Bali to Trawangan, Gili Islands

July 27th, 2010 Trawangan - Gili Islands

"Welcome back home" was what we were greeted with as we stepped off the boat at the Trawangan harbor. Our trip to this little island paradise took us 12 hours by bus, ferry, another bus, and a final second boat, but it was worth it. There is a Jamaican feel here with reggae vibes a flowin' and locals with dreadlocks who are eager to offer passing tourists "smoke". This island seems to have more cats than people, all of which we assume to be inbred given their messed up tails and the small size of the island (the cats, not the people). There are about 1000 local residents, no cars or motorbikes, only bikes and horse drawn carts. There are no police here which inspires a very care-free atmosphere.

When we got off the boat we asked a local to direct us to cheap accommodation. We were directed down an alley and shown a little bungalow. It seemed sufficient for the time being as we were really tired from the 12 hour trip and just needed a bed. We only stayed there one night as when the sun came up (according to Alice it was 4am - but I don't think so) a half dozen or so roosters outside our door were having an unofficial cock-a-doodle competition. Muirhead wasn't having it! Given that Muirhead needs her sleep - my happiness depends on it - we packed up and move on in search of greener - chickenless - pastures. We found a much better place a couple blocks back off the main drag called Pondok Twin's Garden.

(view from our patio)

It is a peaceful, beautiful, and well run little family place with great breakfasts, a hammock, and super friendly staff. The only thing that disturbs the peace is the call to prayer, broadcast over a loudspeaker, 5 times each day. The hotel is just around the corner from the mosque, but we'll take the Arabic calls over the call of the roosters any day of the week. The family that runs the hotel even prepared a special BBQ one night for the guests - something that they said was special and doesn't happen all the time. It was delicious! Muirhead missed out because she didn't want to miss Matt Damon's thrilling portrayal of Jason Bourne at the local cinema (I know, right).

(Ship wreck in the background)

There isn't much to do here other than sit on the beach, snorkel, eat and drink, and run around the island (it only takes 40 minutes to jog around the whole thing). We spent one day snorkeling and saw lots of big turtles. We started our snorkel day in the morning but got stung by too many little jellyfish to make it very enjoyable, so we retired to the beach until the afternoon when the water was jellyfish free.

(Trawangan Harbor - The island of Lombok in the background)

We've been reunited (and it feels so goooood...) with all of the people that we met in Java and Bali (everyone) - the Dutch, the Germans - and also made new friends with a bunch of English and Irish girls.

(Friends)

There are two outdoor cinemas here which we have patroned twice. The movies are free as long as you buy food or drink. While watching the movie "Brothers" (terrible - fyi), I ordered a bowl of locally made vanilla ice cream. When I placed my order the waiter clarified that I only wanted vanilla, not strawberry, not chocolate - three scoops. After about 5 minutes he came back and asked "what was your order?", and we repeated the process. About 5 minutes later he returned as asked again "what was your order?" and for the third time I said "three scoops of vanilla". He asked "no chocolate?", I said "no". About 5 minutes later, he returned and said "I'm sorry, we don't have chocolate." Alice and I laughed nearly falling from our high chairs, and I said "don't worry, I'll have vanilla." When it eventually arrived the waiter offered it to our neighbors, and then to Alice before it finally, after a long wait, landed in my mouth.

Yesterday a torrential downpour, which began the night before, raged throughout the day. By the time we ventured outside of the relative safety of our thatched restaurant booth, where we spent the entire afternoon, the streets were flooded to about shin height. By 9 pm the water was up to Muirhead's knee. We went into a local Warung (food place) down a dirty, stinky alley (remember the horses?), with the water getting higher by the minute. When you enter the Warung it is generally accepted that you leave your sandals outside the front door. By the time we emerged from the Warung Muirhead was less one sandal. The rain was pouring more than it had all day, we were forced to huddle under a single umbrella (which we *borrowed* from our hotel), and we had to trudge through a brown river of who knows what to find Muirhead's orphan footwear. I had given up, but out of some womanly attachment to shoes - no matter how flimsy or worn - she insisted we find it. Fortunately we had a flashlight - thanks Tom Muirhead - and we located the shoe about 20 feet down river nestled in a pile of garbage. Today it is sunny as if yesterday never happened. We are happy to be dry!

We're leaving on the 29th to go back to Bali where we will catch a flight back to Jakarta to do some laundry and hit the pool at Adrian's place. We'll be leaving Jakarta on the 4th to head to Sri Lanka. We may arrange to have a layover of a couple days in Kuala Lumpur to visit some Dutch girls we met here who will be doing a 7 week medical internship at a hospital there.

Hope all is well back home. Sorry that there aren't any pictures. We'll post some in Jakarta...(posted now!)

"Relaxing" in Bali - Surfing, Scuba, Steal My Sunshine

Since our last post we've accomplished many of our mission objectives!

Our first day on Kuta beach we met a guy named Sugeng who teaches surfing and runs day tours of Bali. He was very nice & didn't push us too hard to buy something so we agreed to have surf lessons with him the next day. However, after 5 hours in the sun and water, Dave got so sick and sun burnt he had to sleep for 18 hours. I learned to surf alone (and became the world's best surfer) while Dave lay wrapped up like a mummy.

I spent the rest of the day catering to his food, water and medicinal needs (luckily I had the pills he *decided* not to bring). The next day, healthier, Dave had a surf lesson with Sugeng and I practiced on my own. We met a really nice couple from Germany who were staying in our hotel and had dinner with them that night. They had both traveled and studied all over the world and had lots of interesting and funny stories - their names were Ole and Uli - and Ole excelled in mimicking local accents! "Sorry, massaj finnis now."

(Dave now takes control of this post as Alice has molasses in her you know what! (fingers, jeez - this is a family blog)

We went out drinking with zie Germans, and ended up being invited to a Balinese birthday party on the street which entailed one drunk old Aussie belting out classics on his six string, about a dozen drunk Balinese guys (one who *really * liked Alice), a number of deep fried fish carcasses which had been enjoyed by the group several hours earlier, and us. There was lots of hugging, some sort of conflict which escalated into a fight but was immediately resolved with sincere apologies, and a water bottle full of gin passed between the lot. On our way back to our hotel we saw a motorbike accident, and one of the bikes swerving to avoid calamity ran up the back of Alice's heel, causing little harm but great excitement. Now anytime anyone tells a cool story she won't be left out.

The following morning, we were picked up by Sugeng and his brother at our hotel. We hired them to take us on a tour of Bali which was absolutely spectacular. Sitting on the back of their scooters, I imagined myself as the lead in Len's "Steal My Sunshine" music video (Dum da dun dun da).

We first went to a look out with a little temple and ocean views. We then went to a place called "Blow Water" which was a point surrounded by crashing waves which upon hitting the rocks created a 30 foot spray that surrounded you from three sides.

After Blow Water, we went to a recreational water spot area that is protected by law to preserve fish habitat. When we arrived we were instructed to have a seat, and then were bombarded with a menu of water sport options (all overpriced). Snorkeling for 1 hour was 40 USD each, a 15 minute "banana boat" ride was somewhere around 50, and there were a dozen other options which all seemed like something you'd do if you were out with the wife and your 5 year old twin daughters who all just had their hair put in braids. No thanks. The more we hesitated, the lower the prices got, and the one option that we were interested in - scuba diving - went from 90 USD each to 100 for the pair of us. We figured "hey, this is on our list", so off we went, under the sea! What was cool about this place was that you didn't need any certification, which is an expensive and time consuming process (safety - pffff). Alice and I were each given a little bag of bread to induce a feeding frenzy and saw so many amazing and beautiful fish. The instructor caught a little fish called a knife or blade fish, or something, and passed it between Alice and I. Tres cool.

We then had lunch, mie goreng our favorite, and then were off to discover more beaches. We found some beautiful spots, basked in the sun, read our books, and watched some amazing surfing. We ended our tour at a temple at the southern most point on the island. The temple is infested with aggressive and cunning monkeys, who steal tourists' glasses and sneak up on people and try to rip out their earrings. We weren't attacked ourselves, but saw some monkey fangs, and witnessed a monkey chewing on a Japanese woman's designer frames before it took off over the 500 foot cliff.

We watched the sun set from a top the temple cliff. I contemplated getting rid of Alice, once and for all (but then thought of all the medicine I'd have to carry from her pack).

After sunset, we got on our bikes and started on the hour or so ride back to our hotel. My driver's bike didn't have a light which meant he didn't see the crater in the middle of the road which resulted in a nasty bump, and a flat tire. We limped our little bike to a roadside repair shop, which only delayed our trip home by about 20 minutes. I thought in addition to the flat we were also going to run out of gas as we'd been on E for most of the afternoon. We stopped at a gas station, to my relief, but they were out of gas (?), so we pressed on with our future looking a little uncertain. Fortunately, there are these little roadside stalls that sell petrol by the liter, conveniently bottled in old Absolute Vodka bottles (hate to imagine some unknowing Australian chud thinking he'd sneak a shot). We filled up, made it home, did the math and realized we had been out for 11 hours.

Starving, we met up with zie Germans and went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. We were joined by a brother and sister from Holland who were friends of Uli's met while studying abroad in Melbourne. Maike, the sister, will be off to Sri Lanka in a couple weeks on a journalism internship in Columbo and we've made plans to meet up.

Tomorrow we've booked a slow boat to the Gili Islands where we're hoping to find a mango that is in season.

Ken Wilkening - If you're going to read one, this is the one

Well we have been having quite the adventures, we will have you know! It has been a crazy week with motorbikes, and rickshaws (bacek), bicycles, buses, minibuses, taxies, and a ferry.

Since our last post we have traveled from Central Java to Bali where we currently sit, sunburned and rather sick of each other, on the eve of becoming the world's best surfers.

From Jogja we went to Borobudur, the world's largest Buddhist temple. At the top of the temple we passed through a gate called "the mouth of time" where we left all the negative karma that we (mostly Alice) were carrying, and therefore are now significantly more enlightened. We stayed at this ritzy bougie bouge place called the Manohara (they gave us free slippers! - thanks Asia). We rode bikes around to some little temples in search of further enlightenment, and Alice nearly got run over by a motor bike (no kidding, it was f'in close).

From there we took a bus to Solo, and then caught a series of city buses to Tawangmangu - a very small village way up in the hills. One of the minibuses we took on the way to Tawangmangu had 17 people in it at one time (17 butts divided by 5 seats - you do the math). Tawangmangu has Java's highest waterfall (100m) which was quite beautiful. The base of the waterfall was surrounded by monkeys, snakes, frogs, and women trying to sell you deep fried rabbit (a local delicacy).

From Tawangmangu we took a little bus to Cemoro Sewu where we were let off at the base of Mount Lawu. The mountain is a destination for pilgrims in search of enlightenment, but all we found was muscle ache and hypothermia. The travel book said the hike could be accomplished in 6 hours and was best done at night to see the sunrise, the locals said 7-10. We started off at about 230 in the afternoon, and 20 minutes in we had almost had enough! It was as steep as a staircase at its most kind point of incline, and we stupidly were each sporting our packs which weigh in at between 30-40lbs a piece. We some how endured until nightfall, and decided to go no further.

We didn't have a tent, sleeping bags, or pillows (oh wait, Alice has a pillow - that minx), so we slept in the dirt, surrounded by garbage, with our lower bodies crammed into my duffel bag for warmth (it did nothing). We each put on all the clothes we were carrying, and still nearly died of exposure. I had 4 t-shirts, 1 sweatshirt, 1 coat, 2 pairs of pants, and 2 pairs of socks. Alice had 5 shirts on, 2 pairs of pants, and 2 pairs of socks - with Kris' mosquito net wrapped around her torso. We barely slept because we were shaking so violently from the cold. Alice also wants me to add that she beat me at cards, while we were sitting in the dirt. We got up at dawn, surprised we made it to see the light of another day, to hike another 2 hours to the top. We ditched our bags on the trail, locking them together with Alice's lock - fortunately Alice has everything all the time that I *decided* not to pack. The view was the stuff of legends, and at the top there was a sort of temple where we sat in contemplation of some pretty serious stuff. This just in, Alice was just content with the sun. We went down the mountain which tried our seriously damaged legs, and caught a series of buses to Surabaya.

Surabaya is the second largest city in Indonesia. It is dirty, busy, crazy, and kind of gross. We found the nasty, cheapest place to stay (60,000 rupiah - about 6-7 dollars). Alice's bed was crawling with bugs and she had a tonne of bites in the morning, I had maybe one. We left Surabaya the next morning and caught a bus to Bali. Alice, the seasoned traveler in our troupe, saved the day when a dude at the bus station tried to pull a fast one over our eyes - and he had me hooked. So you see, every bus station we have been to in Indonesia has had a bus every few minutes leaving to anywhere we have wanted to go (some pretty obscure places included). We get to Surabaya, a big city bus terminal, and this guy had me convinced that there was only one bus to Bali - a very popular destination - and that it didn't leave for 7 hours. I was like "sure, okay, let's just have a seat Alice". And Alice was all like " Dave, you idiot" and I was like "What? The guy said there is only one bus, so there is only one bus." Alice prevailed in convincing me to look around, and to my surprise there was another bus around the corner leaving in an hour. If I had been on my own I wouldn't have ever got to Bali.

So...the bus to Bali was supposed to take 9 hours, but it in fact ended up taking 13. So again we found ourselves wandering around the streets, trying to find a hotel that wasn't "sorry sir, full". A nice transexual on a motorcycle told us not to trust anyone, and would disappear on her motobike, only to return minutes later with the same advice. She was most kind, and led us to somewhere to stay as everywhere we turned was booked. We found a room that was more expensive than we wanted to pay, but it was sufficient, and come dawn we sought out (and found!) reasonable accommodation not too far from the beach where we will stay for the next few days. We spent the day on the beach and now look like lobsters. Fortunately Muirhead had the aloe which I *decided* not to pack.

Tomorrow we are going to learn to surf, sit on the beach, and read some books. I finished the book Krakatoa today which I strongly recommend to anyone who can read. It provides a detailed description of Indonesia's geological, biological, cultural, and colonial histories, with the 1883 eruption of the volcano Krakatoa as the books thematic backdrop. Ken Wilkening, if you read this blog, this book is for you (perfect for your origins and evolutions class).

That's all for now. Thanks for reading. We appreciate your comments!

Yogyakarta

July 10-11th, 2010 - Jakarta to Yogyakarta

Leaving Jakarta proved to be a little bit of a mix-up as, despite my brother's repeated warnings, we ended up at the wrong airport terminal (international instead of domestic). I had my first pangs of traveler's stress. Alice nipped that stress in the bud right away by putting some noodles in my food hole and I felt way better. We got to our terminal with plenty of time to spare, and the plane was an hour late taking off anyway so noodles, no noodles, no problem.

Upon arrival in Yogyakarta, the cultural centre of Java according to the all mighty Lonely Planet Indonesia, we made friends with two dutch girls and asked if we could share a cab to whatever hotel they were going to. To our dismay the hotel that they had booked could not accommodate us as this weekend is a holiday weekend in Indonesia to celebrate the Prophet Muhammad. Alice and I figured "no problem" and trekked out in search of a bed. Of all the 15 hotels on the block the only one with a room was the luxurious Eclipse Hotel which was asking more than double what we were willing to pay. We respectfully told them where to go (kidding), and moved on. Just as we gave up hope and Alice resorted to praying (thanks Cedar's Christian School), a woman on the street took pity on us and called her brother who happened to own the hotel she was sitting in front of. Bambang, the hotel keep, in an act of mercy, offered us the floor of his personal meditation room! What amazing luck! It turned out to be way better than anything we could have asked for.

Bambang is a Reiki master and over breakfast the topic of 'energy' came up and I showed him two piece of polished hematite (magnetic stones which may be sued in meditation) that I purchased on Granville Island prior to my departure. He was amazed and said he had never before actually seen magnets. Seeing his excitement I offered them to him in thanks for taking us in. He called them "a gift from God" and ran to show them to his wife. He returned with with two pieces of wood that he gathered from the forest and carved. He gave one piece to both Alice and I and said that the wood "has powerful protective spiritual energy" and "not to use it to hit anyone because your power will be too strong". It was a beautiful exchange.

This morning we hired a man named Simo who drove us all around Jogja. Simo had trained at university in Fine Arts, specializing in batik making, but because of the competition in the market has opted to provide tourists with transportation. Simo first took us to the Kraton Palace which was unfortunately closed due to special ceremony, so we went to see artists make the famous leather shadow puppets which are meticulously made using a mallet and chisels made from recycled motorcycle spokes.

We then went to the Water Castle which served as the living quarters for the sultan's wives, concubines, and daughter, followed by a visit to a silver shop.

I've been working at learning Indonesian and Javanese which has been very well received by locals and has been a lot of fun.

Alice is making plans for our next few days which should include temples, mountain hikes, bike rides, mango eating...enlightenment...the usual.

Hugs and kisses,
Dave and Alice

P.S. Alice saw another dead rat :) haha

motorcyles, dead rats and frisbee soup!

According to Dave I'm not pulling my blog weight, so here is an update from me!

I'm having a fantastic time in Jakarta (once I got over the pool sharing and toasted bread fiasco things started to look up!!), Adrian has been a wonderful host and his apartment has been the perfect place to get over jetlag and prepare for the next 6 months of adventures. Last night Adrian took us to play ultimate frisbee with a group of people he plays with regularily, people from all over the world who live in Jakarta. I've never played before and my frisbee skills are about as good as my soccer or euchre skills (terrible... bad... awful...) but everyone was super nice and it was really fun. Sprinting around for two hours was really surreal though because it is so humid here- it was like playing in a pool of cold soup! To get to the playing field we rode motorbikes; Adrian negotiated with the drivers about price and where we were going so when my driver took off down an alley I had only a vague idea that I was being taken to the right place... a little terrifying! However, my helmetless, dark alley motorbike ride was nothing compared to the awful dead rat I saw earlier in the day, not once, but twice!!!! Dave had a good laugh, along with a street full of people on motorbikes when I leapt into the air and started yelping at this rat belly up on the sidewalk.
Tonight we had a great Indian dinner with some of Adrian's friends who live in Jakarta; most work with him at the embassy. Everyone was really interesting and full of suggestions about where we should go and things we should see. We had dinner with one guy who manages th Canadian embassy in Jakarta. He stated that he was in North Korea several years ago and that he and another woman were the first Canadians to visit North Korea for 10 years! (What do you think of that Corb?)
Tomorrow we're flying to Yogyakarta, with a vague plan to go to Solo, Malang, Bali and Lombok over the next few weeks.

...With Photos

So unfortunately these photos are not posted in sequential order - we're still learning how to be professional bloggers - but we trust you'll get the gist.

July 7, 2010

1st Photo - A group of youths outside the Istiqlal Mosque who wanted their photos taken with us. After their photo Alice was all like "if you get a photo then so do we" and busted out her camera. Ridiculously funny, and maybe the highlight of my day because they started out all shy but as soon as the first brave girl approached us and sat down one by one the other 11 came running. All of a sudden we were swarmed with little nervous smiling girl. We all laughed a lot. (Catholic cathedral in the background.)

2nd Photo - When we entered the Mosque we removed our sandals and were escorted to a visitor information office where we met a little man in his late 20s named Jamal who would serve as our tour guide. He first took us to a make-shift theater with a bunch of chairs and a small TV where he told us to leave our shoes and umbrella. He asked us where we were from and when we said "Canada". He said, "Canada is in Europe yes", which made me think he doesn't get a lot of Canadian visitors. He had us sign a guestbook recording our names, occupation, country of origin, and religion. He wouldn't except tourist as an occupation which seemed fitting as I am currently without employ and suggested something "like doctor, like lawyer". When the tour was over he took us to a room where we could wash our feet which were blackened from walking barefoot throughout the Mosque, as shown in the photo.

3rd Photo - The dome of the Mosque was magnificent, as were the columns which supported it. The Mosque could accommodate 200,000 faithful, and the floor was tiled with 160cms long rectangles. Each rectangle faced Mecca, and was just large enough for one person to kneel and pray within it - "Indonesian size" as Jamal repeated several times. The Mosque was built in the 1960s directly beside the Catholic cathedral which was built in 1906. I asked why the Mosque was built directly beside the cathedral and Jamal replied by saying "that is shows that we can all leave peacefully side by side in Indonesia." He also said that "on Sunday during Catholic mass, the Catholics park in the Mosque parking lot" - a further sign of peaceful relations ,"no problem!"

4th Photo - This drum is used many times daily in the call to prayer. I believe the wooden frame was carved teak, while the leather at both ends was cow hide - one side taken from a female cow, while the other was from a male. The drum sounds like thunder when struck. We were walking to the National Monument (shown in photo 5) earlier in the day before going to the Mosque and heard what sounded like a number of consecutive explosions in the distance. Alice and I looked at each other with wonder, but none of the other people around seemed to be alarmed so we paid it no mind.

5th Photo - The National Monument was built to celebrate Indonesian independence from the Dutch. You can go right to the top, and I imagine the view would be pretty spectacular as it is not too far from the Java sea, but the line-up looked to be several hours long and the Monument was closing just as we arrived. The Monument sits at the centre of a large public square where traffic is not permitted to go, which is like sweet salvation as traffic is sheer chaos in Jakarta (there are about 9 million people in Jakarta and everyone of them seems to be on a motorbike). The square is lined with children flying kites and photographers (spelt photgrafers in Indonesian) who take fancy photos of tourists holding on to the Monument. I thought that we could try to reproduce the effect ourselves, but as Vanessa can attest to I'm sure, Alice is the worst photografer known to the modern age. She spent a good number of minutes saying "right hand higher, no closer, no left, no my left..." and this was the best of all attempts. I think next time I'll splurge on the professional.

BULLOCKS!!!!! Dave has been hogging the computer for the last 5 hours, leaving me alone to boil eggs and toast bread. My photography skills are actually quite good, Dave is just a terrible subject.

Dave may have led you to believe that we're doing ok, even that we're enjoying Jakarta. However, let me clarify. To begin, Adrian's apartment is the WORST! There are only 5 bathrooms, clearly insufficient for 3 people. Then, this morning, not only did Adrian's helper spread peanut butter on the bread she toasted me unevenly, she woke Dave up by cooking food for our dinner! After breakfast, things really got bad when we had to use the resident's private gym and pool and I had to share the pool with Dave. Then, just when we thought our lives couldn't be more difficult, we found a fully cooked meal in the fridge that WE HAD TO REHEAT!!!! Who knew Indonesia would be so awful? This afternoon we went to the largest mosque in south east Asia and got swarmed by kids who wanted a picture with us (as if we have time to take pictures with strangers). We ate dinner on Adrian's lame balcony which only has a view of downtown Jakarta from 28 stories. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Cool Jakarata Things

Cool things we saw yesterday in Jakarata:

1) The Indonesian National Monument - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Monument_%28Indonesia%29

2) The Istiqlal Mosque - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istiqlal_Mosque

Vancouver to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Jakarta

Welcome to our (Dave and Alice i.e. "Dallas") travel blog. We will do our best to update this thing whenever we can, and thereby save everyone the hardship of receiving the dreaded inbox cluttering sporadic mass email.

July 6th, 2010
Alice and I arrive in Jakarta yesterday afternoon, where we were greeted by a smiling man named Yudih holding a sign which read "Hillary Walraven". Alice asked "who is Hillary" and assuming my brother had forgotten Alice's name I replied "you are" before drudging up the repressed memory of him and his friends putting me inside a Hillary brand sleeping bag when I was a child and pumeling me until I called myself Hillary. Yudih grabbed one of our bags and instructed us to follow him out to my brother's vehicle which was parked in a near by lot. Yudih trotted along at a near sprint and Alice and I had to hurry just to keep up. Alice sat in the back seat and I went to go sit in the front, not realizing that the front passenger seat is on the left instead of the right, which gave Yudih the impression that I thought I would drive. He laughed, I felt like a stupid American. The drive to Adrian's place was more or less accomplished in silence as Alice and I were exhausted from our trip. I tried to make small talk with Yudih, thinking that his English was better than it actually was because of the skill with which he said "I have a letter from your brother" when we first met. I asked "have you been watching much of the World Cup?" He wiggled his head, paused, looked at the clock and then smiling said "about half an hour" indicating the length of time from the airport to my brother's apartment.

Once we arrived at the Shangri-la Hotel Residence (http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/jakarta/shangrila), Alice and sprawled out on the couch and snacked on delicious homemade fish sticks and fried corn patties. We made a list of mission objectives for our time in Asia which will direct the course of travels.

Objective #1: Buy Hammocks
Objective #2: Learn A Martial Art
Objective #3: Take Cooking Classes
Objective #4: Become Yoga Masters
Objective #5: Stay Fit And Have Fun
Objective #6: Visit Temples
Objective #7: Climb Mountains
Objective #8: Don't Drive (Too Scary)
Objective #9: Journal
Objective #10: Read Books
Objective #11: Have Regular Massages
Objective #12: Surf
Objective #13: Get Diving Certificate
Objective #14: EAT A MANGO A DAY


Adrian came home from work a couple hours after we arrived and took us on a walk around the neighborhood. We went to a grocery store and bought a bunch of mangoes, some pineapple, and fresh squid and fish. I fell asleep around 8 or 9 o'clock and didn't wake up until about 11 the next day. I used to think that jet lag was something made up, like Santa, and that anyone who claimed to experience it was a little liar...