Six miles and a tease...

Friday:

Ok, so I think I left off at arriving in Bali and getting to our house for the next 6 weeks.

We met Made, our host, at the airport.  We also met Made (a different one), who would be our driver if/when we needed one.  They both met us because we needed 2 cars since we had a fair amount of luggage, even though we were 2 short from when we left :)

We learned that Made wasn't really their first name, but rather their "order name" which represents the order of first-born, second-born, etc. within their family.  Made means 2nd born, while Wayan means first, Nyoman is third, and Ketut is fourth.  It is very interesting but a bit confusing when talking about them, and so we have nicknamed them Made Junior and Made Senior as the host is probably in his 40s or 50s and the driver is in hist 20s.

We split up at the airport, Mat and River riding with Made Senior and Mom and I riding with Junior.  Junior is the better driver :)

There were beautiful statues all over the island between the airport and our house.  The interesting thing that we found was that we didn't hit any countryside, at least not yet.  It was like one long connected city between Kuta (where the airport is) and Ubud (where we are, about an hour away).  It was very busy and traffic was insane, with motor-bikes going anywhere that they could find a few inches of space.  I kept my cool and trusted that we would be ok, and we were.

So, we arrived to find a lovely welcoming outdoor lounge where we sat and had complimentary juices while we took care of some business.  We met the staff which consists of two young girls (18 or 19) and two young men of about the same age (plus Made Junior, who is in and out).  The boys speak very little English but are super sweet, but a little timid.  I haven't really gotten their names, but I am sure that I will. One girl (Wayan) speaks a bit of English but is more confident, asking us how we are, if we want food, etc.  The other girl, Esty, speaks English quite well and is what I would consider the property manager.  She is young, but is very good at the management aspects and is the one with whom we had been communicating up until we got here.

The boys brought down our luggage and Esty showed us around giving us info on the house.  The house is a two story house that pretty much has an upstairs and downstairs apartment.  The upstairs has a bathroom with a bath and a main room with a bed, tv, couch-like bed that I will call the day-bed for lack of a better word, although it is not at all like the American version.

There is also separated area that could be another bedroom or office.  River's bed was in our room, but Made told us that he could move it downstairs wherever we wanted.  The downstairs is another open room, but it has a kitchenette in it, a bed, and some other furniture.  The bathroom downstairs does not have a bath, although it has a strangely shaped floor which he told us tonight was intended to be a custom bath, so we may try to use it for that.

The upstairs has a covered balcony and the downstairs a covered patio.  Outside, we have an outdoor table and chairs for eating, an outdoor bed, some chairs, and then a pool that is shared with a few other units.  The whole thing is terraced beautifully over the rice fields with spectacular views.

Made Senior told us that he had a surprise for us, that we would each get a free 20 min massage.  Now how can you turn that down!  We eagerly obliged and arranged it for the next evening (yesterday, Saturday).  We got settled in, figured out our luggage was missing and that one was at the Bali airport, and eventually went to bed.  We awoke to VERY loud rain on the metal roof, but Mat and I love that and so it was very pleasant for us.



Saturday:
We woke up to continued rain off and on, and by rain, I mean flash-flood type of pouring rain.  For those of you in KS, I think it was supposed to FINALLY stop raining there, right?  Well, we must have brought the rain with us to Bali because Made said that it hadn't rained as much here in quite a while, and it was very welcomed as this is the dry season.

I also woke to no sore throat!  I had thought that a good nights sleep would help, but had no idea how much it would help!

We waited until around noon when the rain had really stopped, and talked to Esty about going to the airport to get our lost bag.  Made Senior had guests (students) in town and so was using Made (Junior) for a lot of services and so asked if we could either go in the evening or the next day (today).  We agreed to today and so decided to spend the day walking into Ubud to exchange money and get Sim cards.

River chose to go with us, and mom stayed at the house to do art and enjoy some alone time.  It was about a 30-40 min walk into town.  It would be quicker if there were sidewalks, but it takes longer when you are constantly dodging cars and motor-bikes!  River impressed me with his attention to safety, which gave me more confidence in him spending time alone down-town with his friends back home (which he has only done once so far, but it made me very nervous!).

We found the money exchange, a ton of shops, sim cards, etc.  Mat bought a hand-carved wooden cane, which for those of you who know Mat a bit would know, that this is the first thing Mat does when we get to a new country/destination.  It is a nice cane, with the handle being a face and the balance is such that it rests beautifully on the edge of a table.

We also found some patchuli oil to restock Mat's supply and another nice oil for me to use to cover the gallons of sweat dripping off of me from the humidity!  We stopped for lunch at a nice place with community (shared) tables.  We got 4 large delicious meals (one to bring home for mom), 2 sodas, and a beer for approximately 11 USD.  Now, this is my kind of place!

The walk back took at least twice as long as it was up-hill.  We made it, though, knowing that we would have a massage shortly after returning.

My fit-bit knock-off says that we walked 6 miles, but I don't think that it is correct.  Still, we walked for about 4-5 hours, which is something.

Shortly after arriving back, our masseuse showed up.  She massaged us in turns on our day-bed.  For 20 min, it was surprisingly thorough.  She covered head-to-toe, just not terribly long in each area.  It was glorious, but not nearly long enough.  Just long enough to tease us, but not fulfill our needs.

We promptly scheduled a full 60 min for tonight :)

After the massage, I started the blog, trying to get us to this point, but failing as I kept drifting off.

During the night, it poured rain again, but this time stopped when the sun arose.

Sunday:
Today, we woke and all tried to walk to breakfast.  We knew that there was a warung (small cheap restaurant) a half mile to the right, towards Ubud, but we wanted to see what was to our left.  Apparently nothing :)  We walked about half a mile before asking someone and she told us that we had to go the other way.  We walked back to the house and took a breather.  We then had Esty call us a ride.  Made Senior showed up and brought us to breakfast.  We also arranged with him to go to the airport to get the suitcase.  He suggested that we tie it with something else in that area, to save money because an airport trip is about the same price as an 8 hour day trip.  We agreed and Mat and I decided to go to Seminyak, which is a big touristy area, mostly for shopping.  We left Mom and River (who did not want to come) and headed to the airport.  We hopped out and thought that we had communicated to Made junior to meet us where he left us.  We were wrong.  We got the bag, returned to where he left us, and waited a good 20-30 min.  Finally, he walked up, apologized, and explained that he had been waiting at the front of the airport on foot, instead of in the parking garage in his car (where we were).  We immediately exchanged phone numbers to avoid the same thing ever happening again.

He then drove us to Seminyak and dropped us off, agreeing to pick us up in 2 hours.  We had chosen this place because there was a flea-market, but sadly the flea-market was rather dinky.  There were tons of high-end shops, none of which interested us.  We needed to get River shoes, as his were literally falling off of his feet.  We hadn't realized how bad they were until we walked into Ubud, where his sole would flip back under itself.

We found that folks in Bali haggled with themselves.  We found this out because the day before, in Ubud, we hadn't planned to buy anything except the cane, since we have so much time.  So, since we were truly uninterested in buying the item, we found that they would offer a price and then continue to go down until they were calling out a number sometimes well under half of their starting price.  We got the really low numbers when we would actually walk away.

So, we found a couple places with Nike knock-offs, and negotiated a price for about 16 USD.

After accomplishing our only true need down there, we just walked around.  We found that although most stores were pretty high-end ($100 swimsuits and the like), the spas were cheaper than they are here.  We didn't have time for a full massage, plus we would be getting one later, but we found one that offered "Fish Foot Spa" for about 2.50 USD.  This was where they wash your feet and then you put them in a tank with hundreds of tiny fish that eat the dead-skin off of your feet.  I had once had the opportunity, at an aquarium, to do this with my hand, so I wasn't shocked by the nibbling.  Mat, on the other hand, giggled like a little girl as the little fish tickled his feet!  We got 15 minutes and I swear my feet felt cleaner when we walked away!  (I bet some of you would have a hard time telling which set of legs and feet are Mat's and which are mine below)

While waiting for the agreed upon meeting time, we found some cheap DVDs for about a buck each.  We got some good movies for all of us to watch at night sometime.

On the way home, we had Made Junior stop at a grocery store and we stocked up on some fruit, snacks, and drinks.  My phone died on the way home and we were later than expected, due to traffic and a long detour at the grocery store.  When we arrived, River and Mom were hanging out in the "lobby" with Made Senior, who had apparently done a great job cheering River up after he got very worried about why we might be late.  I had told him that car accidents were the most serious risk here (to stress to him to be safe when walking), and so he decided that this must mean that it was the most likely reason that we wouldn't be home when we thought.  Unfortunately, Made Senior had tried to call Made Junior's phone, and it hadn't answered for some reason, which had only added to the concern.

Anyway, we got back, unloaded the groceries, and then went straight into our massages.  This time, they did all three at the same time and I got the day-bed, Mat in our bed, and mom in hers.  The massage was wonderful!  (Nothing like Aimee's back home, but nice after a long day).  I spent most of the time doing math to figure out how often I could afford one of the massages!  My latest calculation was that we could stay within budget if we each got one every 3 days, which is pretty freaking fantastic!  They are only about 11 USD for an hour, and we could get them even cheaper if we walked about a half-hour away, but who wants to walk home after a massage!

After the massage, Mom and I looked at some of Made Senior's art with him (oh yeah, he is an artist, mostly painter).  Then, we sat with him and waxed philosophical for a half hour or so.  After such a nice exchange, it was time to come up here and blog it :)

And we are finally caught up!!!


(OMG, I just dragged a picture in here and it replaced the page and I thought that I was going to have to rewrite all of this.  Luckily, they must cache works-in-progress, even before save, because it all came back when I hit back!)

The 36 hour day

Or maybe it was a 12 hour day that took 36 hours?  Haven't quite figured out the time change math :)

So, on Tuesday,  around 3:00pm, I found myself joining Mat for a swig of Moscato before getting on the airport shuttle.  See, our 18 year old Nephew is house-sitting, and we felt like it was our duty to ensure that there was no alcohol in the house before we left, so we took one for the team and downed the 1/4 bottle that had been in our fridge for a couple weeks.

The drive to the airport was uneventful, except that the shuttle driver wasn't a crazy driver, which was rather different than I had expected!  We got on our flight, got a spot in the front (Southwest Airlines), which is rare, and headed west.  Our steward was cranky at first, but once we got in the air, he was a sweetheart.  We got a couple drinks each, since we had free drink coupons that would expire, and then gave our last coupon to an older gentlemen who was sitting next to River and whom had smiled through not only spilled peanuts, but also a spilled Sprite from River's table :)
Every time we asked if it was time to give him our drink coupons, the cranky steward said "No, no"
 and shooed us away, and so we still have a pocket-full of coupons.  River barely said a word the whole ride.  He read through the entire "Newcomers guide to the afterlife" book (one of 6, yes 6 Daniel Quinn books that we had filling up our backbacks).  He tried to get us to "discuss it" with him, and was annoyed by the fact that we couldn't remember every details from having read it probably a decade earlier.  Mat has since re-read most of it, just so he could hold a sensible conversation with River about the book.  It seems it paid off, as they spent an hour this evening discussing good spin-off stories for the novel...

Anyway, we arrived in LAX, got our luggage (a lot of luggage, for 4 people for 6 weeks), and found the shuttle to the hotel.  The shuttle took 50 minutes to arrive and then due to traffic, took 30 min to get to the shuttle.  We found it just past the 10 oclock closing time of most restaurants, and so ordered food.  An hour later, we got a call from Eatstreet (how we ordered), saying that they couldn't contact the restaurant.  We decided it was too late to re-order, and so Mat and I walked to a chicken place across the road to get food for everyone.  Lights were on, door was closed.  We had just missed it closing at 11!  We ended up with a meal from 7-11 that was way better than we had expected.

We had a close-call with one of our backpacks which included money, Mat's wallet, a computer, and a laptop.  Luckily, we just left it in the hotel lobby and the security guard had found it, so no harm done!

When we woke up on Wed. morning, I had a pretty sore throat and as the day progressed, I felt progressively worse until I was sure that I had caught, and was spreading, some nasty bug like strep or something.  We left the hotel around 12:00 PST on Wed afternoon and made our way to the airport.  We again had an hour wait for the shuttle but once we got there, we got everything checked and through security without incident.  Our flight left a little after 5:00 PST and arrived in Taiwan approximately 15 hours later.  The flight was much nicer than I had expected.  We had movies, music, and good food.  Yes, I said good, can you believe that?  We were served two meals and several snacks.  Unfortunately, Mat had to sit about 10 rows back from the rest of us,  and enjoyed the pungent aura of a very friendly man sitting next to him.  It wasn't bad, though.  We both watched several movies, took naps, and stuffed our bellies.

Upon arriving in Taiwan, we found our way to the in-airport hotel.  It was inside of customs, but you still had to pass through a security check.  They found some small scissors in mom's suitcase and insisted that she check them or throw them away.  Apparently, they don't allow scissors of any length in Taiwan.

We got to the room and found it quite large.  It only had a large and small bed, but we found that we could use the box-springs of the small twin bed for a forth bed, and so we all slept fairly comfortably.  Before going to bed, Mat realized that his phone was missing.  At one point, a Stewardess on the plane woke Mat up by pushing a food tray in his face.  This knocked over his bag and he now feels pretty sure that this is when he lost his phone.  We talked to the airline the next morning, and they looked, but found nothing.  Oh well, it was not a horrible loss.  It was not Mat's normal cell and although it was a good working Motorola Atrix, it had been my work phone at my previous job, and they had given it to me when I left.  Therefor, we hadn't invested any money into it, and so it was a recoverable loss.  Since there are always 2 or more of us together, it seemed unlikely that Mat would need to replace it, so we are leaving it as missing for now and not trying to replace it, unless we get a great deal on another phone while down here.

We got around 2-4 hours sleep at the Taiwan airport and then left for Bali.  We were finally getting excited, knowing it would be here soon!

We arrived in Bali at about 3:00pm Indonesian time, on Friday afternoon.  About 1am Central, and 11pm Thursday for you west-coasters.  However, it took us a couple hours to make it to our room and another couple hours to get settled, by which time it was a good time to sleep.

While settling in, we realized that we were missing the suitcase with all of Mat's clothes!  Sadly, the only thing he wanted to do when arriving, was to change into some shorts!  At least he had some trunks in my suitcase and so could use those for then.  The owner of our house called the airport for us and found that we hadn't even picked up the suitcase from the carrousel!  I guess all those hours of travel, and lack of sleep, mess with your ability to count suitcases (which I had, twice, after collecting them!)

After realizing Mat's suitcase was lost, I suddenly realized that I hadn't seen another piece of our luggage that we had brought since we had boarded the plane in Kansas City.  This was a duffel bag with a ton of little gifts that we had brought for people we met here.  It also had most of our over the counter meds, like benedryl and Ibuprofin, as well as our sunblock, bug-spray, and various other things we had stuck in as we packed.  I haven't been able to talk to anyone at SouthWest yet, but we will either have it sent home, or try to get it here if it doesn't cost too much.  I am guessing that it is sitting, lonely, in the lost baggage area of LAX!

Oh well, we could be much worse off!  It could have been a lot of more important things!

Well, I have fallen asleep about 3 times while writing this, so I am afraid that I will have to continue tomorrow.  Stay tuned for our enjoyable first day in Bali!

In the beginning

Hello all, as you all know, or at least you do now, we are in Bali.  We will be here about 6 weeks and are excited to share our adventure with you.  We are lucky to have mom with us on this trip and River is now at the age where he is basically another companion, rather than a "charge".

We are taking some "real vacation" most of the first half of the 6 weeks, and then will be working during the second half.  This trip is an experiment, of sorts, to see if paradise...well...gets old.

Every time we go to a new place, we imagine "we could live here".  We enjoy a healthier diet, we read, we walk, and we interact with one another different than we would if there were a tv/dvr/etc. easy at hand.  So, the question is whether it will still feel that way after six weeks.  After actually working, rather than just floating from one thing to another, will it still feel good?  Or, will we just be homesick, writing melancholy postcards to our DVR full of cpu-warming apologies for ever having doubted our relationship with our dear, dear, sweet, digital video delivery mechanism!

My hypothesis...  I think we could live here :)