bali vs phuket

Showdown!!!

This post brought to you by coffee!!! I haven't drinken it in so long, I should have known to not drink a big cup a few hours before bed. Doh!

Hotel : Phuket by a long shot
I'm in a fancy villa with touch controls, wireless everywhere, and fresh squeezed orange juice that I think comes from blood oranges. Mmmmm

Driving/roads : Phuket
Bali's road were horribly maintained. Phuket's seem to all be newer and wider so two cars can actually drive on it at the same time.

Ocean : Bali
Well Phuket's water temperature is just about at body temperature - it couldn't be more perfect if i had a water heater :) But the waves have a gigantic undertow - one pulled me about 5 feet back from the edge of the beach. At least in Bali, while the water is a tad chilly, the waves are gentle.

Beach : Phuket
It's a perfect tan colored sand

Weather : Bali
Phuket is so humid and hot!

Food : Phuket
Thai curry... mmmmm.....

Taxis : Bali
In Phuket you can't find a metered taxi outside of the airport! And the evil local taxi mafia won't let the metered taxi pick up by my hotel :(

Money : Bali
In Phuket things cost almost as much as in the US. And haggling doesn't work as well :( Sad!

Architecture : Bali
I guess that most of the coast of Phuket that I am on was destroyed by the big Tsunami - most buildings are boring concrete. Bali had a lot of old buildings and little hindu temples everywhere

pictures

these are unlabeled and unsorted, but due to popular demand -- pictures!

Puppy from Bali Zoo (i'll get more zoo pictures up later)
http://picasaweb.google.com/geekgirl/BaliZoo

Ubud Monkey Forest
http://picasaweb.google.com/geekgirl/UbudMonkeyForest

planes and thailand!

So yesterday we decided to just hang out and live the "resort" style life at the hotel (since we had a plane to catch in the early afternoon). We hung out on the beach, I finished another book, we checked out the multiple pools (yep that's right... there was one huge winding freshwater pool, then another saltwater pool) and used the waterslide. There was even a swimup bar! how novel! And a few waterfalls. Pretty, but in a very different sense of the word, much more manicured and groomed.

The flight to Phuket was uneventful - we flew through Kuala Lumpur. It's a very pretty airport, lots of soaring glass windows and plant life outside, yet it was empty - very few shops, not a lot of people, and most importantly.... no internet at the gates!!!! How is one supposed to survive without internet ? The second plane we took was a 737 without much space-- I was surprised darrin even fit in the seat (he hit is head on the door and couldn't really stand up in the aisleways).

We arrived at Phuket a bit late and at night. Again I wound up booking a resort that was a bit out of the main drag (oops!), but in this group of 5 fancy resorts around a lagoon. I got a villa overlooking the lagoon, and wow, it's pretty. Taking advantage of the cheapness of other countries rocks - they made me feel like a princess here. Chocolates, chocolate covered strawberries, huge bowl of tropical fruit, and orchids everywhere. I can't walk 5 feet without stepping on another orchid.

Darrin kept telling me how yummy Thai food is in Thailand -- while I believed him I had never really experienced. And wow.... yes! I don't know what they put into their curry sauces but there's some sort of addicting quality - perhaps curry crack. I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

There are sooo many pictures - I'll try to get some more up today, but no promises!

Day 5 and Zoo!!!

It's funny that I go to a completely foreign country on the other side of the world, and one of the highlights of my day is petting a super cute puppy!!!!

So today we went to the Bali Zoo, which is actually a privately owned zoo. It was very awesome - they had lots of interactions with animals - bird rooms and lots of petting and feeding :) It starts out with baby monkey petting, then goes around to lots of animals, mostly ones from this part of the world (lots of gorgeous birds), and in the middle is the children's petting zoo. Well, even though it's for children, i think it was my favorite part :) They had the most adorable puppy there! And lots of monkeys, rabbits, deer, guinea pigs, goats, and I am sure I am forgetting a few animals :)

Afterwards we were going to check out a supposedly great vegetarian restaurant in the capital city of Denpasar. Unfortunately stores/restaurants seem to come and go quickly here and it was closed :( We decided to go back to Kuta and spend the afternoon on the beach again. The waves were pretty huge! I decided that there is nowhere I would rather be than sitting on the beach, with an awesome book, in Bali.

So today we head to Phuket - another beach-y island. Hopefully it compares :)

I have taken so many pictures the past few days that I haven't had a chance to even go through them all. They'll get up sometime :)

Day three pictures are up!! http://picasaweb.google.com/geekgirl/BaliNusaDuaKutaAndSeminyak

Day 4 : Ubud

Well it's the beginning of day 5 so I am just skipping day 3 for now :)

This whole vacation has been so relaxing. Despite the slight sickness (from lots of air travel... I was on a plane Friday, Monday, and then Thursday) and jetlag, I have felt more relaxed than I can remember. It's like "oooohhhh.... that's what people mean when they say to relax"

Today we went to Ubud, which is supposedly the art capital of Bali (and is a bit less touristy). The population here was actually mostly Balinese, so it actually looked like Bali! It was inland and very rainforesty. Unfortunately it was a lot more humid than the coasts.

So we got up this morning and decided to head out to ubud. Loooong taxi ride, with the driver asking a bit often if we wanted to go shopping at this place or to a spa at another place. The ride up to the city was pretty though, lots of old buildings and wilderness around. And as we got closer to the city it seemed like half the shops were selling architectural/decorative items or paintings.

First we went to the monkey forest. It's basically a forest/preserve with lots of temples dedicated to monkeys. So cute! I have never seen so many monkeys in my entire life, and they're all in a forest eating bananas! Little baby monkeys, lots of big lazy ones, a few reminded me of oberon, just sitting there on a wall or laying in the sun with their bellies up. Most of the temples had the normal pretty sculptures of monkeys or spirits or lizards.... but one had a monkey masturbating. Seriously, an old stone sculpture of it. So weird

Then was a Botanical Gardens. Wow. Huuuuge orchid section, so many that were so beautiful! Darrin found some sort of flower with the same color of my hair :) Lots of birds of paradise were hanging around there as well.

Spa Hati was all right - it's a spa whose profits go towards an elementary school. Like the other spa we went to yesterday it was a semi-outdoors building - it didn't have complete walls and there is a big gap between the roof and side walls. The doors had large billowing curtains.

Yummy lunch! vegetarian tempeh and tofu galore at an indonesian place. It's funny how Italian food seems to be the most popular cuisine here.

Then of course, a bit more shopping! I got a few more sarong's (fancier silk this time!) and a "gucci" watch. I'm not into brands but I needed a watch, and it was only $4 (after darrin bargained him down of course).

Seriously though, pictures are going to be coming soon ;)

Day 2 in Bali (Kuta!)

So yesterday we wanted to escape Nusa Dua. It's pretty out here, but the beach isn't the best for swimming and there's actually guards on this part of the island preventing non-tourist or rich folk from coming over. It's a little bit sheltered. Kuta is on the other side of this "penninsula" of the island, maybe a 15 minute drive away.

Breakfast was a pretty extravagant buffet. Eggs, crepes, cheese (they import real cheese out here) noodles, rice porridge, umeboshi (these really sour and salty pickled japanese plums. I'm addicted to them!), fresh juice, the list goes on and on. Juice out here is interesting. In america when we think of juice we think of fruit parts squeezed dry of liquid and the rest thrown out. Here juice is more like a smoothie. The rinds are cut off and it is blended, with the whole shebang poured in as juice. Lots of various melons are pretty popular. And at the bar mango drinks were on special.

Then we headed to Kuta - sure it's another touristy part of the island but it's a different type :) Lots of little stalls of shops, lots of places that sell Ralph Lauren Polo (I swear either Bali has a lot of counterfeit or Polo has set up a second base of operations). Bali is neat because it's a majority Hindu island, so there are lots of little temples everywhere. It makes for very awesome architecture. After walking the gauntlet of "Cheap sarongs!" "looking is free" "what do you want? i have it!" "special price, for you!" we got to the beach. Wow. It was less wide than a florida type beach but was completely flat and stretched as far as the eye can see in both directions. We headed to the little alcove of lounge chairs and parasols.

I made my first mistake of not bargaining with the guy and paid 80kRP (everything here is in thousands of rupees, 9100RP = 1usd) for two chairs. Ooops. I learned my lesson there :) But the beach was gorgeous and darrin rented a boogie board for just 10k RP. Bargaining seems to be life here and the big way to get everything is walk away and they always chase you. Most prices seem to start out about 8-9 times what we paid for them, and I think we are still paying too much. Lots and lots of sellers on the beach keep pestering you! But boogie boarding is fun. Ok, all the cool kids were on surfboards so me and Darrin were out there with the 8 year olds boogie boarding, but it was still a blast :) Pictures coming soon!

A big group of Indian tourists saw darrin and wanted their picture with him! I think he might be the tallest person on the island so he's become a bit of a tourist attraction. After reading, body surfing, and just laying around, we decided to head out. Of the weirdest things to be attempted to be sold, one man was selling bows, arrows, and dart guns, and another was selling little rests for your head when lying on your stomach. You could also put a bag on top of them. Why would anyone buy them? Who knows but I saw a few people with them.

Another interesting thing, we were the only Americans we met in Kuta. Lots of australians, a bunch of germans, and about as many French as Australians, with a mix of Indians, Taiwanese and Japanese thrown in there, but no Americans... er "Canadians."

For a late lunch we got real Indonesian food. Yum! I had a dish sort of similar to a fried rice. Except it was full of vegetables and spices with a fried egg on top. Best "fried rice" I have ever had. Darrin had some sort of stir fry of vegetables, tofu, and tempeh. I was about to lick the plate from whatever they used on it. As it was I scraped the last bits of sauce onto a fork. Plus, they had these fruity drinks they served ina hollowed out pineapple. Like they took the insides, blended them with some other juice and rum, and served it back in the pineapple. I could get used to this :)

Then it was shopping time!! Sarongs a plenty, as well as a bag (we were using a laptop bag as a tote, it wasn't very efficient) and a pair of swim trunks. We started out with people offering us sarongs for about 200kRP, then down to 150kRP (just for us) and our first purchase was at about 45kRP. By the time we left the shopping area we had started paying only 30kRP per item of clothing and I think that we can get it down to 25 or 20 today :) Me and Darrin each bought 4 sarongs. Pretty!!

We got back to the hotel in time to catch the very end of a "parade" they do every night. Then it was dinner time! After having such delicious Indonesian food for lunch, we wanted to get some more for dinner (the hotel indonesian restaurant was very bland). We asked at the front desk, and they sent us to a place which was disappointing. I got a fried noodles dish and Darrin got a mixed vegetable dish. Mine was so bland, I think they put some water spinach with noodles and stir fried it with 0 seasoning, and darrins was just bean sprouts with water spinach cooked in a pan. No flavor whatsoever. Next time we're going to find our own restaurants.

But we did get back to the hotel which was having a neat dance performance on the beach.

So day 2 finished, and right now I am writing this at the beginning of day 3. We're heading to another beach Seminyak, and we already have massages scheduled there. Pictures will be put up soon, I just need to categorize them all!

Bali day 1

I've been both too jetlagged and too busy relaxing to write any more in here!! Catchup time :)

So we landed early in the morning at Bali's airport (Denpasar). It wasn't too bad, it reminded me of Chennai's airport but really clean.

It was pretty nice and clean and customs was crazy quick. They had a ton of scary looking drug sniffing dogs and police, but our luggage got out without a problem and getting a visa and customs was quicker than buying something at a supermarket :) There were a lot of porters who wanted to help us walk our bags the 50M or so to the customs counter (for a few dollars american of course!). Come on, who's that lazy they can't handle it?

So, we walk out and start looking for the "prepaid taxi counter." See, everyone loves ripping off tourists, so your best bet is to go with the official published fares rather than roll the dice on a random taxi driver. But, as we're walking we see a sign for the westin! Turns out, they don't tell you but they have a shuttle driver. We get into a minivan (for those of you who don't know, minivans in asia look a little bit more like vw buses than american minivans. They're thin and boxy, but long.

So we get in, get our names checked off a big list of names he had, and start off. A lot of Bali reminds me a bit of chennai, but with 1/10th of the people and clean. The traffic was slightly crazy (stoplight? who saw that stoplight?) but there was so much less of it that it wasn't heart-attack worthy.

So I just looked up why Indonesia drives on the left instead of the right. Very interesting. Short history - A lot of europe drove on the left hand side as a holdover from feudal days. Reason 1 was that most people were right handed, so if a swordfight was to break out, their right hand would be towards the opponent. Reason 2 is that for horse riding people mounton the left-hand side, so if you had to pull off and stop, you could easily rejoin traffic. Bali was colonized by the dutch back in the 1600's, when they still drove on the left.

So the US and France started using large wagons for agricultural purposes, driven by teams of horses. The horsemen would want to both keep their right arm free for whipping the team, so they would sit on the left, and then they would want to make sure that their wheels didn't crash into another large wagon passing, so they would drive on the right. In france also, the aristocracy would ride on the left and the peasants on the right, so during the revolution it was almost a source of pride. Napoleonic times drove most of the rest of Europe to drive on the right.

History lesson over :) Anywas the shuttle driver was interesting in that he hated hotels and white people. Especially Americans (hence why I am "Canadian" out here. I love Toronto!). And he was driving for a hotel filled mostly with Westerners. Sort of weird.

We get to the hotel, and the building itself here is gorgeous. Spectacular even. The grounds here are 5+ star. Gigantic pool (no really, you need it, i'll get to that in a sec), lots of waterfalls, lots of marble and wood, carvings, art all over the place.... Just 100% gorgeous. The staff here is really nice, but not quite up to speed. Due to plan changes and weirdness, I had to make two reservations - 1 for the first day and add that to the 1 for the next 5 days. It's really common when I do that travelling on business. They were really flustered and confused and had to call a manager. Also yesterday we wanted to go out for Indonesian food for dinner (the food here is so bland and real indonesian food is so yummy). They sent us out to quite possibly the blandest place ever. When getting drinks I ask what they are and it takes the bartender to come out and tell me what's in them! Ok, so I am spoiled and picky, but come on, W's and Westins have spoiled me!

So the first day we spent out on the beach. The beach here is interesting, for a few hundred yards it's all very shallow (like 2 feet deep max) and sandy and seaweedy. Perfect for little kids (they can go out far without getting into the deep) but pretty bad for full sized adults wanting to splash in the ocean. The sand is also different here, more like very very tiny rounded pebbles. The weather is surprisingly perfect. 80s (F) and low humidity, with only little fluffy clouds in the sky, not blocking the sun, just making the sky more picturesque. Flowers grow everywhere out here. 100% gorgeous! They have lots of nice cabanas and couches overlooking the beach around here. You couldnt imagine a prettier place :) I now understand why so many of my friends who have been here have begged me to take them with me!

Crashed out early the first day. Jetlagged! Then started day 2, even more awesomeness!!!

Pictures!!!!

This will be short because i am trying to get back to sleep!

Pictures of LAX and Changi Singapore Airport (gorgeous!)
http://picasaweb.google.com/geekgirl/LAXAndSingaporeAirports

Pictures of the view from my hotel room (and will soon be augmented with pictures from around the island!)
http://picasaweb.google.com/geekgirl/Bali

singapore air and airport

While I got about 4-5 hours of sleep on the plane, at this point I am pretty cracked out.

Singapore Air's A340 executive economy class -- not bad, definitely top of the bunch as far as economy goes. I was again seated at a bulkhead/emergency exit row, but this time even scrunching down I couldn't reach it. At least 4 feet of leg room. The normal amount is much less though. This plane is also fairly small and is about 1/3 business class, which means there are a smaller amount of passengers than on most of my domestic flights I take.

Funny thing - when I boarded the plane, all of the business class people were sitting around drinking champagne. I was like "awww...." thinking that it sucks that I'mnot in business class and therefore have no champagne! Well, lucky me, after we took off, the flight attendants came around about 3 times with champagne for coach. Yay!

It reclined a bit more than an average coach seat, but the seats were nothing special. What was pretty awesome was the fact that in the back there was a "lounge" type of thing. Imagine a normal airplane galley and multiply it by about 4 times and let passengers hang around there (with food! and drinks!) and that's their lounge. Being able to go back and forth to there definitely helped on such a long flight. They also had raspberries. Mmmmm

For some strange reason, they didn't have bottles/cups of water. They had little containers that resembled jello containers, full of water. Not very fulfilling.

Changi Airport is pretty neat. I got a massage and foot massage here. (I'm currently still here and waiting around). There's a store here that looks like a candy/chocolate store.... except that instead of candy it's cured meats (picture is coming). There's a movie theatre that shows the worst of american popular movies (like Dr Doolittle 2), a bunch of nifty little gardens/koi ponds around.

Everything in the airport is in English. They seem to be wanting to attract white westerners. They have a huge picture of a family shopping at the airport - blonde hair and blue eyes. The food stands all take USD, EUR, and AUS, but not always the currencies of nearby countries. And there is a lot of sandwich and pizza places here (I've been a bit afraid to try them and have stuck with dosas for breakfast). There's also a "San Francisco" coffee shop...

Well I am soon going to be packed in a plane to Bali. Sort of strange that the transoceanic plane has less than half of the capacity as the short flight.

LAX and Virgin America

First - The good

Virgin America's first class.... 5 stars. 6 stars out of 5 even. This is a domestic airlines first class?!?! So, if any of you haven't checked out their website about it, it's amazing. Fancy big white leather chairs that recline a pretty good amount... nice footrests that recline out to make it almost a sort of lounge chair that you would sit at by the pool, large personal tv's with lots of entertainment, and airplane food that tasted like restaurant snacks, not an airplane snack. The flight attendant was pretty awesome too (I think he might have been flirting with Darrin). Darrin is looking over my shoulder and is saying "he was. he totally was" teehee :) I felt pampered. And the plane with the purple and magenta lights? Awesome. The biggest complaint I had with the flight is that it was too short!

The bad -
VA is a new airline.... they still are working out the kinks... Checkin took forever, I'm not sure if the system was down or the desk attendants weren't quite sure what they were doing. My bag arrived speedily at the baggage claim, but Darrin's bag was nowhere to be found. The baggage attendant was like "oops, we can't find it" Not good for when you're about to take off in 3 hours to another continent! The bag did wind up coming down (along with several others) a while later, but that's not the best thing to scare people about!

The ugly -
LAX. Ewww. How is this one of the busiest airports in the US? How do airlines not just revolt and say "let's fly into a different coastal airport, because LAX is sprawling and ugly." It's at the height of 1970's technology. It also seems to be mimicking the urban sprawl of the LA area. Very gross. I would never want to fly here.

I'm at the airport, waiting to spend about 18 hours aboard singapore air's executive economy airbus plane. I hope it's not too bad. It's no virgin america first class, but I'll let everyone know my opinion when i get back to internet. (I fly through Singapore to Bali!)

Wish me luck!

Introduction

I'm taking my first long vacation ever and am hopping around SE Asia. On the advice of my mom (of all people!) I'm creating a blog about this -- I will be linking pictures as well sometime when I get them up.