Through Doha to Jakarta...on to Singapore and Bali.......

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Notes from Maria and Matt are scattered:

May 7 - Beginning of the trip (for Matt):

First time flying Qatar Airways - 777-300s on all 4 legs.

Arrived to Doha on May 8 for the night. I took a quick 4 hour night tour of Doha. It’s the freshest, newest city I’ve ever seen. Nothing is more than 15 years old. With the same breath, the city seems to lack in culture and is overwhelmed with the influence of new money. There are 3 classes of people and it’s very apparent: 1) rich natives, 2) skilled workers, 3) unskilled workers. See pictures.

Katara, Cultural Village

The Corniche

Villagio

Islamic Culture Center

May 9 - Jakarta

Taxis are very cheap here. It all may change with the looming change in government subsidies, but a cost of a ride is nothing compared to DC.

We went for a quick drink at Yellow Fin by Senopati (street name).

Jakarta is not too much for walking - even though there are some nice neighborhoods and quaint streets in Jakarta, walking is easily the first thing not to do. If you venture out, you probably end up walking on the road with cars and motorcycles zipping by you. Where side walks exist, they can start on one side of the road and continue on the other. Also, beware plants and trees planted nicely in the middle. No handholding for honeymooning couples. See pictures.

A little juice or coffee or tea.....with my sugar. It seems you can't have too much sugar in here. Coffee, juice, mockstails, tea would be served with sugar unless you specifically request not to. Surprising how they don't have more heart attacks and diabetes, or stay fit. Is the answer spicy food?!?

May 10 - still in Jakarta

Maria took me to Anomali - really awesome little coffee place. Excellent western/indonesian fusion. Good place to come with your laptop and work for a few hours.

We then headed to the Geoff Institute for a Jakarta film festival. Saw a movie about one mega talented Italian musician.

As we were hungry, we went to a Pacific Place mall (one of those luxury malls with 6K leather jackets – Holy smokes!). We went there to eat at THE world's famous dumpling restaurant – Dim Sum. I didn't know much about this place, but dumplings were great.

Grocery store visit was also pretty cool. Every time I (Matt) go to a new country, I like to visit a grocery store. It’s very telling. They have crazy tropical fruits in Jakarta you just don’t see anywhere else. Just to name a few: passion fruit, lychees, snake fruit, little baby bananas, dragon fruit. Snake fruit skin is textured like snake skin and has a pine cone smell/feel. The inside looks like a giant garlic clove, taste like a wood flavored apple. It’s not very sweet at all and has a hint of sour like a green apple. See pictures.

At the end, we made dinner at home.

May 11-12 - Singapore for the weekend

Airport to Singapore – (see picture)

We started the weekend in Singapore with our breakfast/lunch at Marriott (by Orchard street). Great outdoor patio seating. See pictures where Maria learns aperture, ISO and shutter speed.

We then took a bus to Sentosa island. Here we are..... at a casino and a huge universal studio complex. We didn't quite expect to see the american entertainment industry to function as well as it did there. This a tourist must see with Universal Studios, Casino, great restaurants, a beach, and really cool amusements for all ages. Next time I go back I will try the simulating sky diving. We did the zip line from the top of a hill all the way onto the beach. Great thrill, but ended too quickly. See pictures.

Singapore has a massive shopping scene (it seems that you can't avoid it, though we did! ), malls are mazes – don’t get lost.

The day ended at the Hyatt hotel with an expensive mediocre dinner.

.............Another day and another breakfast at Marriott.....It was so nice we came back twice. Careful because OJ is $14.

The second day started with our visit to Little India - the highest density of Indians I've ever seen. See pictures.

Then we visited Clarke Quay area. It is amazing...we were there during the day, but during the night it must be even better. It is a great romantic spot!

Rushed to the hotel and on to a little adventure (for Matt) - flight simulator.... Awesome!!. I took off from Reagan International and then landed again. Also did the same with Hong Kong which has reportedly one of the most difficult landings in the world. Flight controls, look feel, seating, is just like a Boeing 737 real cockpit.

We couldn't miss Skywalk – it has spectacular views of Singapore, wish we had time for dinner or at least a drink. See pictures. This is must see!

May 13 – Start of the work week in Jakarta

Matt worked all day and planned our Bali trip…Relaxed at the rooftop pool.

Went out for dinner drinks at Potato Head. Good vibe.

May 14 – Tuesday in Jakarta

I (Matt) went to a bank museum which was closed. Well, there is always an Old Town. I got a random puppet tour from an English/history teacher. I met him because his kids had an assignment to speak English with a tourist and they spotted me. How did they know I wasn’t Indonesian? During my two weeks of Asia, I’ve yet to meet a local close to my height.

On my way back, 'finally' experienced Jakarta traffic. It took me 2 hours to travel 5 miles. I traveled for 2 miles, walked for half a mile, took a taxi for another mile then walked another mile or so. Absolutely incredibly painful.

Dinner at Healthy Choice in the Pacific Place Mall where I accidentally ate a red pepper – I promptly drank an entire bottle of ?soy/rice? milk to soften the sting.

May 15 - Ready for the long weekend!

I (Matt) visited the largest Mosque in Indonesia – 5 times a day from any part of Jakarta you’ll hear the Muslim call for prayer. There is no mistake - this is a Muslim country. The tolerance, however, is very high and abidance to rules is open to liberal interpretation. I received a private tour of the mosque where they give access to visitors......unlike any other mosque. I was able to see the entire area of prayer for both men and women. See pictures. I planned it so that after the tour of the mosque I would see the actual person who calls to prayer (the muathin) and then the entire prayer.

In the evening, we went to Turquaz – Probably better than Turkish restaurants in Turkey and the hummus is great. BYOB.

May 16 - Finally, we are in Bali!

On arrival, we headed to Anika Tailor. This was my (Matt) first experience in having something made specifically for me. We went because of the reviews on Trip Advisor, which were mostly positive with some mixed/negative reviews. I also realized the important role of the customer given he/she is basically the designer. You also have to understand expectations given the existing materials and examples of other work by the tailor. I had a sports coat and leather jacket made. The sports coat came out just like I asked and I’d say it was comparable to a medium grade Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein….It was not a Zegna, Canoli, Hugo Boss quality. The material, stitching and just overall feel was holding it back. Leather jacket was not completed, so it’s in Limbo. Maybe it will be completed and the transaction will be finished over email and phone calls.

May 16, First stop - Ubud

Ubud seems like this city has everything. Art scene, amazing views, beautiful temples, quaint steers for strolling, grand hotel complexes, and relaxing spa treatments. That's why 1.5 days in ubud seemed very short. For dinner, we went to Bebek Bengil. The place was huge and had different sections outside. It also had a great rice field view. Maria had 2 dinner place with their Crispy Duck Special - it was THAT good) After dinner, we went to see the Legong dance in Ubud Palance dance performance. It is bright and dance style is intricate. As dancers we certainly appreciated the coordination that needs to happen between those moving eyes, arms and fingers, head and shoulders and legs. Believe it or not, they seem to have dance offs among Indonesian dancers of legong. But how do you even begin to judge it, especially because the dance had so much emotion. If Matt was a judge he'd pick the prettiest girl ..... However funnily enough, the best dancer in our view was a man. See pictures.

May 17 - Wish we could stay longer in Ubud!

We spent half day at a cooking class at Casa Luna cooking school. Great learning experience. We had lunch there too. Very tasty! Chicken satay, peanut sauce, rice with vegetables, salad, dessert - everything (including cooking coconut oil) is cooked by hand! Should make it at home. See pictures.

Ibu oka is another famous restaurant in Ubud. Local people say that this place runs out of their special pork (cooked by hand over 5 some hours) by 3-4 pm on a typical day. We don’t know whether it is true, but the restaurant has 3 locations in Ubud and all of them seemed to be busy. Service is slow, you may wait for a while to get served. Because we were in a hurry, Maria requested a take away right - and we were out of there in 10 minutes with our pork special. It was our second lunch for the day!

Maya Ubud resort spa - amazing! To begin with, Maya Ubud resort has an idyllic setting. It is very green, surrounded by patches of tropical forest, set by the creek, and lots of open spaces and viewpoints. We wanted to stay there right away. The reason why we went there was because they have outdoor spa facilities, so we booked ourselves for 2 facials. We were in two separate semi-private villas outside along a creek. When you finally relax and calmed down during your spa treatment, you finally realize just how noisy a forest can be.

Rice Paddies - great place to take pictures. Matt really enjoyed taking pictures of people passing by. Every single one of them smiled!'

Neka art museum - The musuem was closed when we arrived, but they opened it just for us, so it was a private viewing - only $10.

Casa Luna dinner – Casa Luna has a cooking school and a restaurant. We recommend both!

That night we went to Seminyak. Getting one person to be your driver for the day is reasobably affordable and VERY convenient.

May 18 – Hitting the beach in Seminyak, Bali

We stayed at the Seminyak Beach and resort spa hotel. Great hotel with an infinity pool right on the beach. That's how we spent all day! Finally – one day of real vacation.

May 19 – Day trip from Seminyak

We took a day trip to see a system of rice fields in Jatiluwih.This place was nominated for designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site. It has conntoured rice terraces irrigated by a communal water system developed by Balinese farmers.

Monkey forest & bats – what a combination right? I held a bat, but I guess I made it nervous because it peed on me(matt)! What the heck?

May 20 – Last day

We hit the beach in the morning and then headed back to Anika Taylor – Sports coat and skirt (for Maria) look good. Now time to go back to Jakarta.

May 21 – Jakarta

Matt headed to an Ambassador Mall.....this is where you can find all kinds of DVDs - each costs $.70 and software is almost free. Will he make it through customs?

May 22 – Jakarta - Doha - DC

Longest day ever! 24 Hours + 13 hours of time zones = 37 Hours. 1 hour to airport, 2 hour wait, 9 hour flight, 5 hour layover, 13 hour flight, 1 hour customs, 1.5 hour home.

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