Hong Kong

For dumb tourists like us...

Tramway

City view from the Peak with Victoria Harbor and Kowloon in the distance

Happy couple

Yum!

Hong Kong Island from the harbor cruise- there is a nightly light show.

 

 

We have loved Hong Kong! It has been a nice transition back into the modern, developed world. Things are so easy and orderly here. We rented a really sweet little studio apartment in a great neighborhood on Hong Kong Island using Airbnb.com- will totally do that again.

 

A few reasons we love Hong Kong.

 

Transportation is so easy and cheap. We took the metro, ferries and tramways all over. The trams were our favorite because they are double-deckers and it's a great way to see the city. A ride on the tram is only $2.30HKD (30 cents) one way.

 

Great food! Lots of noodle shops for Mike (I'm a little noodled out) and other choices for me. We ate lots of sushi. We also found a great grocery just a few steps from our apartment. It's one of those places where everything is so beautiful you keep going back to just wander around and admire the food (at least you do if you're grocery deprived like us.) We found some foods there we hadn't had in months (aged white cheddar cheese!) Also you can go to a shop and point at a beautiful piece of  crispy pork belly hanging in the window and a guy will chop it up for you, wrap it in paper and give it to you for $35HKD ($4.50USD.)

 

For a very overpopulated small space it seems really mellow. There are always tons of people on the street and traffic is crazy but everything is really quiet and orderly. No car horns, nobody shoving to get past. No cars, buses, scooters will run you down if you move too slow. No hawkers. Very civilized.

 

No hellholes to fall in. The sidewalks are intact everywhere- no loose tiles or gaping holes. In fact, they even paint which way to look when crossing the street for stupid tourists like us who aren't used to the whole driving on the left side thing (although there is really no excuse for why it has taken us so long to get the hang of looking right after 6 months- hopefully we'll remember which side to drive on when we get home.)

So this is it. Our last day and we're very excited about going home. It will only take us 22 hours of travel to get back to the states then a 5 hour bus ride from Chicago to East Lansing to get back to Michigan. We'll visit the kids and other family, pick up Charlie and finally be home by early July.

Bali Birthday

Geger Beach- Nusa Dua, Bali

Beautiful temple on the cliff

Flowers from our sweet guesthouse hosts

Delicious seafood dinner at local warung

I survived turning 50. Going halfway around the world didn't stop it from happening as I had hoped but we picked a pretty good place to spend the day.
We've been down here on the southern peninsula of Bali for the past few days. Staying at a great guesthouse a few minutes walk to the beach. We haven't done much except sit around on sunbeds looking out at the sea. Well not exactly true- we have walked the beach a little and read a couple of books. We've eaten some pretty good seafood. We have no excuse for being so lazy but it feels nice.
I had a great day- It started with beautiful flowers from Kadek and Made, our guesthouse owners, who have been amazingly sweet. Next we went to the beach . It has been perfect weather here. Clear sunny days but not too hot- Temps in the 80's during the day with a breeze. Evenings are in the 70's. There have been a couple of times in the evening when I have almost felt chilled with the breeze. I'm worried that we've spent way too much time in warm weather and we'll be freezing when we get back to typical Northern Michigan summer weather. After the beach we both got massages. Something we should have done a lot more of throughout this trip. It's so cheap- 60,000 rupiah or about 5 bucks. Kadek made a call for us to her favorite restaurant. A local warung (small family owned restaurant) where she assured us we would get the local price. She drove us there and gave us advice about what to order. They had a cooler filled with super fresh white snapper so we chose one of those plus some mussels and prawns. They were all seasoned and grilled and served with rice, sauces, stir fried morning glory and the requisite cold Bintang (Indonesian beer.) It was the best grilled fish we've had anywhere on this whole trip. The owner was thrilled to serve us. The place is far off the tourist track so they don't get many blondies coming in. The whole meal- about 16 bucks.
Great way to spend the day!!
Today we head to Hong Kong. We'll be there for 5 days then fly back to the states.
We were having a little sticker shock looking for a place to stay in Hong Kong. The cheapest hotel is almost $100/night and (based on reviews) probably would be tiny and not too nice. The most we've paid so far in other places has been about $45 with our average probably being closer to $25-30. We ended up booking a studio apartment on AirBnB. We haven't used that site yet so hopefully it will turn out OK. It looks like a decent place in an interesting neighborhood and it will be nice to have a kitchenette. Looking forward to eating lots of great street food.

Danau Bratan and Munduk

Terraced fields

View  of Danau Bratan from our guesthouse porch- the red trees are poinsettia.

Pura Ulun Danau Bratan- Bali's most important Hindu-Buddhist temple. There is a picture of it on the 50,000 rupiah note.

View from our guesthouse porch in Munduk. Sunset with a view of the sea in the distance.

Same view the next morning but we could also see Java's volcanoes in the distance.

 

We rented a motorbike and took a trip up into northern Bali for a few days. We left my bag at our guesthouse in Ubud and packed a few things in Mike's smaller bag which he tucked between his feet.

By heading north we left the flat rice fields and headed into the hills. The road was pretty decent and as we got away from the south the traffic lightened. As you head up you notice lots of terraced fields and greenhouses and the temperature gets a lot cooler. The climate is good for growing coffee, strawberries year round. The views are amazing! Terraced fields, rice paddies, volcanoes and crater lakes.

We stopped for the first night in Candikuning and stayed at a strange resort that was possibly the saddest place we've stayed at (that's saying a lot.) On the plus side someone took very good care of the grounds (not so much in the rooms...) and there was a beautiful view of the lake from the verandah- also it was super cheap. The main attraction on the lake is the temple which is very pretty and dates back to the 1600's. After Mike sneezed all night (mold/mildew allergy) we left as soon as the sun came up and skipped the free breakfast- not sure I would have trusted the food.

We then headed up to Munduk. More beautiful scenery. We found a guesthouse with super cute Balinese style bungalows and the prettiest gardens. It was all run single handedly by a friendly guy named Gede. Super clean with a great breakfast all for 25,000 rupiah  more (2 bucks) than the sad place of the night before. We were able to hike to a great waterfall from the guesthouse. From the verandah we could see the ocean which was about 10km away and in the distance some volcanoes that are on the island of Java.

We thought about heading to the beaches in the north but decided we would finish out our time in Bali on the south coast.

The next morning we headed back to Ubud. All in all we put in about 200km (120miles) over three days. That is a lot of miles on a 100cc motorbike. My butt was pretty sore! Mike loves riding a motorbike but if we were going to do much more of it I would need a much more comfortable seat.

 

Ubud

Chicken Gordon Blue

Our little bungalow

Part of the homestead

 

Grandfather's place

 

Temple at the Monkey Forest

Monkey

And more monkeys...

Rice paddies everywhere

 

My fans... maybe they think I'm Julia Roberts out here in the rice paddies.

Wayan Jr. with Gordon

 

A boy and his chicken--or, as his mother said, "Poor chicken."

 

In a nutshell, most Balinese people have only one of a few names. It's all based on birth order.  If you're first born you are Wayan, Putu, Gede or Ni Luh.  Second born- Made, Kedak or Nengah. Third Born- Nyoman or Komang. Fourth born- Ketut. If you have a fifth child he/she is often called Wayan Balik (or Wayan "again.") This is a way over-simplified explanation and there are lots of variations based on caste and what your occupation is, but we've met quite a few Wayans and Mades (pronounced Ma-day.) It can be really confusing when someone says, "Go to my brother's warung (street side restaurant)- it's called Made's Warung," and then you find out there could be three or four Made's Warungs in the same city.

In the very touristy places the locals will adopt western names to make it easier. We met a guy named Bobby and another one who called himself Donut, but I'm guessing their names were really Wayan or Made. We're kind of getting the hang of it...

We found ourselves staying at the lovely homestay of Wayan and Kedak here in Ubud. A homestay is kind of like the Asian version of the English B and B. It includes a private room or bungalow with an en suite bathroom and breakfast. It can be right in someone's home or in a compound like it is here in Bali. This homestay is very traditional, with the cool Balinese architecture and lots of activity- prayers and offerings, chickens and dogs running around, scooters rolling in and out, lots of people coming and going. We have our own little porch to sit on and they bring us tea and a yummy breakfast of green banana pancakes and fresh fruit.

In Bali it's common for many generations to live in a walled compound. There are separate little houses for each generation, temple areas and communal living spaces. Wayan and Kadek have an adorable 2 year old son. Wayan's father lives here too, as well as a lot of other folks that come and go that we're not fully sure of how they're related, but are clearly family. There is also the rooster in the cage. We call him Gordon, named after a popular dish we see on many of the menus here- Chicken Gordon Blue. We were feeling kind of sorry for him staying in that cage all day. Then he kept us up all night with his crowing, and the cage seemed like a gentle thing after all. We also realized he comes out every morning when he gets a chance to peck around and then get squeezed and dragged around by Wayan Jr--a further case of justice served.

Ubud is a pretty cool place--the cultural epicenter of Bali. Lots of art, music, dance and temples. It's also a place for yoga, spa treatments, juice bars and fresh healthy food. It's become really popular since the whole Eat, Pray, Love phenomena. This is where Elizabeth Gilbert came for the "Love" part and the movie was filmed. The countryside is idyllic, but the city itself is kind of crazy. I am enjoying all of the fresh veggies. The traditional Balinese food doesn't have a ton of veggies; rather, lots of rice, a little meat, and usually a mix of cabbage and carrots, all swimming around in a small pool of oil.  I've been eating huge salads here with lots of beets, avocados, sprouts, jicama, mixed greens- so yummy! We also found a good place for decent Mexican and ate some suckling pig today at a place that Anthony Bourdain said was the best pork he'd ever eaten. It was pretty darn good.

We visited some temples which seem to grace every corner here, too. Bali is Hindu (while the rest of the country is largely Muslim.) It is different then what we've experienced in other places. Different rituals and traditions, but sweet and beautiful.  Spirituality, it seems, is a part of every activity all through the day.

We went to a temple in the Monkey Forest Sanctuary. It's a park filled with hundreds of macaques roaming around the inevitable temples. They seem well cared for and pretty much roam free, pigging out on bananas and corn and some kind of potato thing.There are warning signs asking you not to panic if they jump on you. We did see monkeys climbing on people, but mostly if they had a bag or some of the bananas that they bought at the entrance. We went in and out really quickly. I just think they are really nasty creatures- especially macaques.

We've decided to head up into the hills for a few days. We'll leave my big bag here and pack a small bag so we can ride a motorbike up. There are volcanoes to visit, more temples, coffee plantations, some waterfalls. After we'll come back to Ubud for a few days and then we'll head to a beach for the last few days before we go to Hong Kong.

 



Nusa Lembongan

Beautiful sunset on the cliff

View from the verandah of our new place

Beach view with Bali volcano in the distance

Seaweed farmer

Gathering seaweed

Drying seaweed

Mike's new friend patiently waiting for a bite of chicken sate pizza

 

We only spent a couple of days on the big island of Bali. The mainland felt busy (although it is before the peak season which starts next month so really it's the quiet before the storm.) We also were seeking a beach that was a little cleaner and less crowded.  Maybe we got a little spoiled in other places that we've been. We decided to take off for one of the islands about 12km off the east coast of Bali- Nusa Lembongan.
Of course this requires a ferry ride. Many of you know how I feel about ferries- unfortunately we are drawn to islands and I find myself sitting on a lot of boats in spite of my fears. I hate them so much that I would fly if I had the option. We were recommended a company by our guesthouse owner in Sanur on Bali. I quizzed him about how big the boat is, do we board from a dock, how long is the ride? He assured me it was a big fast boat- 30 minute ride- leaving from a dock. One thing we have learned is that things are never exactly as they are presented or described. Once or twice we've been pleasantly surprised and got something better than we thought but usually it's the opposite. All part of the adventure.
We arrived at the harbor- which is to say a bunch of boats moored on the beach. The tour operator points out to a smallish open boat that is pitching around in the waves. Great! There are about 14 of us- all westerners with backpacks. The boat guy starts grabbing our bags and carries them over his head through knee deep water and pitches them onto the middle of the boat. We all take our sandals off and start wading towards the boat but we have to time it right with the waves so we don't get knocked over, hit by the propellers or snapped by the mooring line.
The one and a half hour ride across big ocean swells was not fun. Mike will say that I am exaggerating how big the seas were, but there were several folks feeling a bit green... I chatted with a really sweet Canadian girl the whole way (probably blabbed the whole way) but she kept my mind off of the rollers and I arrived without tossing my cookies. Still, I haven't been anxious to jump back on a ferry. Am I obsessing about the ferry ride back?  You betcha!
Our first few days were in a guesthouse on a cliff looking out to sea.  A really lovely setting but a little far away from restaurants and from a place where Mike can swim in the sea (although we had a nice pool.) We decided to move down into the village so we can be steps away from the beach.
The guesthouse is really nice with a beautiful pool, good breakfast and right on the beach.
Just off the beach the local people are seaweed farming. All along the beach are tarps covered with seaweed that is drying in the sun. We are told that the seaweed is collected not for food but for the carrageenan which it is a source of. Carrageenan is a thickening agent used in a lot of foods- ice cream for one- but also in cosmetics and toothpaste. Each morning we see people out in their boats collecting the seaweed. In the evening some of the seaweed is returned to the beds (which are in 4-5 feet of water) I guess to replant. It's a good business for the locals who aren't taking care of us tourists.
We will probably stay here for a couple of more days before moving on to a place a couple of islands over, then back to the big island to explore some volcanoes, rice patties, more beaches.