Finding Zen

Dear Readers,

It is confession time.  Mom you might want to sit down for this.  After yesterday’s post I had my first ever scooter lesson.  In the dark.  On an Indonesian back road.  Following which I was TERRIFIED of my trip today.  And of course terrified to face you guys when I said “Hey guys, guess what! I’m an enormous chicken who can’t ride a Vespa.”  Josh Cheek, I owe you an apology.  While I still fully believe that Vespa’s are the sorority girl version of motorcycles, that is still saying a lot.  Matt Smith, I owe you an apology for not giving you enough credit for riding that motorcycle in LA, every day.

And now for a big fat “thank you” to: Chris Kennedy, Mike Durst, Jason Horton, Tim J. Lord and the 2 or 3 other dude friends of mine that I told to mock me into submission.  Also thank you to: Marisa Ferrey and Sara Collier-Byrd for professing to love me anyway even if I chickened out, stayed in Kerobakan and returned the bike this morning.  Chris Corrado you didn’t respond to my email so you get nothing.  Nothing but shame. [Editor’s note: Chris did in fact email.  An email I received after completing my scooter ride.  Shame upgraded to Honorable Mention]

One more confession, until today I didn’t love Bali.  I felt really bad about it in fact.  I tried to skirt the issue every chance I got but I just couldn’t shake those “I’m just not that into you” blues.  So, when you add in the terror, I was pretty sure booking two weeks in Bali was one of the bigger mistakes I have ever made.  That may be a little overdramatic.  Big mistakes, you know who you are, and I know you are secretly reading this blog. 

So when did I fall in love with Bali?  Sometime after pulling out of the little café where I had been hiding out, playing on facebook and just in general stalling.  Not quite when the waitresses and the laundry ladies nearby waved me off with looks of pity and worry on their faces.  Not even when I managed to get going in a straight line and not freak out with every bit of oncoming traffic.  I fell in love with Bali when I got on that road and decided to follow it wherever it went.  Bali fell in love with me back when it heard me sing the Jungle Book song every time I got tense.  Which is good because I needed all of Bali’s good vibes when I hit the “freeway” at rush hour.  And for that right hand turn.  And maybe that one back road. 

Now then, as I am writing this post right now it is obvious that I made it out of Kerobakan alive.  I even managed to stop at Pura Tanah Lot and do a little sightseeing and shopping on the way.  I am staying in Medewi for the next 5 days.  I’m in a true dive.  The bathroom door is hanging by one hinge.  The fan is from 1978.  Also, I really want a sleeping bag or another sheet to go on top of the bed.  But I am 25 meters off the beach and there are at least 3 massage tents in that area where I can get an hour for $7.  After the 5 hour scooter ride today you can bet your boots I got me one of those.  And a big heaping helping of satisfaction.

Hindu temples are a bit more welcoming. At least to the parts that civilians can see.

Souvenir stalls and tourists buses at the temple.

Me at the temple.  Love the windswept helmet hair?

The temple on it's own. 

My first view of the ocean from the coast road.

And now for info on the next day...

And so it goes...

I write this as I sit in a café down the street with the Ukranian while Middle Eastern music plays over the PA system.  My newly rented scooter is sitting out front with the blue helmet hanging from the handlebars.  We have cleared out of the house for a bit while our hostess has some private time with a new friend.  I really should have brought my Bali book with me.

Boy, the white dog who lives at the villa, has kept me company all day.  He likes to walk with me through town.  Did you know there are dog politics?  Places in town where dogs won’t bark at me if Boy is there, places where he crosses on the other side of the street to avoid other dogs.  He marks his territory every 5 feet and does it again on the way back.  Other than the constant urinating he is a pretty good companion.

I’ve dropped off my laundry so I can start my trip squeaky clean and fully stocked with fresh knickers.  I am traveling light for this portion of my trip having left my suitcase in a locker at the airport.  I plan on doing the bulk of my souvenir shopping during the last couple of days of my visit.  So, for the next week or so it’s me, my scooter, my backpack, and my olive drab messenger bag I picked up at army surplus the day before I left.

I under researched this portion of the trip.  And by “this portion” I mean everything after Hong Kong.  I do have a bit of a plan for the next two days that involves getting on Grohl (my cute new scooter) and winging it up the coast. I have highlighted the things to see and places to stay and I have the flimsiest of grasps on the topography of the land.  I do not however have a back-up plan, a driver, or a cell phone.  As they say in the good old U.S. of A. – go big or go home.

I don’t have my camera with me at the moment, so no pictures today.  Tomorrow, perhaps…

Goodbye Kowloon.

Due to internet difficulties over the last few days I am writing this on my second day in Bali and not actually at the end of my first.  Small matter to some but it isn’t how I like to do things so I feel it is worth noting.

Traveling between Hong Kong and Bali is like going through the looking glass.  One side is full of order, crowded, and decidedly grown up.  On the other side things are a bit more free form which can be quite jarring.  Especially as I am having trouble coming up with six impossible things to believe before breakfast. 

Talking a taxi driver down from 200,000IDR to 100,000 (the exchange rate is roughly $1US=$8000IDR) is just one of the experiences you get right off the plane.  Mission accomplished, you may find yourself in the general area of the place you are staying and having the taxi driver pull over and call the person you are staying with in order to get better directions because the home has no address.  Experience #2.  All in a day’s leisure. 

It seems as though the population of Bali is almost entirely expats from all over the world.  I’m staying with the friend of a friend who happens to be from LA as well.  Her two very handsome and very gay guy friends came over (Ukranian/LA and a straight-up Australian no fishy American influences) and we all went out to dinner.  That is how I find myself on my first evening in Bali: riding a scooter past rice fields while gently holding on to a devastatingly handsome gay Ukranian.  There are worse ways to spend a day.

So here comes my goal for Bali – time to let go.  No address? No problem.  Nothing is walkable? No problem.  There is nothing to do? No problem.  RELAX damn it! You are on vacation!  It is time for me to learn how to sit still for hours at a time, relax by the pool in the villa, and just breathe.  Trust me when I say I would rather be in a city hopping the subway to a downtown district to walk in circles.  But I’m working on it.

The Bali Airport.

The view from my bedroom for the next day or two.

Out the other window.

And now that I am caught up, it's time to go out and experience life.

Central, properly.

Hey guys,
I was having problems with blogspot yesterday and the day before.  I am going to go ahead and publish the post I had worked up for the day before yesterday and then catch up from there.

Thanks for your patience and indulgence.

And now for the news:

Today was my last day in Hong Kong.  I head out tomorrow on a 10am flight, which (thanks to the training afforded me by an over anxious mother) means I will be leaving for the airport around 620am.  Up to today I had hit all the highlights that I intended to hit and found myself at a bit of a loss for what to do next.  Then I thought, “This is Hong Kong! There is definitely enough stuff to keep a girl busy for 5 days stupid!  Think!”  And with that I reread the guidebook my friend Drew was kind enough to lend me and came up with enough stuff for two days.  I have always been an overachiever.

I decided to hit the Goldfish Market and Jade Market.  Sadly, I was too early.  The markets between the two were open but apparently the glamour of being a destination unto themselves means they don’t have to work as hard as the poor saps with the tented stalls.  Strike 2 goldfish market.

Rallying, I decided to head over to Hong Kong proper, or more correctly Central.  I had touched on this area a bit yesterday ever so briefly but today was the day to do it up right.  And by golly, did I.  The first stop was a bit of housekeeping.  Someone requested a postcard and it needed to be mailed.  Only in HK can a trip to the post office involving 2 different teller windows still take less than 5 minutes. 

Then it was off to the escalators.  You see, Hong Kong is built in the foothills surrounding some lovely mountains.  The deeper you head into the city, the hillier it becomes.  God bless the Chinese, they’ve built escalators to save you the trouble of climbing up stairs.  There are no down escalators, that would just be lazy.  The escalators take you through excellent places to shop (which I did), sacred places to visit (I’m looking at you Man Mo Temple), and even some places to relax (Zoological and Botanical Garden, you rock!).  Some walking is required but in the oppressive humidity of HK, every little bit helps.  At one point I looked down and realized I was sweating sunscreen.  It was a sad moment.

The real goal of the day was shopping.  And shop I did.  I won’t say more because the four of you who are reading this are probably the four I bought presents for. 

Once the shopping was done, I got to spend a little hang out time with my friend Drew who is in town visiting his girlfriend Nikki.  I dragged him through Ladies Market where he endured the abuse of hawkers while relating his own HK adventures.  Then I dragged him to the Goldfish Market where victory was mine – it was open!  Yup, I’m counting that as a victory.  We finished up the night at the Harbor watching the “Light and Sound Symphony”, a choreographed light show with sound blaring in Kowloon and the biggest buildings on each side of the harbor lighting up in time with the music.  It was actually pretty cool.

And that is how I’m going out with HK.  I’m mostly packed now sitting in my room.  Tomorrow I head to Bali.  But tonight my heart still belongs to Hong Kong.  I bought the shirt to prove it.

This fruit smells like trash.

I'm not saying that I sang the Monkey Song from the Jungle Book to this particular primate. I'm also not saying that I didn't.

It's like an Asian Madeline book.  "Wait hat, wait!"

Goldfish at the goldfish market.

Cat Street Market.  I am using this photo as a place holder.  The best photo I have from Cat St. involves a disturbingly well endowed hermaphroditic bovine Halloween costume.

Random Asian dude in my picture of the bay at night.

Another post in 5 minutes...

Odds and Ends, Day 1

Up to this point I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do every day and where I was going to go.  Thanks to the efficiency of HK public transport, combined with everything being so much closer than it seemed, and a slight case of not being able to stay in bed past 7a, I got ahead of my schedule.  So today I just kind of made stuff up as I went along.

I will not say that I got lost. I will say only that I thought I was on a different street going a different direction for a bit this morning.  Having no plans for the rest of the day, I decided to go with it.  This led me to the Goldfish Market. Almost.  It definitely led me to the statue for the Goldfish Market which I will include below.  Either I did not venture far enough in the proper direction or the market was closed on Sunday, but I did not run across any stray Koi.  I chose to believe the closed excuse. 

As fish proved elusive I went for the birds.  The Bird Market and the Flower Market were both very close and looked interesting so away I went.  The Bird Market was full of old men buying birds in small, semi-elaborate cages.  There were lots of different types of birds and they were all chirping away in different tones and tunes, but surprisingly the cacophony was not awful.  It was just kind of happy and loud. 

After the birds, the Flower Market was wonderfully still. Cool, as well.  Between the people spraying plants and cuttings with water on one side and the little bursts of cold air from the better funded (i.e. air conditioned) store fronts on the other side it was a welcome relief from the mugginess of HK in general.  Pretty too.

Getting back to the MTR, I headed to Causeway Bay to check things out.  Interesting point about Causeway Bay – there is a World Trade Center AND a Times Square.  They are both malls.  Remember what I said about Hong Kong and shopping?

My first point of order was to get to the Noon Day Gun.  This is a small cannon that has been fired every day since 1860, with the exception of the 6 years of Japanese occupation.  The Japanese are such killjoys.  It was “made famous” by Noel Coward in the song Mad Dogs and Englishmen.  I had never heard of it.  But I thought “it’s a cannon, it can’t be lame”.  I made it with 10 minutes to spare.  As a special Mother’s Day present I will not post a picture of the sketchy, poorly marked alley entrance to the tunnel that takes you there, through an underground garage.  It was totally worth it.  Picture below.

Window shopping at Times Square.

My next mission was of course a pub.  Near a racetrack.  Below where my map cut off.  Flying by the seat of my pants!  (Mom, you still there?)  Robyn from work had suggested a pub her husband had frequented when last he was in HK and so I stopped by.  I have a photo of the sign to prove it.  Once I found the place (I went the long way round the racetrack, past the cemetery, past the tunnel to Aberdeen) it was of course closed.  Luckily there was an awesome ramen place next door so the effort was not wasted.

Other than a little more window shopping that was pretty much my day.  Tomorrow is my last full day in Hong Kong and I feel it will be more odds and ends.  I just can’t bring myself to go to Hong Kong Disney.

And then...(insert plot point from Finding Nemo)

Hey Tiffany, I'll give you a dollar to hold this bag of "bird food" for 5 seconds.

Flowers for Mothers Day (love you mom)

Ilya Seperich, this gun is for you.

Because it just wouldn't be China without at least one golden dragon statue.

Longest Day EVER!!!

Longest Day EVER!

I managed to hit 3 landmarks today with the help of a new friend from the TravBuddy website.  Mother, her name is Jess and no she did not try to rape or kidnap me.  There are other uses for the internet besides trolling for victims.  Porn springs immediately to mind.

We headed out to Lantau Island at the decently early time of 9am.  This involved a 20 minute walk to the subway station, a 20 minute ride to Central, a 10 minute walk to the pier, a 45 minute wait for the ferry, an hour ferry ride, lunch, a half hour bus ride and 5 more minutes of walking to get to our destination – an ENORMOUS bronze seated Buddha.  It was completely worth the trip. 

The Buddha itself is kind of breathtaking.  You can see it from miles away as it sits on it’s mountaintop.  When you arrive at the monastery/surrounding village there are colorful flags everywhere because Buddha’s birthday is in 3 days.  When you get to the base of the Buddha you still have a ways to go, 268 stairs to be exact.  But again, totally worth it.

When you’ve had your fill of the Buddha and the temple and the 75 souvenir stands, it’s time to head back down.  At this juncture you are faced with a choice: bus ride or cable car ride.  Everyone who said bus ride just got 5 demerits in my mind.  The cable car ride is 4 miles long and takes about 25 minutes.  The views are incredible.  Pictures will follow.

At the end of the cable car is an MTR station, which got us back to Hong Kong where we decided to check out the Peak.  It is exactly what it sounds like, the top of a large mountain just behind Hong Kong proper.  Scattered about the area are the homes of the rich and famous, according to Jess “the Beverly Hills of Hong Kong” (with actual hills to boot).  The best way to get up there is the tram which drags you up the mountain at approximately a 45 degree angle.  When you get to the top there are more incredible views of Victoria Harbor.  And a couple of malls.  Hong Kong is one giant mall.  Anyone who tells you differently is selling something.

Once we’d had our fill of the Peak it was time to go home, shower, and change for a little Night Market shopping.  We met up with a couple more TravBuddy friends (Tim and Thomas from Amsterdam, who also did not try to rape or kidnap us) and hit the Temple Street Night Market.  A flea market of sorts that stretches for what feels like miles and in actuality is about 15 blocks  Thanks to the Chinese love for neon, it is a very colorful 15 blocks.  Bargaining is the name of the game.  I suck at the game.  I did however get some shopping done before crying exhaustion at 1130p and hopping the subway home. 

 

Classy lady, hanging her laundry out the window to dry.

If you like it then you should have put a ring on it.

"Oh Lexi, stop mocking the divine generals." Sorry, General.

Buddha High Five!

The view of the airport from the cable car.

The view from the peak.

I'm not proofing this. I am going to sleep.  Deal with it.

xoxo

P.S. I came back and proofed it a little.  Couldn't help myself.

Out and About

Today got off to a fairly spastic start.  Between my nearly blinding myself with the ribbon on my tshirt and thinking I shorted out half the hall with an ill-advised combination of chargers and adapters, I was just not at my best at 6am.  So I said screw it and got back in bed.

When I did finally drag myself out it was to go over to Hong Kong proper and hop a ferry.  Taking the subway to Central at 830am on a Friday morning is not the best idea, but it is an experience.  Think sardines in a can and you can just about picture the scene.  I want to give a special shout-out to the woman on the subway who managed to put on eyeliner while the train was in motion.  Congratulations random stranger, I (who can barely manage a non-wobbly line while standing a foot from a mirror, holding extraordinarily still, and sticking out my tongue ever so slightly) have never felt less like a woman.  Well done stranger!

At this point I want to say how much I love the public transportation in Hong Kong.  I love it in a way that only a farm girl can: as an exotic and mysterious service sent from heaven.  Like Thai delivery.  Between the MTR and the 3 different ferries I took over the course of the day I sampled the best Hong Kong had to offer and I was not disappointed.  I was also not broke as the public transportation here is awesomely cheap. 

I spent the bulk of the day on a little island called Cheung Chau.  Once you get off the ferry it’s like you’ve entered the China of the movies.  There are bicycles lined up everywhere, it smells like gasoline, and (I swear to God this happened) a little old man with a curio shop was sitting outside listening to classic Chinese music on a record player.  It’s also about 90 degrees here and the humidity is just this side of rain.

The island is getting ready for their big yearly Bun Festival which I am going to miss by about 12 hours when I leave for Bali.  It dates all the way back to the plague of the late 19^th century and has evolved into a kind of 4^th of July centered around some kind of child’s race/climb to gather buns off a giant totem.  I will attach photos of the prep.

The island isn’t very big so I managed to see a lot of it in the 5 hours I was there. I toured a couple of little temples.  I took a hike (more like a vigorous walk, don’t get excited) through the “Mini Great Wall” which is on the wilder backside of the island.  I walked along the beach.  Did I get in? No.  When the selling point of your beach is that you have  a shark net, you can pretty much just count me out.  Shark net?  Sounds like something a mid-level dominatrix would wear to the office Christmas party.  It does not sound like something that would actually protect me from a shark.  No deal.

Discoveries of the Day:

1)      McDonald’s serves “Grilled chicken curly pasta” for breakfast.  It is delicious.

2)      There is a giant difference between Ming Dynasty dragons and Chang Dynasty dragons.  The Mings look like Falcor from The Neverending Story.

3)      Apparently having blonde hair and blue eyes means you actually look like Barbie over here.  I am okay with the comparison/complete overlooking of shape and size.

Yuuumm, sweat.  In a can.

Bun towers.  Not at all phalic.

Richie Elson, this one is for you.  It's called Zombie Rock.  It looks like Frankenstein lying on the slab. 

One of these architects was trying to prove something.  Not telling you which one though...

Ruby, this overly sweet Asian Coke is for you.

I bid you adieu.