The final journey part 3: monkeying around in Bali

Following our late night and 30 minute flight out of Lombok, we land in Bali, one paradise to the next.



Our first night we planned to stay in Ubud, which is centrally located on the island, known for its rich Balinese culture, also the spot where Elizabeth Gilbert famously finds the second love of her life in Eat, Pray, Love. It is fantastically easy to see why ex-Pats are attracted to its beauty and charm: our hotel, Ketut's Place, is a traditional Balinese temple compound that looks a little something like this-



After a much needed nap, we found yet another perfect meal of fresh Balinese spiced pork. Let me emphasize the fresh. Still convinced food tastes better in paradise. Or maybe this time its about my hangover and the pork grease. Shots from lunch and a few of the typical things you see wondering around Ubud. Essentially, the whole town's small roads, shops and restaurants have this authentic Balinese feel. And gorgeous temples just appear out of nowhere. It's pretty sweet.









We make our way to the Monkey Forest Sanctuary which I am convinced would not exist in many other places in the world. You walk in and are essentially forced to buy bananas the FEED the monkeys. Feeding the animals at zoos is foreign to an American raised gal but I clearly jumped at this opportunity. Pictures and video speak for themselves, the monkeys were awesome and feisty and I loved this. Saturday we were at a private aquarium, Sunday was spent feeding monkeys like a Discovery Channel episode.











Monday we decided to spend the final day of the trip in Kuta due to is proximity to the airport (of course, early flight out Tuesday AM) as well as the fact that Kuta is THE known party destination in Bali. I wanted to avoid it, but everyone told me to go, even many of my Indonesian friends. It's a guaranteed wild time. And my version of paradise involves hoards of European and Australian surfers.. that is Kuta in a nutshell.

We spent a few hours on the beach and because of the steady stream of tourists there, the locals are champions at selling you crap you don't need. Within about ten minutes of our arrival, I am MOBBED by women, paid for another beach massage, flowers painted on my toenails and an arrangement of various souvenirs. I’m bargaining but not as hard as I can. Even if you’re getting ripped off, it is still so cheap there. And I’m too relaxed to give a crap.

I do not have a ton of pictures of Kuta. In my mind it is some mix between Asia and Bourbon Street, except full of 18-22 year old vacationing Australians. I could’ve done maybe one more night of this, but honestly, it makes me feel a little old. We saw Kuta, and that is what matters.

Tuesday we manage to make our 7am flight back to Singapore, again where I write from. It is yet another small miracle that I have been able to shove everything I've acquired into my bags before I begin the actual FINAL journey this evening. Two flights, 20 more hours of air time and a 12 hour Tokyo stopover is all that stands between me and HOME!

The final journey part 2: the lost hour(s) of Lombok

We managed to return back to Singapore this morning in one piece- but barely. I'll begin of the last five days tales with a summary of our time spent on Lombok and how we literally and harmlessly lost an hour on this quiet remote paradise.

Pat and I left Singapore Friday morning in a state of exhaustion (one that continues...) after an evening enjoyed dining and chatting outside in this generally delightful climate. In spite of leaving his place less than two hours before the flight, we make our first leg to Jakarta with no hassles. Soekarno International in Jakarta is another story. After numerous trips there in the last two and a half months, I am convinced that place is the 8th circle of hell.. It's hot, lacks edible food options and terminals are poorly marked/painfully confusing. I'm glad Pat is put through this so he can see first hand the truth about this situation.

Lombok time zone is one hour ahead of Jakarta, unclear how it is actually the same time zone as Singapore. This confused me all along, I managed to reset my iPhone so I'm keeping accurate time, but something clearly got lost in this change. It's probably easy to see where this is going.

Miraciously we arrive at our hotel in Senggigi beach, Lombok, the Qunci Villas. My plug for this place: it is paradise. Perfect. Quiet, fantastic service, just enough other tourists around but very few in general. Sempurna, perfect. I repeat. And its cheap to live like a King, American couples should make the extra trip over here (forget Hawaii!!!!) to honeymoon. It's just perfect.

We find a delightful dinner in the small town and stumble upon the Happy Cafe, a bar and restaurant with live music nightly. Pat and I saddle up, sing along, and after an hour or two or three goes by I'm convinced the bar closes early and I'm not happy. Regardless, we wander home, wake up for our PERFECT breakfast overlooking the beach and what turns out to be the boat we arranged to go snorkeling on the Gili islands, another perfect little quiet paradise.

Pat admiring the breakfast burrito



We planned to leave at 9, but the hotel informed us at breakfast that it was OK to leave at 10. Sounds fine to us, we're clearly not in a rush and are thankful for fantastic service from the staff who can solve all of our problems.

Our boat which is awesome.



We set out for an hour to Gili Meno island, snorkel for a while, snag a few shots of turtles, and make our way to Gili Air for a relaxing lunch at Paradiso.. literally what our private little cabana stand is called.





After lunch we snorkel again in far shallower water and our guide gives us bread to feed the fish. Both of these situations seem like a bad idea but in the absence of regulation, why not? The fish were so close and beautiful it felt as if we were swimming along with them in a tropical aquarium.



We return home around 4:30pm which is perfect timing, or so I think, for my scheduled 5pm massage. Tough life. Massages across Asia are outrageously cheap and it seems silly not to indulge while you're here. I head over for said appointment and am told that I am ONE HOUR late and the masseuse already went home for the day. I am so devastated and finally all of the day's mistakes make sense: my thought of the bar closing early, our changed departure time.. I never changed my cell phone to reflect the new time zone. But because nothing can go wrong in paradise, as I'm walking back to the room, defeated and disappointed, I find another woman who offers me an hour massage for even cheaper than the hotel, so I got my treatment after all.

Dinner in town yet again is perfect (proving that food tastes better in paradise) and we find ourselves yet again at the Happy Cafe. This time the bartenders embrace our return, and a less rowdy crowd leads Pat and I to chat it up with them- everything from Indonesian weddings to what its like to wake up in such a beautiful place everyday to why the hell its so hard to get a US visa as an Indonesian citizen. This turns into another too late evening.. accompanied by a karaoke session (similar to our Fourth of July celebration's ending!) that we won't soon forget with Li and Henru the bartenders. A little glimpse about how we wasted away the evening.





This would've been all well and good, but we had a 7am flight to Bali.. this was the scene a few hours later when we somehow found our way ON TIME to the airport. Good thing I figured out the time change before the flight out.

Note: Pat and I are in the same clothes as the night before, you can't see here but the boarding passes are hand-written (only in Indo) and thankfully the flight had a cool 56 seats- just enough to make me not feel nauseous.





Many more pics from the island, snorkeling, Happy Cafe and adventures in Bali to come soon!

The final journey

August 5th seemed like one of those days so far in the future that it'd never come.. but alas, the day of my scheduled departure came. This morning I left Bogor with a bit of a heavy heart and a shameful amount of baggage - IN spite of my marathon "survivor" packing session, in which, any piece of clothing or item that I didn't love got left on the island.

I wrapped things up frantically at CCROM yesterday, including a solid two hours ironing out all the details of my seven flights over the next eight days. Not my best planning endeavors - I screwed up my single entry Indo visa and probably will lose more money than I should in various airport taxes - but even I'm not perfect at planning. I write from Singapore, where I'm shamelessly dumping 3/4 of my current belongings at Pat's PALACE (complete with pool, famous jungle gym from our first whirlwind visit in June, warm showers, proximity to waterfront running area). The master plan:

Partner in Crime: Patrick Maher, pictured left


Credentials: 1 year of living in Singapore working for Barclays, making him an expert of the Southeast Asian landscape
2 previous trips to Bali, several other regional adventures
Tolerated Eric Schwendimann as a roommate

Agenda: Friday and Saturday in Lombok, the island just east of Bali, described by Lonely Planet as "a labyrinth of turquoise bays, white sand, world class surf breaks, and drop-dead good looks." Our hotel has the option of a personal chef. I am beyond stoked.

Sunday and Monday in Bali. Bali shouldn't need much introduction. I thought about perhaps visiting another Indonesian island (I really wanted to see those orangutans in Kalimantan!) but every single Indonesian I met told me I MUST go to Bali. I don't anticipate any disappointment here - temples, beaches, gorgeous rice terraces, unique Balinese traditions and culture

Tuesday and Wednesday (if we get on the flight back..there is potential we won't) I have to spend in Singapore where Dan and I will depart together for JFK.. yes that's right.. JFK! But not before we get twelve hours during the day to explore Tokyo.

I've been a bundle of different emotions over the last week: shocked at how quickly the two months flew by in Indonesia, very sad to leave the new friends who embraced us and made sure we made the most of said time, a little unexpected anxiety about returning home, and an utter disbelief that my year of grad school is OVER - minus one small presentation my first week back at Columbia. I have been a slave to this program since last August, I think part of the bundle of emotions includes a feeling of what the hell to do with all my new found free time??? Now that my life is a year richer of people, knowledge, and purposeful energy to help save the planet.

Not quite sure I have an answer to that question, but I've got a week in paradise to figure it out.