5/11
I met 5 great people two days ago on the boat ride from Lembongan to Gili Trawangan! Martin from England, Tina and Lewis from Belgium, Clem from France, and Ayla from Canada. I am actually sharing accommodation with the two girls so it's nice to have girl time and not be riding solo any more :) The first night we had dinner then went to a party at Blue Marlin. That was the most intense techno/house/trance music I have ever heard! I'm not European, so I didn't even know how to dance to that!
The next morning we rolled out after "room service" breakfast and went straight to the ocean to snorkel with the turtles. We also rented bikes and biked around the entire island with Martin. Despite the many sand traps we made it to this funky renegade bar on the south side of the island where the locals were listening to music and spinning poi. So we had a beer, and a poi, and a dip in the ocean... why not? All six of us ate local food at the square and finished the night with more Bintang and conversations about the world's problems. After solving a few of them we hit the hay.
This morning Ayla and I dove at Manta Point and got to see a shark and many more turtles! I wasn't scared until homeboy came directly for me!!! I may have let out a squeal and awkwardly swam backwards until my dive master grabbed me and told me to be still! Ah! After the dive we snacked on the beach, shopped, laid on the beach (I was the whitest one out there!), swam, got a pretty terrible massage, and I sorted out my travel plans for the next 9 days! The Scoot crew had dinner together again at a posh pizza place and then said our goodbyes. Its going to be weird to be back on my own again... except Martin is coming with me so I guess I'm not really on my own! So long Gili T!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Nusa Lembongan
5/7
I just got back from diving at Crystal Bay and Manta Point. Apparently this is the "cleaning station" for the mula mula where they come get nibbled on by the small fish for their daily bath and return down to the deep blue. They are 6-8 feet!!! We were not graced by their presence, but we saw giant green star fish, octopus, nemos, sea snakes, and trumpet fish. It was just myself and a guide, Gereng, accompanied by an Aussie couple and their guide. We convinced the captain to take us to Manta Point to dive with the Manta Rays which was nothing less than magical! THEY WERE HUGE!!!!!! When I say huge I'm talking 6 feet wide, maybe bigger! Anyway, I met a guy named Owen from London this afternoon. He is staying at Nusa Indah as well, and we adventured ourselves on some motorbikes to the other Island (Nusa Ceningan) across the hanging bridge which was missing a few planks. I just drove as fast as I could and didn't look down. We found the blue lagoon, a jumping rock, and secret beach. This is the Bali I was looking for! It's a small and quiet little treasure that most tourist haven't found! Tonight we decided to splurge and have dinner at a beautiful French restaurant with two other people we met. So far so good!!!!
I just got back from diving at Crystal Bay and Manta Point. Apparently this is the "cleaning station" for the mula mula where they come get nibbled on by the small fish for their daily bath and return down to the deep blue. They are 6-8 feet!!! We were not graced by their presence, but we saw giant green star fish, octopus, nemos, sea snakes, and trumpet fish. It was just myself and a guide, Gereng, accompanied by an Aussie couple and their guide. We convinced the captain to take us to Manta Point to dive with the Manta Rays which was nothing less than magical! THEY WERE HUGE!!!!!! When I say huge I'm talking 6 feet wide, maybe bigger! Anyway, I met a guy named Owen from London this afternoon. He is staying at Nusa Indah as well, and we adventured ourselves on some motorbikes to the other Island (Nusa Ceningan) across the hanging bridge which was missing a few planks. I just drove as fast as I could and didn't look down. We found the blue lagoon, a jumping rock, and secret beach. This is the Bali I was looking for! It's a small and quiet little treasure that most tourist haven't found! Tonight we decided to splurge and have dinner at a beautiful French restaurant with two other people we met. So far so good!!!!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
On my way to Bali
Well I'm in Bali now and I am just now blogging about my one month journey that began on May 1st... so I have to catch you up starting on May 2
5/2/11
I'm all sorts of confused and delirious! It's almost 4pm where I left from (San Francisco) and now it's almost 7am the next day here... So basically I never really lived May 1st? I have a layover in Taipei and just saw two guys double handcuffed together carrying duty free bags and being followed by officials. Even prisoners get vacation... and duty free goods! I'm confused. And to make things more interesting, Denpasar isn't listed on the departures so I just picked a spot in a random terminal to park it and luckily there is free internet here! Just my luck I sat next to a Balinese guy on my long flight. I slept most of the flight but I did wake up at 3am to have dinner? (or breakfast?) I met my neighbor, Wayan from a village right outside of Ubud. He has a very calm and kind nature and had not seen his family in 10 months because he has been working on a cruise ship. Apparently that is a popular thing for Balinese to do. I guess Wayan is my first friend that I have met on my trip! If Wayan is any indication of how lovely the Balinese people are going to be... I'm in for a real treat!
5/4
I found a beautiful villa in Seminyak where I have my own pool, kitchen, and very own mosquito net! I have been exploring the city, surfing, doing yoga, shopping, getting oiled up and rubbed down, and drinking banana lassies like I'll never have one again! I can get used to this!
5/2/11
I'm all sorts of confused and delirious! It's almost 4pm where I left from (San Francisco) and now it's almost 7am the next day here... So basically I never really lived May 1st? I have a layover in Taipei and just saw two guys double handcuffed together carrying duty free bags and being followed by officials. Even prisoners get vacation... and duty free goods! I'm confused. And to make things more interesting, Denpasar isn't listed on the departures so I just picked a spot in a random terminal to park it and luckily there is free internet here! Just my luck I sat next to a Balinese guy on my long flight. I slept most of the flight but I did wake up at 3am to have dinner? (or breakfast?) I met my neighbor, Wayan from a village right outside of Ubud. He has a very calm and kind nature and had not seen his family in 10 months because he has been working on a cruise ship. Apparently that is a popular thing for Balinese to do. I guess Wayan is my first friend that I have met on my trip! If Wayan is any indication of how lovely the Balinese people are going to be... I'm in for a real treat!
5/4
I found a beautiful villa in Seminyak where I have my own pool, kitchen, and very own mosquito net! I have been exploring the city, surfing, doing yoga, shopping, getting oiled up and rubbed down, and drinking banana lassies like I'll never have one again! I can get used to this!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Manny
I have a new addition to my family. His name is Manny... sometimes referred to as Manuel Antonio, Manzanilla, M dog, Mansfield, etc. Back in October I saw Manny with an adopt me sign on his back and it was love at first sight. I fostered him for a few nights because the shelter is closed on Sundays and Mondays and Manny needed a home. Tuesday I cried when I brought him back to the shelter because I didn't think I would be able to keep him. He was an insta-good-dog... no barking, great on/off leash, not scared of people, loves other dogs, and just sweet as sweet can be. After a week of my heart arguing with my brain... my heart won the battle and I adopted Manny officially on November 17.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Triathlon
I went on yet another wild adventure, this time in the USA! It started out in Park City Utah where I completed my first triathlon!!! Not only did I complete it but I placed 7th in my age group! I felt like it was the first day of high school where you don't know where to go, what to expect, how things work, where you are supposed to put your stuff. You don't know anyone around you so you have to instantly make new friends, usually proximity determines your new friends. In this case I was placed next to a girl who HAD done a tri before so I fired away last minute questions and concerns. She was a doll! There were about 800 racers total (relatively small) and I was to start the race in the Jordanelle Reservoir with about 200 women.
No one could have prepared me for the craziness of the open water swim. I was terrible at the swim! I tried to stay out of the way of the masses, but it didn't matter... I was still trampled, kicked, scraped, and constantly being hit. I was contributing to the mess too though since it was cold and I was nervous I couldn't breathe easily. I kept rotating from free style to back stroke to catch my breath. Needless to say when that was over I was relieved. Ter-ri and Prati were on the sidelines cheering me on!
The bike portion was my strength, hands down! I was passing dudes actually! It was a gradual uphill the entire time then BAM it was a major downhill for the last few miles. I rolled into the transition area and there were Ter-ri and Prati taking pictures and video. My legs felt like jello but I could taste the finish. All I could think about was the big adventure Ter-ri and I were about to embark on.
I ran at a steady pace then kicked it up a notch about the last 5 minutes and sprinted the last 100 yards to beat this girl that was just ahead of me. I DID IT and had SOOO much fun! I can't wait to do another one! We stayed in Park City for another night, then Prati went back to Jackson and Ter-ri and I started on our EPIC ROAD TRIP 2009... stay tuned...
No one could have prepared me for the craziness of the open water swim. I was terrible at the swim! I tried to stay out of the way of the masses, but it didn't matter... I was still trampled, kicked, scraped, and constantly being hit. I was contributing to the mess too though since it was cold and I was nervous I couldn't breathe easily. I kept rotating from free style to back stroke to catch my breath. Needless to say when that was over I was relieved. Ter-ri and Prati were on the sidelines cheering me on!
The bike portion was my strength, hands down! I was passing dudes actually! It was a gradual uphill the entire time then BAM it was a major downhill for the last few miles. I rolled into the transition area and there were Ter-ri and Prati taking pictures and video. My legs felt like jello but I could taste the finish. All I could think about was the big adventure Ter-ri and I were about to embark on.
I ran at a steady pace then kicked it up a notch about the last 5 minutes and sprinted the last 100 yards to beat this girl that was just ahead of me. I DID IT and had SOOO much fun! I can't wait to do another one! We stayed in Park City for another night, then Prati went back to Jackson and Ter-ri and I started on our EPIC ROAD TRIP 2009... stay tuned...
Monday, June 29, 2009
Home sweet home
I'm back in Jackson and I haven't written in forever. I guess I'm going to keep this thing up even though I'm not traveling. Living in Jackson feels like a vacation so I'll keep you updated on my "not-so-real world."
Right when I got back to Jackson the weather was funky/rainy for about 10 days. My mom and Virgil happened to plan their trip to Jackson within those 10 ugly days but that didn't stop us from having a BLAST! We still hiked in the Teton National Park, tried multiple different types of margaritas from all my favorite restaurants, shopped the galleries, went white water rafting in the freezing cold rain, and they even hiked up Snow king!!! We laughed the whole time and it was great finally meeting Virgil!
The weather finally took a U-turn and it has been beautiful every day, all day, until 10pm. That's how long is stays light! I get out of work at 3pm and still have 7 hours of daylight! Sometimes I wish summers would last forever.
For those of you who don't know I am training for a triathlon at the end of August, so I have started back at Mountain Athletes (I currently feel like my hamstrings are detached from my femur). I have been swimming, running, and biking on my new road bike like a maniac! The triathlon is in Park City, Utah (one week before Burning Man) soooo Terri and I are starting our road trip to Burning man one week early. After the tri we will head down to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. Since we are way down there, might as well swing by Vegas and then make our way up to Burning man in northwestern Nevada!
Right when I got back to Jackson the weather was funky/rainy for about 10 days. My mom and Virgil happened to plan their trip to Jackson within those 10 ugly days but that didn't stop us from having a BLAST! We still hiked in the Teton National Park, tried multiple different types of margaritas from all my favorite restaurants, shopped the galleries, went white water rafting in the freezing cold rain, and they even hiked up Snow king!!! We laughed the whole time and it was great finally meeting Virgil!
The weather finally took a U-turn and it has been beautiful every day, all day, until 10pm. That's how long is stays light! I get out of work at 3pm and still have 7 hours of daylight! Sometimes I wish summers would last forever.
For those of you who don't know I am training for a triathlon at the end of August, so I have started back at Mountain Athletes (I currently feel like my hamstrings are detached from my femur). I have been swimming, running, and biking on my new road bike like a maniac! The triathlon is in Park City, Utah (one week before Burning Man) soooo Terri and I are starting our road trip to Burning man one week early. After the tri we will head down to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. Since we are way down there, might as well swing by Vegas and then make our way up to Burning man in northwestern Nevada!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
One more day
The Galapagos is winding down now... we are on day 10 of 11. Sad. Instead of doing a long boat tour we were able to stay on three of the main islands and do little day trips from the port towns. We just got back from our three night stay on Isla Isabella.
Isabella is absolutely beautiful and it has the only port town with a big beautiful beach (right in town). It is one of the newer islands in the Galapagos (and by newer I mean it is still millions of years old) and has an active volcano called Sierra Negra that last erupted in 2005. The day we arrived it was almost 5:00 and Eduardo picked us up from the pier. We dropped our monster backpacks off at the hotel and took our small backpacks with us. Eduardo was going to be our guide for the following day but first he wanted to show us around town to get oriented. He took us by the lagoon where 6 flamingos flew in and landed right infront of my face in the lagoon!!! He said we are VERY lucky to see that. Most of the flamingos live on the West side of the island, far away from the people. I learned that the reason flamingos are pink is because of their high alpha and beta-carotene diet which consists mostly of crustaceans and mollusks. They are actually born white-ish/gray-ish and the pink color of flamingos vary in different parts of the world. These litte guys where light pink. So that was exciting. We got out of the car so fast to take pictures of the flamingos we forgot about our bags and then the van was GONE! Luckily this is a safe and honest town because we called the driver and he brought our bags to us with everything in them. Passport, all my money and credit cards, small camera, journal, etc. Phew! That night we had dinner with a girl named Melanie from Germany. I have been eating fresh fish every day!
Day two we woke up early, had breakfast, made some sandwiches to-go, and left for our full day volcano and snorkel tour by 8am. We drove close to the top of Sierra Negra and jumped on some horses for an hour and a half. My horse was the mean guy, of course! I would be grouchy too if I had rope in my mouth instead of a real bit. And they dont use horse shoes either. We were in the wetlands so it sprinkled the whole time which made for a slippery and sketchy ride. At the tip top of Sierra Negra we were able to see down into the crater. Supposedly it is the second largest crater in the world. We hiked down across the lava fields to a smaller vocano called Volcan Chico. I felt like I was walking on Mars or maybe Earth 50 million years ago. It was pretty wild! The horseback ride down the slippery, muddy path that we came up was NOT awesome. These horses were slipping and sliding ALL over the place. Meanwhile the horse master comes up from behind and whips them to go faster! It was the most extreme horseback session I have ever experienced. Not to mention that my horse tried to buck me off. Both back legs came off the ground and tapped another girl somewhere in the knee area (while she was ON her horse... her horse bit my horse). That means his legs had to come up 5 feet and I almost went over the handlebars if you know what Im sayin. But I held on. All that mechanical bull experience just paid off! I was so happy to see the stables at the end! I jumped off that horse and never looked back! After the volcano we went snorkeling and saw two large sharks, one eagle ray, one big sea turtle, aaaand hmm oh we held a sea cucumber and it pooped on Prati! That night an retired American guy named Gary joined us for dinner. We also ate with two Italians that were on my diving trip last week, and Melanie from Germany. I dont know what we talked about but it was THE most entertaining dinner we have had on this trip. Gary is a CHARACTER! He is sailing around the world for five years and he only started two months ago. I like his style.
And yesterday we simply relaxed in our hammocks and on the beach ALL day. We played beach golf and had a few beers at sunset. It felt so nice to relax. We have been on the go for over five weeks so we just did absolutely nothing and it was perfect!
Isabella is absolutely beautiful and it has the only port town with a big beautiful beach (right in town). It is one of the newer islands in the Galapagos (and by newer I mean it is still millions of years old) and has an active volcano called Sierra Negra that last erupted in 2005. The day we arrived it was almost 5:00 and Eduardo picked us up from the pier. We dropped our monster backpacks off at the hotel and took our small backpacks with us. Eduardo was going to be our guide for the following day but first he wanted to show us around town to get oriented. He took us by the lagoon where 6 flamingos flew in and landed right infront of my face in the lagoon!!! He said we are VERY lucky to see that. Most of the flamingos live on the West side of the island, far away from the people. I learned that the reason flamingos are pink is because of their high alpha and beta-carotene diet which consists mostly of crustaceans and mollusks. They are actually born white-ish/gray-ish and the pink color of flamingos vary in different parts of the world. These litte guys where light pink. So that was exciting. We got out of the car so fast to take pictures of the flamingos we forgot about our bags and then the van was GONE! Luckily this is a safe and honest town because we called the driver and he brought our bags to us with everything in them. Passport, all my money and credit cards, small camera, journal, etc. Phew! That night we had dinner with a girl named Melanie from Germany. I have been eating fresh fish every day!
Day two we woke up early, had breakfast, made some sandwiches to-go, and left for our full day volcano and snorkel tour by 8am. We drove close to the top of Sierra Negra and jumped on some horses for an hour and a half. My horse was the mean guy, of course! I would be grouchy too if I had rope in my mouth instead of a real bit. And they dont use horse shoes either. We were in the wetlands so it sprinkled the whole time which made for a slippery and sketchy ride. At the tip top of Sierra Negra we were able to see down into the crater. Supposedly it is the second largest crater in the world. We hiked down across the lava fields to a smaller vocano called Volcan Chico. I felt like I was walking on Mars or maybe Earth 50 million years ago. It was pretty wild! The horseback ride down the slippery, muddy path that we came up was NOT awesome. These horses were slipping and sliding ALL over the place. Meanwhile the horse master comes up from behind and whips them to go faster! It was the most extreme horseback session I have ever experienced. Not to mention that my horse tried to buck me off. Both back legs came off the ground and tapped another girl somewhere in the knee area (while she was ON her horse... her horse bit my horse). That means his legs had to come up 5 feet and I almost went over the handlebars if you know what Im sayin. But I held on. All that mechanical bull experience just paid off! I was so happy to see the stables at the end! I jumped off that horse and never looked back! After the volcano we went snorkeling and saw two large sharks, one eagle ray, one big sea turtle, aaaand hmm oh we held a sea cucumber and it pooped on Prati! That night an retired American guy named Gary joined us for dinner. We also ate with two Italians that were on my diving trip last week, and Melanie from Germany. I dont know what we talked about but it was THE most entertaining dinner we have had on this trip. Gary is a CHARACTER! He is sailing around the world for five years and he only started two months ago. I like his style.
And yesterday we simply relaxed in our hammocks and on the beach ALL day. We played beach golf and had a few beers at sunset. It felt so nice to relax. We have been on the go for over five weeks so we just did absolutely nothing and it was perfect!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
