Bali - Yes, its awesome
OK, I'm in Bali now…got in yesterday after a whole heap of "pain in the arse". Why? Well, couple of reasons that yesterday went pear-shaped, as my australian friends like to say:
1) I arrived at the domestic terminal for Qantas, assuming that made sense since my first flight was to Darwin (Aus) and my second was to Denpasar (indonesia). I assumed I would be on a domestic flight and then change to the international transfers section for the second flight. WRONG. The Darwin flight left from international, which meant once I got to the aiport I needed to schlepp through domestic check-in (including security) and then go to the international transfers section, go through security AGAIN and then RUN to my plane. Going through security twice sucks.
2) Once I got to Darwin, there was no place for me to store my stuff, except if I took the shuttle to darwin central and stored it in the shuttle bus office. Fine. Unfortunately this meant I was really far from the "Crocodylus Park" (Croc park, nuff said) that I wanted to go to! So I got to downtown Darwin and found out that a) it sucks and b) everything was closed! It was a nightmare. Suffice to say, I had some beers and FINALLY some wedges (if you haven't had wedges in Australia you are totally missing out!)
Wedges = seasoned (like curly fries) steak cut french fries served with sour cream and sweet chili sauce (kinda like the duck sauce you dip spring rolls in at bad chinese restaurants)…SO GOOD
So I downed my beer (A$3 thanks to happy hour) or should I say beers, went back to the airport, checked in and flew the f*ck out of darwin
3) Apparently my passport is FULL, meaning there are literally no blank pages to put stuff on. This gave me some grief at the check-in area, but I made it through. However, I'm a bit worried about when I arrive in China. I might have to go to the US embassy in denpasar in order to get new pages! I'm not sure how to deal with this, but once I'm in China I will have tons of time and I can get a new passport easy-peasy
4) I was tired as f*ck last night
But its all worth it now. My hotel in Seminyak was just what I needed: giant bed, nice bathroom, awesome breakfast included. I broke down and took a private car here to my hotel in Lovina, which is AMAZING.
Why so amazing? Well, I was expecting nice…meaning I was expecting the typical balinese villas: my own little bungalow overlooking the water. Also I chose this place specifically because their restaurant was mentioned in so many guidebooks as a must see. However, I was a little bit mislead about the surroundings. This place is actually NOT on the beach, but up in the mountains, which is awesome. I have a spectacular view over rice paddies to the nearby ocean in my own private bungalow which includes its own jacuzzi and outdoor shower (nudity outdoors is always fun, but usually I'm not the nude one), its absolutely beautiful. I'm a happy guy!
So I will post some pictures of my sweet villa. I think tomorrow I'm going to wake up early to go on a tour of the local market with the chef at the hotel restaurant. Yes, I am a market whore. Some of my friends have their own weird hangups that they always love to see when they travel or in their daily life. For example:
- Samida - Glaciers
- Mandy - iMax movies
- Wendy - Mac & Cheese
- Johnny - Anonymous women from Craig's list
- Betsy - Craigslist as well as Odd News (you know, the weird stories about weird stuff)
For me, its all about local markets where you can see all the delicious ingredients. Going to the market in bangkok was sweet, and Cordelia's mom took me to the old Hong Kong Central Market (before bird flu and before it was shut down), and Lisa and I went to the GIANT adelaide market together. Lets not forget the old standbye Reading Terminal Market in Philly either. The only markets I really don't like are full-on wet markets, which smell narsty. Shit, I even like going to the grocery stores back home!
So Bali has so far been relaxed and delightful. I'm not too ambitious about seeing "things" and more into just chilling out, but tomorrow should be good and perhaps I will see more "things" once I get to Ubud.
OH! I almost forgot that I tried two new fruits today that were unexpected:
1) Snakefruit - Kinda weird, like a cross between an apple and an onion in flavor. I can't decide if I liked it yet
2) Yellow passionfruit - SO MUCH better than purple passionfruit! I can't even explain it!
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