Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Bali - Day 3

Apologies if the following is tough to follow.  I'm having hard time accessing the internet, so literally sending stuff as I can.

OK, so I hit the market today.  It was good fun, although I'm not sure how sanitary it was after I wandered by the live chickens, etc.  I guess its not worse than the Chatuchat market in Bangkok where I saw baby squirrels for sale!  So today I think I am going to wander down by the beach and hopefully find someplace that sells cheap lunch eats!  I'm sure that in Ubud now I'm going to try to hit the non-gourmet spots as they will be a bit more authentic perhaps.  Don't get me wrong, the restaurant here in my little mini-resort is AWESOME, but in some ways it’s a little too western, to "modern balinese".

Tangent: I like how in Australia all the good food is "modern australian" and the only non-modern Australian food that has been able to survive seems to include vegemite and pie floaters.  Apparently "Ancient Australian" food is the worms and grubs that the aboriginals ate, and the "pre-modern" food is british food, which we all agree sucks. 

So anyway, hopefully today I can fetch some old-school balinese eats. 

Fruit Update #1 - Today at the market I picked up some iwan, which is kinda like a cross between a pear and a mango.  It looks like a pear, but the soft white flesh has the texture of a mango.  The taste is tough to explain, but I was really diggin it!  Apparently it is also seasonal, so I got lucky this time.

Fruit Update #2 - Rambutan is in season!  I LOVE RAMBUTAN!  Yay!!!!!

OK, yesterday was pretty boring, although I did SWIM for the first time in like 5 years.  I realized that I reall don't remember how to swim very well!  I sort of floundered around and got tried really quickly…so sad.  So I think that once I'm settled down I will fork out for some swimming lessons, or make friends with people who know how to swim for real.  I'm pretty sure that if I were in a giant oceanliner that hit an iceberg and sank, I would be fooked, as I can probably only tread water for about 2 minutes and then I would keel over and die.  Its odd to see one's own mortality so vividly!  And drowning would suck, FYI.

The straw I'm using to drink my mixed fruit beverage is a literal straw, like a reed.  How cool is that!  I'm so sick of plastic straws anyway!

Coffee - So I went to a coffee factory today and saw them roasting the coffee and grinding it and putting it into little bags.  I couldn't tell if the coffee excursion was a sales pitch, but they didn't seem too focused on getting me to buy coffee (unlike all the jewelry scams in Bangkok and Amsterdam). 

Also here in Lovina I haven't seen any tourists at all (outside of my little hotel).  I think I was the only white-ish person in the whole market today, although admittedly the market trip is probably not everyone's favorite thing to see.  Its fun being a total minority.  Whee!

I'm also amazed that given basically the same set of ingredients indonesian and thai food are so very very different.  My friend Jan explained it once that Thai people love every dish to have two flavors (ie. Sweet and spicy or sweet and sour or sour and spicy, etc.) where Malay and Indonesian cooking goes with either one flavor or every flavor.  Not sure if I agree or not, but an interesting theory.  Maybe I will take a cooking class in Ubud, but I kinda doubt it at this point.

Soon I will start to complain about this grad school decision that I have to make.  Also plan to post my application essays at some point…..

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!

Bali - Day 3

Apologies if the following is tough to follow.  I'm having hard time accessing the internet, so literally sending stuff as I can.

OK, so I hit the market today.  It was good fun, although I'm not sure how sanitary it was after I wandered by the live chickens, etc.  I guess its not worse than the Chatuchat market in Bangkok where I saw baby squirrels for sale!  So today I think I am going to wander down by the beach and hopefully find someplace that sells cheap lunch eats!  I'm sure that in Ubud now I'm going to try to hit the non-gourmet spots as they will be a bit more authentic perhaps.  Don't get me wrong, the restaurant here in my little mini-resort is AWESOME, but in some ways it’s a little too western, to "modern balinese".

Tangent: I like how in Australia all the good food is "modern australian" and the only non-modern Australian food that has been able to survive seems to include vegemite and pie floaters.  Apparently "Ancient Australian" food is the worms and grubs that the aboriginals ate, and the "pre-modern" food is british food, which we all agree sucks. 

So anyway, hopefully today I can fetch some old-school balinese eats. 

Fruit Update #1 - Today at the market I picked up some iwan, which is kinda like a cross between a pear and a mango.  It looks like a pear, but the soft white flesh has the texture of a mango.  The taste is tough to explain, but I was really diggin it!  Apparently it is also seasonal, so I got lucky this time.

Fruit Update #2 - Rambutan is in season!  I LOVE RAMBUTAN!  Yay!!!!!

OK, yesterday was pretty boring, although I did SWIM for the first time in like 5 years.  I realized that I reall don't remember how to swim very well!  I sort of floundered around and got tried really quickly…so sad.  So I think that once I'm settled down I will fork out for some swimming lessons, or make friends with people who know how to swim for real.  I'm pretty sure that if I were in a giant oceanliner that hit an iceberg and sank, I would be fooked, as I can probably only tread water for about 2 minutes and then I would keel over and die.  Its odd to see one's own mortality so vividly!  And drowning would suck, FYI.

The straw I'm using to drink my mixed fruit beverage is a literal straw, like a reed.  How cool is that!  I'm so sick of plastic straws anyway!

Coffee - So I went to a coffee factory today and saw them roasting the coffee and grinding it and putting it into little bags.  I couldn't tell if the coffee excursion was a sales pitch, but they didn't seem too focused on getting me to buy coffee (unlike all the jewelry scams in Bangkok and Amsterdam). 

Also here in Lovina I haven't seen any tourists at all (outside of my little hotel).  I think I was the only white-ish person in the whole market today, although admittedly the market trip is probably not everyone's favorite thing to see.  Its fun being a total minority.  Whee!

I'm also amazed that given basically the same set of ingredients indonesian and thai food are so very very different.  My friend Jan explained it once that Thai people love every dish to have two flavors (ie. Sweet and spicy or sweet and sour or sour and spicy, etc.) where Malay and Indonesian cooking goes with either one flavor or every flavor.  Not sure if I agree or not, but an interesting theory.  Maybe I will take a cooking class in Ubud, but I kinda doubt it at this point.

Soon I will start to complain about this grad school decision that I have to make.  Also plan to post my application essays at some point…..