The wind-down on the 27th

And so all good things have come to an end for now in Ubud, the best city in Asia. Kate and myself have finally arrived home after 7 days for me, and 30 days for Kate. I feel slightly stressed once again that we are home, as tomorrow I resume teaching classes that I had left behind before I left for Bali. Kate would have loved the opportunity and the privilege to stay longer in Bali, but I cannot speak for her. She'll have to tell you in your own time.

The events that happened after Friday were not entirely mind blowing in what we can tell you, as the primary purpose of the trip had been achieved by Kate. She had taught her last class, so it was time to finish up her time at the Starfish Language Centre.

For me, it was a time to really nail some more scooter riding during the day time. I had a full tank of petrol to burn and was more than happy to drop Kate to places and just keep riding around the streets for the hell of it. Not giving way to other traffic when you are turning left and right has its own idealistic merits in Indonesia, but it simply would not work in a western society. It's almost like everything Balinese people do, they do it well, be it creating shrines to their god's, constructing and creating, even riding scooters!

One of the smaller, yet somewhat uplifting highlights of Saturday involved one of our Balinese buddies, Sadam, doing something very special for Kate, myself and Thomas. Sadam wrote a little something on the promotional sign out the front of CP Lounge that went like this:

TONIGHT: PATY
                     THOMAS 
                     BU KATE +
                     DAVE


Yes that's right. Promoted to the public of Ubud on Monkey Forest Road was our farewell "party". Unfortunately, our lovely friend Sadam spelt 'party' wrong, but understandably, the phonetics of the letter 'A' in Indonesian is actually pronounced 'AR', or so Kate tells me. Kate lets Sadam know about his little mistake, and the wonderful gentlemen comes back with a sign that read a little something like this:

TONIGHT: PARTY

                     THOMAS 

                     BU KATE +

                     DAVE

That much better, no?

And so we all had a great farewell part at CP Lounge, a place that has been great for Kate to meet the locals and new friends from all around the world. As an added bonus, one of the good bartenders, Bagus, put on a special fire twirling show with burning Bacardi bottles. We've got great photographic evidence of that too, so don't fret, you will be seeing them!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Sunday belatedly arrived afterwards for me by Kate walking in the door at an ungodly hour of the morning, as I had gone home earlier than Kate the night before. After a few hours of sleep, Kate was up again, and was a woman on a mission:

She wanted to go and meet this guy.

Yes that's right, a medicine man named Ketut Liyer. As made famous by Elizabeth Gilbert in the novel 'Eat, Pray, Love'. This guy only lived about 500 metres up from the road from where we were staying, so we thought, why the hell not? We've got nothing to lose.
So surely enough, we rock up outside the house, and it's the exact location where they shot the film 'Eat, Pray, Love', which was really exciting to see! We took a number and waited in line for Kate to have her turn to speak with Ketut Liyer. He average about 30 minutes with each person he spoke to. He spoke to Kate to find out a little bit about her, read her palm, studied her back and her legs to help read into her life, and basically told her in a nutshell that she was very pretty, and very lucky. Still, it's a humbling experience to take away from her trip.

After this, it was to do some last minute gift shopping and begin packing to leave for the airport. Also, it was time for me to part ways with my beloved Yamaha scooter which had kept me close confided company for five delightful days. I paid 150,000 Rp for the bike (an absolute steal in Aussie dollars) and then Blue, our driver, took us down to Ngurah Rai Denpasar airport for an 8.00pm check in. Overnight flights are pedantically long when you are trying to sleep on an uncomfortable upright economy class seat, this really didn't help the fact that we were leaving such a beautiful place to live in. Kate can certainly back me up on this, cantchya Katey ;)

4 hours and 40 minutes later, we arrive back in Adelaide at 6am local time. Walking off the plane gave me a real chill down my spine... it was brutally cold thanks to the arctic winds blowing from the south that I'd forgotten about over the past week!
Going through customs was going to be fun, as we had a few things to declare: Gopal's drum and some Kopi Luwak. Unfortunately, we lost the Kopi Luwak, which was mean't to be Paul Sando's gift from Kate (sorry mate, we tried!), and Gopal's drum has been quarantined for 6 weeks. It's a damn good drum with an awesome response to the sound, and the craftsmanship of it is world class. Without a doubt, it was well worth it to pay the $60 fee to go through that long process because as Kate said so herself, it's the greatest gift that any friend has ever given her.

As soon as we finished up with border security, it was time to walk through the doors and reunite our families. Well done Kate, you achieved what you set out to do when you decided to do this way back in July 2010. I think I can say on behalf of everyone close to you and all the friends you made whilst on your trip, you made every soul that you met really happy that you were there in Bali, and that you gained the experience and wisdom of caring for others, no matter where they were from in all corners of the globe.

Dave xo.

Friday - 25th February

How does one begin to describe the differences between the life and culture of Ubud and the hustle and bustle of Kuta?


The true identity of Balinese culture is revealed here in Ubud, not in the 'westernised' streets of Kuta. I don't know how it happened, but I somehow spent 1,000,000 Rupiah in Kuta last night, hangin' with Kate, Thomas and Sadam. It turned out to be a big night in only a small amount of time from 9pm till 2:30am. Intensely paced drinking, I don't recommend it.

Anywho, we will get to that later. Thursday was the day that I spent alone for the majority of the time as Kate was busy busy busy at Starfish for most of the day. So I took the liberty of doing a little shopping whilst I was here in Ubud. Strolling around the Ubud markets on your own might sound intimidating at first, but it's great fun if you bring along a positive attitude to the stall owners. I figured that because I had no idea what the time was all day, I might as well buy a 'genuine Rolex' for 'cheap price'. I spoke to 2 shop owners and they showed me a bunch of watches and some Ray Ban sunglasses. I wanted 1 Rolex and 2 pairs of Ray Ban sunglasses, so let the bartering games begin ladies and gentlemen. Here is the run down of what happened:

1st Offer: 75,000 Rp
Retort: 600,000 Rp


2nd Offer: 125,000 Rp
Retort: 500,000 Rp


3rd Offer: 200,000 Rp

Retort: 450,000 Rp

The final settlement: 400,000 Rp

As the humble reader of this wonderfully insightful Bali blog, I will leave it up to you to judge whether I got a sweet deal or just simply got ripped off. Paul Guy might say I did (hehe), but either way the storemen were nice to me and I had a great chat with them. I was their only customer for the day so far, so I didn't mind the bartering price, they can buy themselves an extra pair of shoes now.

So following that, Kate needed to be picked up and she had finished her day a little earlier than expected, so I hopped on the bike and went to go pick her up out the front of CP. Goddamn I love riding scooters in Ubud. The traffic all works like a messily spun spider web, and it is a great way to become apart of the community here. Kate hops on the back of my bike  (and holds on for dear life because she clearly doesn't trust my riding skills) and we head back to the villa for a little nanna nap before the events of the night unfold.

It was also Ina's last day here in Bali after spending 5 months in Indonesia. Ina, Kate, Thomas, Blue, and myself hired a driver and went to the airport to see Ina off for her flight home. Now I've only been here for a week and have missed the developments of Ina and Kate's relationship in the beginning, but I have never seen Kate so sad to see somebody leave. She was genuinely upset that she was going home. I think Kate will definitely be keeping in contact with Ina in the future.

So we left the airport and Ina's boyfriend, Blue, was feeling rather heartbroken to see Ina leave. Thomas was consoling him and offering some world class advice on how it's better to have loved and lost than to have never lost at all. The poor bloke, I hope he's alright. Anyhow, the driver dropped us off at Kuta on the main road, Jalan Legian. Let the club drinking festivities begin... urgh.

Skygarden and Bounty were the 2 places that we attended. It was great to be back at Bounty once again, I had previously been there once before with Kate, Emily and Jess Mudge. I was so upset to find out that they don't serve their alcohol in fishbowls anymore!! They now mixed the drinks and put them in a sports drink bottle. How upsettingly Australian is that? *sigh*

So, long story short, we drank a fair shitload and ended up staying in a homestay house for 160,000 Rp for the night. Good times.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Today, Kate taught her last class to all her little cherubs for an hour from 3pm till 4pm. As an outsider that was there purely to take photos of the class, it was amazing to see how autonomous the children's actions were. There were twelve students there that ranged from ages 5 to 10, and they were writing exceptionally legibly, and spoke English better than some of my Aboriginal Australian year 12 students back home. They were using pens and correction fluids, one student even got out of his chair to help Kate give some class handouts to everybody in the room without even being asked to. It was so amazingly inspiring to see Kate teaching these adorable kids, I took a tonne of photos and some great video of kate singing and dancing the Hokey Pokey with her kids. We will be uploading them when we get home of course.

We have 2 more nights left in Bali, so I think last night was the perfect opportunity to check out Kuta while we were here. Now that we are back in Ubud, can you guess where we will end up going to tonight? Hmmm... I don't even think I have to say it.

;)

Wednesday - 23rd of February

Today, we find ourselves at a very high priced internet cafe, surrounded by French people Skyping to their French families back home... The privacy of our own villa is now gone thanks to me and a very silly place to put a glass of coke next to a laptop. Can you see the end result? I'm in trouble when I get home... eeeep!

Anyhow, welcome to Wednesday. It's been a great few days to unwind so far in the trip. Yesterday I had a great day with my new Alaskan friend, Thomas, who taught me how to ride a locally hired scooter of my own. We rode around Ubud so I could get the hang of the bike and finding the right balance. It's so easy to get around on, but I'm always aware that you need to be alert 110% of the time, especially on these crazy Balinese roads! Kate was at the language centre all day so Thomas was kind enough to show me the sights.

Thomas and I toured up to the remote rice fields of Ubud to see what is affectionately known as the 'Eat, Pray, Love' house, the house where Elizabeth Gilbert wrote a third of the novel of the same title. It was a small, secluded little hut that was placed right in the middle of an open area of rice fields, such a cool sight to see. Thomas even took the risk of shooting high definition video on his Nikon camera, whilst riding through the streets. It was a very stupid idea at the time, but he pulled it off and got some great footage.

That was my whole day spent learning how to ride a scooter, and it has come in handy because Kate has her own personal TRANSPORTER now :)

Today hasn't quite been as busy due to massive amounts of bucketing tropical rain stopping us from wandering and exploring. Kate had to teach her kids today and was slightly late due to monsoonal rain stopping us from riding the scooter in death defying weather. Eventually the rain stopped and she made her way to the language centre, which left me to hang out at the villa and take it easy until she got back.

We've been eating at a lot of local Warung's and the food is immensley cheap and so tasty. One part of this trip that I've noticed in comparision to other previous trips is that we havn't over-indulged on food, which is the worst feeling when it comes to the end of the trip. At this rate, we're only eating 1 or 2 meals a day... and the rest of our dietry supplements consist of sweet, sweet Bintang :)

Tonight we are having about 10 people over to the villa to throw a farewell party of Ina. She has been in Bali for 5 months and has finally come to the end of her trip, she leaves for Germany on Thursday. Most people that know her are very sad to see her go, she has a very bright and bubbly personality. It's always sad to see a person that has those qualities leave, but as they say, all good things must come to an end.

Now we have to stop off at a local convienience store to pick up some bintangs to kick start a massive night tonight. We're gonna be sporting sore heads tomorrow, that's fo sho!!

Day X, Day Y, Day 'Dave'

It's been a whole 8 days and there's been no sign of an update on the blogosphere. I say that's poor form on your behalf, I blame teaching, Elise, Balinese culture and your awesome awesome villa...

Hello world, it's Dave here, writing the blog on Kate's behalf now that I'm finally here to share the tail end of her trip! She tells me that she's been totally flat out with her teaching duties and just having a great time with Elise as soon as she gets home from the Starfish Language Centre. I'll fill you in on the details and the 'goings on' of today, as for the rest of the week that has been omitted, I think Kate just simply cannot recall the events of her endless nights at this so called 'CP Lounge'.

The 5 hour flight over had no dramas for me, infact I had a bit of time to think about what I would potentially write for my debut on Frangipani & Clove. Below is a little memo of what events I thought would unfold when I landed:

What causes more of a problem with travel, scattered embers of volcanic ash in the air, or the congestion of the common cold?
Just as Kate had a travel scare before her departure to Bali, I too had one, as I became struck down with sickness 3 days before my holiday. You might argue that the severity of my circumstances wasn't as extreme as Kate's, but still... being sick surely sucks!


I've loaded up on cold n' flu tablets to help remedy this situation, in fact, I've probably got enough to tick 'yes' to declare possession of narcotics and substances! Hopefully customs won't question it (and they didn't), I don't speak Bahasa at all. 


As channel [V] provides the soundtrack to my flight, I can't help but wonder about the safety of my new Cole Clark acoustic guitar in the cargo hold. I only bought it 3 days ago, and if it breaks, well it's my own fault as I brought it along "at my own risk". And who knows, you might just get a song about it, much like this dude wrote.


Meeting Kate at Ngurah Rai International Airport will be a memory to treasure for many years to come. After spending almost a month apart from each other, I've learnt that I can survive on my own, but what would be the point if you've got no one to share it with? I've been looking forward to catching up with her and nitpicking her brain to see what she's learnt about teaching, learning, independence, identity, confidence, and most of all, living.


And I saw just that.

Kate has acclimatised herself to the culture here fantastically. I've found myself worrying about little things that she just shrugs off her shoulders, like having the right amount of money to pay the cab driver, what to do with keys at homestay houses etc. Her Indonesian is becoming more fluent as she talks to the locals. She is confident with knowing her way around Bali. She has been telling me about her communication skills with the kids at the language centre. She has learnt a tonne of things that she couldn't learn back home just yet. and I'm really proud of her :)

Anyhow... so where was I? Ah yes! My flight.

So Kate and I meet up at the airport and we hop into her drivers car and go straight to Kuta beach for a fun day spent with Ina, Blue and Sadam. We spent the day wallowing in the shore of the beach, playing beach volleyball and getting ourselves some henna tattoos. Kate got a pretty butterfly on her ankle and I got a nasty scorpion on my left arm. They'll exist for a few weeks, so you'll be able to see em when we get home. The sun at the point was beaming down hard on the beach, which set us in to fatigue mode, so we said our goodbyes to the others (followed by a "we'll see you at CP tonight") and got a driver to take us to Ubud. I severely underestimated the distance between Kuta and Ubud, as it took us around an hour to get there. The drive built up the suspense of seeing the villa for the first time (for me at least), and it was well worth the wait. This villa is 5 star luxury in the middle of the equivalent of Oodna Datta! Such an amazing atmosphere with sights, sounds and energy that is like no other tourist area of Bali. The words and pictures that Kate has posted thus far certainly do not capture the essence of what this place really feels like as it could almost be described as a 'money can't buy' holiday destination (if that makes any sense).

So after a nice swim in the private pool, we find ourselves (finally) up to date with the 'goings on' here in Bali. If Kate has the energy, she will definitely post another update real soon, but otherwise, you'll be hearing from me again very soon :)

Day 13

So, day 13 really picks up where my last blog left off... the night of the 12th. We got a driver to pick all of us girls up and take us to dinner. Dagmara had recommended a restaurant on Jl Raya called Nomad so we went there. Wow. I had the tastiest tenderloin steak with mushrooms and vegetables, and Elise had the most amazing looking chilli crab. It was a really great dinner, especially for Jess and Ali's last night out. Then we got our transport to drop us off near the football field so that we could keep drinking. Ali was still feeling a bit under the weather so she opted to go home, but Jess, Elise and I went on to XL lounge just across from the football field. It's a pretty trendy looking place I suppose. We had a couple of drinks, got seated next to these two older Australian guys from Melbourne. One was pretty cool, we all chatted a bit about being an Australian but not being a "Kuta" Aussie... The other guy was pretty drunk and we kinda kept clear of him. They came over to CP with us afterwards though because we knew it'd be busy there and they'd have fun. Aren't we good customers, bringing in more people? hehehe

Anyway, a couple of hours at CP turned into the whole night there, and before we knew it, we were the last ones in the bar (again). We were all still having a good time though so we decided to invite some friends over for a late night/early morning swim at my villa. It was pretty cool, and the least that we could offer our rides home for the night.

Being that we had a mammoth night out, none of us were really up at a decent hour the next day, but midday was the cutoff for sleep because like it or not, the girls had their last day ahead of them. We organised another driver and drove off to lunch in Ubud- Mojo's Flying Burritos. Yum! And a carafe of Sangria to keep the hangover at bay for a little while longer. Then we walked down Jl. Raya, went into a little Silver shop called Studio Perak. Kept walking, went through the Ubud Markets which was fun for the girls to see. Both had the chance to barter (i think it was for the first time...), but within two minutes of being in there I was already so sick of the tourists. Some can just be so pushy and rude... And yes, I said tourists, not the sellers. :)

We kept walking around, Jess and I decided to get a manicure on Jl Monkey Forest which was a really nice, relaxing experience for us. The girls picked up a few little gifts for family and then we made our way home. The driver taking the girls to the airport was due at 6.30, so we had enough time for them to do their last minute packing, and a quick dangle of the legs in the pool, and then they were off. It was sad, but I know I will see them back home in Adelaide in two weeks. I was so happy and lucky to have them come and visit me while I am here, it just makes my time here so much more memorable. :)

Next was dinner with Dagmara at a place called Mangga Madu. Pretty tasty, but I was still so tired from the night/morning before, as was Elise, that we both decided to stay in for the night, and get a decent amount of sleep. Which we did. And that brings us to today. It's Valentines day, and I was woken up at  4.54am by a Valentines msg from Australia... Thanks Dave. ;)

Got a bit of work to do today so that I can hopefully have a good night at this Charity gig tonight. Should be fun, but now it's time for work!

xx

Just a quick poem...

I will write more in depth about today at a later stage because I am about to be picked up by Dagmara... but a driver today gave me a travel guide on Bali and the front page has this poem written by Noel Coward. It was also written for Charlie Chaplin. But it goes like this...

As I said this morning to Charlie

There is far too much music in Bali,

And although as a place it's entrancing,

There is also a thought too much dancing.

It appears that each Balinese native,

From the womb to the tomb is creative, 

And although the results are quite clever,

There is too much artistic endeavor.

Quite the summary really :)

Day 10, 11 and 12...

Ok, so as expected I didn't get the chance to blog since the girls arrived in Ubud. It's been crazily hectic with work, and then having too much fun with my friends in the evenings to really get chance to do anything on here.

So I never actually made it to Kuta on the night of the 9th day... It poured pretty heavily for about 5 hours that night and we all decided it was just too much to make my way to Ubud. Plus I was at work from about 10 til 10, so I would have been asleep in a second if I'd sat in a car for more than 10 minutes. So instead, Ina and I got some dinner and went to CP lounge for a few drinks. It wasn't a late night, and it wasn't really a drunk night either. Just a good night :)

The next day I organised for a driver to pick up Jess and Ali from their hotel and I waited in the villa for them to arrive at roughly 1.30pm. I had to be at work in the afternoon to plan Green School lessons, so I basically had enough time to give them the grand tour, insist that they make themselves at home with the very very little supplies I had stocked my kitchen with (literally... kecap manis, some noodles, chewing gum, and bali coffee...). Sorry girls!

Spent the next few hours at work, and then Ina and I decided to have a dinner party again, as a way to introduce our Ubud friend to Jess and Ali. But this time we wouldn't cook, just order out. So Gopal came, Ina, our new German friends Kim and his brother (ooops, I forget his name, I think it starts with an "n") and Dagmara. We drank a bit then headed to...of course... CP.

So it was a usual night there, nothing all that interesting to report except that I always get to meet interesting people everytime I go there. Probably the reason I love it there so much. I've been to a couple of other 'bars' or 'clubs' in Ubud, but this one seems more welcoming.

Anyway, the girls come to CP with Gopal in his fancy car, but getting home was a different story. WIth the help of some of my friends, we all got home on the back of bikes, which was a first time for the girls. I think they enjoyed it, and it is actually a lot more fun that it looks.

Oh, which totally reminds me, I took a five minute break at work that day to try out driving Inas bike. It was...... scary. And funny. But mostly scary. I thought I was going to lose balance and break my leg under this huge bike. But in a short five minutes I managed to improve quite significantly. Not all is lost on me, I hope. Maybe I will try again later. Or another trip... :)

So Day 11 was just as eventful. I had Elise arrive on the morning of day 11, and although I had organised a driver to pick her up I was told that he actually couldn't, so I got up super early and rang a couple of people to see who could help. Finally I reached a driver who picked her up and, well... now she is here! Yay! Elise arrived at the Villa at about 12.30, and now we are one big happy family here! hehehe

Again, I had a couple of hours to give her the tour before scooting off to work. I had my beginners kids class at 3pm to take and it went really well. They are so freaking cute, but they learn really fast. Two lessons on body parts done, and they basically know it all now. Bugger, i was really enjoying singing the  'heads and shoulders knees and toes' song with them. I can still sing it in the shower though I guess :)

Tonight was always planned to be a big night for us though, and I actually never got back home that day. The girls called a driver to take them around Ubud and do some shopping and sightseeing which sounded pretty awesome. And they stocked my kitchen a bit which is even more awesome. :) But tonight at Starfish we were holding a party as a Birthday get together for one of the other teachers, also from Australia called Michelle. She's pretty amazing, a successful sculpter, and with no teaching experience at all, does amazing things with her kids class. Anyway the party was good, but the weather yesterday was the hottest its been here since I landed. The sun was actually shining and we were all sweating it up late into the evening. We drank on, enjoyed the company and then, well.... off to CP.

I know it sounds really monotonous, but we all just have so much fun there. Last night was not going to be an exception, except that we now had four non-drivers to transport from Starfish to CP. It was going to be a problem. We had a couple of friends who could help out, but the combination of drinking, a speedy driver and possibly lack of sleep left Ali feeling a bit unwell so she left early with Ina. Ina too, has gone home early because she has a flight to catch to Java in the morning. She'll be gone for 5 days. :(

It was also my German friend Kims last night in Ubud as he flies home to Germany...well... right now. Bit of a shame, but he was really cool and we played a bit of pool together over a few bintangs.

That brings us to today. We all had a pretty late night last night, or a lot of drinking, so we slept. I mean, we all slept, a lot. I got up at about midday, had a shower... all the boring stuff you do when you are recovering from a late night. Elise, Jess and I then walked to Starfish to get the bag I left there last night. Ali stayed home to watch movies as she was still not feeling too well. We went to Starfish, then walked on  to Arma Kafe. We had freshly squeezed juices and some really tasty Indonesian food. And I had a tasty Pisang Goreng. Yuuuuummmmmm.

We wandered home, had a bit to drink, and now we are just chilling out watching the Social Network. It's been a nice Saturday here in Ubud actually. And I am really loving having a full house. :)

Gonna have to get ready to go out soon, it's almost 8 which means dinner time soon... and probably CP. hehehehe

Goodnight!

Day 8 & 9

Again, I must apologise for not writing sooner. It's been pretty crazy busy here and I literally had very little time to myself (especially time to myself with my computer and decent internet connection).

So Day 8 was a long day. I was recovering slightly from a post-beach hangover. Not the alcohol variety, the sand everywhere, just a tad sun burnt on the nose, and general achy feeling from playing too much beach volleyball. It was great fun though.

Today was a pretty important day for me though- it was my first Starfish staff meeting. I even got sent the text message to remind all the teachers to come. There were still only 4 people there, but still... It was new to me. And nothing like your normal staff meeting in a school. Ina ran the meeting today because Dagmara was on her first day at Green School.

I spent the rest of the day trying to help out here and there with tasks around Starfish, and also trying to get new ideas for Green School but I can't get internet access at the school so it can be difficult. Dagmara then came back and explained that our preparation was basically irrelevant and we need to do something completely different. I think we are already so attuned to creating lessons for starfish, and forgetting that the kids at starfish are the underprivileged locals, whereas the kids at green school are the (in many cases anyway) spoilt children of the elite, or so they think they are. They don't take to our fun and lighthearted lessons as well and we almost have to impress them before they will take the lessons seriously. Oh well.

So, I spent some time debriefing this with Dagmara, and decided that internet was going to be necessary for some good ideas etc. I went back to my villa and realised I only had about an hour and a half to do this work, get ready, and leave for Kuta. So I'm rushing around, trying to get ready while different pages are loading, copying and pasting like there's no tomorrow. But I get a fair bit done so I feel ok about it. My driver arrives and I'm still getting ready so I just grab my stuff and race out the door.

My Driver, Wayan, is a friend of a friend...of a friend. I think. Ina was recommended him by a friend, and Ina then recommended him to me. He doesn't speak very much English and likes to use this time in transit to practice. So the whole way to Kuta, I pretty much was teaching anyway. But he was really sweet and agreed to wait for me until Midnight in Kuta so he could drive me back to Ubud. This is about a hour drive at this stage, longer again I think because traffic in Kuta, especially Jalan Legian, is just insane. But I made it and found my way to the White Rose Hotel...

The receptionist politely informs me that the room I am searching for is Room 2038, and as I'm walking around I realise just how huge this hotel is. Quite nice looking too, and I later find out, is completely booked out! That's pretty crazy for February right? But I give most of it very little thought at the time because.... Hells yeh, Jess and Ali are here! Woohoo!

I took them down Poppies 1 (I think it was one, I can never remember which is which) for dinner at TJ's Mexican Restaurant. I'd previously only had a Margherita here once, but I'm so glad we got a chance to eat here because it was amazing! I had a stuffed baked potato....and a few more Margheritas. :)

Then I took the girls to the Hard Rock Hotel. Pretty much one of my favourite places to hang out in Kuta. It's expensive, for Bali standards, but where else could you sit down amongst a plethora of memorabilia of almost all of the greatest rock artists? And the drinks are pretty good too. The mojito faces were coming out, and after making good friends with the girl who served us all night, we all jumped up on the bar and had a few photos. Good times. Oh, we also saw how the Hard Rock celebrates their guests birthday. It was pretty intense- like a quarter of a gamelan, all walking in procession, the front man wearing a tradition mask and carrying a whipped cream cake, which of course ends up all over the birthday girl/boys face. Very funny.

The night is young, or so I feel, but we call it a night because my driver is waiting. I swear though, as soon as I sat down in that car, the whole day caught up with me and I could have just passed out into some sort of sleep coma right there. I felt like one of those kids who tries so hard to stay awake but cannot physically hold their eyes open! hahaha, funny.

Anyway I got home and went straight to sleep. Which brings us to day 9 right? Tuesday. Or yesterday if you want to think of it presently. Yesterday was another almost full day at Starfish. Ina picked me up again (I love love love Ina) and we had lunch at Pizza Bagus. It's an Italian restaurant here, if you didn't already pick that, and the food was just amazing! Then we went straight on to Starfish with Dagmara in two as well. She had had another stressful morning at Green School, probably thanks to my totally rushed efforts with the planning the day before. So today, I have my organisation pants on- I am gonna show this planning who's boss! I sat in an internet cafe for about 2 and a half hours, just finding ideas, writings stuff down, and most importantly printing stuff out. Something I haven't been able to do, and it makes a huge difference to my planning ability to have something on paper in front of me, not just on my screen.

I get back to Starfish and after a bout a gazillion interruptions of people and students and volunteers arriving and phone calls... I finally get a chance to show Dagmara the plan for tomorrow, which she loves. I am totally stoked and know I can keep this up now, hopefully with only a decent amount of effort on my part. It's already 9 oclock at this stage, and Ina and I have invited people to my house again to cook. I said to start at 9-9.30, so I'm running a little late. Luckily no one is there when Dagmara and I get home, so I have a chance to Skype call Dave and Dagmara sneaks in a quick swim in the pool. I think it was exactly what both of us needed for 10 minutes to unwind from the day.

Ina brought some new people around to dinner, a couple of German guys she met. I swear she knows ever German guy in Ubud. Pretty interesting people really, one is a Physio on holiday, the other lives here and works in a waste processing plant of some sort. We had bolognese again, and of course ended up at CP again. This time we got there in time for the band, which we usually miss. The were doing some cover songs as you expect in Bali. Quite a nice rendition of Sex on Fire was even belted out at one point.

It was pretty much a normal night out last night actually, and I am sporting the usual arak headache this morning too. Arak is not a great drink I've come to realise. It's not distilled properly, and it's not a the cleanest drink in the world, so while it tastes really stong, you don't really feel the effects. Then, all the pain comes in the morning. I think I'll stick to Bintang please... infact, maybe not so much of anything for a little while. :)

Well, this has been long and again I have to get ready for work. Post again soon, I'll be in Kuta for the night tonight so maybe another long two-dayer coming up, not too sure!

xx

Day Seven

It's been a whole week already. It has gone by so fast, but also so slow in so many ways. To think back to landing seems like months ago already, but I also have been filling my days with so much that each day goes by quickly. So strange.

So last night, again you guessed it, I went out on Ubud town. Ina picked me up on her bike and we ate dinner at a little cafe called Loba Loba on Jalan Hanoman. It was pretty tasty, I got the Nasi Goreng, which surprisingly was my first since arriving. We planned to go to a wedding after dinner, but the ceremony had finished and was only an after party. We still decided to go and check it out. It was kinda boring really. You could pick the wedding party because they were wearing all white. The bride was wearing something that would resemble a hens night outfit. Short, white, flowy dress with some embroidered stuff around the neckline. Not traditional looking at all, and a little veil that looked so flashy with diamontes and stuff. They were all dancing in a nightclub called XL, just near the football field in Ubud. And by football, they mean soccer or course. Almost all Ubudians will refer to a location based on the distance from the field, so it's an important place to note. :)

So, after XL, we move to CP again. Don't ask me why all these places have two letters as names, but they are fun anyway. CP is my favourite though, so many people there every night, but not in a busy way, and you are guaranteed to meet someone new each night, but all the ones you met on previous nights are there too and are so friendly and remember you. It's amazing.

I didn't drink as much last night- maybe three bintangs for the whole night. And let me stress, by 'whole night' i really mean whole night. Once again, I am being brought to my villa by the property security at 4.30am... the security men are so funny and nice though, they always try to practice their english and ask me about my night.

Which brings us to today. Because I didn't drink much last night, I got up at about 9.30 and Ina and I planned to go to the beach with Carla and our French friend Charly. Charly speaks maybe 12 words of english. It's the funniest thing though. As Ina would say, 'all of the non-english speaking countries in the world will try and learn English, but the French- they don't bother." haha.

Charly cracked me up today so many times, but the stand out conversation went a little something like this...We were trying to explain the word tiger, which he understands, in french 'tigre' I think, but Ina's pronunciation of Tiger sounds more like tiga, which of course is the Indonesian word for three. So We all giggle, but this is not where its funny yet. So Charly is laughing and going 'oh yeh, satu (one), tiga (three), dua (two)...". I go to correct him, and say "no, no Charly, satu, dua ,tiga". And he looks at me and says..."Tiger". Zero comprehension.

Maybe it's funnier in person, rather than writing, but I'm still laughing hours later just thinking about it. Anyway, I should explain more of the context too. We went to Sanur beach today. It was so ice, still a bit overcast but it was perfect Bali beach weather really, because it wasn't blistering hot, but it also didn't rain. The water wasn't cold, and I even swam in the ocean for a while which I really don't enjoy doing at home. Charly took Carla home at about 6, and Ina and I waited in Sanur, jsut strolling the beach street and stalls waiting for the night markets to start. The markets were kinda small but we had fun anyway. I bought two dresses that are the pretty much the same style as one Ina was wearing the other night. They are nice, and I haggled with the lady to get two for about...9AUD I think. And I didn't haggle very hard either because I wasn't really in the mood for it. But I like my dresses. :)

Now I am back at the villa. I think I have decided to have a night in. Have my first starfish staff meeting tomorrow morning at 10, so need some rest to get up early for it. Also have an even bigger event tomorrow... Jess and Ali will be flying in at midday roughly and I will make the trip to Kuta to meet them. I am so excited to see them here, it's going to be crazy!

Something I am starting to notice about being here... even though it's only been a week, 90% of the people I talk to have english as a second language, and have some pretty intense accents. Because of this... I feel like my english has changed so much. It's gotten really crap, because I have toned down my vocab and whatnot to communicate better. It's funny, and bad. Last night at CP I met a whole group of aussies, and I could hear them talking across the bar and picked it straight away. Such a crass and lazy sounding accent... I hate to think I sound like this all the time to my new friends. No, I always tell myself us Adelaidians are far more british in decent, right?? hahaha The Aussies last night were fun, nice people. All from Melbourne, and also turns out one of them is the bar manager at Northcote Social Club, and has been for 5 years. Which means, Stephy if you are reading this on your own wild adventure of europe right now... he totally served us that vodka tomato at the Pictures gig... bahaha, he said he was there that night. ;)

Ok... I might upload some of my photos to facebook. Missing all my family and friends at home, and a special hello/happy travels wish to Stephy and Matt on their way to Europe, and Jess and Ali on their way to ME! :) Selamat Tidur!

xx

Day Four, Five and Six

Ok, first and foremost....ooops! I have been a bit slack with writing blogs and I am sorry to anybody (namely just Mum) who has probably checked this page every hour on the hour for an update.

So, Wednesday night I don't think I have written about. Pretty fun, Ina and Gopal came over for dinner and we cooked spaghetti bolognese. It was pretty tasty, really tasty in fact. We just stayed in and drank arak from a plastic bag. Classy, all the way. You know how I roll. ;)

I didn't really bother posting about day four because nothing that interesting happened. It was Chinese New Year on Thursday and everybody had the day off. It was good to have a day off, coz I just had a nice sleep and got up at 9. I sat in my little bale just outside of my villa because the internet is better quality from that spot. I researched some tesol ideas for green school and collected from resources from here and there. I watched a bit of tv as well, just lounged around basically. To be honest, probably the most noteworthy thing to mention about Thursday is that, being Chinese New Year, and also because just across the river behind my villa is a pretty big temple (i can only see bits and pieces of it through the jungle), every half an hour or so a man at the temple began chanting. Not in an annoying way, and it wasn't all that loud either, in a really beautiful singing kind of chant. Every half hour though, I swear- total devotion. But that was my day, enjoying what Ant referred to as 'the easy-life'...

So that brings us to day five- Friday. I have to be honest, this blog is the only reason I am keeping track of days right now. I have NO idea what the date is. Nobody here really does. Everything this is organised in 'tomorrows'. Or in my case, 'tonights'. Friday was an early start, wanted to meet Dagmara at Starfish to organise Green School syllabus. I couldn't leave though because it was raining, so I didn't get there until about 10.30. We still brainstormed heaps of ideas and got a bit done so that was good. Besides a quick trip to a local warung for late lunch with Ina, I stayed at Starfish all day until about 9pm. I taught a class again, the same one as on Wednesday, beginners english. The kids are super cute, and I'm going to be taking the class on until I leave now. Should be fun. During the day though, Ina wanted to cook again so I offered to have people over again. This time, we wanted some homemade local food so Gopal agreed to cook. We also invited a few other people from Starfish... Dagmara came, and also Ketut and Sudi two of the guys that work in admin. Then there was Carla, and of course Ina and Gopal. Gopal cooked Mi Goreng, it was so good. So many ingredients I have just never seen or used in my life! We all squeezed in around my dinner table and ate and drank and talked. The original plan was to have dinner and a few drinks, then head to a club somewhere. And we did eat, and we did drink... but we kept drinking and drinking... We had bought 3 litres of arak, again stored so nicely in old drink bottles... and then Gopal brought around a bottle of red label (which by the way retails at 600,000 RP here, like $70, it's A LOT). So we finished off the bottle of red label and all three bottles of arak and got pretty roudy.

Let me explain a bit more about my new friend Gopal before I move on. He is a bit older, although he is totally immature and probably borderline ADHD. He works (I assumed very successfully) as a drum-maker. I don't really know the professional term. He makes instruments from wood, to put it plainly. He makes didgeridoos and drums mostly though. Be he collects the wood himself, from all over the world, the places he has mentioned to me on just two occassions include Japan, Australia, East Timor and South Africa. He climbs palm trees to collect different materials and everything. Totally amazing character. Anyway, I tell him that my boyfriend plays drums (see Dave, I haven't forgotten about you yet... hehehe), and tell him maybe we'd come up to his workshop one day when Dave gets here. So on Friday night he rocks up, with groceries etc, but also with one of his personally designed Didgeridoos (its circular, like a coiled snake, but sounds pretty damn cool) and one of his drums too. He tells me it's a gift for Dave (which of course I have accepted as a gift for me). It's so amazing, Gopal is pretty talented. I've come to realise that Balinese people are exceptionally talented at basically everything they try. This drum took him 4 days to make, and he normally would sell it to Africa. It's an african drum of course (see the photo below).

So back to my dinner party... Gopal is playing this drum and is really good, if I weren't so tipsy on arak and whisky I would probably worried about how loud it got in my little villa. But luckily my only neighbours aren't here at the moment so no problems. And then the power decides to flick on and off about 10 times in 10 minutes, finally deciding to stay off for a good half hour or so. We just continue on drinking and talking and finding the whole situation hilarious. Then we remember we were going to head into Ubud for a drink somewhere and begin to organise hows and wheres... But it's already 2am. Most places closed half an hour ago, except of course one of the local favourites...CP Lounge. The same place I went on the Wednesday night. So we all head down to CP lounge, where Gopal buys another bottle of red label to share with the group and from there I remember talking to a French guy called Charly for like...an hour. And he speaks about as much English as I do french so it was an interesting conversation... Then I decided I was definitely drunk enough for one night and got a ride home. Started writing this blog (and talking to my mum on FB chat which was a total fail) and then literally couldn't hold my eyes open any longer and crashed.

What a night. I have unofficially renamed this post "How to Throw an Ubudian Party".

So that brings us to today, which consisted in part of sleep. A lot of sleep. I got up at midday and just mosey-ed about, cleaned up the mess which wasn't that bad because these Balinese just can't stop cleaning or helping when you invite them over, always trying to show how thankful they are. Then I got a call from Dagmara and headed out for lunch at one of her favourite Warungs. It was pretty tasty, not something I'd usually eat, kind of buffet style with all local delicacies. So tasty though. Went for a swim afterwards and now I'm getting ready to go to dinner with Ina and then crash a local wedding. Just another night in Ubud really. Now for the fun part though... Photos...

OK... Photos are totally hard to upload through this medium, so instead I might upload to facebook... sorry! xx

Day Three

Well, my drunk blog was reasonably coherent, which is good coz I didn’t really want to have to explain it all again. The follow up to that post was sleep. Like, 9 hours of sleep. I think it was an accumulation of flight tiredness, and having a big second day didn’t help either. It was one of the best sleeps I have had in so long. I’m really starting to get used to this villa as well. Although I would have never admitted it before, I was feeling a bit worried about the place, because it is so big and I’m alone I was scared something might go wrong and I wouldn’t be able to handle it. But each day I’m getting better here, feeling more relaxed and at home.

I think I am getting acclimatised to the weather here too. Let me explain how the weather works (oh yes, it’s that complicated).

-Early morning is nice, fresh, kinda smelly, and there is a lot of low fog around the jungle of my house. It’s just beautiful and eerie at the same time, but nevertheless a lovely time of the say to enjoy outdoors.

-Mid morning: warming up a little, people are moving around a lot more.

-Midday: Pretty hot and sticky by now. Some days are quite overcast which makes it even more humid. You could just be sitting down in a café and still feel like you’re sweating a bit. If there is more sun out, like today, the humidity is pretty bareable, and at the same time it’s not too hot. A lot different from what I have experienced on my previous trips where it’s just so hot you feel like you’re melting. I think Ubud is the difference too.

-Afternoon: Usually stays quite warm, but at 3pm (or thereabouts) everyday so far, RAIN! Like, a lot of rain. Maybe not torrential, but big, heavy drops of rain for a couple of hours at least. Everything smells fresh, but only after the rotting kind of smell subsides. I’ve been caught in this rain two of the three days I’ve been here, both times on a motorbike. It’s tolerable, I think I almost enjoy it just because I’m new to it still. Everybody probably thinks I’m crazy. I kinda am anyway J

-Evenings and Night- Ubud gets really dark, really quick. There are no real idyllic sunsets like on the coast, and because of the varied altitude (?? I think that’s the word I need), you can’t really see a lot of the sky from any one spot, everything is sloping rice fields and jungle, or buildings. So when the sun starts to drop, it’s gone pretty quickly. Usually everything is still wet so it’s pretty damp feeling all around. The insects make a lot of noise at this time too...

It probably seems a little indecent to be talking about the weather here and calling it complex when there are still people recovering from the floods and now bracing for Cyclone Yasi, but I am currently watching one of the IndoSat channels called AUstralia News and they are doing live updates.

Anyway, today was pretty hectic again, although I slept through my alarm and only woke up at midday. I walked to Starfish for the first time from my villa, which is surprisingly a decent walk. Nobody stopped me once to offer transport or to sell me anything, which will surprise some of you because it's not that way at all in Kuta or Seminyak. 

Spent the afternoon helping to write up some text for a brochure and poster that the centre is going to distribute soon to bring in some more paying/expat students. It looks ok right now, should have it finished by tomorrow. Also need to work on some lesson plans for Green School, but that will have to happen tomorrow at this stage. I've only been here 3 days and already I have quite a bit to do, which is awesome, but I can see how Dagmara must stress so much because she would have 20 times more things to worry about. 

Ina and I then taught a beginners english class, because the other teacher has gone away for a few months. They were so adorable- excited to learn, which is so new and almost confusing for me to deal with! Then we went for lunch at a warung on Jalan Hanoman. Had the best Mie Goreng of my life... so far. I think I'll try it in a few other places here too... :) 

Afterwards, we got caught in the rain again on our way to and from Bintang supermarket, because we got some groceries for dinner. Ina has been here for 5 months, from Germany, and she was so excitd when she saw my kitchen because she hasn't had one. She said she loves cooking and so we decided to have dinner here tonight so she can cook. Well, we went and got groceries right, probably enough spaghetti bolognaise to feed about 4 people. The total bill was like...90,000RP. Relatively cheap yeh, maybe like $11 AUD, but this would be enough for about 7 decent meals in a restaurant, and much larger portions too. In simpler terms, eating in restaurants in ubud= far, far cheaper than cooking for yourself. That's my kid of lifestyle right there...

Anyway, Ina is on her way now, and I'm going to start cooking the pasta. Should probably change clothes too... Photo's soon, i promise... :)

Day Two- Part Two

I don't really remember where I left off tonight but here is how my night panned out...

Dagmara and I had dinner at Mojo's Flying Burritos restaurant and talked a bit more about how to develop some curriculum for the ESL students at Green School. I think we are both feeling reasonably confident with how it will go, but we'll see. I agreed to spend tomorrow a Starfish to work on the planning etc, and also to get the feel of how the centre really works too. I hope I can eventually teach some lessons, even if it's just an occassional class. I sat in on/helped out with one of Ina's classes today and it was really fun and good to see.

Anyway, we left Mojo's and met up with Carla and Ina, then Ina, Dagmara and myself went to a bar. I can't remember what it was called now, but it was a reggae bar. We saw the last couple of songs by the band, which was cool- just your typical reggae covers but people were dancing and getting into it. We left there because Ina had bought some arak from a friend, so we went to her house and drank it by the pool. One of Dagmara's friends joined us with his guitar, and before you know it we are all drunk and singing wonderwall. :) I have had about 5 arak drinks tonight, and I think that will last me for the week at least. Local alcohol...

Anyway, Dagmara almost took us to a pirate party and right before we left she found out it wasn't tonight, but tomorrow night. So instead we went to a place called CP lounge. I didn't even realise how late it was until now, but its actually 4 o'clock already. I just got back to the villa, but that wasn't the end of my night. I got locked out by the housekeepers and security and didn't have the main gate key so I was about the call Dagmara for help but a security guard came outside and found me. He didn't speak any english, so I did my best and eventually we worked it out. We walked down to the villa and, of course, my gate had also been locked! And again I didnt have that key, only the one to my villa door! So, since he had no key, we had to climb under the gate. I felt so bad for getting this lovely man to help me break into my own villa, but he didn't seem to mind too much. Note to self, get all the keys, and get home earlier! Whooooops! :)

Now, since I still plan to get up early to plan, I guess I need to get to sleep. zzzzzz

Day Two

So, Since my last blog I had dinner with Dagmara, Ina and Carla at a place called Kafe Ige...something. Damn, I was sure I'd remember but now I can't. It was on the east end of Jalan Raya though. It was really tasty, I ordered nasi goreng cap cay! Yum! Dagmara organised to pick me up in the morning and I was so tired from the flight/early morning/being in a new country that she took me home at about 10.30 or 11 and I  slept like a log! Such a good bed to sleep in though...ahhhh...

Anyway, this blog will have to be short for now because Dagmara is coming to pick me up in exactly 11 minutes.

I have spent about 80% of my time here with Dagmara, she is so amazing and kind. She picked me up bright and early this morning on the bike and drove us to Green School. Such an amazing school to experience on my second day! I would explain more now but, time is an issue, so I definitely encourage you to check out the website at www.greenschool.org. And yes, it looks exactly like it does in the photos! We spoke to some of the staff and the children who may need some ESL help. They were amazing kids, so energetic and just love school! Almost impossible to believe if you have been in a school in Australia anytime in the last...well... 25 years. And they are from all over the place, Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Japan. Just incredible.

Anyway, we went for lunch at Cafe Moka on Jl. Raya and chatted about what I am going to do to help out at Starfish. I am really keen to get started but it's just about finding what is right for me at this stage. Should hopefully be getting stuck into some curriculum planning tomorrow for intermediate english classes.

Also went to Bintang supermarket in Tjampuhan with one of Dagmaras friend/staff from starfish called Sudi. We got there and then the 3pm rain started so we were stuck there for about half an hour. We jumped back on the bike once it had stopped, but half way through our trip it started to rain again, so we both got saturated. But it was funny. Sudi doesn't speak much english, and I don't speak much Bahasa so it was even funnier. :)

Ok, Dagmara is here. I might write more when I get back, who knows, could be the first drunken blog from me? Going to a reggae bar with Ina tonight so I'm sure it'll be fun! Love to you all xx