Dolphin Watching in Lovina

In light of my last post, I would like to say that I went to the doctor today and he gave me some xanax. Which has been nothing short of wonderful. Actually, I was worried to go to the doctor here because everyone's always going on about the "level of healthcare", yadda yadda yadda. The doctor was almost exactly the same as my doctor back home. He did a physical test and then confessed to me that even he suffers from hypochondria. Apparently, when he is alone with his thoughts, he is obsessed that something is wrong with his heart and compulsively checks his pulse. It's kinda funny that I had to come all the way across the world, to a third world country, to find a doctor who understands me. Interesting!

Anyway, this morning (after spending a *free* night at a guesthouse because we used their transport since arriving in Bali) at 6 AM, we stumbled out of our little room to go to the beach and meet a man who said he would take us dolphin watching for a few hours. When we arrived we met our sole boatmate, a Swiss girl named Sandra, which also happened to be the name of our boat. Again, interesting, no?

The guy took us out in Lovina Bay and immediately we could see that we were not the only tourists up early to catch a glimpse of the little rascals. There must have been twenty dolphin watching boats in the harbour, so our guy told us to wait patiently and we would soon have the place to ourselves. We watched with interest as he led a long string with a bell attached to the end of it into the water. I thought maybe it was a way to call the dolphins... yes, I'm lame. Actually, it was a fishing line, and it had about 30 or 40 hooks attached to it. We cruised around in the boat for maybe five minutes, and he stopped and excitedly pulled his line in, one hook at a time. He got a pretty good catch- all herring!

When more of the boats cleared out and headed for home, he took us out a little further into the harbour. Not five minutes later we saw the first of the dolphins! They were all jumping and doing crazy flips and having a great time! I would have been pleased with this alone, but by the end of the hour our boat was literally surrounded by an enormous amount of dolphins. It was a beautiful morning!

After dolphin watching, things got a little strange. He took us to a beautiful place in the water where it was clear all the way down to the bottom with hundreds of beautiful, colourful fish and said we could snorkel if we wanted. Pat and I didn't know that snorkeling was included in the deal, but Sandra seemed to be in the know, and she was a little confused that we didn't know anything about it. Oh well, if he is offering snorkeling, no problem. It was a beautiful spot so we jumped in the water (it was sooo warm) and even fed the fish little pieces of bread. They were totally unafraid of us and the entire time they would brush past my arm or leg and freak me out a bit.

After the snorkeling, he took us home and told us we owed him 10 bucks for snorkeling. Um... I don't think so! We got angry at him and told him he tricked us. Which he did. By the end of the day, he was still trying to get us back in his boat. We ignored him. Way to ruin a perfect morning, buddy.




They look so pretty in the early morning light!



Show off.



They were surrounding us.


Beautiful Lovina as seen from the harbour.



Where we went snorkeling.

In Lovina... Goodbye Ubud!

Well, I guess for everyone, traveling has it's ups and it's downs, and it's been a bad couple of days for me. I am still reveling in the lush beauty that is Bali, but at the moment it is difficult for me to think about anything but home, and how, at home, I don't have to worry about getting sick from fruit or mosquitoes.

Yes, readers, I am a self professed (not to mention clinical!) hypochondriac. I have always had OCD, but never really worried about my health until I moved to Korea. About a year ago, around Christmastime, I had a sudden panic attack about my situation. What if I get in an accident before I can go home and see my family again? What if I have some hidden cancer or neurological disease lying dormant just waiting to rear it's ugly head? What if I have to go through all kinds of horrible medical procedures while away from home? What if I never make it home?

It became an obsession, first taking the form of ALS, and when I didn't feel so twitchy (also, after seeing the movie PS: I Love You) I became thoroughly convinced that I had a brain tumour. Indeed, I would get a headache every day after seeing the movie and I was actually certain that I had one, and that every Korean doctor I would see was having trouble with the language barrier. That was not a good time for me, and I'm not even sure how I managed to get through it without chickening out and going home. I guess it helped that I met Patrick and suddenly wasn't alone anymore. Yoga also helped. But it never really goes away. I'm always worrying about some part of my body.

Sooo, travelling with this affliction (let's call it an affliction) isn't the easiest thing in the world. Especially in Southeast Asia, where, it seems, illness is just waiting for you to come visit. The last few days have been very difficult for me and it's all Patrick can do to try and talk some sense into me. All I want to do is see a doctor every day. Also, I simply want to cut and run home when the anxiety is bad. But then I think about all the planning and excitement that I've put into this trip and how I need to follow through with it and that keeps me somewhat afloat. I just hate having to deal with all this anxiety, and even if I got reassurance from a doctor every day, it still would not make the anxiety go away. And, indeed, simply beng anxious all the time makes me 100 times more sick than I would be without anxiety. Headaches, nausea, trembling- everything is associated with anxiety. Which also kind of sucks, because what if, for once, it isn't simply anxiety? There's never any way to tell, and the uncertainty of my situation makes me all the more worried.

Sorry, no happy stories today- although we had a great time at our cooking class yesterday and I will certainly post pictures soon. Don't worry, I just needed to vent. More tomorrow :) xo

Me Against the Monkeys

We left the Gilis veeery early yesterday morning and it was a beautiful day to travel! First we got a rickety boat to take us to Lombok, then we caught a bus which took us over winding (and slightly terrifying) coastal mountain roads to the resort town of Senggigi. Just off the beach in Senggigi was our lovely boat, just waiting to feed us breakfast and get us safely back to Bali.

So our plan has been to start in Ubud, where the main cultural attractions are, and then head north to the laid back beach villages of Lovina... also well known for their volcanic black sand beaches. We will head to Lovina on Wednesday morning, and for now we are living up the Balinese cultural life in Ubud.

When we arrived in Ubud yesterday afternoon, a kind man asked if we would like to stay at "his" guesthouse while in Ubud. The price was right, so we agreed. He said he would take us there, one by one, on the back of his motorbike. Well... ok. I told Pat I would go first and wait for him at the guesthouse. The guy took me to a guesthouse, found out they were full, put me back on his bike, took me to another guesthouse, found out they were full, at which point I was angry and told him to take me back to Patrick. OK, he said, but on the way back, he stopped by another guesthouse, which was not full... which, in fact, was beautiful. Which, from the outside, looks more like a Hindu temple than a guesthouse. My anger slowly subsided. Pat and I got a beautiful, big room in the garden for roughly 8 bucks a night, and we are served banana pancakes every morning on our veranda. Thanks, motorbike guy.

So, this morning we made our way to the Sacred Monkey Forest, which is about a five minute walk from our guesthouse. These "Sacred Monkeys" are Balinese Macaques and they flourish in the forest to the south of the town. There are Balinese caretakers who are always watching out for the monkeys and they are really great. The monkeys themselves are little kleptomanics. At first I thought they were cute, but by the end of our walk I was ready to strangle them. They left Patrick completely alone, but for some reason, my hair, glasses and handbag were a huge attraction to them! Not to mention I bought a bunch of bananas to feed them, but the little buggers attacked me and stole the whole bunch. Jerks.

Actually, I had a great time. They were really cute and the way they playfully attacked me was pretty funny to everyone in the vicinity... including me, of course! Here are some pictures of the little criminals.




It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times...


Pat! They're after my bananas! (I didn't actually think they would climb up my body and take the bananas by force...)



I thought this monkey wanted to be my friend, but he just wanted my glasses.


Trying to get the bananas back. A lost cause.


Get offa me.


Oh God. There are too many!


After catching wind of his sinister plan to take my glasses.



Yeah, no problem. I'll cart you around.

Snorkeling from a Glass Bottom Boat! Lovely.

On the way back to Gili Trawangan


Lunch stop on Gili Air


O Hai.


Who's that gorgeous girl? She looks like a mermaid.



Now that I have my boyfriend back from the Scuba Divers, we were able to enjoy some lovely snorkeling time around the three Gili Islands today- something I had been wanting to do all week, but didn't want to do it without Pat. Why? Easy: because I am afraid of deep water. It just creeps me out.

However, even before coming here I had heard about the opportunities to swim with the sea turtles and I was damn certain that I would get some ample sea turtle time during our week long stay (yes, it's sad, we are leaving the Gilis tomorrow and going to Bali for a week).

So yesterday I asked our wonderful innkeeper, Tommy (note* yesterday I asked him his Balinese name and it was several words long with complicated syllables, so we will stick with Tommy), who is 28 but looks about 14, who has a girlfriend in Sulawesi, who calls him an astonishing amount of times a day, often yelling at him to call her more often, and they have been together for a year but they only saw each other for four days while he was visiting his uncle in Sulawesi... am I off track here? Oh yes.

So I asked Tommy to recommend a good boat to take us out snorkeling for the day and boy, did he deliver. We woke up the morning, ate our banana pancakes with coconut syrup (yum), and Tommy took us to a group of local men and gave us our ticket (a day long trip for about 7 bucks). We thought we would be the only people to show up, but several more people came before we left... all Austrians!

First they took us to a spot on Gili Trawangan, which was terrifying for me as the water was quite deep and I knew there were sharks ("harmless") around somewhere. Once I got into the groove, though, it was quite peaceful and not at all scary! I saw some nice fish, but my vision was impaired due to the fact that I couldn't have my glasses on and snorkel at the same time.

Next, we went to "Turtle Point", which was even deeper than the first place! Gah. The guide took us out to where the turtles were known to hang out and "we" saw two of them. I mean, I saw two blobs that I was told were turtles. Sigh. This was on the next island, Gili Meno. Less touristy and quite a nice island!

Finally, we hit my favourite spot of all! We went to the last island, and the closest Gili to Lombok, Gili Air. The water was so clear and beautiful, I could see right to the bottom, and it was teeming with beautiful, tropical fish. To hell with the sea turtles! I jumped right in and could have stayed there all day, just watching the fish dance around. They were so cool! It was great.

Our guides dropped us off on Gili Air where I had some Indonesian fried rice (nasi goreng) and we hung out in a bamboo hut until it was time to go home. Lovely day. Now, we are going to have those delicious fish n chips one last time before we leave bright and early tomorrow... I'm so sad to leave this gorgeous place, but I'm sure Bali will be exciting. Stay tuned!

Pat's Scuba Diving Adventures and The Glorious Food We've Been Consuming

Pat has been taking scuba diving lessons for his open water certificate for the last four days, and today he has become certified! Over the last few days he has gone on some excellent trial dives and I've even tagged along for a few! He's seen a few sharks, sea turtles, lion fish, a moray eel, clown fish, a beautiful, big manta ray (purely by accident; it was his first dive and his ears were popping so he and his buddy fell behind the others- they were the only ones who saw the manta as a result!) and lots of pretty coral, of course.

His teachers were super cool and we recommend this place to any beginner (Manta Dive, www.manta-dive.com) who wants to learn to dive in the Gilis. You're guaranteed to see a lot of cool stuff- hell, I even saw some stuff as I was cowardly waiting for him to get back on the boat. Ok, I'm actually lying, I could have seen a shark, but my back was to it and the Parisian guy (who was the only other wimp on the boat) who I was chatting with saw it. But I was still there, so it counts, right?



Very pleased with himself after his dive at Stingray Point- no stingrays, though, just lionfish!



How I spent my time on the boat. Lots of this.


Doing his James Bond move into the water.



Pat and his instructor, Basil, who is helping him into his oxygen tank.



The first dive I accompanied them on, to Stingray Point. Today we went to Shark Point where they saw some decently sized Oceanic Whitetips.

Ok ok, onto the food!

Since we've arrived in the Gilis last Sunday, we've had some amazing food and some not so amazing food. Where to avoid? Well, there's this place called "Beautiful Dream" which has amazing ice cream sundaes and a lovely selection of films you can watch in your own little bamboo hut (or, they show more recent films on a big screen in the bar area every evening). However, their food is pretty awful. And in order to get your own little individual movie hut, you need to buy dinner, so Pat and I have choked down their grub twice in order to watch a movie and chill out. To be honest, that is the only place where we really didn't enjoy our meals. Everywhere else has been excellent!


Our lunchtime favourite... this place is called Oceane Dua and their Indonesian curries (2.50 CAN) are amazing. I think I've figured out the ingredients and I have written them down in my food journal for later (wink, wink). They garnish their curries with saltine raisins (the golden ones) and toasted coconut- superb. Also, our favourite Gili feline always comes to hang out with us in our little bamboo haven from the glaring lunchtime sun. Patrick is bemused. The kittehs love him.



Bintang! Thank you for saving us from the swill that is known as Korean beer. Yikes. This is a lovely little lager that goes down very easy- a good beer for a hot and muggy place. You can get a bottle anywhere for about 1.20 CAN.



Barracuda has a snappy flavour (no pun intended) and it's veeeery plentiful in the waters around the Gilis. For such a skinny fish, it sure produces a lovely fillet! This steak cost Pat about 3.00 CAN and came with rice and veggies, too. We love to eat at this place- it's called Rudy's, and although the waiters and bartenders like to shout lewd things at me during the day (and despite the fact that they are very well known for their mushroom pizza... if you know what I mean...), by night they give us excellent service and we eat right next to the ocean. Lovely.



I got some yummy chicken satay at Rudy's, also for about 3.00 CAN. The peanut sauce was lovely and just spicy enough, and the chicken was nicely marinated. Kudos, Rudy's. Please stop hassling me when I walk by, though. Seriously.



The Gili's piece de resistance! Fish n' chips, made with all fresh Gili ingredients (4.00 CAN). Red snapper fillet, Bintang beer batter, lime and pickle tartar sauce, all served with perfectly cooked chips and a fresh squeeze of lime. I have never, ever had better fish n chips. Ever! And I'm from Cape Breton! And Pat is Irish! We are, like, over the moon for red snapper. It's meaty, delicate and has a bit of a bite to it. It really batters well. I think the Indonesians are on to something...

Lazy days On Gili T...

Hey All!

Here are the first pictures posted from Gili Trawangan. Right now the plan is to stay here until Friday, when Pat will be finished his scuba diving certification, and then take a quick boat over to Gili Meno where we will get away from the party scene and hopefully find some sea turtles to swim around with! Right now I am pretty sunburnt despite my best efforts (I promise, Mom and Grace) to keep myself slathered with sunscreen at all times. Pat got a pretty bad sunburn on his feet, but a kind soul at his diving school gave him some special cream to put on and it's healing quickly.

Right now my biggest enemy is not the sun, but the mosquitos! They freaking love me, and I am not at all flattered by it. I knew they loved me in Korea when I would get bit 20 times a night and Pat would only have one or two bites the whole summer, but in Southeast Asia where they possibly carry disease I am seriously at battle night and day, covered in deet. The results? My skin is permanently greasy and I am constantly washing my hands, but I haven't been bit since we got to the Gilis. Take that.

Anyway, since internet time is money here I will sign off and leave you with some pictures! The rest are on my facebook, so Mom, you should probably work on getting yourself an account.

Muah xo




Biggest sand dollar I've ever seen!

The only mode of transportation on the island.


Coral skeletons all over the beaches.

Sunburnt and Shellshocked

Hello all! We are on day three (almost day four) of our Indonesian adventure. On Saturday evening we boarded a flight in Incheon, Korea to Denpasar, Bali. Being the neurotic flier I am, I needed help from a certain muscle relaxant... let's just call it "ativan"... to get through the flight. In all actuality, we almost didn't make it aboard because at the Korean Air counter, the check in lady noticed that we didn't have proof of onward travel. In Indonesia, most nationalities can get a 30 day tourist visa on arrival... with proof of onward travel.

We explained to the woman that, yes, we understood that we needed proof; however, we were leaving Indonesia, where it is close to impossible to obtain proof of onward travel if, like us, you are taking a ferry to Malaysia. Sheesh. I guess, though, she was just doing her job, and after about 20 minutes and several phone calls to Denpasar airport, we had our boarding passes and were on our way... upgraded to business class, no less.

Once we arrived in Denpasar, we faced our assumed greatest challenge: customs. Having read up on Indonesian culture before leaving, we figured that with no real proof of onward travel it merely depended on the mood of the person giving us our visa. I guess, though, we didn't take into account that when we arrived it was 2 AM and the people at the airport probably wanted to get out of there as much as we did, so we literally sailed through customs and were in Bali as easy as that.

Our next test was getting a decent fare from a taxi driver. I learned from my time in Beijing how difficult it can be to get an honest cab driver- hell, most cab drivers assume (rightfully, at times) that foreigners have much more money than them so why not cheat us when they can? Anyway, we had several drivers try to bamboozle us but we would have none of it and got a decent guy to take us to Kuta (foreigner central) for about five bucks. He dropped us off in the town centre and we wandered around until we found a place to rest our weary (and by this time, sweaty) heads for a few hours until we were supposed to meet up with our bus the next morning.

My first impression of Bali: foreigners = ignorant and usually drunk. Locals are some of the most beautiful and kind people I have ever met. I heard so much talk about locals trying to get as much money out of you as possible and this has not really happened to us yet. The people are very kind and honest.

When Sunday morning came around, we woke up around 8 AM and set out around 9 to meet what would be our transport company for the day- Perama (cannot recommend them enough!). They signed us in and told us to be there for the 10 AM departure. There was a whole family back there- even a busy toddler- running the business. Very honest, excellent service.

Patrick and I wandered around Kuta, had some breakfast, I bought a new bag, Pat bought some sunglasses, we bought some sunscreen and took out enough money to last us a week (the Gilis have no ATMs). When we got back to Perama, they were just about ready to go. We sat down and the man next to us started chatting. He was so interesting. He was an Indian from Goa (South India) and he was a commercial scuba diver. Patrick, who is getting certified this week, got some advice from him. He travels all the time, has two girls and a wife at home, loves animals and cooking. We had a great chat with him all the way to Ubud, which was the first stop on our bus.

We stayed on, since we were going to Padangbai Harbour to take the Perama boat to the Gilis. The whole journey took about 2 hours and we went through beautiful countryside- terraced rice fields, jungles, beautiful rivers. I fell in love with Bali almost immediately.

When we reached Padangbai, we had a bit of a break and then were bussed to the harbour. A dinghy came to get us to the boat and we were greeted with tea and (delicious) fried banana. The bananas here, we are told, are King Bananas. They're a bit orange on the inside and are super yummy.

The boat over took about five hours. There are other boats you can take for only two hours, but they are very expensive and usually people get seasick as the Lombok straight is quite rough at the best of times. Pat and I have good sea legs, though, and we met a nice guy from Finland along the way. We had a beer, chatted about our travels, when all of the sudden the crew started shouting in Bahasa Indonesia- DOLPHINS!!!!!!!!!!! Pat saw them before I did, and I nearly pushed him off the boat to get a look. They were pretty far away when I finally caught sight of them, but they were doing some amazing jumps and you could very clearly see that they were having a tubular time. So were we. That really made my day!

We arrived at Gili Trawangan (the largest of the three islands) around 6 PM. Pat and I found a decent place to spend the week (about 3$ CAN each per night) with a ceiling fan and a nice courtyard- and wonderful hosts (although the innkeeper looks to be about 15 years old- he's very kind and professional, though... and helpful to dumb backpackers like us...).

Today we spend the day looking around the island. We walked the entire perimeter on the beach, and when we felt hot we jumped in the beautiful turquoise sea. Pat lost a toenail, but it has been purple for a long time. We got some great pictures that we can't wait to share with you... maybe tomorrow. Right now we're meeting up with our Finnish friend for a frosty Bintang and maybe some grilled barricuda... for about 3 bucks. Life is good, my friends.

xo