Blogs from Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, Asia - page 20

Hi everyone, Well I have been in beautiful Bali for 11 days now. I was lucky to have my good friend Kristin join me for my first week here. We had such a great time together! We stayed in a place called Swasti Eco cottages where we were very well looked after. We ordered many fresh juices and herbal teas and had most of our delicious meals sitting on comfy cushions in the bungalow restaurant and had many swims in our salt water pool to refresh ourselves from the heat. We rode push bikes through rice fields and I was very proud of myself when I rode 9km up hill. (Kristin said it wasn't really a very big hill) but it was in the middle of the day and you could have rung out our t-shirts ... read more

Our flight from Medan to Jogjakarta (aka Yogyakarta, Yogya, or Jogja – the “y” is pronounced like “j”) was eventful for one reason, Durian fruit. It was also a milestone for me as it was my first time South of the Equator! You might wonder why a fruit (Durian) would make a flight eventful – it is because Durian is banned from airplanes in a few countries in Asia. Why? Because Durian fruit smells so awful that describing it is probably an injustice, but I will do my best. Durian smells like all the stench of a 100 pound propane tank compressed into a TicTac sized bottle, then the super potent stench was injected into your nose with the addition of the following: five day old gym socks, vomit, and open sewer. AND THE LOCALS EAT ... read more

Friday March 23, 2012 - Hari Raya Nyepi, the Silence Day, Island Wide The month of March brings us Nyepi - Bali's official day of silence (24hrs). Nyepi marks the first day of the Balinese Saka calendar (1929) and is practiced island-wide where the Balinese dedicate an entire day to introspection and spiritual cleansing, embarking on a new year based on the Balinese lunar calendar. Nyepi is my favorite day of the year. The night before the silence begins, there is an island wide parade of paper mache monsters (Ogoh-Ogoh) sent about making a rukus to scare evil spirits off the island, back to where ever they came from. Starting from approximately 6 a.m. on Friday, March 23 and continuing until 6 a.m. the next morning, EVERYONE will stay in their family compounds (or hotels) ... read more

Memories of the last time I was in Bali, December 2001, took me back to Studio Perak to make some jewlery. It is an amazing process and you can walk out of there with some pretty personalized designed pieces.......Ketut was there to start me off in the process of revamping my old belly ring, which I discovered was missing a stone.......soooooo, away we went.......dismantling the old belly ring surgical steel post from the rest of the old design was first......pick a stone, make a bezel, shape a flat piece of silver, solder it all together and voila........well, not quite that easy but something like that.......the pendant was made of silver wire....all cut in circles, pounded together and then soldered together.....seperate pieces of silver cut to fit the back are stamped with tiny little letter and number ... read more

The "Pre-Holiday" holiday philosophy. Many people have laughed and given Scott and I grief about taking a pre-holiday holiday. There is however "method in the madness" as they say. Our big adventure (or endless summer - as we've nicknamed our five month sojourn around North Africa, Middle East and Europe) is not so much a time out as an opportunity to cram as many of our bucket-list travel experiences as we could into one big trip. And believe me...its crammed alright! I think a little R & R might be called for first - after 20 years of work, study and daily commute to Sydney. Where better than our old faithful - BALI. In addition, I need the blogging practice before heading out on our "real holiday". It's been about 18 months since my last travel ... read more