Indonesia

Well, after finally ridding myself of my frickin job (again), I'm back on the road. For the last 30 days I've been bouncing around Indonesia, specifically Bali and the tropical Gili Islands.

My first stop was Kuta Beach where I met back up with Alan for the first time in 6 months. Kuta is the most popular travellers spot in Indonesia. It has really good food, nightlife, and plenty of really pushy people trying to sell you dumb shit. It's also a surfing mecca. Not that I surf, but a billion travellers rocked out in Billabong gear and using the word gnarly can't be wrong. So Alan and I spent some time there catching up, wandering around, and hitting the bars.

After a few days we went to the town of Ubud which is about an hour and a half drive north. While in Ubud, we met up with a French girl named Jasmine. She had been doing volunteer work there for a couple months and showed us where a bunch of good stuff is. She also
introduced us to a Balinese guy named Putu who became our best friend and wound up travelling all around with us. It so happens he manages a house while the owner isn't staying there, and told us we should come check it out and he'd give us a good rate. So after a 15 minute ride from Ubud center, through rice paddies and lush forest, we arrive at what would become my home for the next 10 days. For $6 USD each per night, we had a huge 3 story house with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, big kitchen, open air living room, gazebo out back, fish ponds, balcony, and 2 servants who cooked and cleaned and did our laundry. But Alan and I aren't very demanding people so they were able to have a good time with us as well. We threw parties there, cooked up a storm, had traditional Balinese BBQ and smoked
chicken dinners, went out to the bars in town, and slept late. Putu showed us the famous places for suckling pig and ribs, and took us on a road trip with our motorbikes where we ventured much further out to rice terraces and Mt. Batur. He drove with us back into Kuta for an evening because there was a show I wanted to see, and while we were there we went to a well known seafood spot called Jimbaran Bay.

As hard as it was to leave Ubud, after 10 days I was ready for some beaches. So I left Alan and headed to the island of Gili Trawangan which is one of the most amazing beaches you can imagine. To get there, I spent one night in a weird little town called Padangbai before catching a 5 hour ferry. I met some good people on the boat including a Swede named Malin who was really cool. Finally we got there and it was really paradise. The island is so small you can walk around it in 90 minutes. There are no vehicles, the only transport available is horse-drawn carts... not that you ever really need them. It's another popular traveller's spot, not overwhelmingly crowded but plenty of people where it's real easy to meet others. So I made some new friends and lounged on the beach for 10 days. Then it was back to Kuta for 2 days where I met back up with Alan before splitting up again and heading to Kuala Lumpur, which is where I am right now. My brother gets here in a few days, so the brothers Moskowitz
are about to tear up Malaysia for the next 2 weeks.

I left out plenty of details, but I'm hungry and I want to go eat, so just enjoy the pics I guess.

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