Volcanos, temples of stone and monkeeeyyyysss

Today started at a blistering 5:30AM to make the moto trek to Gunung Bator - a volcano with the "very rare" double caldera - to beat the clouds that supposedly (ie never) come. Made the top of the mountain after several sort of wrong turns and beautiful rice fields by about 7 and explored. This volcano has a huge crater with a massive lake and many villages spread throughout - who would live inside a volcano crater is beyond my comprehension, and this is an active volcano. The view was really breathtaking and then Gabe and I had a second breakfast on a cafe on the rim of the volcano - whenever I finally post pictures you will see the view - very nice.

On to Gunung Kawi - a rock temple carved into cliffs surrounded by rice terraces - stunningly beautiful. Like Platoon and Indianna Jones with meandering sweaty tourists dressed in surongs. But the people that run this place have it wired - we had to park a 1/4 mile away and traverse down hundreds of steps into a valley with tourist shops on both sides and screaming vendors - I was suckered into an over priced water as I lost about four gallons of sweat on the walk. Once inside the temple, the place was geourgous.

Back in Ubud we just returned from the Monkey Forest that backs up to our bungalow. This monkeys are MUCH nicer than the Ulu Watu monkeys (the workers even say this) and are not interested in anything except the bag of fruit and bananas I hold. And they were very interested in this bag - so interested a gang chased me and climbed on my head and forced me to run like a little girl and drop my bag of bananas - all to the delight of Japaneese tourists. After that misadventure I learned to hide the bag of fruit and place a banana on top of the head for a baby monkey to climb and fetch - again will post pics of this at some point - and then run when the big pack alpha male starts noticing the food.

Tomorrow renting villa in Seminyak to begin the Halloween weekend and more beaches, sunsets, Bintang and Kuta....

Ubudddddddin' it

Drove the scooters up the hill a couple hours to a town called Ubud today - lots of jungles and rice fields. The ride was long and now hurts to sit down and was a bit like a video game dodging traffic. We (Josh, Gabe and I - Maria is at work at Puri Ulu Watu) found a nice bungalow that overlooks a river, rice fields and the monkey reserves. Might be the best view of any hotel I have ever stayed. The workers mentioned many times not to leave ANYTHING outside or the monkeys will take. Little do they know we are experienced monkey handlers and I will leave a fresh banana to lure a little monkey close so I can hit with my "monkey-behave-stick" as vengance for my shin the other day.....

Tomorrow we awake early to drive the scooters to a volcano peak and then to some ruins that look like an Indiana Jones discovery.

You might have heard of Ubud as there is a movie with Julia Roberts and Penelope Cruz being filmed right now in town called "Eat, Pray, Love" - not my cup of tea but I believe this town will be the mecca for 30+ females that currently own two or more cats and are single an less than one year.

As for pictures to post - will try to grab my friends camera and upload a few tomorrow...

Back to ballin' in Bali

Left the Gilli's about three days ago and spent two nights in Legion and about to spend the second night at Puri Ulu Watu before heading out to Ubud early tomorrow morning.  Swell was supposed to arrived yesterday afternoon hence the stay at Ulu Watu but only a couple feet overhead (which is basically flat over here) but much more comfortable for me (no risk of drowning or impalement from reef).  

I was thinking earlier today that I have not seen more than one hour of clouds the entire time I have been in Bali - amazing that the 10 day forecast reads 88 hi / 78 low and sunny.  The weather man here has an easy job....

The crew here is starting to make Halloween costume plans and organize amongst our new Bali friends and other travelers for a good night out on the 31st - sounds like a beach party in Chaweng (?) is going to be the plan.  I have tentatively decided to be an Australian (Bintang tank top, Bintang short shorts, Bintang flip flops and arm/head bands from the Bounty (the Aussie frat bar in Kuta)).  

The past few days have been mostly surfing, sunsets at Kuh de Tah (best sunset bar on the planet) and a few Bintangs with nice dinners in Seminyak.  Metilda and Theresse, two girls from Sweden on a mutli-year journey, joined our crew for a couple days in Seminyak on their way to Thailand.  

This morning went to the temple at Ulu Watu to play with the local grey haired monkeys and managed to get my sunglasses taken by a little punk monkey who promptly climbed a tree and put the sunglasses on mockingly.  I sliced my shin open on a temple wall in pursuit and then was able to coerce an exchange of multiple banana slices for the glasses.  My buddy Gabe had to play tug-of-war with a different monkey to retrieve a camera bag.

Back in Kuta wandered the streets to purchase a new phone - if anyone reads this blog and would like to send an SMS, shoot it out to this:

+62 8191 610 8498

I leave this last thought as the past two days also were spent nursing a Bali belly - the by product of eating crazy international food.  Some little tape-worm was poking the inside of my stomach with a knife and this did not feel too well but after some traditional Bali medicines, Chinese herbs and good old Pepto, I am back in action today at about 95%....

Nusa in Lembongan and Gilli in Trawangan without my camera and phone

Camera and phone were stolen a couple days ago while surfing Dreamland... Not so dreamy and lost all my pics for the trip but hopefully I can get all the shots from friends I have traveled with along the way...

The past couple days were spent in Nusa Lembongan and now I am in Gilli Trawangan. Both locales are tiny islands off the coast of Bali and Lombok, respectively, but amazingly beautiful in their own right.

Last night in Nusa we happened upon a festival to ward off eveil black spirits that only occurs once every five or so years and is the holiest of all Hindu celebrations. We were walking down an alley looking for a shop to buy a few Bintangs as the whole island closed at about 10PM and literally stumbled upon a dark alley with all the island residents dressed in their ceremony sarongs and sat and watched this event - which cculminated in a possesed holy man being carriend through the alley to the local cemetary followed by some crazy dragons like people wearing a holy mask that was over 1,000 years old...

In Gilli now and about to grab dinner - power is out intermitantly so I must go and will update other adventures tomorrow...

Bintang Bali Billioniare

I think I have been in Bali about nine days and this is the best place on Earth. Perfect waves and everything is cheap cheap cheap. I stayed the first three nights at Puri Ulu Watu and then to Kuta for about five days and then back here - night number two at Puri... The hotel sits on top of a hill behind Ulu Watu - which means "evil water" in Indonesian - and the waves hurts. Big waves and big barrels with sneaker sets that beat you up if you are not paying attention.

When arrived to Puri there was a crew staying that were friends with the owner Steve. It was what can be best described as a luxury frat house above world class waves. I lucked out and had immediate friends to surf with and better yet go to town and carouse around with. Town meaning Kuta which is more or less Cabo but cheaper and better. The waves have not been less than a couple feet overhead the entire time and has been upwards of double overhead.

I bought a board from one of Steve's friends in town and after finding fins, booties and a leash, I am set up. The scooters that we rent all have surf racks so we can cruise around the island looking for waves.

Today I surfed Impossibles and Dreamland in perfect conditions - absolutely amazing waves, except for getting pounded by the occasional sneaker sets. When I say pounded I mean DRILLED - like sitting in a washing machine on high.

I have met a lot of people that live in Bali but have been traveling around with Josh and Maria - Josh runs an organic restaurant and eco-farm in Costa Rica and Maria is the new manager of Puri with a luck meeting from the old manager when they checked in. Gabe is traveling with us now to - he works on the Trilogy boats in Maui.

The first night in Bali I was pretty beat from traveling so had a massage and went to bed. Day two surfed Ulu Watu on a borrowed board - more like floated and tried not to drown and night two was - wow - insane. But the walk down the trail to the beach brought us face to face with "King Monkey" - the alpha male of the monkey crew here at Puri. We already stole Josh's dorian and was sitting in the middle of the trail eating it with a couple buddies and was not wanting to let us pass. We had to throw rocks, hit with sticks and finally knock with a surfboard and then six grown men ran for their lives down the trail to get away from the King. Steve said that was the worst he has encountered from the King and will shortly be getting a BB gun to teach him a lesson. Not much a lesson as the next morning he stole someones watch and threw it off a cliff after chased just to spite us. We went out that night in Kuta and more or less burnt the town down.

After a mellow third night going to the Ulu Watu temple for a going away blessing for Enrique, I checked into Kuta and met up with part of the Puri crew for their last night in Bali. Wow again. Randomly two of the crew were from LA and one works at Chaya right around the corner from my place in Venice. Kuta lives up to it's reputation as a train wreck.

Kuta has a really fun beach break right in town and surfed that a couple times and up the coast at Caweng (?) where I got a nice little cut on my toes.

More good luck came my way when through a friend we came across a three bedroom villa with a pool in Seminyak (the Beverly Hills or Palisades of this side of the island) for $55 a night. Split three ways we were living in luxury. One great thing about Bali is one can eat at the finest places on the island for less than $15 a meal (with drinks) - most of the time less than $10. This would be the equivalent of a many course meal and many drinks at Sushi Roku or something fancier than Houstons for those at home. Seminyak and Kuta brought too many stories for this blog but good fun times were had. With the new swell arriving yesterday we came back to Puri for more waves and relaxation and less Kuta.

Last night surfed a break called Secrets and was punished by a huge sneaker set that brought all our crew except myself and Josh to the beach. I was a little freaked and after a couple more sets paddled about as fast as I have ever paddled into shore (which wasn't really a shore but a cliff with a tiny ledge to get out of the water. I lucked out and made it safely in and was greeted by a family of about 30 monkeys sitting on the giant boulder that guarded the walk back to Puri. I wish I had my camera as it was some scene.

My plans are to stay in Bali until about the 10th or 14th - I think my Visa runs out the 10th but I might stay a couple extra days. The next couple days will travel to more smaller islands offshore and to a town called Ubud.

Internet is not that common so not as many updates and I have been in the water too much to type....

Kuala Lumpor'in

Just got into the Big KL and have learned three things: lots of Muslims (listening to the evening prayers being blasted from some mosque nearby), lots and lots of traffic and all people riding scooters wear their jackets on backwards.

Anton picked me up from the airport and we prompty got lost in the traffic of KL for the next 1.5 hours. The airport is 50 KMs from KL and neither of us speak the language to understand where to go - but his GPS got us to his flat.

Heading to those twin towers and dinner right now - Anton is deathly scared of heights so this should be fun.

Tomorrow - BALI!!

Full Moon Pary, ferries, Koh Phi Phi and what next...

Wow, the Full Moon Party - insane is the only word to describe. 10,000+ people going crazy all day and all night - all with neon body paint.

After the party had to sleep in a little the next day and headed to the ferry in the evening to what I thought was my next destination - Railey Beach. The really had no expectations for the overnight ferry but I have seen them in Europe and they all looked large, safe, nice and clean. Even though I didn't have those expectations, I did think I would see a boat waiting that was sea worthy - no such luck. Everyone in my taxi's expression was the same when we pullled up - mouths dropped open in disbelief. It was a pretty small boat, maybe 100 feet and inside had about 5'6" clearance for an entire open room with matteresses on the floor. Someone I lucked out and happened upon a raised bed that turned into a perfect card table for my crew - until the lights went out to blackness for the next 7 hours.

Arrived in Surat Thani and was ushered onto a large nice bus to the bus station for the 4 hour drive to Krabi.

Let's first preface this part of the story with saying that every Thai person from Koh Pha Ngan told me the next three weeks would be filled with sun and no rain, even in Railey (the other side of the peninsula).

At the bus station I was waiting for the VIP bus and calling parents to let them know all was good and I was in BFE waiting for one hour flighting of skeeters with DEET. Then the VIP bus rolls up - a mini-wagon! Awesome - four hour drive with ten people in a mini-wagon. I strategized and delayed my walk over to last and hoped in shotgun. Slept and awoke in Krabi to nothing but RAIN - and it had been raining for two days.

Changed plans to head to Koh Phi Phi and the rain pretty much followed on and off the last two days (Tuesday and today)... So with this, I am sick of rain and headed to Kuala Lumpur to visit my Russian friend Anton for a day and then off to Bali for some real SUN and beaches and hopefully good waves (although the surf report is calling for something like 8-12 feet when I arrive).

Koh Phi Phi is beatiful but has a wierd underlife of drifter Brits hanging around that earn a living passing out flyers to bars and clubs - a lot like the homeless punks in Venice. Went on a snorkeling tour of the island and surrounds today and hiked to the viewpoint peak - which is a story unto itself. I start my hike in the blazing sun getting a mango shake, talking to a Thai tattoo artist with a British accent that assures me NO RAIN TODAY MAN - and even gets up to look around in the sky directly above that is blue. I notice the behemoth of a frontal system rolling in but figures he knows best. And everyone on the island that is Thai agrees, no rain!

Make the top of the viewpoint less than 30 seconds before the monsoon system of the day swings in with pouring rain, winds and thunder - AWESOME. Stuck on a mountain for the next 30 minutes eating random Chineese imported candy.

The snorkel trip featured monkey island which was entertaining to watch people feed crazed monkeys and then run into the water for safety with a monkey in hot pursuit, then went around to some pretty good snorkeling on huge rock drop-offs to the abyss and ended at "the beach" where the movie "The Beach" was filmed.

That is about it for me and Thailand - hanging in the KL tomorrow to see some tall twin buildings with a little walkway between them and then onto Indo for a barrel fest.....

holy beach party

Night one in Ko Pha Ngan featured a beach party the likes of which I have never witnessed. Wow.... And Sunday is the Full Moon Party.....

Tomorrow going to a National Park with a bunch of little islands for a little snorkeling and kayaking - will update activities after...

ko samui, ko tao and now ko phan nang...

Okay okay I lag at updating this... Just got into Ko Phan Nang and trying to find a couple friends from Ko Samui. Full Moon Party is in a couple days and I hear there was a typhoon or something like this near Tawaiin so expecting poor weather for the next couple days. I hear this from a taxi driver and he said tsunami but I think what he meant was typhoon...

This place is crawling with Western tourists in anticipation of the party - all the hotel room are booked and I finally got a spot at the Roach Motel after stopping at several other spots. Hoping to move locale tomorrow.

Ko Samui was nice - stayed there a couple days and found a really nice, quiet bungalow on the beach. Ko Tao was incredible. Both spots ended up hanging with Europeans or Isrealis as there are no Americans to be found. I even have a new French friend. We are the United Nations.

We snorkeling on Ko Tao and found a nice jellyfish to follow for about ten minutes. Kind of like following a snail in a garden. Pointed it to a Japaneese man who promptly was nearly stung. Visited Lotus Bar last night - incredible.

Will update more details later - maybe....