
We managed to take a ton of pictures there, and here are a few...
Here is a great shot of Cat and Tantawan
A walk through a beautiful jungle
Relaxing during bath time
Why are we laughing? Because Cat's elephant liked putting her head under the water and leaving her bum wagging around on the surface
All in all it was an amazing 3 days, and we are so glad we decided to do it. Now we are back in Chiang Mai for a couple of nights before we head out on Wednesday to the southern gulf island of Koh Tao for our last week of sun and diving before heading back.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Shopping, golfing and elephants
Hello from Chiang Mai!
We arrived here from Siem Reap 2 days ago and have been spending our time shopping and golfing. We went to this great course just 20 minutes away from our hotel and it was awesome... well mostly awesome. It seems that all the left handed clubs for rent at most golf courses are at least 10 years old, and made for short people. Now I know what your gonna say, he is blaming his poor score on the clubs, but really, they were short... almost 2 full inches shorter than Catherines shiney new righthanded clubs. I did manage to compensate though and started using my 3 iron off the tee and left the driver in the bag, and managed a 52 on the back 9 holes... 3rd round of the year... I'll take it.
Anyways, I thought I better get a new post up, becuase I wont have a chance for the next three days. Why you ask? Well because we are going to hang out with elephants! We had planned to visit the elephant reserve while we were up here, and maybe spend the afternoon on a ride through the jungle, but then we found out we could stay at the reserve and learn to clean, feed and train the elephants while we stayed there. We figured that we might never have a chance to do this again, so we set it up and we head there tomorrow morning. I doubt we will have internet access there, but we get back to Chiang Mai on Monday and we will post pics and maybe video of our trip then. If you want to check out their website you can find it at: http://www.changthai.com, it looks pretty amazing.
But it is getting late here tonight and theres still some packing left to do, so we will chat with you all when we get back.
Tim and Cat
We arrived here from Siem Reap 2 days ago and have been spending our time shopping and golfing. We went to this great course just 20 minutes away from our hotel and it was awesome... well mostly awesome. It seems that all the left handed clubs for rent at most golf courses are at least 10 years old, and made for short people. Now I know what your gonna say, he is blaming his poor score on the clubs, but really, they were short... almost 2 full inches shorter than Catherines shiney new righthanded clubs. I did manage to compensate though and started using my 3 iron off the tee and left the driver in the bag, and managed a 52 on the back 9 holes... 3rd round of the year... I'll take it.
Anyways, I thought I better get a new post up, becuase I wont have a chance for the next three days. Why you ask? Well because we are going to hang out with elephants! We had planned to visit the elephant reserve while we were up here, and maybe spend the afternoon on a ride through the jungle, but then we found out we could stay at the reserve and learn to clean, feed and train the elephants while we stayed there. We figured that we might never have a chance to do this again, so we set it up and we head there tomorrow morning. I doubt we will have internet access there, but we get back to Chiang Mai on Monday and we will post pics and maybe video of our trip then. If you want to check out their website you can find it at: http://www.changthai.com, it looks pretty amazing.
But it is getting late here tonight and theres still some packing left to do, so we will chat with you all when we get back.
Tim and Cat
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Oops, we kinda let a few days slide by without posting, but we have been keeping kinda busy...
We left Bali on the 6th and arrived in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia late in the afternoon. We had originally planned for this to be just a quick layover and an early flight out on the 7th, but we changed our minds before we left and decided that we should spend at least one entire day here. After all, there is alot to see and do here. The main thing that we wanted to do was see the Petronas Twin Towers, a definate asian icon. You may have seen these towers before on TV or in the movies (Tomorrow Never Dies - James Bond), and they are every bit as impressive in real life...
We left Bali on the 6th and arrived in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia late in the afternoon. We had originally planned for this to be just a quick layover and an early flight out on the 7th, but we changed our minds before we left and decided that we should spend at least one entire day here. After all, there is alot to see and do here. The main thing that we wanted to do was see the Petronas Twin Towers, a definate asian icon. You may have seen these towers before on TV or in the movies (Tomorrow Never Dies - James Bond), and they are every bit as impressive in real life...
We toured the towers in the morning and then went to the National Muslim Art Museum in the afternoon. I am not usually a big art museum kinda guy, but this was pretty impressive... it was a very detailed history of how the Muslim religion spread throughtout Asia, and with numerous artifacts and antiquities as well. It was really interesting to see a display of this type, something we would never see in the museums in the west.
After a nice meal we went back to our hotel and headed for the open air roof-top lounge, and it just happened to be ladies night! It was a very swanky club where, if you looked up, you could see the top 30 floors of the Petronas building... it seemed pretty surreal sitting there listening to a DJ spin modern/trance music while surrounded by attractive ladies (none moreso than Catherine). A nice end to a busy day!
We had to get up at 0330 hours to catch our plane to Siem Reap, so we took it easy, and landed in Cambodia around 1000 hrs. We got taken to our hotel and set ourselves up for 4 days of touring through Angkor Wat, the Lost City. So far we have done two days out there and it definately deserves to be on the world heritage list. I would like to try to describe it to you, but it is just too massive and amazing to try to put into words. We are taking lots of pics, and Cat has taken some really fantastic shots here, but as usual, it takes an ridiculous amount of time to get them pasted to this blog. We will keep trying...
Heres one of the "elephant wall"... it seems like this was where the elephants were lined up to get to a ramp where people, likely the elite, were able to easily climb aboard...
Heres one of many stone faces from Bayon, one of the larger temples...
Well, time to get ready for a nap before getting ready for dinner...
Chat soon,
Tim and Cat
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Bye Bye Bali
Well we have made it to May 6th and are in our hotel room at Le Meridien resort packing our bags before heading to the airport. We are both a little sad to be leaving Bali - it really has been incredible here. Between the wonderful people, beautiful scenery (both above and below water), and great food, it will be hard not to miss it. Our flight leaves Denpasar today at 2:30 pm and we soar away to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
After our round on Monday we went into Kuta, the big resort town of the south, for some shopping. In addition to the necessary shopping list of golf shirts, bikini bottoms, and a watch, we also found a DVD store where we bought 24 DVDs for $20. Thats right - $1 each and 2 free when you buy 10! The quality is perfect, but I think it is safe to say that they are not original DVDs. However, we did finally get to see Slumdog Millionaire which was a really great movie.
Anyways, Tim is busy packing while I am sitting here typing, so should probably start helping. Here are a few more pictures from the Pemuteran dives.
Octopus spotted while night diving . . .
Coral and Tim . . .
Coral and fish . . .
Le Meridien has been an ok hotel, definately a big change from the small little boutique hotels we have been staying at, more of a western style monolith. The best part by far about staying here was the absolutely incredible golf course nestled between the coastal surf and the rice paddies. We golfed the last two mornings at sunrise and enjoyed ourselves both days, although the scores on the first day were much better than they were yesterday.
After our round on Monday we went into Kuta, the big resort town of the south, for some shopping. In addition to the necessary shopping list of golf shirts, bikini bottoms, and a watch, we also found a DVD store where we bought 24 DVDs for $20. Thats right - $1 each and 2 free when you buy 10! The quality is perfect, but I think it is safe to say that they are not original DVDs. However, we did finally get to see Slumdog Millionaire which was a really great movie.
Anyways, Tim is busy packing while I am sitting here typing, so should probably start helping. Here are a few more pictures from the Pemuteran dives.
Nemo and his Dad . . .
Octopus spotted while night diving . . .
Coral and Tim . . .
Coral and fish . . .
We will write again from Kuala Lumpur . . . Take care.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
More Diving
But first, a little update…
Sorry our last post was so short, we were getting eaten by some nasty little mosquitos in the lobby of our hotel in Lovina, so I will give some more details in this one.
Our stay in Candidasa was excellent… 3 days of just relaxing by the pool and reading. It was just what we needed, and we headed to Amed ready to get back into the water and do some diving. We had three full days of diving planned, and decided that this would be a great chance for Cat to get her Advanced Diving Certificate, so we found a great dive shop to take care of this for us. The diving around Amed is great, excellent corals, lots of fish and two big shipwrecks to explore. Cat had no problem completing the course and I had a great time tagging along taking pictures of everything. Here’s some…
We said goodbye to the ducks and Amed and headed to Lovina, which was to be our base for exploring the inland a little and see the volcanos. We decided to stay just two nights in Lovina, giving us an extra day of diving at our next stop, Pemuteran. Our trip up the mountains and inland was a nice little break from the temperatures of the beaches, only 25 degrees instead of 35. Near the top of Danan Brahma, there is a botanical gardens and we spent most of the morning there looking at various types of orchids, cacti and various other plants in a huge park overlooking a volcanic lake. We also stopped by an old Hindi temple that was built on this lake centuries ago, and some of the temple now sits well into the lake… it was very beautiful. 
Sorry our last post was so short, we were getting eaten by some nasty little mosquitos in the lobby of our hotel in Lovina, so I will give some more details in this one.
Our stay in Candidasa was excellent… 3 days of just relaxing by the pool and reading. It was just what we needed, and we headed to Amed ready to get back into the water and do some diving. We had three full days of diving planned, and decided that this would be a great chance for Cat to get her Advanced Diving Certificate, so we found a great dive shop to take care of this for us. The diving around Amed is great, excellent corals, lots of fish and two big shipwrecks to explore. Cat had no problem completing the course and I had a great time tagging along taking pictures of everything. Here’s some…
The place we stayed in Amed was again, very nice, ocean view from the front door of our villa, excellent food, a great pool and of course, silly looking ducks…
We said goodbye to the ducks and Amed and headed to Lovina, which was to be our base for exploring the inland a little and see the volcanos. We decided to stay just two nights in Lovina, giving us an extra day of diving at our next stop, Pemuteran. Our trip up the mountains and inland was a nice little break from the temperatures of the beaches, only 25 degrees instead of 35. Near the top of Danan Brahma, there is a botanical gardens and we spent most of the morning there looking at various types of orchids, cacti and various other plants in a huge park overlooking a volcanic lake. We also stopped by an old Hindi temple that was built on this lake centuries ago, and some of the temple now sits well into the lake… it was very beautiful.
We headed back to our hotel for a late afternoon poolside beverage and started getting ready for some more diving. A bit about our hotel here in Lovina… as some of you may know, it is low season for tourism right now. I don’t know why, maybe its because May is when students are writing exams, or summer vacation is just around the corner, or maybe because it’s the hockey playoffs (go Canucks), but anyways, most of the places we have stayed in are generally kind of quiet, which has been nice. This place in Lovina though is, well, eerie… it is an older, established resort, a bit rustic but well kept up, and almost completely empty. If you can remember the winter resort from the movie The Shining with Jack Nicholson where he goes crazy, this place feels like a summer version of that resort. Don’t worry, I didn’t chase after Catherine with an axe, but we both got the same feel from the place and looked forward to moving on.
Anyways, move on we did and we are now in the small seaside town of Pemuteran. This place is all about the diving and snorkeling. People at the other dive shops had been speaking highly of it and we couldn’t wait to get into the water… but we had to because for the first time on this trip, I ended up with a little tummy trouble, and had a miserable night our first night here, so we had to skip our first day of diving. I got some medicine in me and am now 100% better, so this morning we headed out diving and WOW, this place has some fantastic coral life here. Here are some highlights… Well only one actually posted :(
We are headed out again the next two days and will try to post more pics if we can. We have a good Wi-Fi connection here and for those of you who we have been trying to Skype with, I dont think this island can handle video Skype, so we may have to do just audio... it seems to work just fine! Well gotta rest up for tomorrow!
Chat soon,
Chat soon,
Tim and Cat
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Lovin Lovina
Hey all,
Just a short update today. We finished our diving in Amed, and Catherine completed her Advanced Open Water Diving certification! Yay! We had some truly amazing dives while she did the course, and saw the most amazing corals I have ever seen. There were lots and lots of fish as well, but to see big healthy coral reefs was fantastic. I have been to a few sites around the world and had assumed that the health of the reefs was rapidly deteriorating, but it was great to see that the conservation efforts here seem to be working.
We headed out of Amed this morning and drove about 2 hours to Lovina and found yet another paradise. They dont have Wireless internet, but they have a couple of decent computers in the lobby, so we will try to post some pics on this blog tomorrow. We have just finished dinner for tonight and are planning to retire to the room and get ready for tomorrow... we will either be hiking to a big waterfall or going on a boat ride to try to hang out with some dolphins... decisions decisions :)
Chat soon,
Tim and Cat
Just a short update today. We finished our diving in Amed, and Catherine completed her Advanced Open Water Diving certification! Yay! We had some truly amazing dives while she did the course, and saw the most amazing corals I have ever seen. There were lots and lots of fish as well, but to see big healthy coral reefs was fantastic. I have been to a few sites around the world and had assumed that the health of the reefs was rapidly deteriorating, but it was great to see that the conservation efforts here seem to be working.
We headed out of Amed this morning and drove about 2 hours to Lovina and found yet another paradise. They dont have Wireless internet, but they have a couple of decent computers in the lobby, so we will try to post some pics on this blog tomorrow. We have just finished dinner for tonight and are planning to retire to the room and get ready for tomorrow... we will either be hiking to a big waterfall or going on a boat ride to try to hang out with some dolphins... decisions decisions :)
Chat soon,
Tim and Cat
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Wet in Amed
Well we managed to pull ourselves away from the wonderful pool in Candidasa and head north to Amed on the North Eastern shore of Bali. Our nice little green car got us here quickly and cooly (good AC) and we managed to find and check into our Amed accomodations. They also have a great pool, as well as a whole menagerie of resident animals, including two rather animated ducks. After much discussion it has been decided that I am not allowed to feed them from the table in the restaurant, but Tim figures it is ok for me to take food out onto the lawn for them and feed them there. They still follow me back into the restaurant though, and hover around expectantly. We have spent the last two days doing some incredible diving. The coral here is like nothing either of us have ever seen before, the fish are prolific and amazing, and there are two shipwrecks in the area that we have gotten to explore. All in all a really incredible place. The only thing we are missing is a good internet connection, hence the lack of posts and new pictures. We are pretty sure our next location - Lovina, we go there tomorrow - will be better equipped. So until then hope everyone is well and we will talk to you soon . . .
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Driving in Bali
Well we got our car yesterday and I think it is safe to say that the vehicle delivered to us in no way resembled the picture of what we thought we were getting. We asked for a Dihatsu Feroza, thinking that we would get a newer model, but we were delivered a model from the early '90s, which was a little rough. Now, I am not usually one to complain, so I had a quick look, hopped in, and started it up, and it actually seemed ok... it had AC and seemed to run pretty smooth, and it had the feel of a bigger jeep type vehicle, which would likely serve us well when we got to the mountains, so we decided that we would take what we were given and head to Candidasa.
For most of the drive, things went pretty smooth... well, the steering was pretty loose and the brake pedal would go to the floor without actually providing any stopping power to the vehicle, but it seemed to fit in pretty well with the other vehicles
on the road. We managed to get to the Watergarden resort in Candidasa within about one hour, and checked in. Again, this is an amazing place... we have our own villa with a little deck that overlooks a beautiful pond filled with many fish, there is a great pool, and the Wi-Fi connection is pretty good (knock on wood). Catherine's research pays off again!!
Now we could have just hung around and relaxed, but we decided that we would drive up into the mountains to see the crater of one of the 3 large volcanoes on the island. We also decided to take the less travelled route rather than the paved highway, thus getting a better feel for the culture of the area. The travel book we have states that all roads in Bali are paved... I think that the writers may not have travelled every road on the island, because the road we ended up on turned into an 8 foot wide path with bits of ashphalt scattered about, with incredibly steep climbs and drop-offs, and surprisingly, alot of traffic (mostly bikes, pedestrians and lots of chickens).
Many people might have turned back at this point, opting for the safety and reliability of the highway, but not this fearless couple... we decided to forge ahead. about 15 minutes later, our quest for adventure ended up smacking right in the nose. I was pretty sure I heard the tire explode, but I decided to will the tire to reinflate and pushed on until I was at least on a flat stretch of road (by stretch I mean about 25 feet long and about 10 feet wide). As it turns out, I do not have the ability to reinflate tires with will alone. I do, however, possess the ability to change a tire, so I got ready to do just that.
When you guys rent a vehicle, how often do you check for a jack and tire iron? Same here. Well my search for tire changing equipment left me with the following tools...
A small flathead screwdriver
A 6 inch long aluminum tube with one end shaped to fit over the lug nuts
Another 6 inch long aluminum tube that looked like it had been driven over once to often
Yeah that was it... the piece of aluminum that fit over the tires lug nuts was not the same size as the one to remove the spare from the back of the vehicle, and even if I somehow managed to get both the spare and the flat tire loose, I had no jack to raise the vehicle. As the motorbike and scooters squeezed by us, we began to wonder if we were "in a pickle" or "up the creek". We decided that we were still in "pickle" mode so we pulled out our Indonesian language book and flagged down a passing scooter and tried to inform him of our situation. After some strange looks we guided him to the side of the vehicle and showed him the tire, at which point he began to nod knowingly, chuckled to himself, and pulled out his cell phone, I presume to make a call to the local AMA.
(This type of thing has come up before in our travels... not the flat tire thing but the cell phone thing. Why is it that people can get crystal clear phone coverage in some third world country, on the side of a volcano nowhere near any civilization, yet we cant get a signal from our back yard?? It boggles the mind... anyways, back to the adventure)
Within about 10 minutes we had 5 fellas on scooters and one guy claiming he was a mechanic at our side to aid in our rescue... the mechanic had brought a tire iron (wrong size for the lug nuts on the flat, but the right size to get the spare off), a crescent wrench, and the handle off an old socket set (no sockets though). Numerous efforts to combine this equipment in one fashion or another did not get us any further in loosening the lug nuts off the flat... and the mechanic kept looking at me with this incredulous look every time I asked him if he had access to a jack (the look conveyed the message "what the hell are you two doing up here without a jack?). It was a little humbling. After all of us tried a combination of the tools at hand to loosen the lug nuts, we did the one thing common to all men when faced with a situation of this nature... sit back, scratch your head and look around at the other guys scratching their heads. I had turned to Catherine and we were getting plans ready to abandon ship and catch a ride back to Candidasa when it appeared to me that one of the fellas got an idea, grabbed the
aluminum tube and the ratchet handle and scooted away. The other fellas seemed contented by this display and we only waited about 10 minutes before he returned, with a confident look about him. He had taken the aluminum tube with the socket end and had drilled a hole through the other end of the tube which allowed the ratchet handle to slide through, allowing us to get a good grip on the lug nuts, and we began cranking. The aluminum to me looked like it would not withstand the force required to turn the nuts, but amazingly, it managed to get all 5 nuts off before it was completely mangled where the hole was drilled. The guy also managed to find the smallest hydraulic jack ever made, so we were able to get the Feroza off the ground just enough to get the spare on. Success!! At this point, much of the nearby village had heard of our plight and had come to lend some support, so there was much cheering, and many outstretched hands when I began to compensate the fellas who helped the most with this rescue... ahh well I am sure they all had a good laugh and a cold beer at the expense of the silly, unprepared tourists, but we managed to make it back down the volcano without any more incidents.
We decided to take it easy today and relax, get a massage and wait for our new vehicle to be delivered. I gotta say that even though we were given a piece of crap, the guys who runs the rental company has been excellent and he just dropped off a new (well looks like about a 2005) Toyota small van type thing, so we are ready for our next adventure... well after a day of massages and beers by the pool that is :)
We are off to Amed tomorrow and will be doing a couple of days of diving there as there is supposed to be a great wreck just offshore... chat with y'all then.
T n C
For most of the drive, things went pretty smooth... well, the steering was pretty loose and the brake pedal would go to the floor without actually providing any stopping power to the vehicle, but it seemed to fit in pretty well with the other vehicles
on the road. We managed to get to the Watergarden resort in Candidasa within about one hour, and checked in. Again, this is an amazing place... we have our own villa with a little deck that overlooks a beautiful pond filled with many fish, there is a great pool, and the Wi-Fi connection is pretty good (knock on wood). Catherine's research pays off again!!
Now we could have just hung around and relaxed, but we decided that we would drive up into the mountains to see the crater of one of the 3 large volcanoes on the island. We also decided to take the less travelled route rather than the paved highway, thus getting a better feel for the culture of the area. The travel book we have states that all roads in Bali are paved... I think that the writers may not have travelled every road on the island, because the road we ended up on turned into an 8 foot wide path with bits of ashphalt scattered about, with incredibly steep climbs and drop-offs, and surprisingly, alot of traffic (mostly bikes, pedestrians and lots of chickens).
Many people might have turned back at this point, opting for the safety and reliability of the highway, but not this fearless couple... we decided to forge ahead. about 15 minutes later, our quest for adventure ended up smacking right in the nose. I was pretty sure I heard the tire explode, but I decided to will the tire to reinflate and pushed on until I was at least on a flat stretch of road (by stretch I mean about 25 feet long and about 10 feet wide). As it turns out, I do not have the ability to reinflate tires with will alone. I do, however, possess the ability to change a tire, so I got ready to do just that.
When you guys rent a vehicle, how often do you check for a jack and tire iron? Same here. Well my search for tire changing equipment left me with the following tools...
A small flathead screwdriver
A 6 inch long aluminum tube with one end shaped to fit over the lug nuts
Another 6 inch long aluminum tube that looked like it had been driven over once to often
Yeah that was it... the piece of aluminum that fit over the tires lug nuts was not the same size as the one to remove the spare from the back of the vehicle, and even if I somehow managed to get both the spare and the flat tire loose, I had no jack to raise the vehicle. As the motorbike and scooters squeezed by us, we began to wonder if we were "in a pickle" or "up the creek". We decided that we were still in "pickle" mode so we pulled out our Indonesian language book and flagged down a passing scooter and tried to inform him of our situation. After some strange looks we guided him to the side of the vehicle and showed him the tire, at which point he began to nod knowingly, chuckled to himself, and pulled out his cell phone, I presume to make a call to the local AMA.
(This type of thing has come up before in our travels... not the flat tire thing but the cell phone thing. Why is it that people can get crystal clear phone coverage in some third world country, on the side of a volcano nowhere near any civilization, yet we cant get a signal from our back yard?? It boggles the mind... anyways, back to the adventure)
Within about 10 minutes we had 5 fellas on scooters and one guy claiming he was a mechanic at our side to aid in our rescue... the mechanic had brought a tire iron (wrong size for the lug nuts on the flat, but the right size to get the spare off), a crescent wrench, and the handle off an old socket set (no sockets though). Numerous efforts to combine this equipment in one fashion or another did not get us any further in loosening the lug nuts off the flat... and the mechanic kept looking at me with this incredulous look every time I asked him if he had access to a jack (the look conveyed the message "what the hell are you two doing up here without a jack?). It was a little humbling. After all of us tried a combination of the tools at hand to loosen the lug nuts, we did the one thing common to all men when faced with a situation of this nature... sit back, scratch your head and look around at the other guys scratching their heads. I had turned to Catherine and we were getting plans ready to abandon ship and catch a ride back to Candidasa when it appeared to me that one of the fellas got an idea, grabbed the
aluminum tube and the ratchet handle and scooted away. The other fellas seemed contented by this display and we only waited about 10 minutes before he returned, with a confident look about him. He had taken the aluminum tube with the socket end and had drilled a hole through the other end of the tube which allowed the ratchet handle to slide through, allowing us to get a good grip on the lug nuts, and we began cranking. The aluminum to me looked like it would not withstand the force required to turn the nuts, but amazingly, it managed to get all 5 nuts off before it was completely mangled where the hole was drilled. The guy also managed to find the smallest hydraulic jack ever made, so we were able to get the Feroza off the ground just enough to get the spare on. Success!! At this point, much of the nearby village had heard of our plight and had come to lend some support, so there was much cheering, and many outstretched hands when I began to compensate the fellas who helped the most with this rescue... ahh well I am sure they all had a good laugh and a cold beer at the expense of the silly, unprepared tourists, but we managed to make it back down the volcano without any more incidents.We decided to take it easy today and relax, get a massage and wait for our new vehicle to be delivered. I gotta say that even though we were given a piece of crap, the guys who runs the rental company has been excellent and he just dropped off a new (well looks like about a 2005) Toyota small van type thing, so we are ready for our next adventure... well after a day of massages and beers by the pool that is :)
We are off to Amed tomorrow and will be doing a couple of days of diving there as there is supposed to be a great wreck just offshore... chat with y'all then.
T n C
Monday, April 20, 2009
Monkeys and more
First, let chat a little about monkeys...
For those of you who know Catherine, you may have heard her refer to monkeys as "those little bastards". This comes from her past experiences with monkeys, however, my limited experiences have been very positive, and I generally refer to them as "cute". So we saddled up and headed towards one of Ubuds most popular attractions, the monkey forest, where the monkeys roam free as nature intended around beautiful temples and statues. You could buybananas for these furry little angels at the entrance, and with some hesitation, Catherine decided to buy 6 to hand out according to which monkeys were behaving the best. We put these bananas into our backpack and headed into the forest, where the little beasts were politely minding thier own business and appeared generally bored by our presence. We got a number of great photos, and after about 30 minutes, we decided that the monkeys had behaved well enough and did indeed deserve a treat of bananas.
Now heres where things got a little... well, lets say the general demeanor of the monkeys, or one in particular, changed somewhat. With the backpack on my back, Catherine unzipped the pouch containing the bananas, and as she pulled out the plastic bag they were in, a large grouchy male decided that ALL the bananas were his... he jumped on my back and grabbed the plastic bag of bananas from Catherines hand as she squealed and uttered something that sounded like "Buckin Trunk Keys!!" or something similar. The big male had taken the whole plastic bag full of bananas and was pretty intent on keeping it. Being a bigger male than him, I decided that I should valiantly protect my bride and retrieve said bananas... this was the monkeys response...
For those of you who know Catherine, you may have heard her refer to monkeys as "those little bastards". This comes from her past experiences with monkeys, however, my limited experiences have been very positive, and I generally refer to them as "cute". So we saddled up and headed towards one of Ubuds most popular attractions, the monkey forest, where the monkeys roam free as nature intended around beautiful temples and statues. You could buybananas for these furry little angels at the entrance, and with some hesitation, Catherine decided to buy 6 to hand out according to which monkeys were behaving the best. We put these bananas into our backpack and headed into the forest, where the little beasts were politely minding thier own business and appeared generally bored by our presence. We got a number of great photos, and after about 30 minutes, we decided that the monkeys had behaved well enough and did indeed deserve a treat of bananas.
Now heres where things got a little... well, lets say the general demeanor of the monkeys, or one in particular, changed somewhat. With the backpack on my back, Catherine unzipped the pouch containing the bananas, and as she pulled out the plastic bag they were in, a large grouchy male decided that ALL the bananas were his... he jumped on my back and grabbed the plastic bag of bananas from Catherines hand as she squealed and uttered something that sounded like "Buckin Trunk Keys!!" or something similar. The big male had taken the whole plastic bag full of bananas and was pretty intent on keeping it. Being a bigger male than him, I decided that I should valiantly protect my bride and retrieve said bananas... this was the monkeys response...
So we left the monkey reserve with dignities damaged and previous assumptions about monkeys restored. They are still a little bit cute though :)
Anyways, tonight will be our last night in Ubud. Beautiful city and I can easily see why people who visit this place often end up staying here. But we must move on... we have rented a vehicle and will be trying our hand at driving tomorrow to Candidasa, where we will spend a few days adventuring around the east side of Bali and maybe head up to one of the volcanoes.
Chat soon,
Tim and Cat
Friday, April 17, 2009
Hello Bali!
Hello again,
Well we had a great time on the Gili Islands! The weather was awesome, sunshine and mid 30's everyday, we did 10 dives between us both and met a great couple from Sydney to share after-dive Bintangs with :) It is kind of a shame leaving this little paradise but the journey must move on, so we booked ourselves a "fast boat" and said "Cya" to Gili T.
Now, we did actually make it to Bali, but it wasn't without a little adventure. Our boat that we had booked to take us to the harbour in Bali arrived an hour late, and when we finally did climb on board, there was a mechanical problem with the engines, so we sat on a hot boat in the noon sun for another hour before getting underway. But we did finally get things moving and got to the harbor in Bali around 1500hrs, where our A/C'd van was waiting. The 45 minute drive to our hotel allowed us to get a glimpse of the southern part of Bali, which seemed to be primarily small manufacturing shops, and was amazingly clean for a port town.
We arrived at our home for the next 4 days around 1600hrs, and once again, Catherine did a great job of finding the perfect place. Right now I am sitting on the deck of our villa overlooking a vast expanse of palm trees while 3 huge volcanos provide the backdrop. This pic really doesn't do it justice but...
Well we had a great time on the Gili Islands! The weather was awesome, sunshine and mid 30's everyday, we did 10 dives between us both and met a great couple from Sydney to share after-dive Bintangs with :) It is kind of a shame leaving this little paradise but the journey must move on, so we booked ourselves a "fast boat" and said "Cya" to Gili T.
Now, we did actually make it to Bali, but it wasn't without a little adventure. Our boat that we had booked to take us to the harbour in Bali arrived an hour late, and when we finally did climb on board, there was a mechanical problem with the engines, so we sat on a hot boat in the noon sun for another hour before getting underway. But we did finally get things moving and got to the harbor in Bali around 1500hrs, where our A/C'd van was waiting. The 45 minute drive to our hotel allowed us to get a glimpse of the southern part of Bali, which seemed to be primarily small manufacturing shops, and was amazingly clean for a port town.
We arrived at our home for the next 4 days around 1600hrs, and once again, Catherine did a great job of finding the perfect place. Right now I am sitting on the deck of our villa overlooking a vast expanse of palm trees while 3 huge volcanos provide the backdrop. This pic really doesn't do it justice but...
We just returned from a little shopping excursion and are now both lounging about until its time for dinner. We plan to do the same thing tomorrow, maybe visit a monkey sanctuary too... rough :)
By the way, we have been keeping a close eye on things in Bangkok, and even though we were really safe when we were there, we have altered our travel plans a little to avoid going into the city again. This will likely blow over soon enough, but better safe than sorry, so don't get too worried about the news stories coming out of Bangkok, we wont be headed back there.
Chat soon,
Tim
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Underwater paradise. Land isn't too bad either . . .
We are well into our third day of diving here on Gili Trawangan. We started this morning with a sunrise dive at 6am out to Shark Point - infortunately no sharks, but lots of early rising fish zipping about having breakfast, alothough we learned that the appx 3 foot trigger fish are not morning fish and were quite grumpy that they had people around so early. Yesterday was a spectacular diving day with a 2 meter manta ray, many sea turtles, and beautiful coral. Monday was the refresh day with Tim doing two dives and me refreshing skills in the pool before heading out in the afternoon to dive with turtles and even a baby black tipped reef shark. The island is gorgeous, the food amazing, and everyone is super friendly. We have been diving with a great couple from Australia that have been sharing in the underwater photo adventures - and the post dive Bintangs as well.
Tomorrow we head off to Bali and to the cultural centre of Ubud for some mountain time following our stay on this beautiful little white sand rimmed island. Now we're off to pick up our laundry and then back on the boat for our final dive out on the east side of Gili Air.
Tomorrow we head off to Bali and to the cultural centre of Ubud for some mountain time following our stay on this beautiful little white sand rimmed island. Now we're off to pick up our laundry and then back on the boat for our final dive out on the east side of Gili Air.
Ok Tim here... just think I should explain what looks like a shark attack at the end of that video of the manta. I have been sucking through my oxygen on these dives much faster than Catherine, so we were doing our safety stop when we saw the manta, and I had only 10 Bar of oxygen left. When our divemaster, Rusty, saw the ray, it was the first one he had seen in months, so he was really excited and wanted us to share air while we swam after the ray, but that didnt work out the way he planned, and I had to head to the surface. Still, it was awesome to just be in the water with this amazingly graceful critter... We'll post more from Ubud.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Off to the Gili Islands
Well today we are leaving our little villa by the sea and heading across the straight to the island of Gili Trawangan where we will spend our days diving. Our time on Lombok has been great so far, we made it out golfing on Friday at the Kosaido Golf Course about 1/2 an hour away from the hotel. While neither of our scores were particularly amazing it was pretty wonderful to be able to say "my golf ball landed just below that palm tree," and "the pin is up there about 30 feet this side of the ocean." The Indonesian golf tradition is that they send a caddy out with every golfer so as we left the club house two Indonesian men hopped on the back of our cart and proceeded to hand us clubs, give us tips on the greens, and find our golf balls when we shot them into the bush. On the first hole Tim promptly sliced his ball - and there was a chorus of "too bads" and "nice tries" from the gaggle of local children surrounding the cart. I made one of 3 good shots all day off my tee shot on the first hole and got a bunch of suprised "nice shot!" and "ooohhhh-ing" from the peanut gallery followed by polite clapping. We realized fairly quickly the role of the small children was not to provide the cheering crowd noises, but was to retreive lost balls that our caddies were unable to locate, and show up at the next tee box and sell them back to us for 2000 IDR or about 20 cents. Sure enough a water hazard or two later and there were shiny white, barely used, Maxflis waiting for us at the next hole. Relalizing that 20 cents was actually a pretty good deal, we rewarded the hard work and bought a few of the balls. Our caddies quickly realized that we were not undercover PGA and LPGA players and took far to much pleasure in telling us our scores at the end of each hole. I didn't know that you could actually get a 10 on a par 4, but apparently you can. By 11 am we were thankfully finishing up and the heat of the day was upon us. It is not easy to golf in 35 degree heat, so future tee times will continue to be as early as possible.
We aren't sure what we will have for internet connection while we are on Gili Trawangan, so we may or may not be posting over the next few days - if we aren't able to our next update will be on Thursday from Bali. Talk to you soon!
And just so you know, we have been trying to upload pictures and haven't been able to. We will try again at the next internet site - hopefully with more luck!
We aren't sure what we will have for internet connection while we are on Gili Trawangan, so we may or may not be posting over the next few days - if we aren't able to our next update will be on Thursday from Bali. Talk to you soon!
And just so you know, we have been trying to upload pictures and haven't been able to. We will try again at the next internet site - hopefully with more luck!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
On an island in the sun...
We are now on Lombok, a little island just to the east of Bali. We had to get up at 3:45 AM to catch the flight which had a 2 hour layover in Sudihaya, which gave us the chance to grab a bite, then off to Lombok... well not quite. Once all of the passengers boarded the plane and we got onto the runway, we noticed that there was no A/C working on the plane, so it was back the the terminal so the mechanics could work their magic. Now, if you had 80 people jammed tight in an aluminum tube sitting on a black ashphalt tarmac in + 34 degrees heat with no AC on the plane, would you deplane them or let them raost a little longer?? We ended up roasting a little longer, but as it turned out, they had it working in about 50 minutes and we were really on our way.
Our driver met us at the airport and drove us the 30 minutes to the resort, and what a place! This is the most extravagant hotel we will be staying in for the entire trip, and likely the nicest accomodations I will ever stay in. When you walk into our little piece of heaven, you find yourself in a covered open air kitchen and living room, overlooking our own little "plunge pool", and past the pool is our enclosed air conditioned bedroom. The room (it should really be called a small compound) is very private, or at least it is meant to be... there are 10 foot walls all around with a number of trees and other plants to provide us with even more privacy... but there is a two story guest house being built just to the side of us and the workers were putting the finishing touches on the roof. I think that once one of the young lads saw Cat prancing about, the rest of the work crew decided that the roof would be a great place to take a coffee break and have a gander. While this did provide me with a bit of entertainment, Catherine reminded me that they might not all be looking at her, so we spoke with the manager, who had made arrangements that no work was to be done on the second floor, and she got us our privacy back in our little slice of heaven.
We spent the rest of the day doing a bit of a hike into town, then back to the resort for a beautiful sunset, a delicious meal and of course, a bintang or two. We tried our best to stay up past 8:30, but the travelling and the heat had beaten us into submission. Slept like a log.
Today we told ourselves we were gonna do nothing but relax, suntan (burn), dip into the ocean, send a few emails and make a few skype calls. For those that have never tried this, and that included me until a week ago, this is a free internet video messaging system. Basically, you get a web camera, plug it into your computer, download the skype program, and start looking up your friends who have it and start chatting. David and Elaine mentioned that this is how they contact their families when they are on vacation, so we thought we would give it a try. We sent out a few emails and set it up so others would be online for 10:00 AM our time here. There were a few glitches as the internet signal here fluxuates depending on where you stand, but we were able to talk with Cat's mom, Ken and Noreen, and we could see David and Elaine, but they couldnt hear us... we will be trying again soon to get it working proper. All in all, it is pretty amazing that I can sit here by the pool on the other side of the planet and have a face to face conversation with someone back home.
Anyways, after the skype calls, we accomplished what we set out to do ... nothing. We snorkeled, ate, had a beer, made a tee time (golfing tomorrow), felt sad about the Oilers, and got a sunburn. Pretty full day really :)
Well time to go have some dinner... chat soon!
Tim
Our driver met us at the airport and drove us the 30 minutes to the resort, and what a place! This is the most extravagant hotel we will be staying in for the entire trip, and likely the nicest accomodations I will ever stay in. When you walk into our little piece of heaven, you find yourself in a covered open air kitchen and living room, overlooking our own little "plunge pool", and past the pool is our enclosed air conditioned bedroom. The room (it should really be called a small compound) is very private, or at least it is meant to be... there are 10 foot walls all around with a number of trees and other plants to provide us with even more privacy... but there is a two story guest house being built just to the side of us and the workers were putting the finishing touches on the roof. I think that once one of the young lads saw Cat prancing about, the rest of the work crew decided that the roof would be a great place to take a coffee break and have a gander. While this did provide me with a bit of entertainment, Catherine reminded me that they might not all be looking at her, so we spoke with the manager, who had made arrangements that no work was to be done on the second floor, and she got us our privacy back in our little slice of heaven.
We spent the rest of the day doing a bit of a hike into town, then back to the resort for a beautiful sunset, a delicious meal and of course, a bintang or two. We tried our best to stay up past 8:30, but the travelling and the heat had beaten us into submission. Slept like a log.
Today we told ourselves we were gonna do nothing but relax, suntan (burn), dip into the ocean, send a few emails and make a few skype calls. For those that have never tried this, and that included me until a week ago, this is a free internet video messaging system. Basically, you get a web camera, plug it into your computer, download the skype program, and start looking up your friends who have it and start chatting. David and Elaine mentioned that this is how they contact their families when they are on vacation, so we thought we would give it a try. We sent out a few emails and set it up so others would be online for 10:00 AM our time here. There were a few glitches as the internet signal here fluxuates depending on where you stand, but we were able to talk with Cat's mom, Ken and Noreen, and we could see David and Elaine, but they couldnt hear us... we will be trying again soon to get it working proper. All in all, it is pretty amazing that I can sit here by the pool on the other side of the planet and have a face to face conversation with someone back home.
Anyways, after the skype calls, we accomplished what we set out to do ... nothing. We snorkeled, ate, had a beer, made a tee time (golfing tomorrow), felt sad about the Oilers, and got a sunburn. Pretty full day really :)
Well time to go have some dinner... chat soon!
Tim
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Made it to Indonesia!
Hey all, well after having a great start to things in Bangkok, we left the beautiful Pullman hotel behind us and headed to the airport to fly to Yogyajakarta, on the island of Java in Indonesia. We arrived at the airport and quickly realized that we were overweight... well our luggage was overweight, not us. So we had to donate a little more money to the airline, but even though we packed lightly, the stuff we did bring with us we really do need, so we bit the bullet, paid the nice people and hopped on their plane.
We flew into Kuala Lampur airport and stayed there for about 1.5 hours, then carried on to Yogyajakarta and arrived at 1700 hours on the 5th. the temp was about 30 degrees and it had to be 100% humidity... awesome! We grabbed a cab and went to the hotel, which is the "sister" hotel to the one where we got engaged at in Havana. This hotel is every bit as beautiful as the one in Havana, and if you have about 3 minutes to kill, I decided to shoot a little walkthrough of the place...
We flew into Kuala Lampur airport and stayed there for about 1.5 hours, then carried on to Yogyajakarta and arrived at 1700 hours on the 5th. the temp was about 30 degrees and it had to be 100% humidity... awesome! We grabbed a cab and went to the hotel, which is the "sister" hotel to the one where we got engaged at in Havana. This hotel is every bit as beautiful as the one in Havana, and if you have about 3 minutes to kill, I decided to shoot a little walkthrough of the place...
Ok heres the deal with the walkthrough video... it is a little bigger than the kickboxing one and the connection we have here in our hotel is a littel slow, so as of right now, I havent been able to upload it to share it with you all... but take my word for it, it is beautiful, and we will have either pics or videos up shortly :)
Well, yesterday, we headed out into the throng of activity on the main market streets, and found a great little place for lunch... rice for me and noodles for Catherine, and a couple of beers for each of us for about 6 bucks... yummy! After lunch, we booked ourselves a tour of the nearby temples for tomorrow, and then headed to our hotel to cool off in the pool. It was another 30+ degrees and 80+% humidity and the pool felt great!
Well now it is a new day, and I started this post yesterday, but because of the slow download issue, I will tell you of our tour of the Barabradur temple today. I have seen a few temples in my life (Tikal in Guatemala and Copan in Honduras, as well as some great temples in Japan) but I have to say that this one takes the cake. Barabradur is a Bhuddist temple built in 750AD and after it was built, the area became largely Muslim, so the temple was not put to much use. Aside from alot of Bhuddas missing their heads (likely at the hands of the local Muslim faithful) this temple was in spectacular shape. It is a worldwide heratige site so it is constantly being upkept, and the grounds around it are spectacular as well. Here is a quick link if you wanna see a little more... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur
We arrived just after dawn and started the 5 km trek to the summit, 5 km if you do a clockwise ring around each level, which we did. If you walk up the temple in this fashion, you will be able to view every one of the hundreds of hand carved wall pieces, each depicting a piece of the story of how the Bhudda reached enlightenment. While we kinda lost the plot of the story, we did see some awesome stone work, cool skinks and geckos, and lots of neat bugs. Our timing couldn't have been better, because as we reached the top, we were greeted by many school kids out on a "greet the english speaking person" tour. They were all very polite and giggled at our repsonses to their questions. We made the climb down and took in a early lunch at the bottom in the market... have you ever had pinapple pancakes?? Yummy!!
Right now we are back in our room, having another Bintang and working on getting some pictures up on this blog so you can get a sense of how things are going for us here. Till we get that figured out, I am gonna put this post up so you all know we are doing great and having a great time.
Lastly, just a note on the beer situation here... the people on Java can not only make fantastic coffee (ever wonder why we call coffee Java?) but they brew a pretty fine Pilsener call Bintang. This beer far exceeds any of the yuck in Bangkok (like Singha which we did sample often) and I would say its on par with most of the good Canadian brands like Kokanee. No, really, its good!
Ok time to wake Catherine from her afternoon siesta and head out for supper.
Chat soon, Tim
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Well it has been a couple of fun nights here in Bangkok. We went to the Muay Thai kickboxing matches last night and watched some tiny little tough guys kick the crap outta each other.
To finish off the night we went down to Phat Pong road and had a few beers. This is a pretty popular place for tourists, lots of fake name brand merchandise and lots of "bars" with every kind of entertainment you could think of. We played it pretty safe and went to watch a Thai cover band.
We got up early today and went to the weekend market. It was amazing how much stuff was for sale in a one block area, and how many people come to buy there. We stayed till about 1400hrs, then back to the hotel. We planned to go out again tonight but our late afternoon nap kinda drifted into the evening, so we are gonna just start packing up and get ready for our flight to Yogjakarta tomorrow.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Pullman Bangkok King Power Hotel
Well we have settled in and are working on acclimating to both the time change and the temperature change. Its 3pm here right now, which means it is 2am at home, and its 36 degrees outside right now. There had been a little bit of rain, but it doesn't really cool things off, more like standing in a warm shower. Our hotel is wonderful, definately a change from the thin-walled guest house we stayed in last time Tim and I were in Bangkok in that it actually has air conditioning and walls, rather than screens, separating our room from the others. We are planning to spend the rest of the afternoon at the pool bar before heading off to Lumphini Stadium to watch the Muay Thai kickboxing matches Then its off to the infamous Patpong night market for some shopping and free entertainment.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
We made it
30 hours from the time we left the house to getting into the room in Bangkok, but here we are. Its 2 am, and we're tired, but very happy to be here.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
6 Inches of snow
There is nothing more wonderful than waking up to six inches of fluffy white snow and knowing that in a few days you are going to be in 35 degree heat, eating fresh Thai dinners and drinking coconut milkshakes. Three more sleeps!
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