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Published: November 28th 2009
Well first off, I have passed the state bar of California… which is quite an amazing feeling. After worrying about the about the bar for over three years, it was great to finally be rid of thinking about it and my mind can move on to being paranoid about something else (any ideas???).
Second, I left cold Hangzhou behind and taken a week break under the equatorial sun in Bali Indonesia. I left last Friday to spend a night in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (the cheapest way to get to Bali is on a discount airline called Air Asia, but they only sell single destination tickets and from Hangzhou they only fly to Kuala Lumpur. So I had to wait a night to fly to Bali the next day). This turned out to be great because my brother gave me a special rate at Le Meridian which is right next the train station that has a fast train to and from the airport (28 min to go over 30 miles… wish Caltrain was that fast!!). Also, I ran into some Americans who are studying in Nanjing (a city four hours north of Hangzhou). I meet up with them that night in Chinatown (I guess we all missed China too much to go anywhere else, haha. Actually it was one of the places recommended to go to get cheap food and drinks). We grab a cheap dinner of Malaysian food which actually is quite similar to the Malaysian food I have had in the states (which is completely untrue of Chinese food). Then go out for a drink at a place called Reggae bar, which is quite funny because it seems every city in Asia I go to there is a bar called Reggae bar. I head home early because I need to get up for an early flight to BALI!!!!
At the airport the next morning, I find out that I had passed the bar. Luckily I was on the phone with my mom (via Skype) to help calm me down. When I found out the good news I let out a loud and violent scream which almost made me lose my laptop on my lap and caused people all over the terminal to gaze over at me to see what the commotion was all about. I quickly quieted down because I didn’t want to attract any more attention while in the airport less I be asked to endure extra security checks…
My uncle invited me to accompany him and his family for a week at a villa on the East shore of Bali. So I planned to meet him Saturday at the Bali airport. However, due to some miscalculations on my part I accidently arrived 24 hours before my uncle and his family arrive. Now the situation is I just passed the bar but with no one to celebrate it with. Luckily, there is a little town on the beach near the airport called Kuta, which is basically a hippie/surfer paradise with lots of bars and restaurants. Some guy at the airport set me up at a hostel in the middle of Kuta. I meet a group of travelers at the hostel and I do get to celebrate my passing the bar.
The next day I meet up with my uncle and his family and we travel three hours to a town called Amed. My uncle won a really nice villa in an auction a year prior; however there were eight of us in the group and only four rooms. So instead of cramming into the rooms, my aunt suggests that my cousin and I go to the hotel down the street. The hotel is owned by the same owner of the house and was simply amazing. It was four bungalows with a pool and an amazing view. The best part was that my cousin and I were the only ones at the hotel, so the first night we just hung out by the pool blasting music until late.
The owner of the house and the hotel, Scott, came back the next day to occupy one of the rooms, so my cousin and I were bummed that we didn’t have a whole resort to ourselves. However, Scott turned out to be a really cool guy and had one of his friends from the states visiting him. And they both liked to party… when we came back from dinner they invited my cousin and I to have a couple of beers with them. Scott tried to convince that Bali was the place to practice law (he may be right about that) while giving my cousin and me a tutorial on the greatness of Van Halen.
So far the vacation was everything I wanted. It was relaxing, there was plenty of sun and I got to be around family for the first time in months… Then the accident happened. Now I am alright but I was pretty scraped up. Here is what happened… A kid fell off a boat and I saved him while getting scraped up in the reef (well that is the story I am going to tell everyone in China). What really happened is I crossed with the wrong chicken. The only good thing about this accident was I finally learned the answer to the age old joke “why did the chicken cross the road?” The answer is to make Josh swerve his scooter to avoid and in the process get flipped off it and severely scrape himself up.
I was riding along the coastline on the motor bikes we rented (really beautiful), and we were about ten minutes away from our hotel (after going along some pretty gnarly terrain and cliffs) when we drove by this town. Out of nowhere a chicken jumped out in front of my bike and me being my stupid self swerved to avoid the chicken (why I didn’t run it over and eat it for dinner still boggles my mind), and well I fell. My knees and right hand were pretty scraped up as long as my elbows. However, I got back up got back on the bike and rode back to the villa all bloody. Now, I am the first to take fault for my mistakes, but here it was clearly the chicken’s fault, haha.
When we get back, my aunt gets one of the locals who is she is friendly with and he officially becomes my doctor for the week. His name was Mate and he is a local fisherman and raises roosters for cock fighting (more on this below, I may have been against this before this week, but now that I hate chickens it all good with me!!). Mate is just an example of how friendly the residents on Bali are. My aunt knew him from a year and a half ago but not that well and before this week I had never met him. Yet he came twice a day to help me clean and dress my wounds and lift my spirits. Also, everyone in the village stopped by to see if the crazy foreigner who crashed the motor bike was alright.
So the rest of the vacation I basically was recovering from the accident while eating great food. For two days I just bummed around playing cards with my uncle and taking pain meds. But it was still relaxing and beat the cold in China.
On Thursday (accident was on Tuesday), my uncles and the family drag me out to this place called the water palace which was amazing. There was four or five huge pools, two of which you could swim in and the others had stepping stones across them. It was a great place to relax and felt quite peaceful.
On Friday, we visit Mate’s families shop to say thank you for all of his help. This is where I get to see the fighting roosters. Until a month ago, cock fighting was pretty prevalent in Bali but the government has since banned it. However, they gave us a little demonstration which was quite neat (and they did not let it go long enough to have any of the roosters hurt each other). We did get to see how the roosters try to attack each other (which was jumping up in the air and coming down with its beak or claw) and how the other rooster can carefully dodge and attempt a counter attack. Now some of you may have moral qualms with this practice of cock fighting, honestly until my current hatred for chickens I was against it too. But it was an experience to see it there with the locals and experiences are what makes travelling worthwhile.
Later that morning, we head to Ubud which is about two hours from Ahmed and go to the monkey jungle. This a little park where you can buy bananas and feed them to monkeys. What they failed to tell me is how much these monkeys want the bananas once they see them in your hand. These are some of the funnier occurrences at the monkey jungle. My cousin Danny had a whole bundle of bananas but a monkey had other plans and while she wasn’t looking, the monkey just came up and took the whole bundle out of her hands. This family we ran into was feeding some monkeys. The dad was giving some bananas to a monkey and he told his son to come up next to him. His son was about nine years old and started to approach his father. However, the monkey the father was feeding must have thought the little kid was after its bananas and goes up to the kid and pushed the kid away in an attempt to mark his territory. Finally, I was walking down this path with a wall on one side with monkeys on the top. The monkeys spot my bananas and started to reach for them from the perched position. Then one monkey decided that it really wanted the bananas, so it just jumped on my head. Two other monkeys decided to follow suit, so suddenly I had three monkeys climbing all over me after my bananas (how many times do you get to say that in your life). I give up the bananas but they decide to stay on my and eat them. Eventually I shake them off but somehow I feel taken advantage of by these primates, and they didn’t call me the next day .
It was quite the eventful vacation and hopefully if you have read this far, you were thoroughly entertained by my endeavors.
Congrats to everyone who passed the California bar and as always, I appreciate everyone staying in touch!!!!
Oh yea happy thanksgiving.
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Idonna
non-member comment
Stop Monkeying Around!!
Wow, what a great time you are having!! I am glad you are okay, after your encounter with the chicken!! We missed you during Thanksgiving!! Stay safe, Lots of love, Idonna