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Published: October 10th 2008
It's official, Jub and Anna are on the loose!
We touched down in Indonesia Tuesday morning, 25 hours after lift-off in Seattle. Our flights were thankfully uneventful, owing in no small part to the Lucky Golden Rat that we paid respects to during our layover in Taiwan (see picture). The only downers with the flight occurred when Jub realized that, although he had hyped the fact that we were flying a double-decker 747 with a bar on the second level to everyone we know (as well as a few we don't), our plane was, alas, a mere single-decker 737. The other bit of bad news came when we realized that, because we were crossing the international date line, we lost most of an entire day - October 7, 2008 will thus be known as the two-hour day, the entirety of which was spent watching Kit Kittredge with Chinese subtitles on a 10 by 10 inch screen waiting for the Tylenol PM and vodka to kick in. Since Anna was asleep before takeoff, she didn't get to savor even those joys.
To ease into our trip, we elected to stay in the heart of Bali, Indonesia for the first 5
Our to do list
All crossed off, at last. days. The area we're in is known as Seminyak. Our hotel is great with lush grounds and a pool, and is 100 feet from the beach, which is white and pristine and sun-drenched and the waves come in steady sets that are great for both surfing and admiring---but, suffice to say, we are in the belly of the beast. For example, there is a bungee tower 5 hotels down from ours. Between the bungee tower and our place is an Australian resort catering exclusively to 18-35 year olds. The hotel is at the end of a road lined with clubs that don't even open until midnight, that also has not one but two T-shirt stores that are locked in competition for the most screen-printed sexual innuendoes per square foot.
That being said, we are having a relaxing, recharging time. The same appears to be true of the many smiley and friendly Dutch, German, French, Japanese, Chinese and Australian tourists we have come across in the last three days.
We have generally been hitting the beach and pool in the mornings and evenings and escaping to our hotel's little shaded courtyard during the intense heat of the early afternoon.
Heading to the Airport.
(Slightly distressed by amount of baggage) We've also been beating the heat by hitting up one of the half-dozen massage places clustered along the main drag. Yesterday we had hour Thai massages, today hour foot messages/pedicures - both times at $4 a pop. Jub caused a bit of a stir at the shop today, though, when he broke out his size 13 feet. Literally every woman in the place looked over, staring at his feet, and a collective round of gasps and giggles went up, followed by a lot of chatter in Indonesian. Things settled down for a few minutes until the woman got after Jub's toenails with the clippers and had to switch to a two-handed technique and employ all sorts of leverage tricks before making any headway. That garnered some serious additional giggling and commentary throughout the shop, which, either unfortunately or mercifully, we could not make out.
Yesterday we also had dinner and drinks on the beach up the street from our hotel. Anna took some obligatory pictures of the sunset, as well some shots of the many, many Bali beach dogs - both at play, and hanging out in the holes that they spend a considerable part of the day perfecting.
Have a Safe Trip!
Here is a 7 foot rat to show you how much we mean it. Taipei Airport. Other things we've seen this week: Hindu Temples filled with monkeys, lizards in our bathroom, obese sunburned people in g-strings (x2), surfers eating it, entire Japanese families out of their minds on white wine, nervous Americans on cell phones with their brokers, the unchecked Hello Kitty-ification of the Taipei airport, and bikini tops being worn over white t-shirts (at breakfast, not on the beach).
Two more days in Seminyak before we head up in the hills of Ubud. Stay tuned.
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Kaari
non-member comment
Mouth Watering
You're only what.... six days in? Already your experiences look/sound DELICIOUS. I'm so excited to hear and see more about of your adventure and continue to live vicariously through the two of you. Don't pet the dogs, Jub -- OR the monkeys. =) Love you, Kwa