The following morning in Mataram (Saturday) after nibbling on the American portions of the included breakfast we headed back to the scene of the Mataram Mall that Eric had ventured to the evening prior. And I must agree it was quite a sight. Very much a mall like any other mall. Multiple stories, multiple shops, kiosks, a McDonald's, cars displayed on the ground floor. One of the most striking differences was the prominence of Muslim women's head coverings, on the women, but also the various styles displayed on mannequins, models, and in store advertisements. I was also intrigued to notic [View Full Entry]

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Today was a marvelous day. We decided to get off of our well tanned lazy behinds and actually do something besides bask in the glorious sun and go for the occasional swim/snorkel. Don't get me wrong, it is difficult to get rid of pristine tropical beaches on small islands that have no noise from cars or airplanes. However, the time had come to go off adventuring for the day. Awan, our guide and possibly a new friend had given us his very polite, low-key sales pitch several days ago and we decided to go with him. We began our journey by [View Full Entry]

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Well after eight days and eight nights of island life split between Gilli Meno and Gilli Air, we are trading in the slow pace, minimal change of clothes, primitive plumbing (including cold- partially- salt water showers, and manual flush toilets (the concept really did throw me at first, it's a western toilet w/o the flusher and tank, and you have to fill a little bucket with salt water from a spicket and then dump the water in the toilet, repeat as necessary- this not illiciting as nearly as much of a "you want me do what?" factor as the nasty squat [View Full Entry]

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So here is the recap of EandS vs. the volcano as taken from my journal... "Today was the first venture out of all the warm comforts of "home". Ubud was easy. Spoiled us a bit but we loved it. Hippie-yoga lunch place and all! We said farewell to Sania's Place and hired a car to take us to Kedisan. Kecak was our driver for 150,000 (about $15). It was an uphill drive the whole way through artisan village after artisan village. The views from the ridge were breathtaking. The terraced rice fields were unbelievably steep. Along the road were endless shops. [View Full Entry]

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Well before you go thinking that we got swallowed whole by the volcano, rest assured that we are alive and well. The lack of new blogs is attributed to no internet at the base of the volcano, followed by a whole day of traveling (by bemo. ferry, and small boat) and a current acclamation to "island time" which includes not always knowing what day it is and learning to approximate time by where the sun is in the sky. We have been on the island of Gilli Meno, one of three small islands off the northwest coast of Lombok (the island [View Full Entry]

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So it is 8:20 in the evening and we are about to go get dinner. We have just had the wonderful experience known as Traditional Balinese Massage. Yes, twice in one week! This was the real deal erasing any memory of the heinous crime against humanity that took place earlier this week. Ubud is a great place. It's a Little Europe in Indonesia as Steph refered to it today. Europe on $50 a day that is. After spending our day researching which volcano we should climb we have settled on Gunung Batur. They say the hassle getting there is horrible but [View Full Entry]

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Well I believe we left off on the morning of the rainy day. We spent much of that day, which proved to be much more than a passing am shower -in fact a twelve hour on/off downpoor- roaming the streets in search of some warmer layers (much more difficult than you make think- as a majority of the apparel is prudent to the typical climate and our selection of American 'hoodies' very much limlited to surfer/skater brands with unavoidable large print logos and some overpriced Polo suspect knockoffs) and taking advantage of the so few amounts of people on the streets. [View Full Entry]

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Disclaimer: Contrary to Eric's last blog no children have been harmed on this adventure thus far. We all know how Eric's storytelling takes on a flare for the dramatic (right Dad and Mark?) Here we are in Ubud, known as the "cultural heartland" of Bali, and yes still very much a tourist haven. However, it does seem to maintain some "cultural integrity" as our guide books described. We arrived midday yesterday afternoon via taxi from our hotel in Sanur. Without a definitive destination we were dropped in the middle of town on the main street Jalan Monkey Forest in the center [View Full Entry]

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Only 15 min. so here it goes Let me start out by saying that I second everything that Stephanie had to say X2! Well we deided to book it out of town after only one night in search of that perfect beach. I am already feeling a bit like Leonardo DiCaprio in"The Beach". I just hope it doesn't take some guy blowing his brains out in front of us for us to find it. Sanur...a sleepy little town with a fraction as many shops and hawkers that aren't quite as intense. It is funny after all the traveling I've done that [View Full Entry]

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Well... There we were riding in our chauffeured car zipping through the backroads of Chelsea like only Kristin could. I was half asleep as we purposely stayed up late in order to sleep on the plane and try to get on SE Asia time. Got to the airport...no problem (end Eric)...boarded the plane...no problem...prepared for take off and after twenty minutes or so of taxiing...BIG problem. There appeared to be some mechanical issue, as in the "nose" of the plane was only steering in one direction. We inevitably had to deplane and return to the terminal to figure out an alternate [View Full Entry]

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