I've started posting entries from my honeymoon journal, with links to photos. Check it out.
June 23, 2006
Day 5: Monkey forest and Kuta beach
baby monkey
Although we were reluctant to leave Kupu Kupu Barong's luxury, we were excited to continue on to our next destination. We enjoyed one last breakfast on our balcony and a quick dip in the pool. We checked out around noon, and then hired a chauffeured tour of the remaining of Ubud sites. We visited one of Ubud's many royal palaces, where Balinese royalty still live today. It was an impressive celebration of Balinese architecture. Much of it is on display to the public.
Kuta beach
The monkey forest nearby is a small nature preserve and was one of the more entertaining parts of our Bali visit. The monkeys are used to people and are not easily frightened. In fact, many of them walk right up to you and some tried to grab our water bottles dangling from our backpacks. I got some really fun shots here, in spite of the low-light conditions. A few of the monkeys also got a bit agressive with other tourists. One woman freaked out and left.
statue in Royal Palace
After the monkey forest, we ate lunch at Dirty Duck. The food tasted good, but unfortunately, it was probably a bit "dirty", as Nneka got sick later that night.
After lunch we drove out to Kuta beach, where all the resort hotels are, and saw the sunset before heading to the airport, and flying to Malaysia...
Posted by Geoff at 5:00 PM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2006
Day 4: Shopping Ubud
Barong dance
We awoke to much better weather today. We ordered breakfast on the balcony, overlooking the jungle gorge. Nasi goreng (fried rice), mie goreng (fried noodles), pancakes, and coffee. Our tour guide picked us up at 8:30. Again, there were no seat belts. Nneka was nervous all day about this, but we didn't seem to have any choice. We saw quite a lot that day:
- Batik painting, a traditional Balinese art, using colored wax on cloth
- A Barong dance performance, one of the most well-known Balinese cultural features.
- A jewelry maker, where Nneka bought a lovely bracelet
Kintamani volcano and
rice paddies at dusk - Hindu temple
- wood carving producers and shop
- Kintamani volcano
- traditional spice and coffee roasters
- rice terraces
- painting school and shop where the artists painted traditional Balinese scenes as well as immitated abstract, impressionist, and Renaissance styles.
Much of the draw for Ubud tourism is the art and craft shops. But we also saw some quite beautiful jungle scenery.
Posted by Geoff at 7:00 PM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2006
Day 3: Lap of Luxury
rose petal bath
Our next two nights were the most expensive accommodations of our entire trip. As we would soon discover, they were also the most luxurious. After we checked out of Villa Wanakerta, a driver picked us up to take us to Kupu Kupu Barong, a five-star resort in the heart of Ubud town.
When we got into the car, we found that the seat belts had been intentionally cut out of the car! Nneka complained, but it appeared we had no choice. What Americans consider safety was considered an inconvenience in Bali (and throughout Southeast Asia, except Singapore).
When we arrived, the manager met us in the beautiful open air lobby, offered us a welcome drink, and generally made us feel at home as we checked in. We were shown to our private villa, where we were greeted by a flower petal bath and a special cake, decorated with "Contratulation, Honey Moon" [sic]. The villa was a two-stories, split-level, with a balcony, a private pool, and a view of a beautifully forested gorge.
private pool
We had booked a tour for that day, but it was rescheduled due to a mixup with the date. It was nice to just spend the afternoon lounging. We ordered room service, took a nap, ate some of the cake, and then went for three hours of spa treatments. Extraordinary.
Dinner at the resort restaurant was delicious. Nneka had the steak and I ordered a spicy seafood hot pot, with huge mussels, squid and fish. The restaurant was open-air under a tent. The supporting columns were dotted with little lizards, prehaps sleeping, as they didn't often move.
Posted by Geoff at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2006
Night 2: Welcome to the jungle
Spraying the
mosquito nets
A budget airline, ValuAir, took us to Denpasar Airpot, Bali. The flight staff in Singapore made us check our carry-on baggage, despite the plane being nearly empty. Nneka got a little sick on the plane, but we made it there safely. The taxi ride to Villa Wanakerta was a little scary -- the drivers (not to mention the motor bikers without helmets) love to drive fast and overtake on narrow roads. (This was a pattern we'd see repeated throughout Southeast Asia.) The ride seemed to last forever.
We arrived at Villa Wanakerta late in the evening, and were greeted by friendly host, who spoke very broken English.
Gracious staff
Though it was too dark to see much, it was clear the villa was nestled in the jungle. We were shown to our room, which seemed nice, but we soon discovered it wasn't completely protected from the jungle bugs and critters.
The mosquitos were buzzing just outside, easily visible through the wide cracks around the doors and windows and edges of the walls. There was very large worm in the bathtub and hundreds of ants crawling all over the wall next to the toilet. We were definitely roughing it here!
Backyard jungle
Tellingly (and thankfully), the beds had mosquito nets, which we promptly doused with bug repellent. (We also sprayed around the windows to deter them from entering through the cracks.) We didn't sleep very well -- the jungle noise was surprisingly loud and seemed to change hourly. Monkeys, insects, roosters crowing, loud drum-like sounds and who knows what else were chattering all night. We eventually slept, but didn't feel very rested. We had also sweated through our clothes by morning.
In the morning, we discovered how beautiful a jungle setting can be in the daylight, even though it was a bit overcast. I took the opportunity to shower outside (for perhaps the first time in my life) in the moss-covered stone wall shower behind the bath. Nneka passed on that bit of "adventure".
More photos...Posted by Geoff at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
Day 2: wandering Singapore
Despite being exhausted by the trip, forewent sleep to site see, as we only had a few hours in Singapore (see photo album). Singapore immigration issued us transit visas so we could leave the airport and come back to continue on to Bali, Indonesia. We quickly changed out of our travelling clothes, checked our baggages for the day, and then took one of the regular tourist buses from the airport to the center of town.
Nneka enjoys her
roti chanai and teh tarek.
It was raining when we left the airport, and rained all morning. Our first stop was Mustafa Center, where we were stopped by the mall security, who asked to check our backpacks before entering. I declined, as I didn't feel like leaving my camera and other personal belongings at my "own risk". Nneka went in briefly by herself to buy an umbrella.
Next, we sampled a favorite breakfast food of Nneka's from her days of living in Malaysia, roti chanai, a chicken curry and egg dish at a local eatery. It was delicious! After breakfast, we walked through Little India, and it's beautiful streets lined with row houses, shops, and intricately decorated Hindu temples.
One of several Hindu
temples in Little India
We stopped at a furniture shop where we nearly bought some wonderful, handmade, hand-carved wooden furniture. We decided against it because of the expense of shipping. But we dreamed of returning "when we're rich" to collect artisan's work from this street (a theme that was set for the rest of the trip).
Then we took the marvelously modern and clean subway to Chinatown, where be sampled and bought dried, sweetened BBQ pork a chinese shop, and continued our walk. The rains stopped and the sun started shining as we reached Orchard Road, famous for its shopping. We also visited the luxurious Raffles Hotel.
As we made our way back to the airport, we remarked to one another how few interesting tourist attractions and landmarks there were in Singapore. They tore many of the old buildings down in favor of the modern, characterless skyscrapers and apartment complexes. It seemed we'd seen all that was interesting about Singapore in a few hours. We were glad to have heeded the tour guides, which claimed one day was plenty. Next we made our way to Bali...
Posted by Geoff at 5:10 PM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2006
Day 1: 24 hours to Singapore
We departed in a rush for the airport on Sunday afternoon. Our bags were packed and we were excited. My parents, who were in town for the wedding, drove us to the airport, and after we hugged and said our goodbyes we were off! We made the short trip from Boston to New York's JFK airport, before changing airlines to fly to Singapore via Frankfort.
Flying Singapore Airlines was a treat. It's reputation for wonderful service was very much deserved. The staff was friendly, the meals delicious. Still, it was about eight hours to Frankfort and eleven more to Singapore. The trip was exhausting, and we managed to sleep only a bit, between having the backs of our seats (esp. Nneka's) kicked by a couple of bratty Malay kids (Nneka recognized their mother's language). Nneka's repeated dirty looks and comments to their mother seemed to help very little. (This could very easily lead to a rant regarding our disapproval of children aboard airplanes, so I'll cut myself off here...)
With the time zone changes, we finally arrive in Singapore on Tuesday at 6:35 am, where our journey really begins...
Posted by Geoff at 3:00 PM | Comments (0)