So we've spent a little over a week 'shipwrecked' on the Gili Islands...specifically Gili Tramwangan (sp? I see that word over 10 times a day you think I'd be able to spell it by now).
Anyways, We promise to post pictures soon but I don't think they could ever do this place justice so I definitely want to try to describe what it's like. There are 3 islands, but we're on the biggest which is where most of the hotels and homestays are. It's a very small island, with one road right on the water that goes all the way around. I haven't done it yet, but it would probably take about an hour to walk it. Everywhere you are you see crystal blue water and although it's the rainy season there hasn't been a cloud in the sky. However, the islands are just off the coast of a bigger island called Lombok which you can see right across probably 10 miles away. On that island, there are massive thunder clouds 24 hours a day and supposedly when it's not rainy season you can get a pretty good view of the volcano over there. Basically, we're just very glad that we can view the thunder clouds from a far and not have to endure them.
The Gili's are known for fantastic diving spots and along the beach are all the restaurants and hotels which are consequently dive shops as well (pretty efficient). There's probably about 12 dozen or so, right along a line (which makes it very easy to get around). And that's pretty much all there is. Which may sound boring, but there's a beach a 5 minute walk, each of the dive shops have pools, all the restaurants are fantastic (fresh fish every day) and our favorite thing like I mentioned in a previous post are the movie booths. Which we continue to occupy nearly everday. There's nothing like a movie, a bintang, and a view of the ocean. And there's a surprising mix of very good restaurants--for instance, an irish pub (which also serves good pizza), an indian restaurant, sushi, an organic seafood place, and a couple others thrown in so you can definitely get your fix of western food if you want it.
Speaking of diving, Andrew has just successfully completed his open water diving certification. He's out on a dive as we speak (shark point!) and this is his first 'fun dive' without having to do any tests. He's very excited--mainly because he wants to do a 'loop-da-loop' (that's also probably not how you spell it. I fear i've inherited my mother's spelling gene. Sorry dad!). I can only see that ending drastically, but I guess I'll find out in an hour or so. My bet is he gets stuck upside down.
Another interesting thing about the island is that there are stray cats everywhere. But they aren't particularly sickly looking or dirty, they just bop around picking up scraps. I'm sort of missing my cat, so it's fun to hear them meowing and playing. And every once in a while you see an adorable kitten which is always fun.
We're here til Sunday, and then we'll be leaving this paradise to trek to Ubud on bali for some suckling pig. Ubud is also known for other 'cultural' things, but we're more interested in the pig aspect. We've met a wonderful Irish brother and sister duo who happen to love food like us--and when we mentioned the Anthony Bourdain 'No Reservations' epsisode when he was in indonesia and ate Suckling pig they had already reserached the restaurant--we all knew it was our destiny. Plus we have a ton in common with them so it's very fun to travel around as a group. And now we'll have a place to stay if we want to visit Dublin! (and ironically enough the brother, Garrett, used to live in the south and managed a waffle house in alabama, and a Chili's in atlanta. Two of my hometown favorties so right away I knew we were destined to be friends).
That's all for now, once again another long one. Hope you don't mind! Will update soon.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
Rainy Season in bali...question mark???
Howdy from Indonesia...Many apologies for the delay in writing...I wish I had the excuse that I was really busy, or off in the jungle trekking, but sadly enough my excuse is that we've been doing a lot of relaxing and the thought of hitting up a computer seemed a little too taxing. But I've been taking some great mental notes and have a lot to tell!
So we flew from hong Kong through singapore to denspasar, on the island of Bali. A high-light from the singapore airport is free internet, which makes it one of Cam's favorite airports in the world. Agreed. Next we hopped in a cab to Kuta Beach, which I describe as an Australian Panama City beach, with an exotic twist I guess. There are australians everywhere on holiday trying to have the time of their life and it's funny because some of the indonesians have picked up their mannerisms...Imagine an indonesian guy saying 'mate' and 'g'day.' It's pretty funny. Andrew's mom visited Kuta in the 70s (not sure on the date..I'm hoping i'm not showing your age margot!) and she was telling us how there was absolutely NOTHING there...my have the times changed.
We also hopped around the island to a beautiful beach called Dreamland which is one of the nicest beaches I've been too. It's funny though you take a taxi and they literally drop you off on a deserted cliff. Next you take a lovely stroll over a garbage dump, complete with cows and burning garbage, to stumble upon this beautiful beach with breathtaking blue water. It has some surfing which cam and andrew tried, but I chose the lie-around option and best part about it was there's ladies that walk around giving you massages---2 bucks for 30 minutes. Fantastic.
After Kuta, we hopped on a 'speedboat' to Lembongan, another island known for surfing. The trip over is supposed to take 30 minutes, however, one of the engines wasn't working and ours took an hour. Cam claims this as a regular occurrence and has dubbed it 'Indonesian Time.' The same thing happened on our way to Gili (where we are now) but unfortunately that's a 2 hour trip, that ended up being 4 hours.
We stayed in lembongan 5 nights, at a wonderful place called Mainski Inn, which is right on the water with a lovely infiniti pool. And would you believe me that it's the equivalent of $8 US a night? One catch is that we were at the back of the resort, right by a rooster farm. And they are LOUD. Unfortunately, we also got the roosters who thought the sun rose at 3 in the morning when it's dark out. I guess they failed the rooster university, because last time I checked they were supposed to yell at daybreak...just saying. This resort is owned by an australian restauranteur and his food is fantastic. The food here and in Indo, in general, is incredible. We've been eating a lot of fish, with some indonesian rice noodle dishes thrown in. And of course because of Cam a lot of McDonalds. He claims you have to try it at least once (or 2 or 10) in every country (he found the best in the singapore airport obvi).
Like I said, Lembongan is known for surfing and on our first shot at surfing in Lembongan, Andrew and I got so caught up in surfing that we were out in the sun too long and got a bout of sun stroke. Let me tell you, it was an uncomfortable 24 hours with no AC. Our saving grace was that the bathrooms had been recently redone, which they were charging us an extra 2 dollars for. I claim it as the best $2 I've spent on this trip.
The resort was pretty quiet so for our last 2 days the owner headed back to bali for supplies, leaving the staff to 'run' the resort. They did a fine job, but they were joking around a lot, not wearing their uniform, sitting with us to eat, blasting porno in the reception hall. Pretty memorable that's for sure. They were obsessed with A-kon (for my parents generation he's a horrible rapper), but they were so entertaining trying to make out his words we toughed it out.
After 5 days, we headed back to Kuta and the next day took another lovely 'speedboat' to the Gili islands. Which are absolutely beautiful and so relaxing. They don't allow motor bikes or vehicles on the island (which compared to Kuta is a great relief) with the most popular mode of transportation being via horse carriage. We've opted to travel by foot primarily, but it's fun to have the horses come whizzing by. The gili islands are three small islands, near Lombok known for relaxing and its scuba diving. We've been doing plenty of relaxing so far, and plan to get certified for diving next week. Our favorite daily activity is going to the 'movie booths,'which are raised bungalows with lots of pillows, and a small tv to play DVDs. These booths are also usually at bars, so plenty of Bintang (local Indo beer yumm) accompany them. I think we've seen like 6 movies since we've been here (and have had plenty bintang).
So that brings me to today. We are going to bounce around Indo until our visa runs up on the 12th and I'm at the process of looking for super saver flights to figure out where were going next. It's pretty fun to let the airlines determine where were heading next. I also love the fact that if we like some place we can stay-- travelling without a timeline or time frame has been and will continue to be a really unique experience. ANYWAYs, i'm just looking through this and it seems as if I've written a novel, not a blog entry. For those of you who have made it this far, thanks and I promise to write more frequently and shorter entries :-)
So we flew from hong Kong through singapore to denspasar, on the island of Bali. A high-light from the singapore airport is free internet, which makes it one of Cam's favorite airports in the world. Agreed. Next we hopped in a cab to Kuta Beach, which I describe as an Australian Panama City beach, with an exotic twist I guess. There are australians everywhere on holiday trying to have the time of their life and it's funny because some of the indonesians have picked up their mannerisms...Imagine an indonesian guy saying 'mate' and 'g'day.' It's pretty funny. Andrew's mom visited Kuta in the 70s (not sure on the date..I'm hoping i'm not showing your age margot!) and she was telling us how there was absolutely NOTHING there...my have the times changed.
We also hopped around the island to a beautiful beach called Dreamland which is one of the nicest beaches I've been too. It's funny though you take a taxi and they literally drop you off on a deserted cliff. Next you take a lovely stroll over a garbage dump, complete with cows and burning garbage, to stumble upon this beautiful beach with breathtaking blue water. It has some surfing which cam and andrew tried, but I chose the lie-around option and best part about it was there's ladies that walk around giving you massages---2 bucks for 30 minutes. Fantastic.
After Kuta, we hopped on a 'speedboat' to Lembongan, another island known for surfing. The trip over is supposed to take 30 minutes, however, one of the engines wasn't working and ours took an hour. Cam claims this as a regular occurrence and has dubbed it 'Indonesian Time.' The same thing happened on our way to Gili (where we are now) but unfortunately that's a 2 hour trip, that ended up being 4 hours.
We stayed in lembongan 5 nights, at a wonderful place called Mainski Inn, which is right on the water with a lovely infiniti pool. And would you believe me that it's the equivalent of $8 US a night? One catch is that we were at the back of the resort, right by a rooster farm. And they are LOUD. Unfortunately, we also got the roosters who thought the sun rose at 3 in the morning when it's dark out. I guess they failed the rooster university, because last time I checked they were supposed to yell at daybreak...just saying. This resort is owned by an australian restauranteur and his food is fantastic. The food here and in Indo, in general, is incredible. We've been eating a lot of fish, with some indonesian rice noodle dishes thrown in. And of course because of Cam a lot of McDonalds. He claims you have to try it at least once (or 2 or 10) in every country (he found the best in the singapore airport obvi).
Like I said, Lembongan is known for surfing and on our first shot at surfing in Lembongan, Andrew and I got so caught up in surfing that we were out in the sun too long and got a bout of sun stroke. Let me tell you, it was an uncomfortable 24 hours with no AC. Our saving grace was that the bathrooms had been recently redone, which they were charging us an extra 2 dollars for. I claim it as the best $2 I've spent on this trip.
The resort was pretty quiet so for our last 2 days the owner headed back to bali for supplies, leaving the staff to 'run' the resort. They did a fine job, but they were joking around a lot, not wearing their uniform, sitting with us to eat, blasting porno in the reception hall. Pretty memorable that's for sure. They were obsessed with A-kon (for my parents generation he's a horrible rapper), but they were so entertaining trying to make out his words we toughed it out.
After 5 days, we headed back to Kuta and the next day took another lovely 'speedboat' to the Gili islands. Which are absolutely beautiful and so relaxing. They don't allow motor bikes or vehicles on the island (which compared to Kuta is a great relief) with the most popular mode of transportation being via horse carriage. We've opted to travel by foot primarily, but it's fun to have the horses come whizzing by. The gili islands are three small islands, near Lombok known for relaxing and its scuba diving. We've been doing plenty of relaxing so far, and plan to get certified for diving next week. Our favorite daily activity is going to the 'movie booths,'which are raised bungalows with lots of pillows, and a small tv to play DVDs. These booths are also usually at bars, so plenty of Bintang (local Indo beer yumm) accompany them. I think we've seen like 6 movies since we've been here (and have had plenty bintang).
So that brings me to today. We are going to bounce around Indo until our visa runs up on the 12th and I'm at the process of looking for super saver flights to figure out where were going next. It's pretty fun to let the airlines determine where were heading next. I also love the fact that if we like some place we can stay-- travelling without a timeline or time frame has been and will continue to be a really unique experience. ANYWAYs, i'm just looking through this and it seems as if I've written a novel, not a blog entry. For those of you who have made it this far, thanks and I promise to write more frequently and shorter entries :-)
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Disney, Lamma, and of course Candy
Please forgive spelling because the spell check isn't working and I really really suck at spelling
The trip to Disney Hong Kong was one of the most anticipated ventures planned for our stay in HK. It was tough to figure out who was the most excited my three year old neice Jasmine, my 25 year old brother Cam, or Lindsay. I think Cam slightly edged out Jasmine for anticipation, because Jasmine had no idea what to expect (and we told her she was going to the dentist). She was so excited that she promptly fell asleep on the train.
While Jasmine was asleep, we left Darcy (my sister) to look after her and took off for our adult tour ... including two rides on space mountain which was just as amazing as I remember. The only fear I had was that I am a few inches taller than your average person from HK, and as we were flying through a dark room I pictured a a beam taking off my abnormally large crainum. I have posted a bunch of photos on Flickr (LINK) ... If you are on Flickr send me your information so I can add you as a friend and you can access all my photos.
Once we finished with our whirlwind adult tour, we returned to find Jasmine awake and frantically pointing to Mickey and Minny, yelling we're at Minnies house. Can you imagine falling asleep on a crowded train in HK and waking up in the most happiest place on earth ? I'm surprised she didn't spontaneously combust. She jumped all over the place, danced and skipped all afternoon. Lets just say Disney Land was a great success for the Davison family ... even if it isn't doing so well financially.
A couple of days later, Lindsay and I decided to explore one of the outlying islands of HK called Lamma. It is amazingly picturesque, with a small fishing village, a couple of beaches, and A GIANT POWER FACTORY (I would have a picture but I forgot my camera). We walked from one end of the island to the other and it was very beautiful if you didn't look to the west. It was amazing how people could just block it out of their minds that they were swimming next to a huge power factory. At least it was a nice break from the smog of HK.
It's amazing how many places near Hong Kong make you feel as if you are a million miles away from the city. Sheck-O is a beautiful beach less than half an hour outside the city, Stanley is similarly beautiful but a little more touristy, and the hike on Lamma was through untouched hills and sandy beaches (if you could ignore the power plant). I have to say I'm a little jealous of my sister for being able to live in such an exotic and exciting city. At least it means I will always have a place to stay here when I run out of money :-) .
On the Candy front ... I am currently obsessed with two things. One is a chewy candy that is made from Muscat Grapes, the same grapes in my favorite desert wine from my favorite restrant PT (Oh how I miss my PT). The candy tastes surprisingly similar, and even Lindsay likes them. The second one is what I call make your own POCKY, because I can't understand the label. It consists of cookie sticks and some choclate fudge for dipping ... it is amazing.
Anyway Tuesday is our flight to Bali with Cam ... hopefully some surfing and beaches ...
Next Post: ... off to Indonesia.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Andrew's Candy Tour through Asia and My endless search for Dumplings....
So we definitely have started a travel theme through Asia and not surprisingly it's food. We have now been in Hong Kong a little over a week and although we've done some good sight-seeing, I'd say our food consumption is exceptional.
The first few days I had very specific eating requests and those pretty much determined what we did for the day. For example, I wanted wonton soup or a pork bun, etc. I'm not quite sure where I got these ideas or cravings but they came and we searched. The soup was easy, the pork bun was child's play, but the dumpling was a bit more challenging. It took 3 days to find proper dumplings.....I have no idea what I expected (maybe dumpling stands on every corner like new york and hot dog stands)? And as clarification to my parents--I was looking for a pan-fried pot sticker. I mean Costco sells them in bulk for god's sake, I felt they had to be growing from trees. After endless searching we semi-drunkenly stumbled upon a place on the 2nd floor of a busy street in Kownloon called the "Tripod Seafood Restaurant." Yes, we should have been skeptical just from the name but I REALLY wanted dumplings. We get in, we order right away and the waiter decides to break my heart saying they are only served for Dim Sum (aka Lunch). We plead, we beg, I almost cry, but there is no way he's pan frying those little bits of happiness for us. The next day, Darcy and Jay come to town and Jay being the expert in all things chinese helped us find dumplings--and I don't know if it was the extreme searching, the hunger, or the obsessing, but they were delicious and definitely worth the wait. As a side note, if I had done my food research correctly (or at all) I would have known that dumplings are a traditionally Northern Chinese food (read Beijing--When I heard that I was about to jump on a plane up there). So please learn from my mistake, if you want dumplings in Hong Kong find a Beijing style restaurant. There's plenty to be found--that's if you know what you're looking for.
Andrew's obsessing has been a little bit easier. His consists of an urge to peruse every candy stand or corner store we walk past (which makes getting from one place to another in a timely fashion a bit of a challenge). He has absolutely no discretion about the candy he consumes, as long as it's sugary and has packaging he can't read. I feel like it's mainly been flavored gummy things covered with chocolate, which admittedly sounds okay, but sometimes it's wierd fruit or grape and I am actively against any fake flavored grape candy. And every time I roll my eyes when he asks for money to buy candy he says "We don't have this kind of candy at home!" So when Andrew comes back looking like a Sumo wrestler, he'll just have to tell everyone he took the candy home as a souvenir...on his belly.
Other high-lights so far are a 2.5 hour bus ride to the beach to show up in the dark (but it was fun!), Hong Kong Disney (worth an entire post in itself), and a 3 year old with jet lag who likes to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. And we're in the sleeping in the living room....where Donald Duck is on TV....and must be watched at all hours of the day :-) So far we're having a great time and Andrew promises to post pictures today, so definitely watch out for more to come!
The first few days I had very specific eating requests and those pretty much determined what we did for the day. For example, I wanted wonton soup or a pork bun, etc. I'm not quite sure where I got these ideas or cravings but they came and we searched. The soup was easy, the pork bun was child's play, but the dumpling was a bit more challenging. It took 3 days to find proper dumplings.....I have no idea what I expected (maybe dumpling stands on every corner like new york and hot dog stands)? And as clarification to my parents--I was looking for a pan-fried pot sticker. I mean Costco sells them in bulk for god's sake, I felt they had to be growing from trees. After endless searching we semi-drunkenly stumbled upon a place on the 2nd floor of a busy street in Kownloon called the "Tripod Seafood Restaurant." Yes, we should have been skeptical just from the name but I REALLY wanted dumplings. We get in, we order right away and the waiter decides to break my heart saying they are only served for Dim Sum (aka Lunch). We plead, we beg, I almost cry, but there is no way he's pan frying those little bits of happiness for us. The next day, Darcy and Jay come to town and Jay being the expert in all things chinese helped us find dumplings--and I don't know if it was the extreme searching, the hunger, or the obsessing, but they were delicious and definitely worth the wait. As a side note, if I had done my food research correctly (or at all) I would have known that dumplings are a traditionally Northern Chinese food (read Beijing--When I heard that I was about to jump on a plane up there). So please learn from my mistake, if you want dumplings in Hong Kong find a Beijing style restaurant. There's plenty to be found--that's if you know what you're looking for.
Andrew's obsessing has been a little bit easier. His consists of an urge to peruse every candy stand or corner store we walk past (which makes getting from one place to another in a timely fashion a bit of a challenge). He has absolutely no discretion about the candy he consumes, as long as it's sugary and has packaging he can't read. I feel like it's mainly been flavored gummy things covered with chocolate, which admittedly sounds okay, but sometimes it's wierd fruit or grape and I am actively against any fake flavored grape candy. And every time I roll my eyes when he asks for money to buy candy he says "We don't have this kind of candy at home!" So when Andrew comes back looking like a Sumo wrestler, he'll just have to tell everyone he took the candy home as a souvenir...on his belly.
Other high-lights so far are a 2.5 hour bus ride to the beach to show up in the dark (but it was fun!), Hong Kong Disney (worth an entire post in itself), and a 3 year old with jet lag who likes to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. And we're in the sleeping in the living room....where Donald Duck is on TV....and must be watched at all hours of the day :-) So far we're having a great time and Andrew promises to post pictures today, so definitely watch out for more to come!
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Welcome To Hong Kong!
So we finally made it! After 1 month in Muskoka, 1 month in Nashville, and stops through LA, Toronto and NYC we're finally in Asia!
Not much to report so far, the flight wasn't that bad at all even though it was 15 hours and 27 minutes. (But this is coming from someone who is 5 Foot 5 ...you might want to ask Andrew what he thinks...I admit watching Andrew sit down in that chair was conjuring up Tommy Boy "Big Guy in a little Coat" memories). The in-flight TV was great...In addition to watching E! to catch up on my celebrity gossip I caught Evan Almighty, part of Pirates of the Caribbean and part of 1408. Which by the way I turned on because I love John Cusack and was thinking "Oh is this some sort of cute romantic comedy? That's just what I'm in the mood for." Not quite..I had no idea that it's a horror movie and a very scary one at that. I decided to turn it off when the flight attendent tapped me on the shoulder to open my window shade and I almost screamed and jumped a foot out of my seat. Quite embarassing.
Other than that, customs was surprisingly easy and we met up with Cam, Andrew's brother, shortly after we arrived at our hotel. We're staying at the http://hongkong.eatonhotels.com/ and it's very nice, with a very small but 'efficient' room (which I always appreciate). For instance, we have a desk, but the top flips up into a mirror so it can be a vanity! I love these sorts of things. But I have a feeling this will be one of the nicer hotels we'll be staying at on this trip....Andrew insisted on it so he could have time 'acclimate.' (he's a bit of a wuss).
Anyways, We think our first stop is going to be Hong Kong and then to Cambodia....as long as the Vietnamese Embassy cooperates today. Talk to you all soon and miss you already!!! Pictures to come...
Not much to report so far, the flight wasn't that bad at all even though it was 15 hours and 27 minutes. (But this is coming from someone who is 5 Foot 5 ...you might want to ask Andrew what he thinks...I admit watching Andrew sit down in that chair was conjuring up Tommy Boy "Big Guy in a little Coat" memories). The in-flight TV was great...In addition to watching E! to catch up on my celebrity gossip I caught Evan Almighty, part of Pirates of the Caribbean and part of 1408. Which by the way I turned on because I love John Cusack and was thinking "Oh is this some sort of cute romantic comedy? That's just what I'm in the mood for." Not quite..I had no idea that it's a horror movie and a very scary one at that. I decided to turn it off when the flight attendent tapped me on the shoulder to open my window shade and I almost screamed and jumped a foot out of my seat. Quite embarassing.
Other than that, customs was surprisingly easy and we met up with Cam, Andrew's brother, shortly after we arrived at our hotel. We're staying at the http://hongkong.eatonhotels.com/ and it's very nice, with a very small but 'efficient' room (which I always appreciate). For instance, we have a desk, but the top flips up into a mirror so it can be a vanity! I love these sorts of things. But I have a feeling this will be one of the nicer hotels we'll be staying at on this trip....Andrew insisted on it so he could have time 'acclimate.' (he's a bit of a wuss).
Anyways, We think our first stop is going to be Hong Kong and then to Cambodia....as long as the Vietnamese Embassy cooperates today. Talk to you all soon and miss you already!!! Pictures to come...
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