don’t call me a backpacker…

I opted for a “fan room” in a mid-range place ($35/night) for my stay in Kuta, over a low budget surfer type place with nasty bathrooms (~$20/night.) The grounds are absolutely beautiful, it’s quiet and away from the bars, free breakfast, the pool is sweet, the staff great, poolside watered down cocktails $3, poolside massages $10. My first night here after travel from Hong Kong, despite how hot it is, I slept 12 hours! that was good.

Every morning, a man all dressed in white walks around with a tray of “offerings”, placing them at entrances and statues, as well as burning incense. This is done ALL OVER Bali. EVERY morning someone makes the little baskets out of palm leaf, flowers, food, other things as has been done for thousands of years.

Every night there is a little trio of musicians playing balinese bamboo xylophones and flute music in my open air hotel lobby.

Does it get any better than this?

Kuta – the beach is is fantastic. The rest of it sucks. flat out. I’m actually thinking about cancelling my last night I had reserved here. I really did not expect the cheese factor to be a 10 here, but sadly it is. Too many Australian meatheads and surfers have turned it into a Cabo-like disco thumping strip that is so unlike the rest of the country. Fortunately from what I read it is mostly confined to this area. (I will save my philosophising (oops edit) and thoughts on the bombings for later after some more experiences here.)

But the upside here is everything is catered to you and just a ride out of town to see more of Bali. And there is NO SHORTAGE of “transport” dudes.

Day 1 – went to the beach, walked around a lot, got absolutely ROASTED on my shoulders by the sun, so I can join the throngs of other white and chinese people with burns. Fortunately it’s mostly raining now so that’s keeping me out of the sun.

The Cremation – This was something I really wanted to see, and I really didn’t know how I was going to do it. But there it was – the simple photocopied brochure at my hotel, stating that dates you could see one were Dec 30 and Jan 1. Sign me up!

Cremations are one of the bigger ceremonies in Bali culture. (I should probably mention Bali is mostly Hindu if you don’t know that… but a bit more unique than Indian Hindu) The tour bus picked me up last and I joined 6 various Euro’s, including the 50-something German couple that sat right next to me on the plane over here, haha. Our guide explained the whole ceremony on the way there, which I had read some of already. I knew I would get to see my first live authentic gamelan. She also said, “this is not a sad ceremony, it’s happy celebration because they will be reincarnated. There is no crying.”

Well lemme tell you, once the gamelan started playing full bore, and the ladies were singing (something entirely different) over it, and they were preparing the body, I guess that made me the only one fighting back tears. It was so intense. Unforgettable. But just another day in Bali life for them.

One interesting note is if a family doesn’t have money yet for a cremation, they will bury the body up to several years until they can afford it. This man had just died 4 days before and he was 80 years old. The procession starts out at the families house and they load the coffin onto this elaborate coffin tower. The gamelan plays while everyone gathers. Traffic is stopped, and the procession starts to the cremation grounds. I’d guess we had 200 people walking. Once there, the coffin is take off and put onto a bamboo sarcophogus, and the body is taken out and prepared for it’s next journey. Yes I saw the body, no I didn’t take pictures of it, unlike my Russian counterpart who was sticking his video camera up over the coffin. After this happens, the priest comes later to continue the ceremony with the family, but apparently it goes on for hours and we were whisked away. My photo gallery will walk through the whole ceremony.

Later that day…

I knew I couldn’t go out in the sun, so I decided to continue the tourist activity and head to a temple, Pura Ulawatu, because it was in south Bali not too far away. I was craving a motorbike ride, not a car. But this proved to be a challenge as everyone wants you to hire them for a drive, and this temple was “supposedly” just out of range of normal motorbike travel. Well despite the hassle from a car driver I got a bike driver to agree for $10. My driver, Ari, age 20, did an awesome job of playing my tour guide at the temple, and working on his English with me. His goal is to become a waiter on a cruise ship and make it to Miami. hehe.

I was told the time to visit the temples was sunset, or sunrise (no thanks) so we were on schedule for that. But un-benounced to me, there was also a Kecak fire dance performance scheduled for 6pm. Wooohooo! My first Balinese gamelan and kecak in the same day! It is for tourists, but not a nightly type of thing, more like a weekly one. Cak, is the vocal form of gamelan music. Imagine 70 men chanting highly syncopated fast rhythms, with dynamics and tempos all changing rapidly. If you’ve ever heard it, you would know, it sounds like nothing else on earth.

The dance was great, costumes great, and it was a packed house, which unfortunately with my shitty camera I’m sure will only provide shitty pictures because of where i was. oh well.

So then apparently the thing to do by the cabbies, is to take tourists to the seafood restaurants on Jimbaran beach. Big time tourist trap. The cabbies get tips or something for bringing tourists in, which I suspected but thought no big deal. Also, I was going to buy Ari dinner. You go pick the seafood out of the water and say grilled or fried, and then they weigh it. I looked at the prices and it looked steep, but my poor math skills, plus the fact that they do it really fast, (long story short) means you wind up with a huge bill, by Bali standards. I was kind of pissed, and I didn’t have enough money so we had to drive to an ATM and come back. I don’t blame Ari for this, I think it’s just what they all do, and he’s probably never gotten to eat there anyways.

So come to find out by reading a hotel copy of a Bali guide this morning, those places are total tourist rip off joints. Not only are they overpriced, but they really move fast and try to give you a lot of food, but also their SCALES ARE RIGGED! figures.

This is the type of scam crap that goes on a lot of Kuta and the tourist areas. Despite that, it seems that other people are genuinely nice. Although most people in this area are here, or have come here from elsewhere in Indonesia, (as the guidebooks constantly point out) to make a buck. Indonesia is very poor. I see mothers and kids sleeping in alleys. The Balinese look at the tourism as luck and prosperity that the gods have brought to them. A lot of Indonesian muslims look at it as a place of sin, hence part of what was behind the acts of terrorism.

Today I just took it easy and relaxed. But I still meet people all day long. People love to chat you up here, ask where you are from, etc. I met a strange crew on the beach, the talkative one might have been a gay pimp, ironically, at a fruit stand. I had a delicious mango and then they let me sample some other exotic things. And later I met a doctor from Java here with his family whom I’ve seen every day at my hotel. He was really chatty and helpful as well, even offered to give me his number in case I have any problems in Java.

No one so far (Chinese or Indonesian) can really grasp the concept of my trip, around the world, by myself.

Sarah told me not to expect to find many Americans the places I’m going. There’s not many Americans here, not surprisingly, seeing that Bush and the CIA tells us not to go to Indonesia. Although Bush stopped here for 4 hours (heh) to meet with the President. Ari told me excitedly how Bush was escorted by 6 blackhawk helicopters. hehe.

So here we go… hope New Years Eve goes well. I’m off to enjoy my “compulsory dinner” at the hotel. I will wake up tomorrow and you all will be preparing for New Years eve!

…slight back-track here…

So after my last Christmas HK post (about Macau) I spent some time web surfing before heading home, and I was craving a Guiness. I stopped at a local bar that advertised it, and got a warm reception from the owner. They had 80’s rock playing and he seemed genuinely happy to have an American there. But as usual too many people started smoking and I had to head out.

Unfortunately on the way home I got totally lost. That was really my first time in almost a week in HK that I got lost. I finally had to resort to walking into the subway and letting it guide me back out. When I did finally make it, I saw another lost white girl with a rolling suitcase and a local Chinese guy pointing her in a direction. I thought “the white girl with a suitcase is probably going to my hostel.” And sure enough she was!  Meet Sarah.
It was such a relief (I underestimated how much it would be) to talk to someone “normally” in your native tongue, after not doing it for days. And not only is Sarah a very interesting and well traveled person, but we totally hit it off. She’s originally from San Diego, now teaches English in Korea, and was just in town for a few days to renew her visa in between jobs.

My last tourist to-do was the tram (a train that goes up at about 90 degree angle) to the top of the mountain on Hong Kong island. And she said that was on her list, so we planned to hang out and do that and find “real dim sum.”

The tram was cool, very windy up top (as you will see by the pics) and was loaded with tourists. We opted to walk down, which was also cool. Finding a traditional dim sum place was still a challenge, and we had to resort to the one I had seen in the mall that said “best dim sum in Hong Kong.”

Did I mention, sometimes Hong Kong seems like one giant mall.

The dim sum was ok. nothing earth shattering, except the basic bbq pork bun. there was one that was “shanghai style” that had a shocking amount of hot liquid in it when you bit into it. Table hilarity insued.

Another thing that Sarah had mentioned earlier was this phenomenon in Korea, of girls constantly taking glamour shots of themselves with their cell phones. This frequently happens during meals, especially if two girls are sitting together, BOTH of them will be doing it. And I’ll be damned if the gorgeous lady sitting next to me and Sarah didn’t start taking pictures of herself after she finished her lunch! Now that was timing. I learned so much about Korea from Sarah, I felt like I got a bonus visit to another country.

Hello. I am alive, well, and sunburned in Kuta, Bali. The internet however, is not so well. It’s been down… welcome to the islands.

This internet outage (they are common I hear) has forced me to do other things such as lay on the beach, have a drink by the pool, get a foot massage, read, go to a cremation, go to a temple, etc. you get the idea.

I have lots of stories to tell and pictures to share… stay tuned. Will update when I can get my laptop on a good connection.

…says the carboholic who needs to lose about 15 pounds.

I’ve had quite a few, but today I had two of the best. A croissant type filled with BBQ pork that melted like butter in your mouth. And a multi-layer tiramisu type cake that had mostly a green tea flavor, with a layer of red beans. it was amazing.
That is all.

Christmas eve in Macau was totally surreal to say the least.

Yes that’s a baroque style building that if you look close says “Santa Casa da Misericordia.” (click picture for full size.)

And, Yes those are hundreds of Chinese people, probably most of which are not Christian.

But hey, it was not hard to get into the spirit with so much energy in this square, it almost made me teary eyed.

And what would Christmas be without chestnuts roasting on an… uh… in an spinning metal barrel over a high powered gas flame!  This was quite a show, and of course I bought a bag for $1.

I’m working on adding a seperate “gallery” section of pictures for the blog. So I can put more up, but only have ones important to my stories in this space. Alright. good night for now, will probably have a day or two off from blogging.

The ferry from Kowloon to Macau was pretty cool. I remembered reading (in travel journals) to take first class on most of the trains and ferry’s and such if one can afford it. Cause for $10 (US) more you usually get a meal and a more relaxing experience.

I didn’t want to admit it, but I did have a bad feeling about heading to a resort type destination *on a holiday*, with only a few names of budget places to stay scribbled on a piece of paper. And my gut feeling was right, not such a good idea. My temper quickly boiled over and I started to have my first feelings of “what the hell am I doing here” and “I can’t believe I have still have 3 months to go.” I also got my first taste of the notorious local rude behavior: people stealing cabs right in front of you, and totally rude hotel desk people.

I was warned about these moments. (thanks Mark)

Of course I somewhat brought this on myself for not being well prepared. I had a bad feeling about Macau in general when all of the street names are in Portuguese, all the cab drivers are Chinese, and I speak English. How was I supposed to know that Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro (which is the street that runs through the old part of town, where most of the hotels I was looking for were) is referred to by the locals as – San Ma Lo! which, ridiculously enough means, New Street. Yeah, New in the 1500’s.

Well whatever. I bailed myself out with my first “saved by the credit card” experience and landed at the Best Western Sun Sun.

I was feeling pretty emotionally crappy at this point. At least they had a bath tub to soak my aching knees and feet.

I had to force myself to go out into the night instead of sitting around the room feeling sorry for myself. And boy was I glad I did… which I will pick up on my next post called…

There’s no shortage of free wifi in HK. I should probably not get used to it.

Now I’m in the noisy Ferry Building killing time, resting my feet, deciding between steaming bowl of soup, or steaming bowl of nicely decorated rice for lunch. At least that’s what I’m seeing everyone carry away from the nearby food counters.
Mmmm getting hungry.

I had neglected to mention my hostel, and first hosteling experience of my life. (don’t let the “Fresh Air! Fresh Air!” in their advert fool you.) HK hotels are expensive for someone on a 3 month travel budget so I had decided it would be hostels here (think NYC or San Fran prices). It was fine, I had done a lot of research so I knew what to expect. The exterior of the building was postively frightening at first sight, but you get over it after a while. The rooms were tiny, like really tiny, but clean and decent. The people were curt but nice, although as the hostel starting getting full for the holiday weekend, I could tell things were getting tense and other travelers who I talked to upon arrival were having bad experiences. After 3 days it was time to move on.

So I need a break from the madness of HK, and lonely planets recommendation is Macau. The former Portuguese colony is an hour ferry ride away. Apparently it offers much more serene, cheaper, and less smoggy towns, as well as one end full of Asia’s rare casino areas.

Let the adventure begin…

… they really did. But they looked around and walked back out. It was kinda funny. They’re probably not used to overpriced tea.

Oh! I just noticed I’m sitting across from a nice cigar store, I’ll bet they have cubans… mmmmm.

Now there’s a big group of women in gray, um, pajama type outfits who are all gathered around 2 monks, in brown robes. I’m guessing they are monks in training. Now they are all sharing Starbucks tea. it’s adorable.

I’m actually in the upper back portion of a mall, and there’s a nice big open area with fast free wifi. (outside a Starbucks, but not in a food court) It’s actually hard to describe, but everything is so dense here it’s kinda hard to find things like this nice little cove I’m in now. A lot of the good restaurants are in side streets and back alleys, and up on upper levels inside malls, like where I am now. But I wouldn’t have had any idea. You just have to explore.

Two days of hustle and bustle, tourist stuff, jet lag, and exhaust fumes has me worn out a bit. I passed out super early last night and have yet to really experience any night life.

I have experienced much of the subway however, which is fantastic here.

They start them reading awfully young here…

As a white tourist here you are almost kind of ignored, except by the guys trying to sell you watches on Nathan St. But everyone is generally very nice. I haven’t bought much, but today I guess I’m going to try to buy my first (personal) cell phone. And let me tell you, there’s no shortage of places to do that.

So here I am chatting away with 4 of you on iChat, it’s like I never left!

These Wordpress plugins are also bothering me. I shouldn’t obsess over them like I am. Hey the blog is always a work in progress right?

Ok, enough random thoughts, let’s go for a ride…

You take this tram to see the largest, sitting, outdoor, bronze Buddha in the world. It was built near the Po Lin Monestary to commemorate the return of Hong Kong to China. I actually learned something I was curious about out of this visit. It symbolizes the fact that Hong Kong will be able to keep it’s religious freedom (and love for commercialism over communism) despite rejoining China. Buddha faces north towards the capital.

Unfortunately you have to walk through this totally commercialized village with food shops, gift shops, a Starbucks, and (gasp) Christmas music on your path to enlightenment and Buddha.

The Monastery was also very neat.  This has to be the largest temple block I have ever seen!!! It was hard to resist playing it.  Although thinking back now, I probably could have asked the monk in the room to play it and that would have been cool. darn.

So my search for kick ass Dim Sum will continue today. Most of the places look big and expensive with tables for 10. I had 2 great dishes yesterday but it wasn’t the classic Dim Sum type place. Again, it’s hard to find something specific when you want it. So you just have to adjust your attitude to take what you find.

I made it! At some point I got confused, didn’t refer to my airline itinerary, and forgot that i “lose” an entire day. When I got to the hostel, she was like, you were supposed to be here yesterday. Oops.

I’m currently at a 3rd floor coffee shop in Mong Kok getting my second injection of caffeine to beat the jet lag and help me stay up as long as possible today. But I was mostly just DYING to sit down after walking all afternoon!

Earlier, I cleaned up after I checked into my room went to lunch, skipping all of the tourist spots and following some locals on lunch break into a very busy diner. It was “european seating,” is that what they call that? Where they seat you with strangers… so my lunch buddy was Ron who I started talking with. Then his girlfriend (I presume) Cindy showed up and they told me a lot of things to do and gave me insider info. He also, after he asked if I minded if he smoked, told me that it’s the last week in Hong Kong before smoking becomes banned in all public places.

I spent today all in Kowloon. Went to the famous markets… The ladies market, where just about anything can be found: watches next to shoes, next to bras, next to live chickens.

Then the flower market, 4 blocks of flowers and plants.

Then the Bird park/market. 3 blocks of caged pet birds, sadly most of them very overcrowded.

Then, best of all, 3 blocks of aquarium fish!!! I could not believe the endless aquarium stores. Some were lame, but a few were very top notch. Quite a sight, especially when you consider San Francisco is probably down to about 3 decent stores in the city, if that.

I went for a walk to see the nighttime lights, but I’m turning in early cause I’m about to pass out. Hope I can sleep.