Birthday Bash In Bali . January 30 - February 3, 2014

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About a week after Christmas holidays had ended, we had a mid week day off due to a Muslim holiday. It was nice to have a short week as it helped us settle into our routines again. I ended up spending the whole day going from one spa treatment to another unintentionally. The day was kicked off with a facial, followed by a cream bath and ended with watching a movie at the premiere theatre where we watched The Life of Walter Mitty.



I often head into Kemang on weekends. I go with two others to visit friends who work at another campus apart of our school. We sometimes go to coffee shops to work which makes for a great way to get work done. When it rains, it becomes cozier, making it a step closer to the likeness of home. In fact, it’s been raining an awful lot here over recent weeks. I know it’s the rain season, but it rains pretty constantly all day – very similar to home except for of course it’s much warmer here. The clouds are dark, the sky’s grey and the sun hardly shone. I’ve been told it’s typically sunny in the morning, and pours for a short time in the afternoon before it dries up again. Lately it’s just been pouring, which makes the flooding season more stressful. Many people have been flooded out, and the traffic has become even worse as roads are blocked off. A co-woker sent me a photo taken for a local newspaper. I’ve included it in the photos below. When it pours so hard, ojek drivers hesitate to drive in it and so a few times I’ve either walked to school with my large umbrella, or I catch a taxi with friends. There was this one morning where we had a tough time flagging one down – we made it to work in time, but we were a little worried we’d be late. Talk about an adrenaline rush to wake you up in the morning!



It was another friend’s birthday early on in January so we went out for dinner to celebrate at a local Indian Food Restaurant. I had samosas for the first time since being in Indo - they were so good!



My actual birthday this year fell on a Saturday. Before Christmas I was trying to arrange with a friend a salsa dance night with a bunch of girls, but it never worked out. Instead, I decided to make it work for my actual birthday. The evening started with dinner out at a local restaurant. The restaurant was called Magnum Café, named after the magnum ice cream bars. The dessert menu revolved around magnum bars – it was tasty! We ended up having a private dance lesson by my friend’s friend who worked at the dance studio. Following the lesson it was Latin dance night so it opened up for regular business. A live band played songs as we danced the night away. Nearing the end of the evening they announced the birthdays in the crowd. When my name was announced, I had to dance in front of everyone as they sang happy birthday to me. Talk about putting what you’ve learned into practice –and quickly! All in all, a great night was had by all.



The next day, one of my friends and I woke up early and made the trip downtown to run the 5k Color Run. As this was the first run of its kind in Jakarta, the crowd was buzzing with energy which made this a particularly exciting venture to be a part of. We made our way through the crowds but at points you were forced to walk as we all had to pass through a narrow area. My friend and I were glad to have done it. I bleached everything and soaked it overnight once I got home and to my surprise, most of the color came out from my clothing and shoes. Only a little evidence remained! Later that afternoon, another friend took me out for my birthday yet and treated me to a massage. We went to a new place where I hadn’t been before which was nice to test out.









BIRTHDAY BASH IN BALI







Thursday January 30, 2014 · Jakarta, Indonesia



To keep the birthday celebrations rolling, a bunch of us went to Bali for the following weekend. Since it was Chinese New Year, we had Friday off from school. To maximize our time, we booked flights for Thursday night and a return on Sunday in mid afternoon. We rushed home on Thursday, grabbed our luggage, flagged down some taxis and were on our way to the airport. The taxi which I happened to be in dropped us off at the wrong terminal. The Jakarta’s terminals are a few minutes away from each other by car. We were now panicking and as we feared we would miss our flight. Trying to find another taxi or a driver willing to bring us one terminal over was a rough go. The taxi drivers we talked with were charging us ridiculously high prices - almost equivalent to the cost it took us to get to the airport from our apartments. We refused to pay those amounts so our next best option was to stand in line for the airport shuttle. At least the shuttle was free of charge but after what seemed like an eternity, the shuttle came. We hopped on and were required to wait patiently as large groups loaded on and off the shuttle with their luggage. These individuals didn’t move particularly fast which only added to our adrenaline. We knew that every other flight to Bali were fully booked because it was a long weekend. Therefore, missing our flight was not an option! Once we finally were at the checkout counter we explained to the employer what had happened to us. He had to inquire about something so as we patiently waited for a few minutes we were praying we’d make this flight. The man handed over our boarding tickets , and we scurried off to the final security gates. This part went fairly quick and we made it to our gate just in time to be rushed through and we ran down the final corridor. We hopped onto yet another shuttle which dropped us off on the tarmac where our plane was waiting. I ended up sitting in the very front row of the plane with one other friend as the rest of our group was dispersed throughout in other rows. Even though we thought we were the last people to get on, we still sat there for about quarter of an hour for the very last of the stragglers to get on. Only in Indonesia do you board a plane half an hour after you’re scheduled to, where planes often are delayed and you still make your flight! Sometimes these differences work in your favor!!! We were just grateful our tickets weren’t given away to standby passengers. Nevertheless, we made it, and were happy we did!



The hotel we booked with sent drivers to pick us all up which was perfect and hassle free. We enjoyed our one and a half hour drive to Ubud, a popular inland destination that is known to be Bali’s art capital. We were supposed to stay in one large villa all together, but since there were double bookings, the hotel gave us three small villas instead and for a fraction of what they cost! These villas were each equipped with their indoor-outdoor bathrooms, a veranda and a view of the pool. The food was good, staff were friendly and the surroundings were incredible. Ubud is situated more so in the mountains/hills, which made for a very pleasant temperature. We also all enjoyed the fresh air .









Friday January 31, 2014 · Ubud, Bali



After breakfast, most of us went to visit the Monkey Forest. The monkeys are known to steal personal belongings and can be aggressive if you’re not careful. We bought some bananas before going in and had fun feeding them. The monkey forest was a destination on the TV show The Amazing Race a few years back. I remember seeing this episode and it was awesome to actually be there in person. There is a Hindu Temple located inside this forest and so it’s a common site to see the locals walk in with their families, carrying their offerings in woven baskets on their heads, which they’ll leave at the temple when they’re finished. We had to wait for our other friends to meet up with us after completing the Monkey Forest as they had been to the Monkey Forest before and wanted to sleep in a little. We decided to kill the wait time with quick spa treatments. Some of us went for reflexology , others for a deep tissue massage and the rest for cream baths and pedicures. We did a little shopping and then went out for lunch at this amazing vegetarian restaurant once the rest of our crew arrived. The food was fresh, well priced and full of flavor – I am definitely going back if I’m ever in Ubud again! We spent majority of that afternoon walking around at the market, looking at all the merchandise, talking with the locals and did a lot of shopping. That evening we relaxed at the hotel, ate dinner, swam in the pool and enjoyed the jacuzzi. It seemed as though we were the only ones staying at this resort aside from this adorable, young French family. We were surprised when a large group of guys invaded the place, which we learned were staying somewhere else close by, but were able to use the resorts facilities. The guys were all mainly from New Zealand with a few random guys from Australia, but they were all on the same rugby team. They were in Bali on vacation. It was nice to double our party in size.









Saturday February 1, 2014 · Ubud, Bali



The next day I had booked a group bike trip for whoever was interested. Most of us went with the exception of two individuals who decided to go on a scuba diving day trip since they have their license and hadn’t been diving in a while. The tour guide picked us up from our hotel and first brought us to a coffee plantation. This coffee plantation was far from ordinary. The world’s most expensive coffee comes from Indonesia known as Kopi Luwak or “poop coffee”. The reason why it’s referred to as “poop coffee” is because the Asian Palm Civet, which are nocturnal catlike animals eat the coffee cherries and as the cherries pass through the digestive tract of this animal, they undergo fermentation and chemical treatments which impacts the taste. The locals call these animals Luwaks. The Luwaks inhabit the following Indonesian islands: Sumatra, Java, Bali and Sulawesi . The beans are still intact as they exit the animal and farmers will walk in the forest and search around the base of trees for Luwak poop so the beans can be harvested. The taste is often described as smooth . After the beans are cleaned, they are roasted and ground like any other coffee bean. I had to try it even though I’m not a regular coffee drinker! in addition, we were able to try several other coffee and tea flavors. Several samplers were brought out for us. The plantation owner sat down with us and talked. It was awesome to hear firsthand how he got into the business and what the process takes to make Kopi Luwak coffee. The owner told us ever since 2007 when the movie titled The Bucket List starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman was released, the Kopi Luwak industry has drastically grown and demands for this kind of coffee overwhelming. This movie definitely boosted this industry. From the coffee plantation we went to visit the hillside town known as Kintamani, located on a Mount Batur’s volcanic ridge. Mount Batur remains active today. As I’ve mentioned in an earlier posting, the school is divided into four house teams. Whole families are on the same house team and each team is named after a major Indonesian volcano. My house team just happens to be Kintamani. I was surprised to learn that Kintamani is the name of a town located on a volcano, not after a volcano itself. One of the other girls I traveled with is also on the same house team, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a picture with the official sign and create a human “K” for Kintamani. Kintamani has a great lookout point to view Mount Batur, Batur Lake and Mount Agung. It was beautiful. From there we drove down the hillside for a few minutes before we stopped again and got onto our peddle bikes. The whole trip was pretty much downhill with the exception of a couple steep inclines. Our guide stopped to show us a huge spider web with several massive spiders on it , but nevertheless large! We all had the opportunity to hold a spider if we wanted to. Other stops included, rice paddy terraces, a local school which the bike tour company supports, and several different Hindu temples. The roads we travelled on were all quiet and away from the hustle and bustle of tourist streets. It was great to get a glimpse of every day ordinary Balinese life in the many villages we passed through. The tour ended with a traditional Balinese lunch at the owners home where we enjoyed a tasty meal and had great conversation with the owner himself. I think now because it’s considered the low season, the owners both from the bike company and the coffee plantation had more time to interact with their customers, which is one thing I know we all appreciated and enjoyed about our experience. For the rest of the afternoon we continued to shop and look around in the markets and practice our bartering skills. Yup, with eight women, it’s inevitable to not shop as much as we did! We spent that evening again relaxing at the pool side and enjoying each other’s company.









Sunday Feb. 2, 2014 · Ubud to Kuta, Bali



On Sunday morning two girls headed to the airport pretty early to catch their flight. They had booked a different flight then the rest of us as they had other things they needed to be home for later that afternoon. Aside from the two girls who had to wake up early that morning, three others and I did also. Our flight was leaving mid afternoon, so before breakfast we wanted to explore more of Ubud. We rented three motorbikes [they were closer to being scoopies] for two hours. We stopped at more rice paddies, took more photos and at a local market before heading back to the resort for breakfast. After breakfast we headed south to Kuta, to hit up the beaches before we left for the airport to head home. We dropped our luggage at a local hotel so we didn’t have to lug it around with us which was nice considering all the extra baggage girls now had because of all the shopping! We saw the beach first, waded in the surf, grabbed some lunch and did a little more shopping. The amount of garbage on the beaches was astonishing . I was also told that the currents in the off season often bring garbage in with it from other places. Even as we just waded into the surf, garbage was wrapping around my ankles. At the airport we had just gotten out of our taxis, navigated ourselves through the large crowds making our way to the gates, when airport personnel told us our flight had been cancelled – we were shocked and were informed all flights with the airline we booked with had been canceled at that point for four days which meant it was already canceled before we left Jakarta. None of us had gotten any notification about it and we were all a little annoyed to hear the news. We were redirected to customer service but even at customer service we got nowhere. Eventually we were all told to purchase other tickets. Thus began our journey of being stranded in Bali. With nowhere to go we headed to Starbucks so that we could regroup, get cold drinks, link up to wifi, search and book another hotel and inform work that we would not being showing up on Monday morning. We eventually sorted things out, booked tickets for the earliest flight out possible for the next day, went to our new hotel and relaxed. The Super Bowl was playing early the next morning so we made the most of our stay and enjoyed the game as we ate delicious food from the buffet tables. We had contemplated about taking a surfing lesson as well, but we just didn’t have enough time to watch the full game and surf. Plus the garbage in the water turned us of as well. In the end after a long day we finally pulled up to our apartments at 8 o’clock at night – just in time to get things in order for work the next day. I’m learning that even though the travel opportunities here are endless, the actual travel time can be rather stressful! I’m just grateful I have friends who can speak the language better than I can when we find ourselves stuck in these situations! I thought the end to my Christmas vacation was the last of my travel stress for a while, but I was mistaken……







This past weekend Jakarta was hosting a Holi Water Festival. This festival originated in India and it’s actually what the 5K Colour Run, now widely done across the world, was inspired by. In India though, the Holi Festival is known as the festival of colours and happens during the spring season. It is an ancient Hindu religious festival which has become popular and has spread globally. A bunch of us ladies trekked downtown in two taxis, decked out in white ready to go. The tickets had been sold out, but my friend had called the coordinator and had reserved enough tickets for us all. We were escorted and let in before anyone else – we felt like we were VIP members or so! We were able to purchase our water guns and get our colored powder before anyone else. This festival was essentially one huge water fight which included colour powder and a music concert as well. We had great fun and ended up putting some of our colour powder into our water guns which became more effective. We went out and watered groups down - especially those taking “selfies”. The reactions were perfect every time! Mid way through the concert, our group left especially when we didn’t really know the songs, we ran out of colored powder, and we were all hungry. We walked to Outback Steakhouse restaurant and enjoyed good food before heading home to wipe off our colours! We ended the night by all gathering around a TV to watch some Olympic events – the events aren’t aired here, at least from what I can tell. I’ve been searching the channels on my television and haven’t found coverage yet!!! We’ve streamed the coverage last night as well as the highlights from the opening ceremonies which worked out well, but it’s sad to think I won’t be able to watch it as much as I would like. I REALLY enjoy watching both the winter and summer Olympics. I’m just hoping that I’ll be able to view the gold medal hockey matches when they happen next week, assuming we’ll make it to the finals. I’ve heard that on Wednesday Canada faces against America in round robin play, so a bunch of us plan to watch the game which I hope we’re able to! GO TEAM CANADA!!!!

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