Day 26 - Bali : Road trip...

Good morning München. It was the cutest thing to find München in our bathroom sleeping this morning. It was a very very very hot morning this particular morning. München was very smart to choose the coolest area to sleep. It was so adorable and he is so adorable. 

I went and grabbed our lunches for the three of us - today, we got it from Sandra's mother in law. She also cooks an awesome nasi goreng and actually cooks it pedas (spicy) - which is what Christina and I enjoy. We also prebuy our nasi gorengs prior to heading over to Bali 

Mandala. This saves us from coming back out when it is actually lunch time. With the heat in Bondalem, our food remains warm or hot in the sun for at least another 1.5 hrs before lunch.  

We walked a different route to Bali Mandala where we passed by a local school. We greeted the boys who greeted us. They were just sitting at the front probably waiting for school to commence. 

Seeing that it is Friday and such a warm day, I treated myself to a nice cold Bintang followed by a funny tasting healing drink. It had cucumber, lime and was supposed to have beetroot in it but I had asked them to not put the beetroot in. I took the first sip and swore I could of spat it out. Obviously I didn't do that because the waiter was waiting for my feedback of the drink - I just told him it was nice and sculled the whole thing like it was some horrible medicine. A not so cold cucumber tasting drink is not the greatest. So we chilled in the sun again today. We start teaching at 3pm today. It was a nice long day of doing absolutely nothing. I'm really enjoying life in Bali and I can admit that I am so relaxed and I have no worries in the world. I have learnt to clear my mind and just enjoy the time whilst travelling. The best thing about Bali is having Julia and Christina by my side and experiencing it all together. It is so nice that we can share this wonderful experience together, and I am so ever grateful to have met these girls. I am just amazed by how we immediately clicked and got along so well. 

We arrived at school today and sat and waited for about 40 minutes, none of the Friday students turned up. I was so looking forward to meeting the Friday students as I hadn't met them. Today we are going on a road trip with Sandra and Jonah to Ubud and staying for the weekend. Woohoo. We are scheduled to leave at 5pm. So we quickly walked back home. On our way home, we saw München and Chip Chip playing in the jungle. It was so cute. They looked like little boys wandering around the village running a muck. München followed us home. We had already pre packed our bags in the morning, so we sat around for a while before it was time to meet up.

We met with Sandra and Jonah at Sandra's mother in law's warung and the driver picked us up from there. Jonah said goodbye to daddy and grandma and we all hopped into the car. Now, a 3 hour uncomfortable road trip to Ubud. I'm excited about being in Ubud again, but I always dread the drive. 

About 45 minutes into our drive, we stopped by a town called Kintamani where we get an incredible view of Mount Batur - an active Volcano. It is possible to climb to the summit of Mount Batur - 1700 metres to watch the sunrise - this is a great experience for energetic travellers. It is known that there is an easy climb which takes about 2 hours, and you do not need to be in peak physical shape to complete this trek. We've passed this volcano several times and I'm glad that we finally got to stop this time to capture amazing photos. During the stop, we were harassed by a local woman trying to sell us sarongs. We said no so many times, but she kept on insisting us to look at the different types of sarongs she had. It's funny what Balinese people say to try make money. "Please buy for 50,000 rupiahs for good luck, I haven't had any business today". We finally all hopped back into the car and escaped from the annoying lady. 

The drive wasn't too bad and this time we arrived in Ubud a tad earlier than usual. We stopped by the Bintang Supermarket and stocked up on some toilet paper (because Bondalem doesn't sell toilet paper) and some other essentials. 

We checked into Eka's Homestay again, this time I had my own room. It's nice to finally have some privacy, bonus !! - I get to sleep in a double bed today. Just hope this bed is more comfortable than the one I have in Bondalem. The girls shared a room next door. We all dropped our bags, freshened up and met at the Sandra's room. We were starving. It was way past our dinner time. 

We took Sandra to the same Warung we ate at the time when we met Isabella and Danielle - Warung Sandat. I ordered the mixed rice dish, it was served with a chicken drumstick, egg, tofu, vegetables, a chicken sate stick and rice. It was delicious and ridicously cheap. I also had the lemon mint to go with my dinner - great and refreshing. We were all content after dinner and Sandra suggested we should grab some desserts. 

We stopped by a convenient store on the way home and bought ice-cream. Sandra, Jonah and I all enjoyed our ice creams on the way back to the home stay. It was now time for bed, as we are required to wake up early the next morning to do some exploring. I, on the other hand will be parting with the girls after breakfast tomorrow, as I have arranged to go to Kuta to meet up with Sofie and the crew. I'm really looking forward to seeing them again for another drinking and partying session.

Good night world.

XOXO

Day 25 - Bali : Farewell for Manao...

Julia and Christina worked out this morning. I have so been lazy in the last few weeks, from being a gym junkie back at home to not working out at all - it's unbelievable what traveling can do to you. The heat is just so unbearable, it is actually very difficult to work out. In saying that, I have been losing weight due to the heat, walking to and from school and not eating any meat - losing the weight effortlessly is great. I have no qualms about that. Whilst they worked out, I had my naughty breakfast - noodles and worked on my blog. Sandra and Jonah came around this morning and chilled with us for a bit before we decided to take off to Bali Mandala to chill by the pool - it is yet another hot day in Bondalem. 

My favourite part of the day is slipping into my bathers, slopping on my sunnies and slapping on some sunscreen to get sun kissed by the Balinese sun god. Still working on that tan and I'm really liking the asia sun. It's does wonders to my skin. The great thing is that I do not burn and I actually turn brown. The view from our favourite spot (in front of the pool) is just amazing. There is something special about Bali Mandala and I'm very curious about the positive energy it gives you. Bali Mandala offers a very special space for inner contemplation and stillness. It is a powerful place where people can have an exceptional experience of reconnecting with their essential wholeness. People choose to stay in Bondalem, Bali for peace and serenity and to find and heal themselves through spirituality and meditation. At the resort, they offer many packages, seminars and programs which aims at helping to uplift, heal and nourish the mind, body and soul of each individual. 

We dined at the lunch buffet at Bali Mandala. Like I've mentioned throughout my blog, it is always nice to have something different for a change especially whilst being in Bondalem. I really enjoy the buffet lunches at the resort, they serve different dishes on a daily basis to ensure their guest don't get bored of the cooking. The banana smoothie that they give us with our meals is just exceptionally tasty - its one of their healing drinks. I also spoilt myself with a glass of coke as I needed a very cold drink. Having lunch in front of the ocean is just so nice, I'm really going to miss this when I leave Bali. I was in a food coma after lunch so I had a warm cup of tea and just gazed out into the ocean whilst my food was digesting. 

We decided to play some games with our C class today. We started off with 'Hangman' and I have got to say that the C class is very good at it. It was probably getting too easy for them so we had to be creative and think of harder words. The students had a go each at coming up and picking out words for the class as well. The second game was 'Guess who'. Julia started first and after a few questions answered, the class immediately guessed 'Michael Jackson'. We also had celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Michael Jordan and Whitney Houston and they all managed to guess it correctly. The students had a great time in class. The purpose of the class today was to encourage the students to build sentences in English and speak in confidence. I think we mastered today's class. They students mentioned they had a wonderful time in class today - us girls were proud of our efforts. 

We were invited by Rainer - the owner of the resort to attend the farewell party he'd organised for his Son - Manao who is; after two years in Bali returning home to Germany. We arrived at the resort at 7pm and everyone were already there sitting by the gazebos. They had sausages, steak and other meats sizzling on the barbecue which I was really excited about and a table filled with different dishes of Balinese food and salad. The lighting around the place was just amazing and they played really soft jazz music for a more relaxing feel during dinner with the ocean splashing in front of us. It was my first piece of steak after many weeks of not eating meat and I pretty much died and went to heaven during dinner - there was even potato salad that was so tasty. Dinner was so good that I went back for seconds. 

Christina and I sat by the water (it was pitch black) and we enjoyed our cigarettes over Bintang and laughed our heads off for a while before making our way back to join the rest of the group. 

Potok brought our his guitar and Gede brought out the drums (Jonah was the assistant hehe). Potok provided us with awesome entertainment with his exceptionally talented guitar skills. He was playing songs from Yesterday (Beatles), Hotel California to Billionaire to Hey Soul Sister to I'm yours. He was just so good. I was very impressed. We all sat around along the black sand and sang to all of the tunes. Some of the German ladies got up and danced around the crowd. It was such a great night and it was very nice to do something like this. After about an hour of singing and dancing, it was finally time to bid farewell to Manao and call it a night. We said 'gute nucht' (good night in German) to everyone and walked in pure darkness back home. It was pitched black, we couldn't see a thing and the only thing possible was to use our mobile phones to guide us back home. If I was anywhere else, I probably would never walk in this condition; but being in Bondalem I felt very safe. When we got home, we said good night and all went off with our own laptops. It was a fantastic day and night. I especially enjoyed the singing tonight. 

Good night world. 

XOXO

Day 24 - Bali : Good morning gecko...

A gecko greeted me this morning that was crawling around my mosquito net. What nice thing to wake up to hey? So we are being healthy today, watermelon for breakfast. I really wish I could have the watermelon cold though, it’s just not the same having it room temperature – considering that the weather is approximately 35 degrees everyday. Watermelon is supposed to be refreshing, but eating watermelon in Bondalem is like eating an icecream in a sauna. We’ve been quite lazy in the last few days since coming back to Bondalem. We haven’t been doing much at all and yet the mornings seem to fly by so quickly. Nothing really exciting today, we had nasi goreng and fruit salad for lunch. 

Today, it was mine and Christina’s turn to throw out the rubbish – an act of sin. It is so hard to believe that they do not have a waste management system here – we really despise of doing this and feel terrible about it. But we have to throw out the rubbish otherwise; our courtyard will be the new waste compound. The “waste compound” is only just a couple steps away from our place, we have to throw it over the steep hill. Once every few days, they light the area on fire to burn away the horrible waste. This is so wrong and it smells so bad when we walk past, but I guess we can’t really change their system. We only have the option to accept. 

Wednesdays are my favourite days for school. My favourite kids are in the Wednesday class. The subject today was to distinguish the difference between ‘he’ and ‘she’ and when to use it appropriately. It has been known that the kids are not aware of when it is appropriate to use he and she and are unable to distinguish which is female and male. Arriving at school, Komung Eddie had already drawn faces on the board – two males and two females. We demonstrated what we wanted the students to learn today. Komung Eddie asked Julia what her parents and siblings’ names were. She elicited these sentences: “Richard is my father. He is my father. Gabrielle is my mother. She is my mother” and so forth with her siblings.” We asked each student to come up and tell us what his or her parents and siblings’ names were and they read out the sentences to the class.

Our next exercise was to fill in the blanks with ‘he’ or ‘she’. Komung Eddie wrote up mixed female and male names in a sentence and each student had to come up to fill out the appropriate text to finish off the sentence. For example, Julia is my teacher. “___” is my teacher. The kids did very well and understood the differences. A handful of students made mistakes (I think it was just all nerves) but immediately corrected themselves as soon as they noticed. I think the classes went pretty well today. 

The students really enjoyed going up to the front and using the stick to point and read out the sentences. The aim of our lessons is to ensure all students have a fun and great learning experience. I managed to take a group photo with the second class, they are such sweet kids.

After school I sent a text to Potok because the day before München came and left a present (poo) in our courtyard. Potok came around and covered it with sand but hasn’t been back since. In the text, I wrote ‘Potok, you forgot to collect your present, it’s waiting for you’. He came around immediately and finally collected his “present”. 

I am yet again introduced to some more new dishes by Julia. Seeing that she has been here longer than Christina and I, she has tried many different dishes. Today we are having Tipat (Vegetable salad, potatoes and peanut sauce served with rice) and we shared a tofu dish (I can't remember the name of it). It was nice to try different food and tickle our tastebuds a little, the tipat was surely another nice dish. Bali has not let me down yet. We also stocked up on a lot of cakes for dessert. 

Instead of being anti social and going off with our laptops, we watched a movie tonight in Julia’s room. We watched Burlesque on my laptop as the girls have never seen it (I, on the other hand have watched it 5 times) – one of my favourite movies. After the movie, I chilled out with München in the courtyard writing out postcards and worked on my blog. 

Good night world.

XOXO

Day 23 - Bali : Tuesday...

Good morning. We are all replenished from ample of rest. Julia came by our room and we all browsed and laughed hysterically at my photos that I had shared with the girls. It’s been a very good week in Bali. The girls and I have developed a very good relationship. It’s hard to believe that we have only known each other for 9 days. We have so many inside jokes that we laugh till our stomachs are so sore or to the point that we are nearly pissing in our pants. We didn’t get up to much this morning. I had noodles for breakfast again (very bad I know, but it’s quick and easy) and we chilled with our laptops in the courtyard trying to catch up on some blogging.

At school today, we taught the same subject as yesterdays - “What foods do animals eat?”. Julia and I took turns leading each class. Christina sat back and relaxed and helped when required. The girls and I all cracked up laughing when a student yelled out “monkeys eats fleas”. It was hilarious but it was so true. I witnessed many monkeys picking fleas from other monkeys and eating it when I visited Monkey forest in Ubud. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I wouldn’t know that Monkeys like to eat fleas. Very interesting lesson. 

We skipped lunch today for some odd reason. We just weren’t in the mood to eat. After school as we were coming home, the neighbour’s kids were hanging around in our courtyard. When they saw us, they did their usual greetings – either the wave hello or “hallo, how are you?”. I took a few photos with them, they are just so adorable. I quickly ducked down to the warung and bought myself the Balinese fruit salad as a snack. It’s such a yummy salad. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. 

We were getting bored of nasi goreng, mi goreng and fu yung hai. We needed something different, but it is not within walking distance from our place. After school, we troubled Komung Eddie to give us a lift, so Julia went and got dinner for us. Seeing that we skipped lunch, we had a massive feast. Julia bought enough food to feed 6 people. We are such piggies. On the menu today, we’ve got chicken sate sticks (10 sticks each) served with special peanut sauce and rice, bakso (Indonesian meatball served in a beef broth with vermicelli and/or with yellow noodles and various vegetables), and three types of curry – goat, chicken and beef. None of us liked the curries; we threw it out after trying a spoon of it each. It had a really strong meat and weird taste. We hung out in the courtyard and had two little visitors – München and Chip Chip. We watched them rumble around whilst we suffered in our food comas. It was a very chill out night. We didn’t get up to much after dinner as we all hopped onto our laptops to try catch up on some blogging or catch up with friends. 

Good night world. 

XOXO

Day 22 - Bali : Miserable Bondalem...

*Yawn* Rise and shine Bondalem. I had a long sleep, waking up later than usual. But it was not nice waking up to the roosters calling, pigs oinking, neighbours talking and children playing. It’s impossible to sleep in here - 9am was the latest you could sleep till – also it gets too hot in the rooms. I am always waking up sweating. It’s not nice at all. We sat in the courtyard and looked at each other and said “Omg, I can’t believe we’re back in Bondalem”. The weekend went by so quick and we just couldn’t stop talking about the weekend. It was our first mini trip and it was so such a great get away. It was a very lazy Monday. I had noodles for breakfast (very bad, I know), concentrated on my blog, the girls did the washing and we then had nasi goreng for lunch. We absolutely lazed around the whole morning before it was time for school.

We dawdled to school. Today’s subject was to learn about what foods different animals ate. The kids were great. They knew exactly what to call out as I listed each animal. I wrote the sentences on the board and asked the kids to read it back to me together as a class. Both classes did very well. The girls were still buggered from the weekend so I led both classes (we usually take turns). After school, we dawdled back home and rested up. We were all like zombies today.

 

For dinner, we decided to do something different – eat by the beach. We bought our food and walked in total darkness to the beach. It was just a 5 minute stroll but it took a little longer guessing each step, but we did use our mobiles as torches. When we got to the beach, we sat by the brick wall and not the sand. It was so dark, but our mobiles acted as candles so that we could see what we were eating. The view of the water at night was just splendid. I wish I were able to capture the view in front of my eyes. At night, you see the fisherman boats all light up in the sea - it looked like beautiful stars shimmering along the water surface. 

Julia was so lucky, within a timeframe of 5 minutes she saw two shooting stars – Christina and I missed it both times because we were either too busy joking around or smoking. Julia was lying down the whole time while she was on the phone to her boyfriend and each time she saw it fly past, she would yell out “Shooting star”. Not fair, I have never ever seen a shooting star before. Boo. We forgot to pack water, so we were all so thirsty, after a little while we headed back home and all went separate ways to spend time with our laptops. Today was definitely a very lazy day – we needed it.

Good night world.

XOXO

Day 21 - Bali : Bye Kuta ...

Good Morning Kuta. We slept for only 3 hours but it was the best 3 hours I’ve had all week. No pigs oinking, roosters calling, kids playing, neighbours talking or cooking in the early hours of the morning – it was silent. Peace at last. What’s more cool about it all was waking up to an awesome view. They lived tucked away amongst the rice paddy fields. I’ve been told that sunrise and sunset is just breathtaking. Sofie and I went and got some breakfast, she suggested that I try the cap cay (pronounced chap chai) – Cap cay contains various vegetables such as cauliflower, cabbage, chinese cabbge, carrot, baby corn, mushroom and leek chopped up and stir fried in a work with a small amount of cooking water and water, added with chopped garlic, onion, salt, sugar, soy sauce and oyster sauce and is served with rice. I got the other girls their usual – nasi goreng. We drove down to the local warung – Marina. Each order was packed in a foam takeway box for the convenience of eating out of it. I was impressed, it was very different not receiving our food in brown paper wrapped in a pyramid shape. We devoured into our yummy breakfast. 

I
We took some last photos of the villa. At least we can look through the photos vicariously when we're back in our "luxury teachers home". Featuring the pool, kitchen, lounging area and the bulls in the paddy. I loved it here. It was so peaceful. But unfortunately, we have to say goodbye. After breakfast, we said goodbye to the crew and thanked everyone for an awesome night (all those that were awake anyway). It was so nice to have met them. We exchanged numbers and I told them that I would probably be back next week for another drinking session. :)

Sofie called a taxi for us to get back to our hotel. It was so cool hearing her speak in Indonesian. I am so fascinated by languages. I'm hoping to pick up a bit of Indonesian before I leave. We are back in Kuta and Christina needed a bag as she came with none and Julia needed to do some last minute shopping. That girl never stops shopping. haha. We were all in last night's outfits, makeup or no makeup at all - like me, browsing the streets. I felt like a zombie and I had no sunnies to hide behind - Gross. Kuta looked so different during the day, I love it. The city really excites me, I guess it's all being part of a typical tourist. In saying that I also enjoy living like a local and I'm glad that I get a taste of both worlds. With Julia's outstanding bargaining skills, we quickly found a bag for Christina at a very reasonable price and rushed back to the hotel to freshen up and check out. 

On our way out of the hotel, we were stopped by a taxi driver offering his services. We didn't require the service at that point but will require a driver to drive us back to Bondalem - 3 hours drive from Kuta. So we asked whether he could do it, he quickly agreed and we negotiated a reasonable price with him. Pick up will be at 5pm. We now have 5 hours to spare which we will spend most of it at the local beach - Kuta Beach. It was a nice short stroll from the hotel to the beach, I was amazed by the grand entrance to the beach. It was so beautiful. The two meter white sandstone fence was built to block sand from blowing into the cafes and restaurants. Although, it does obstruct the full view of the beach, I still think it was a really nice structural fence. Typical Balinese, very detailedly carved. 

We chilled at the beach for a while before Julia taking off alone to do MORE shopping. Christina and I laid on the beach sunbaking and laughing – oh good times. We had the locals constantly pestering us about getting massages, buying jewellery or icecream from them – it was rather annoying having to tell them ‘no’ several times. I also caught up on some blogging, it was so nice blogging by the beach but then it started to sprinkle a little so I had to pack my laptop away. The sprinkles only last a short while. It was a very nice day in Kuta, it wasn’t too hot or humid. It was just perfect to lie on the beach and bake.

The convenient store is the new hang out spot. We were looking for lunch and couldn’t decide where to eat, so we ended up in a convenient store. The three of us got a cup of noodles each. Christina not knowing how to prepare the noodles; threw the seasoning sachet into the boiling water without tearing it up and emptying the packet. It was the cutest yet blondest moment. It was a good laugh. We were enjoying our noodles in air conditioning and watching Indonesian Idol – it was surely a different eating experience. I stocked up on more noodles and cigarettes, whilst at the counter – Julia pointed out a local’s pair of thongs. I laughed hysterically and snapped a photo. It was in such a bad state. I know it was rude to laugh, but I just couldn’t help myself. I did however didn’t make myself known to the guy that I was laughing about his thongs – so I was discreet about it? 

After lunch, we decided to call Made (pronounced Mar - dere) – our driver to pick us up one hour earlier than the scheduled time. So we met him nearby the hotel we were staying at and hopped into a nice, comfortable and air conditioned Suzuki car. Ok girls, another road trip ahead of us. We were all so tired from the weekend that we knocked out during the ride. Christina slept in the most awkward position for a long while during the drive. Made was a really good driver. It was a really smooth drive.

We finally made it home and were so impressed with his driving, we gave him an extra 100,000 rupiahs as tip. He was very thankful for allowing him to drive us. Us girls were so buggered. We grabbed nasi goring for a quick dinner and freshened up before crawling into our beds to snooze the night away. It’s been a crazy weekend, but we had such a wonderful time making some new lovely friends, drinking and dancing the night away. It definitely felt nice to be back at home though.

Good night world.

XOXO