When you are on a beach, there is nothing but sunshine, blue skies and cool ocean waves surrounding you... what would you do? Soak it in? Us too!!! Since the last blog we didn't really do much other than eat, sunbathe and sleep so there isn't a whole lot to write about. One thing, or person I guess, that definitely makes it into this blog is Fernando, our new Brazilian friend!! He is this energetic friendly guy who loves to surf, loves his wife, loves playing the ukelele, loves travelling and all around loves life!! It was awesome just sitting around shooting the shit with him when he wasn't out in the waves. He speaks four languages and has been to some absolutely amazing places. We were so happy to have met him. Plus he is ... read more

Our first night in Kuta consisted of steps bars, “happy hours” every hour and a sketched portrait of Tyler. We got to Kuta around 11:00am Sunday, settled in at a pretty sweet hotel with an infinity pool and air conditioning for $15/night. Huge splurge for the birthday boy who insists on celebrating his birthday for a week. Immediately we found food (pizza, yumm) and made it to the beach. We laid in the sun right by those beautiful waves for hours. It was fantastic! After the beach, we came back to change and admire our new bronze glow before heading out for a fun night. The main street to get drinks is Jalan Legian and we found two for one drinks at a place with wifi so decided to hang out there for a couple hours ... read more

Bali is already very different from Java. Java is mainly Muslim while Bali is mostly Hindu. As soon as we got off the ferry we could feel that it is much less conservative. Almost every single house has it's own temple/shrine and there are “offerings” all over the place. People will put the “offerings” at the end of their driveway, on their motorcycles, in front of their shops etc. Many people have tattoo's, some actually wear shorts, but there are also a lot of traditionally dressed Balinese people around. The older people are generally the ones to wear the traditional clothing (consisting batik sarongs; the women sometimes have long lace tops on with belts wrapped around their hips, the men usually have a traditional headdress that we unfortunately don't know the proper word for) but it ... read more

From Yogyakarta we took a bus to Pacitan. Pacitan is a fairly small city near the coast of the Java Sea. Our original plan was to stay at a place called Happy Bay Beach Bungalows. From what we had read it was a great little guesthouse that had bungalows you could stay in on the beach. When we got there, it turned out it was closed down. Our bus driver was nice enough to take us to another place he knew nearby. It looked nice enough but was full (of surfers). The owner of the surfshop guesthouse suggested a couple of other places to our bus driver and he was able to find one of them not too far away and even made sure they had a room available before he left. Hotel Rajiwali was our ... read more

Our first stop in Indonesia is Yogyakarta, once we got off the plane we decided to take the 1a public bus to our guesthouse, Bladok Losmen on Sasrowijayan just off of Malioboro. It seemed easy enough and definitely cheaper than taking a taxi! However, it was really hot carrying our backpack's and the bus was packed to the brim. We missed our stop by about 1.5km which meant we had to fight our way back up the street of Malioboro; one side is mostly food stalls (or warung) and the other side is mostly shops that sell everything from bracelets and watches to handcrafted wood art and batik clothing. It seems this is not only a great place for backpackers and travellers but also a hot spot for Indonesian vacations so the streets are always packed. ... read more