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Published: April 30th 2008
Indonesia is amazing....by far my favourite place in all of Asia so far. It's absolutely beautiful. There are amazing sunsets, gorgeous colours, both in the ocean and on land (I've never seen such turquoise water in my life) and the people are unbeatable. They are even friendlier than in Thailand and just want to please you. One guy at a bar scratched a bug bite on my foot for me and told me "we are here to service you in any way you need." He told us it was ok to drink the mushroom shakes because he is there to take care of tourists who trip out. I said what if I jump into the ocean (because the bar is right on the water) and he said I will jump in with you!! He then asked how long I would be staying and I said I don't know a few days maybe and he said oh that makes me happy, good for me!!! He had this huge smile on his face, like he really meant it! When they smile it just lights up their whole face, like they don't have a care in the world. Their whole world is on this
tiny island and they wouldn't ask for anything more. I am on a small island called Trawangan, which is one of 3 of the Gilli islands, just west of Bali. You can walk around the whole thing in about 2 hours or take a horse and buggy ride around it. That's the only form of transportation. It's so small that one day at the beach a local asked me where i was staying and i told him just a few minutes walk down the road. there's just one road that goes along the beach. He referred to where we're staying as "central" and said "now were in the suburbs!" It was no more than a 10 minute walk! I asked him what he did on the island for money, cuz he was just hangin out and not working and he said he doesn't work, he survives on $1 a day! A lot of the locals we met were so friendly and it turned out a lot of them date tourists and eventually leave to go live with them. so maybe that's why the guys were so friendly, they were looking for a foreign wife! I have to admit though, that
out of all the Asians I've seen (and I've now been to 10 Asian countries) they're the best looking. They're not just better looking than other Asians, I've actually seen some that I found good looking!!! That kinda surprised me! (no offense to any Asians reading this, I'm sure some people find you attractive, everyone's different!!!)
on Trawangan, there's a guy doing a world record dive to raise money for a school on the island. He stayed 6 metres deep for 100 hours and raised enough money to fund what they expect to become the best school in Indonesia. Before, the kids couldn't all afford school uniforms and books and now they'll have a free education until the end of high school. It's pretty amazing. To support it, a couple guys were doing 100 hours of drinking. They had sponsors and a strict schedule of how much alcohol they had to drink and how many hours of sleep they were allowed! It was pretty funny.
One day I was walking to my room to get something and I just wanted to get there already, so I was walking kinda fast..well, at my normal Montreal pace. But for the
island I was basically running, I had to weave in and out of people because everyone just sort of strolls along there. One guy said to me "what's the rush? why are you running?" Another guy said "wow, slow down." And then later that night, another local approached me and said "I saw you walking so fast today, what was the rush!!!!"
We spent one day on a boat trip, snorkeling around the 3 Gilli islands, where we saw florescent fish and a blue starfish chilling on the reef. At one point, I was about 2 feet from a giant turtle. The colours of the fish and water are like nothing I've seen before. It's remarkable. Almost like a rich turquoise...it's hard to describe.
The next island we went to was Lombok, where the people were a little more aggressive. Unfortunately everyone there was just interested in selling us something. One kid actually came up to us on the beach and said "please I just want to practice my English, I'm not trying to sell you anything. But I know that's what all tourists think!" And we said because everyone else on the is island just wants our business!
One great thing was the amazing guest house we stayed in, where our bathroom was actually outside our room, but attached. So the roof extended over the bathroom just enough that if it rained we wouldn't get wet. And there were plants all over it, so it really felt like you were showering outside!
In Bali (which was actually before Gilli, but whatever!) we went to a place inland called Ubud. By far my favourite place in the country. It had an amazing vibe. Everyone was a painter so art was being sold everywhere, in galleries, in the markets, even in restaurants! We met 2 locals who offered to drive us around on their mopeds for 2 days. They were artists and had free time. It's fun just hopping on and off the bikes, not having to look for parking or worrying about locking the car! They showed us local villages and took us to where one of them lived, which was a coop for painters. About 200 of them live together and paint all day. 50 % of the sale of any of their paintings goes to the coop but they live and eat there for free. And
they all teach each other how to paint. One guy will go to school and come back and teach the younger kids what he learnt. It's pretty amazing. And the paintings were beautiful. We also visited the healer woman and the medicine man from the book "Eat, Pray, Love." The guys knew exactly who the medicine man was and where he lived...he really is the medicine man for the village! The Balinese healer woman looked at me and immediately told me I have stomach problems and eat too much sugar! We spent 4 hours in her shop getting exfoliated and massaged and served the first vegetarian meal I actually enjoyed! The medicine man did a palm reading, which I don't really believe in, especially since he told Kim and I pretty similar things. He said things like, I will have 3 children and live to 100. But it was a cool experience.
The other area we went to on Bali was called Kuta beach, the tourist are. It was filled with surfers and surf shops and 2 many McDonalds restaurants! It was a great party place tho!
From Indonesia we flew to Cambodia....the only country in South East
Asia I hadn't been to! I missed it last year and have waited since I got home to get back to it and I'm so happy I did. It's a magical place. We started off in Siem Reap, which is the site of the Angkor temples. So we of course visited Angkor Wat and a couple other temples in the area. They are amazing...I've never seen any as big.....and spending so much time in Asia, I've seen plenty of temples!! The only drawback was the heat, it was so hot the first day got dehydrated and threw up! But I learnt for the next day and wore a hat and drank enough water to stay hydrated. We found a great little street with all different restaurants, including Mexican and Italian food and hung out there quite a lot. It's amazing how much they cater to tourists in such a poor country. Although it wasn't as obvious how horrible the living conditions really are here until we got to the capital city, Phnom Penn. Even though its a big city, with lots of buildings and cars everywhere, there are so many poor, homeless people. One night we were eating dinner at
a table just outside the restaurant on the sidewalk. Right next to us were 5 kids who asked us if we could spare any food. We found out from the waiter that they are homeless kids who sleep around the block with their families. So we ordered them dinner and they were so excited they hugged us one by one. The amazing thing is that although they were poor and didn't know where their next meal was coming from, they were deliriously happy. Before they knew we had ordered them food, they had fun playing with my camera and jumping around on the street. Just as happy as any other kids. I noticed the same thing when we visited an orphanage. The kids slept on the floor, and washed their clothes in the sink, but played together with their few toys and danced around as if they had no cares in the world. As happy as they seemed, I was sad to find out that they got so little funding that they only got to go to school on the days when they had extra money....which they mostly got from tourists. I'm hoping to one day come back here and
volunteer at the orphanage.
We spent another day here, visiting the killing fields and a museum which at the time of the genocide in the 70s was used as a prison and torture chamber. I already knew a bit about the genocide, but the saddest part was seeing that not only did the Khmer Rouge kill millions of people, they went to such extremes to torture them first.
On a happier note....my last day here I got a great $6 massage by a blind woman! And sadly, its coming to the end of my time in Asia. I can't believe I'm finally leaving and don't know when I'll be back. I think I've now traveled to 10 Asian countries and every time I visit a new one I find out about 1 more missed! Guess I gotta leave something for next time! Maybe when I buy my beach house in Indonesia I'll get to travel some more!!!
You have to be careful what you wish for though...I wasn't ready to leave Asia when it came time to fly to New Zealand and the universe spoke! I left for New Zealand from Cambodia and had a layover in Bangkok. I
had 2 separate flights with 2 airlines and the first one was so delayed that I didn't make it to the second one. So I got stuck staying in Bangkok for 3 days until the next flight out. It's funny to say I got stuck here, because that's how I felt about it at first. But then I realized, I'm in Thailand....this is exactly what I wanted! So today, to take advantage of being here, I got another great massage! I can't resist them knowing that they're 10 times the price back home!
I'm supposed to leave tomorrow....I think I'm actually ready now! I'm looking forward to exploring a new continent. Stay tuned for stories of my kiwi adventures!
I'm gonna leave you with some crazy things you just don't see in Canada: 5 people on one motorbike, a naked grown man walking in the streets of a big city, 5 different kinds of transport using a bike and a carriage, 100 people crammed onto the back of a truck, people bathing in the river....and so many more i cant think of right now!
Peace
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debra
non-member comment
wow
Your pics are gorgeous. It is is nice to get a glimpse of you. Thankfully I did not learn much more than I knew already. Hope you got to New Zealand. Don/t forget to look up Elayne/s daughter. I love you. I miss you Mom