Krabi was a cool stopover point.. i enjoyed the night market with endless stalls of cheap stuff and always an adventurous food experience.. this time i went for a beef looking dish on rice and turned out there were about 10 lil red chilis in there.. i ate really fast and though i picked out all of the chilis it still was a bit spicy… and then i couldnt hold back the tears and the lil sweat drops starting appearing on my face… wow… all i had was water so that didnt help too much so Steff and i just sat at our little table, i tried to concentrate on my surroundings and keep distracted… serves me right i guess - dont eat food with so many red goodies in there!!!
I kept finding all these cool button up shirts, kinda vintage stuff but always ended up not fitting me.. these thai’s are seriously such small little people!!
Man the last two weeks have been seriously amazing… Steff and I got to stay at this tucked away hostel on the island of Ko Pha-ngan where we had to take a special shuttle out there because the roads are really bad.. deep ruts prevent other taxis from dropping you off there. A beautiful cove with a small white sand beach, little bamboo huts poking out of the tropical bush facing the beach… a friend had recommended this place to Steff. Felt so blessed i get to enjoy a place like this.. our hut was the furthest into the trees so i really enjoyed having our quiet spot and sitting in our hammock, reading a good book. What a great feeling to know that you have all day to do whatever we felt like. what a holiday… i could cozy up in the hammock and finish a whole book in one sitting if i really felt like it. i so enjoy that feeling. sometimes i feel like this is exactly what prevents me from reading more, when i like a book i hate having to interrupt a good chapter cuz its time to go to work or something you know? I read this book called Lek about a Thai girl’s story of how she got through her life after being sold at 9 years old by her family and ended up in the sex trade… how she got out of it at the end and her intense struggles.. heavy read. But I met girls like this in several different places.. its so real. Again makes me weep for thankfulness for my life and all the privileges i so enjoy as a Canadian. It stirs my heart to compassion, a desire to see people through God’s eyes, a motivation to love on hurting people around me… so many feelings.. a little overwhelming.
Next up was to meet with Steff’s parents and another Austrian couple that are good family friends of ours on the neighbour island Ko Samui. We were beaching it up i tell you. And now with using her parents hotel beach and pool etc. wow… so good to catch up on Austrian friends.. We got spoiled pritty good with tasty food, beautiful restaurants, tours galore and zipping around on our mopeds. We tagged along with them to Bangkok… last stop for me… after saying good bye to her parents we did some of our own tours, went to a tiger temple and a floating market… cool experience. Lots of our time is usually spent indulging in some kind of food and talking about either our childhood, memories, our present lives, our day we had just experienced… i was dreading saying goodbye… these moments have been so precious to me just hanging out with my good friend Steff. We enjoy such similar things.. i really feel like this trip brought us even closer, reminded us of the treasure our friendship is… i always realize this right at the end when i need to say goodbye… it was so hard to hug her, and leave her at our hostel that day.. we both bawled, not many words needing to be said.. the weather was fitting, pouring rain as i whisked off in my taxi to the airport.
Steff’s decided to stay and look for volunteer work for a few months. I miss her so much already. And here i am, back at home in didsbury. Kind of a weird feeling.. but it feels right. Lots to do here… i’m sure i’ll have to just let all this sink in yet.
so much beauty… i’m overwhelmed with Thailand… the last week has been so gorgeous… its rainy season in indonesia right now, where we experienced a lot of rainy days too, but here its not so most every day has been sunny and hot here.
We’ve been to the islands, so first off we were in Penang what i wrote about last, in Malaysia, then went on to Langkawi, another island further north, still apart of Malaysia, and then we went to KoLanta, first Thai island and wow…
for the trip there i didnt have time to eat a good breakfast so we just bought some of these coconut buns in a package that i was munching on all day, also packed some of my left over naan and butterchicken from the night before… i dunno what it was… but the next morning i thought i would throw up if i didnt eat right NOW, which i did to my suprise.. weird i thought, we went for breakfast, but everything came back up… We had overnighted in these bamboo huts that were a lil overpriced for what we were getting so we were looking for a new place to stay… so i was feeling nautious and walking around looking for a better place and then i feel my pants are wet.. yup.. i pooped my pants.. no warning whatsoever, i spent the rest of the day emptying out my bowels both ways.. it was awful… in the evening i was getting so dehydrated i couldnt stop thinking about taking a sip of water… oh man… i kept trying to take a sip and then it would come back up 20 min later… soo frustrating. i thought if i wasnt better in the morning i’d have to go to the hospital for an IV… was quite restless as well so i was just laying in bed.. i was praying that Jesus would just heal my body and let me keep down the water.. so round 11pm i tried again and it stayed down… i waited half an hour and took another amazing drink.. felt so good…. he totally healed me. so cool… the next day was recovery, getting stronger and resting and then Steff’s friends arrived. they’re a couple from Austria that she knows who were on holiday in Thailand as well.. we spent the next few days hanging out with them.
It was so nice to have some new friends with us… we rented scooters for 2 days and cruised around the island checking out different beaches and cool spots.. walked up to this waterfall but because its not rainy season there wasnt much to see… still so nice to have some fresh water, not the salty ocean… and there was still a bit of a pool of water, only came up to my shins.. i still dove in had my time in the water.. washing off the sweat :)
We saw elephants and even talked to a family that had celebrated their kid’s birthday by going on a lil elephant treck where they got to feed the elephants and then ride them on the beach, and walk right into the ocean and went for a swim with them.. wow… that sounded so cool… cost a bit of a fortune so we didnt go for it.. but was fun to see the elephants on the beach!!
On our last day in KoLanta we decided to splurge a little and go on a little boat tour… was so sweet we had the boat all to ourselves us four.. they even set up a hammock on the boat!! so cool… i mean these boats are tiny.. they’re called long tail boats.. REALLY enjoyed sitting on the front and just taking in all the islands around me, the salty ocean breeze and feeling the sun on my face…. what a feeling… the first island we stopped at we all jumped in the water since there was no beach and had to swim through the “emerald cave” its called where it totally pitch black… sounded quite exhilerating till we got there and there were some other tourists there and were using flashlights so kinda took the thrill out of it but was still really cool to experience… so you swim through this cave (which you can only swim through in low tide) and get to this amazing cove inside with white sand and beautiful jungle area… amazing.. on a sign it said that pirates used to store their treasures here!! kinda felt like digging around a bit but i behaved myself.
stopped at another island and went snorkelling for the first time ever.. oh man.. i cant believe i’ve never tried this before.. was soooo amazing!! so cool to see whats all down there and the massive amounts of different fish that swim right up to your goggles.. kept trying to touch one but they were too fast for me. Steff said the corrals were mostly dead since it was kinda brown.. but we did find some that were alive.. bright purple and orange.. so cool… i took some underwater pictures with a lil disposable camera so i really hope they turn out… i even saw little Nemo and Dori!!!! definitley made my day
lunch was some yummy fried rice with a lil kick to it as most food does here in Thailand.. love it. more snorkeling in the afternoon and a lil beach time and then we had to go back… wow… so worth it. Definitley would do that again!!
Here we are now in Phuket.. we stopped on the ferry over on KoPhiPhi, really famous island and one of the most beautiful.. but as we walked around it was so overcrowded with sweaty tourists, i just wanted to leave so we didnt stay overnight, went to Phuket, another island very close to the mainland. We’re staying at SHE Thailand (Self Help and Empowerement) here which you can google where they help girls get off the streets by providing another way of earning money by making jewellery, training in hotel work and cooking classes. amazing people we’re meeting here… and they’ve taken us with them in the evenings into the streets.. oh wow… was i ever shocked. i wasnt expecting such crazy night life.. we had amazing opportunities to talk with some girls and hear their stories. WOW… I’ll have to tell you in person. Its been quite the experience here… only 2 more weeks i’m thinking and then i’ll be home… next up will be Krabi and the islands on the east coast.. more to come!
After a few days in Ubud we were definitley ready to move on, caught a flight to Singapore which was definitley a bit of a shock - so modern and different from the rest of SE Asia.. super clean and we were told that they would fine you if they caught you with gum at customs… in fact they have a fine for a lot of little things… one morning we were walking around and we saw the workers washing the sidewalk and street with mops and buckets!!! wow… they really want this city clean!
So in Singapore we got to stay at the YWAM base there where we met some lovely friends.. Lydia (from Indonesia) is staff there and invited us to go to Sentosa, a little island, with her sister who was visiting at the time so off we went on sunday to spend the day with the girls. so nice to have some people who know their way around and know exactly which bus to take.. really enjoyed that.. turns out Sentosa is kinda like disneyland with rides and all kinds of entertainment opportunities.. i was a lil overwhelmed… and of course the heat always makes me feel that way too… so the sun was shining bright that day… a few minutes of walking around already did me in… we found the beach but it was kinda stinky and nobody else was swimming so we just kept walking and found this wave pool where these guys had constructed a fake wave and where you can learn how to surf.. we sat for an hour in the shade jsut watching these surf people do their thing… definitley wasnt up for having 50 people watch me as i shakily try my first wave… no thanks.. i’ll wait for another opportunity (and also where i dont have to pay so much!!)
Lydia had a friend staying on the island in a sweet hotel so we went to their room to visit them and ended u swimming in their pool so that was a real treat in that crazy heat… we are really spoiled! These people are seriously overwhelmingly kind.. Steff and I were talking how generous everybody is and how we want to be known as generous people too… have a lot to work on.. so often i jsut want to give when i know that it’ll be appreciated or when i’ll know they’ll eventually give something back to me too… and these people are just such an example to me…
i read this book yesterday “foreign to familiar” by Sarah Lanier about the differences between hot climate and cold climate people.. its just a general separation, defining cold climate countries like US, Canada, Western Europe above switzerland, the white people of south africa, etc.. and the hot climate countries south america, africa and most of the rest of the world…
fascinating to read up on how us cold culture people tend to be more time and task oriented.. where we would keep a time schedule and hot ppl are more flexible, spontaneous and relationship oriented where they could spend hours popping over to the neighbours house, chatting and staying for dinner just because… also how hot ppl are more indirect communicators, get their identity from the group, dont like to be singled out or be alone and cold very direct and blunt often, and are very independent, their yes is yes and its about being time efficient..
i’ve been analyzing steff’s and my relationship and how we communicate differently sometimes and realizing she is DEFinitley a cold culture person as am I seem to have a mixture of hot culture in me too as i tend to make conversations “friendly” and can sometimes beat around the bush in order not to be confrontational. this book has really helped me in my international perspective.. fun… steff is reading it behind me on the couch right now..
so singapore was a neat experience, just stayed 3 days, hanging out with our new friends was a hoot. tried some more yummy food.. apparently they have not only china towns in asian cities but also “india town”… so we had a lot of fun over there… some parts the smells were quite intense… we tried the durian fruit and wow… i spit it out right away and had a hard time getting that taste out of my mouth for the next 3 days…. some people say they like it despite the “dirty feet smell” but man… this fruit is not for me!!!
Monday morning we got to join the staff for all base worship which was such a treat… I really felt the holy spirit in that room as we sang simple songs of who our God is and just worshipped Him.. was such a beautiful moment for me, being able to share it with these singapore brothers and sisters… my heart felt full and heavy with my burdens, and so light as i gave them to Jesus once again, my heart bursting with emotions of relief, joy and hope.
fanastic start to our week and then we were on a bus to malaysia, we were prepared for some intense air con so we put on our pants and sweaters and faced the cold… yep.. not such a fan of the air con.. i much prefer fans… had a bit of headache at the end of the ride and my eyes were a lil dryed out and red.. my joints were starting to ache as they do when i get a little cold.. i know my body is weird… all this from a lil air con…
arriving in Kuala Lumpur we headed to china town, found a little hostel there, dropped off our packs in our hot little sauna rooms where the fan didnt seem to make much of a difference at all (whats with all the extremes here??) and went hunting for some food as we usually do… we were so hungy we just went to the first place… yes, we did get a lil ripped off we found out later.. and the dumplings i ordered turned out to be deep fried crispy critters so i was a little disappointed, Steff’s curry chicken wasnt much better as they seemed to have just battered and friend little chunks of fat pieces… but the veggies that came with it were good.. ha… next time i’ll take more time in ordering… next day i tried a malaysian burger from one of the “hawkstalls” supposedly the better food around… watched the guy fry up the chicken patty right in front of me, put some kinda green sauce on it, some cheese and this white powder stuff… some yumy veggies in the bun and voila…. best burger i have ever tasted in my life! i couldnt believe how good it tasted… Steff and i usually bought our food and brought it up to our roof top in the evening and enjoyed our delicacies up there… nice cool breeze up there that was just perfect!!
i tried something new.. were wondering how to get motivated for some adventure in the heat and Steff suggested a city tour on this hop on hop off bus thing.. i have to say i dont think i’ve ever gone on a tour before. I know i stick out like a sore thumb as a tourist here but i dont usually do the normal tourist things so i let her talk me into it as i thought i wouldnt be able to stand walking around more than half an hour without dropping dead on the street… so there i was with my little tourist sandals, the camera around my neck, the shades on and ready for a rockin time on the bus.. we even had commentary of the sites we were seeing.. well.. didnt make the top ten list, not even close… but wasnt all that bad either i have to say. got to see a lot of the city thats for sure!
here on Penang island, right close to the thai border, we’re at another ywam base, and they also have a rooftop here which we are loving again.. we should make more of these in canada! i guess thats what we have decks for..
there’s a dts going on here at the moment.. their in their 5th week or something… so really fun to get to know all these girls, we’re sleeping in their dorm room as well.. so 7 of us in the same room, which is kinda fun… our first night they took us with them on their street time where we just walked around town and talked to some homeless people and listened to them share what was on their hearts, invited them to this drop in centre they have here in town called kawan. one guy really broke my heart as he was crying (i think he was drunk), telling us these guys kept beating him up and kicking him, throwing rocks on his head when he was sleeping and all kinds of violence. was terrible.. his ear looked really bad and pussy so i hope he ends up getting some help at the drop in centre.. one of the guys on the team gave him a big hug and prayed for him, and again the guy started weeping in appreciation… heartbreaking seeing the reality of the poverty here… and neat to see people reaching and wanting to help and bring change.. most of the drop ins are addicts and sexworkers they told us today… we got an opportunity this morning to hang out for breakfast with them at kawan, maybe 15 of them.. help chop up veggies to make lunch and then dished up food and served it to them.. bout 80 this time.. so that was a really special experience this morning having the privilege to meet and talk with some of the people… one guy serving with us “Uncle Noah” had been on the streets himself and had an amazing testimony how he got off the streets, got cleaned up, found a full time job, loves Jesus and is now serving his old friends. really blessed to meet these people!!! they encourage me greatly!
yesterday we got to hang out with the dts students and walk up this penang hill here, lots of steps… i was kinda wondering how this “hike” would be for me.. we started at 4pm and it was still kinda hot out so i gulped down a bunch of water and made sure i wasnt carrying anything and up we went.. once again i ended up sweating buckets full, a lil embarassing when you meet these 60 year old malaysians at the top, not a drop of sweat on them and not even breathing abnormally hard… yup… but i made it and had some nice conversation on the way up so it went fast… really neat hearing about the student’s lives.. one girls parents had prayed for revival in columbia for 20 years.. and then finally left the country as they felt God leading them, before they got to see any of the changes that evenutally did happen.. wow.. incredible story of persisting in prayer. her parents are now missionaries here in indonesia. the students are all challenged and really loving dts… very cool.
gonna have a nap now i think.. or get into a good book :)
the lovely gilis…. so these are 3 tiny little islands off bali’s neighbour island Lombok… you could probably swim from one to the other, might take 2-3 hours but not really safe as the ocean currents are a little unpredictable… so no i didnt try that. but i have to say its been the best ocean swimming i’ve ever done, very few waves and when i swam early enough in the morning no waves at all in pure turqouise water.. oh man…. and i do love to swim.
so we arrived here on January 27th.. found a cheaper hotel as the islands are very touristy and its a lot of whiteys out here, befriended the hotel workers and made some new friends… one evening we got to listen to this really great reggae group and the singer sounded so much like bob marley… very enjoyable.. so lots of beautiful beach time, no motors or cars on the islands so we borrowed some bikes from the hotel (i talked Ary, the manager into letting us take them for free as we are low budget travellers) and biked around the island… some parts we had to walk the bikes the path got too sandy-soft… and the sun came out then too and we were sweating away!! the ocean breeze helped! poor anni huh? ya i know my life is hard. found a nice spot to read and take some pictures… had 3 beautiful days of sunshine and then it started getting more cloudy…
one highlight was taking a boat across back to mainland Lombok with some new friends we made, rented a car (luckily one of our friends Rido - a local guy - was a really good driver) and drove up north to a small coffee plantation village, got to visit and walk around there, walked up to this gorgeous huge waterfall where we were prompted to actually walk underneath it - they say the pounding on your shoulders make you 20 years younger - that would make me 5 years old, lovely. so yup… just as we arrived there it started to downpour rain so i knew i was gonna get drenched anyways.. so i chose a ligther part of the waterfall and it didnt hurt actually… more like a massage… really great day… was quite wet but driving with the windows upen eventually dried me off. couldnt get many pictures cuz it was raining so hard.. i’ll see if i can get some off my friend. Rido gave us lots of laughs.. has the funniest lombok accent, much different than the bali language. we got to stop in the monkey forrest and feed the monkeys bananas.. kinda scarry cuz one even touched my leg, but as long as you just give them the food they are friendly.
the sunsets are always a highlight for me although we didnt get one really clear one, always a little hazy.. some really great conversations with the people, especially our friend Morten from norway, telling us about his search for meaning and his spiritual journey through different religions.. still figuring things out. these conversations really make me come alive, make me feel it wasn’t coincidene that we met up. so cool.
one thing that really makes me laugh at gili is the constant local shout outs to you: at first i thought they were saying “passport? passport?” thinking, of course i’m not gonna show you my passport man.. haha.. then i started understanding: “transport? transport?” ok… try hearing that shouted at you 100 times a day… oh man.. its almost like birds chirping after a while.. that and the “i give you special price”… the transport on the island was this small little cart with a tiny bony horse pulling it.. i can walk thanks.. the poor horse!! oh one other weird thing: well i really dont like cats too much, which really comes from my interactions with Steff’s cat so its nice to have some understanding from my travel companion… and for some reason there’s just hundreds of cats on this island.. no dogs really like there are in bali and lombok.. but lots of cats… and they all have these weird tales, liek somebody chopped the off… Ary siad they are born like that, one guy told me they got chopped off.. i dunno whats going on here but its weird and freaks me out when they come near me. they all look quite sickly as well so when a tourist would cuddle with one of them it would just send shivers down my back… no sympathy from this tourist!
on sunday we said our goodbyes, felt sad leaving;got on the ferry back to Bali… so here we are carrying our big packs.. thankfully it was cloudy that day so no in the direct sun, instructed to get out of the shuttle bus, walk up to the ferry, everything is done so unofficial here you’re always a bit confused as to what exactly is going on.. so i just follow the person in front of me.. we walk over the entrance where the cars all drive in, walk to the middle deck and as soon as i duck my head through the doorway i’m blasted with some noisy singing from these 5 guys with their guitar, people are shoving boxes of food in my face, “you want rice, you want noodle, you want water” oh wow… meanwhile the windows are all closed on this deck (mayb the locals are cold??) and there’s a waterfall of sweat coming down my face and back.. haha.. it was quite the entry… beelined it to one of the open seats and took of our big packs to start having some clear thoughts.. yes we indeed needed some food and water as the boat ride back would be at least 4 hours so i then had to get those vendor guys back over to my seat that i had just ignored and said “no, no, no” to.. and then buy some rice thats packaged up in a little brown paper triangle… quite a cultural experience in hindsight… bought some pastries with bananas inside and round balls that had sesame seeds on it, apparently filled with peanuts and chocolate… put the package beside me while i moved my pack and wouldnt you know it, the packages fell on the dirty ground, one package popped open,i had balls rolling down the aisles, the bananas were saved, one ball was saved in the package.. so there i was scrambling around on the floor picking up all those balls and throwing them out… haha… it took an hour before i could settle into my seat enough to start tasting my purchases… and the sesame ball ended up being all dough.. but still tasty…
i’ve been so blessed the protection i’ve had this trip.. wow… and no sickness… not even diarrhea really.. i cant believe it… we’ve even had a lot of western toilets which has been such a treat… pooping asian style is a challenge let me tell you!
and now we’ve arrived in beautiful ubud in the middle of bali… once again a lot more touristy than i had hoped but i can deal with that.. cute town with once again lots of motor activity… found some really cute bungalows with a quiet garden in the front, an open bathroom in the back, so there’s no roof… and even a fish pond in the corner of the bathroom… lovely bathroom sessions…
one night we went to this monkey dance so bout 50 or so men were chanting away chak chak chak around this fire and reinacted this story of these two exotic ladies fighting some monsters… there was a pamphlet but with all the names mentioned “gehena met sari who provoked aghari and then overcame patak” i really couldnt follow the story line, entertaining all the same, our bungalow owner marsa told us his son was in it and its a great cultural experience… yup, interesting for sure.. still have that chak chak chak swimming in my head… went for our first massage in asia… 5 bucks for an hour… wow… fastest hour i’ve ever spent in my life… amazing!!!!! want to go again tonite. went up north to the volcanoe… kinda cloudy up there.. our driver was entertaining though… made us laugh so much the way he talked… and he talked us into an expensive buffet - 6 dollars - where we could till we bursted he said… good food.. cranky waitress though…
ok.. i’ve spent way too much time at this internet cafe so i’m gonna go eat some food now, i’m starving… probably some more rice!!!!
so whats been happening… after Steffi arrived we’ve had some eventful days… this Korean guy Eric that drove me from the airport ended up stopping by one day to drop off a cell phone for me so we could contact him for rides… wow… and the simcard was already loaded too…
so first off we had some great days at the YWAM in Denpasar, Bali…. got to help out with the kids that came over, teaching english.. i was with the little ones so we were just practicing colors and numbers… so much fun.. cant wait to get my pictures on here.. they were like 4-9 year olds… just a handful of them…. really fun.. Steff and I got to go on of the craziest motor bike rides i’ve ever been on (sorry jord - we have some catching up to do).. their actually scooters but they call them “motor” and they can fit a lot on one of those things.. i’m talking whole families to huge carts of bottles for recycling or whatever.. its amazing…. so this YWAM staff guy Salmon asked if we wanted to go to the beach with him, of course our reply was yes please! So off we went, on 2 motors… Seko the other staff guy drove the other one.. so I was sitting on the back, holding on for dear life, i didnt want to hold on too tight, didnt know what was culturally appropriate so i just clung to the back and a death grip on his shirt… so traffic is a little crazy you know with driving on the left side, and there not being any street rules it seems you can drive wherever you want, so sometimes there’s an odd motor coming straight at you, you just dodge a lot, use your horn a lot, and learn great judgement of space… as in the driver beside me is almost touching my arm, and the one in front, if he stopped suddenly there would be a lot of chaos… so yeah…. packed streets… once you get to the villages its definitley not that bad but the main road was something else!!!! So we were close to the beach and then we had to get Salmon’s surf board of course.. and i offered to help so here i was holding on to his huge surfboard with the one hand and the death grip with the other, trying not to let the board catch wind and whip out in front of the next driver… i tell you it was really fun. just a quick drive to the beach and then we got to walk the beach, watch salmon surf, got excited to try surfing ourselves when we bring our swim stuff the next time as it was a little cold that day. anyways i’m going into way too much detail.. i just get excited about these things… the best was the ride back after dropping off the surfboard again at his friends house the clouds burst open and it poured a heavy Bali rain… we were absolutely drenched.. thanks to my helmet my hair didnt get wet. important factor. (yes mom, we were wearing helmets) and the guys are actually really good drivers. made some really good friendships with them.
the next day Eric and his driver came in their air conditioned toyota van and picked us up for a little adventure. so did i mention this guy is really rich? cuz he’s planning to build a resort in bali.. i dunno how i managed to sit beside this guy in economy class on the airplane but anyways… so he took us to see these resorts - Nusa Dua beach.. wow…. such white sand and amazing waves… lots of Russian holidayers who dont speak a word of english…. sat around there for a bit, and off we went to Bvlgari resort, ordered some pizza and pineapple juice (amazing!!!), relaxed a bit and then he took us to another resort - Nirwana more NW Bali where he had a business meeting and we got to swim and use the pool in the mean time, have some more food on his account and then he took us to this small village up north where we were wanting to meet my contact Rus, it would have cost us a fortune to get there by taxi so this was such an amazing hook up!!! Giving us rides galore and letting us see some of the most luxurious places around. so spoiled i am.
So Rus and Made’s house.. wow…. this has been one of the highlights for me so far… gorgeous house tucked away in this tiny village where the roads are trecherous and at one point Eric was wantin to turn around.. maybe he thought i was playing a trick on him or something… but we finally arrived and thanked eric and his driver… and there we were in Rus’s beautiful landscaped yard. he’s a water specialist so he had so many fountains and pumps going.. we even had warm water for showers on the sunny days! what a treat, the air was a little cooler up there than in denpasar so the warm felt great in the early monings… but definitley shorts and tshirt weather… oh yeah…. one day Rus’s nephew Putu (who’s 2 years older than Rus) took us for a walk around the ricefields… wow…. it was just so stunning walking along the ricefields and villages, chatting small talk with people, so friendly everybody , got to watch some of the women make these little hindu offerings with the utmost detail, got to sit in for coffee with them…. such a special experience… Rus’ 11 year old son Peter often accompanied us as he did that day.
Another highlight was Peter showing us the water hole by the river that flows through their property and going swimming one hot afternoon after some morning’s work building/repairing a cement road, it was community work day so it as such a pleasure to be a part of that and carry buckets of cement with the people, with lots of comments and looks and smiles of course, they were very open to me taking lots of pictures… precious people! such a simple life up there, really restful time for me and Steff….
of course the food’s been amazing.. lots of rice and suprised by how much meat too…. lots of fish - best tuna and chicken i’ve eaten in my life!!! they use some amazing paste of ginger, curry, garlic, onion and something else and marinate it and then cook it… sooooo yummy.. ena ena as they say… we’ve had eel and other fish too… good soy products too… yum… bok choi also a favourite of mine… their sauce is just so delicious…
anyways…. so we didnt have internet up there.. and i dont think i will for the next few days again. we’ve now come back and got a 20 dollar flight to lombok island where we are planning to head out to gili islands tomorrow morning. our hotel tonight cost 4 dollars each! yup… so cheap… really ecxited for the next few days as they will probably include some amazing beaches and hopefully lots of cultural experiences.
more to come…
