OR WITNESS MY WILD ESCAPADES THROUGHOUT 4 COUNTRIES IN 2 MONTHS - PART IThis summer I took Southeast Asia by storm, by visiting Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Southern China. My first stop -- the island of Bali in Indonesia -- was one of the most visually stunning places I have ever been. "Take my picture and say my culture is beautiful." It's hard to help but exoticize Bali, and most of SE Asia because it is beautiful, tourist-y, and the locals are in the far, faraway background. All this being said, I did enjoy my trip, and witnessing these very interesting social trends (Taigu, a town smack-dab in the middle of coal minning company could never be considered sexy, exotic, and alluring) and I hope you will too.
It all started with a gift. This wall hanging was our end-of-the-year present from our bosses. Unfortunately, in true Chinese fashion, they decided to give it to us in a very lavish, ceremonial way...an hour before my train left -- making goodbyes impossible, and making missing my train, inevitable. But somehow...
I arrived in Beijing. Almost all my flying happens out of this city, and besides I needed to add passport pages and meet the new fellows. This is the American embassy with President Obama on the Great Wall. What you can't see is the hundreds of Chinese nationals in line waiting for visas. It took an hour to get into the building, after which I was ushered into a different room for citizens that had about 5 people in it. After handing over $80, I got a passport thick with pages. I rushed off to meet the new fellows, Skylar and Claire. I then had a fun adventure on the Beijing subway, where I decided that I could go from where my dinner was (center of Beijing), to where my luggage was being stored (the far west side), to where the night's housing was (the far east side)...in 2 hours. As I ran with my two backpacks (one, the size of me; the other, the size of a small child) through many line transfers. Stations closed around me and trains would stop in the middle of their lines. By the time the subway closed at 11pm, I somehow ended up farther away from my destination than if I had never gotten on the subway (after getting my bags)! And I was in the seediest part of Beijing I've ever seen. The taxi drivers wouldn't drive me unless I paid double the normal price, because they wouldn't pick up any customers going in my direction. Somehow a very nice Chinese bookseller took a taxi with me to his car and then drove me to a place where my host said had agreed to pick me up after I kept frantically calling her. (Did I mention her cell phone was dying during this whole catastrophe?) Through a lot of kindness and luck, I got to bed that night...at 3 am.
After a flight the next day (thank god my host lives ten minutes from the airport), I arrived at 5am, in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. I went straight to my most expensive hotel of the trip (the only prebooked one) -- at $40/night. I messed up the dates of the hotel, so for the price of 2 nights, I got 3. For no extra charge I went straight to bed at 5am, then had booked the 2 following nights. I proceed to sleep my way through those nights and days.
My hotel was an odd mix of the sacred and the profane.
In my sleep-deprived state, it was super amusing to walk around.
I finally pulled myself together and out of bed to spend an afternoon at Kuta beach, less than an hour's drive from my hotel. This beach is the hot spot/bane of many's existences. It is crowded, over-priced, and could easily be confused with Little Australia.
But I found ways to amuse myself for a few hours. I wish I could have gone to this.
Instead, I listened to some live music, read my book, ate some Middle Eastern food.
And watched baby turtles being re-released into the ocean. Very cute!
Finally it was time to leave Denpasar and go to Ubud, a city full of art, music, and eco-tourism. A complete by-product of tourist demand, mind you.
These are pictures of my $12/night hotel. I found it by walking down alley after alley off of Monkey Forest Road.
It did come with free banana pancakes.
But the room was not nearly as nice as the food or the front garden.
After spending my days window-shopping in the many art galleries on Monkey Forest Road, I went to a Jegog performance. Jegog is type of music and dance style. The instruments? A giant bamboo gamelan.
Here is me and some of the dancers.
Gender is a very fluid concept cross-culturally. So even though I think my body is very feminine-looking and was wearing scarves, no one knew if I was a boy or girl. "Hi I'm Ray." Confused look. "...Short for Rachel." "HA HA I wasn't sure if you meant Rachel or Raymond. HA HA" This happened every time I introduced myself to a Balinese person. So I decided to go more femme. What's more femme than earrings? After I bought these -- even though they're quite masculine -- my perceived gender confusion seemed to disappear.
Happy Fourth of July! Wanting to feel a little more at home, I wore red, white, and blue and ate pizza and garlic bread.
The next day I took an eco-tourism bike tour.
We had breakfast overlooking a volcano.
And then biked downhill for the rest of the trip.
Here is me and my new Aussie friends trying Indonesian coffee on our eco bike tour. Did you know the most expensive coffee comes from here? Kopi Luwak. It's so expensive because the beans must first pass through the digestive system of the Luwak animal before being roasted. Yes, it's poop coffee. And it tastes terrible.
We visited a local's home and found a great gym setup.
I loved the rice paddies.
They are so unbelievably beautiful when they reflect back the clouds in the sky.
That evening I decided to buy a mask. Two actually. One was a 21st birthday present, the other hangs on the wall of my bedroom.
The carver took me on his scooter to his workshop to pick out the masks, and then we went sightseeing.
It was all so beautiful, and sarong-filled.
While in Ubud, the 10-day Hindu festival Galungan began.
Lion/dragon dances lined the streets.
As well as a old person.
The performers were all children. This dance-drama is a battle between good (the lion/dragon, Barong) and evil (the old, evil witch Rangda). I don't know to much else about Galungan, click here to read more about Hinduism in Bali.
It was time to say goodbye to my Australian friends. I thought we'd only have the one-day bike tour together, but I ran into them as they were taking a stroll hours before they left.
It was a bit sad. This is a piece I saw right before we separated.
That night, I dolled myself up, Bali-style, and went to see a Kecak Fire and Trance Dance.
It was possibly the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life. First a section from the Ramayana was told through chanting, highly stylized dance, and amazing group choreography. The men sitting on the ground swayed, chanted, sang to add mood and staging possibilities of the dancing. For example, here the dancers have a little circle. During the epic battle at the end, they got a wide rectangle to "fight" in.
The dance ended. They brought out a pile of dried coconuts. And started the fire.
After the fire died down, a man in trance wearing a horse head headdress kicked around the embers of the coconuts. The sparks were a million dots against the sky. It was so beautiful. When he was done, he came out of the trance. His feet were completely black.
I think this picture really symbolized the attitude of Bali.
On my last morning,
I visited to Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary.
And saw some great erotic art.
It even had a monkey temple!
Which was absolutely stunning.
I left Ubud, and traveled to Tulamben, the home of USS Liberty wreak to learn how to scuba dive. This is my PADI mommy (Italian, grew up in the Netherlands). She was my first teacher.
She helped out (Finnish).
This one tried to drown me over and over during my Rescue Diver course. Don't worry, I paid him to do it (American).
She helped out (Finnish).
This guy arrived at Dive Concepts the same time I did (Singaporean, studying in American). We both arrived as newbies, and left smarter, stronger, and way more sexy...as Advanced Open Water (him) or Rescue (me) divers.
The dive shop had great banana pancakes. But once I'd had my fill, I knew it was time to move on...to JAVA.
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