Dare #14 Complete

This was a great dare that my good friends Beata and Charlie dared us to do. We had seen this cooking school before, but it was a little out of our price range, so it was a great dare for us! We started the day at 8 AM at a traditional Balinese market, and then moved into a family compound where we got to cook a 9 course meal of red bean and papaya soup, fried soy bean cake, marinated baby chicken in coconut sauce, pork satay, mixed vegetable salad, sweet potato rice, Balinese tomato sambal, and black rice porridge. After cooking lunch, we had to give our offering to the Hindu Gods before eating, as is customary in Bali. The dare was to go to the class and then cook the meal for Beata and Charlie when we get home, we'll do our best!

The Market. Looks sketchy and dirty, and it kind of was, but that is life in Asia!

The Menu

Inside the family's compound. This was our guide, Sande. Typically there are 3 generations living in a compound. When they marry they move in with the husband's family.

Sarah hard at work chopping up veggies for the peanut sauce

As soon as they fired up the Q, my attention shifted, and me and an Aussie guy manned the BBQ's making chicken, pork satay, and 1 chicken satay for the Gods (apparently they don't eat pork or beef).

Getting ready to give our offering to the Gods. Everyone has to wear a sarong to go inside the Temple.

Family Compound Temple. Every compound has a Temple that must be fed daily. This means one family member must always be home. We wondered if they ever went on family vacations, they don't.

The finished product. It was very tasty.

Great dare guys. Can't wait to try to make you some food when we get home!

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

We ended up spending about 3 weeks in Bali because we fell in love with the island. One of our best days was a trip up to Ubud, better known as the place that Julia Roberts goes to meditate in "Eat, Pray, Love." We hired a private driver for the day for a total of $30 for a full day, and set out to Ubud. There we completed Beata and Charlie's dare to go to an Indonesian cooking class (more about that in another post). We also visited a coffee plantation, a rice paddy, a traditional Balinese family compound, a waterfall, and a temple.

This is the Luwak Cat. It is a special animal because it chooses to eat only the most choice of coffee beans. It is unable to digest them so it ends up pooping out the whole beans, which are cleaned, and then made into the most expensive coffee in the world ($160 per pound).

After the tour we got a taster of all of their coffees and had some of the Luwak coffee.

This is a view of the Rice Paddy in Ubud. Most of the Ubud area's landscape looks like this.

Chickens! They smelled soooo bad

Beautiful waterfall that we got to visit

This is a great picture that Ben got outside of a Hindu Temple. It was a special religious day in Bali because it was a full moon, and 95% of people were dressed up like this.

Another shot we got of the full moon over Sanur Beach in Bali.

All in all, our time in Bali was great. But it was time for a new adventure so we set out on the treacherous boat ride to the Gili Islands.

Bali, Indonesia

First off, let me apologize for the lack of posts. We have really stepped into the slow lane on this island. How can you not when you see sunsets like this daily?

Sunset at Kuta Beach

Bintang, the Indonesian beer.

We had another great 2 hour nights sleep before our 6 AM flight from Phuket to Bali. We are so used to them now that we don't even complain or whine too much, which is atypical of me when I am tired. We arrived to Bali and I immediately did not like it. When we arrived to our hotel room, it was the size of a walk in closet, basically the bed was the only thing that fit into it. On top of that it smelled like raw sewage, and the longer we stayed in it the worse it smelled. We requested a new room, and got it. Needless to say, we left after 2 nights and switched hotels.

I can deal with the size, but not the smell.

The main town in Bali, Kuta, has small narrow streets without sidewalks to walk on, motorbikes everywhere, and people trying to sell you anything they can. One person even tried to sell Sarah a feather for 2 dollars. But the best was when I had a man try to sell me a blow dart gun on the beach, and when I told him I did not have any cash, he insisted on a trade for my watch (which I bought on Amazon for about 10 dollars). But I must say, over the past 2 weeks that we have been here, Bali has grown on me. I'm not sure if it's the personalities of the Balinese that we have discovered off the beaten path, the laid back surfer attitude, the smell of incense that is literally everywhere, or the absolutely gorgeous sunsets that we go to nightly, but I love this place. We have had some great meals here too. It took us awhile to figure out where to go, but once we did we were pleasantly surprised.

This is food from a restaurant across the street from our hotel that specializes in food from Jakarta, the main island in Indonesia. It's sauteed meat and rice with Satay sauce. So good.

Even better is the Chicken Satay stand down the street from our hotel. This is the Satay man.

Hands down, the best Chicken Satay Sarah and I have EVER had. We have eaten here like 10 times in the last 2 weeks. The guy knows us by name and we are officially regulars.

Mmmmm, pig heart in curry sauce with fried potatoes, delish!

We spent the first couple of days exploring the south of the island, and going on an excursion where we went snorkeling on the reef, visited a place called turtle island, went to a traditional temple and Balinese dance, and had a traditional Balinese dinner.

It was crazy how big some of these turtles were.

Sarah with an Eagle on her shoulder

Us with a python. They had his mouth taped shut with scotch tape, so we were totally safe. Good thing, because he definitely motioned like he was trying to bite us, little sketchy.

Huge Toucan

Um, 30 lb. bats?!?!? Are you serious? Those are bats hanging from the ceiling too.

This is the best video of Sarah holding the bat. The guide had to tap the bats feet to get it to open it's wings, but things got a little crazy. Sarah's face is priceless. What you can't see in the video is that the bat peed on Sarah when it flew away. She was none too pleased.

After the snorkeling and Turtle Island, we went to a Balinese Temple where there were hundreds of monkeys roaming around. The monkeys are so smart, they will steal food and drinks right out of your hand. In fact, they even learned that if they steal things from the tourists, the tour guides will feed them to get those items back. Their favorite - stealing sunglasses off of peoples heads.

This monkey just ran up and stole these glasses off of a womans head while she was sitting down. He got a piece of banana out of it.

Sunset at the Uluwatu Temple. You can see the outline of the Temple on the top of the cliff.

At the Temple we got to see a traditional Balinese dance called the Kekak dance.

Out of 500 people watching this show, of course Sarah is the one that gets haggled by the "evil monkey" in the show. I must say, people here are infatuated by her blonde hair and Californian beauty...or maybe it's her white skin, either way they stare at her everywhere we go.

Later that night, we decided our feet needed a cleaning so we went to one of these fish spas where you put your feet in and the fish swarm your feet and eat your dead skin. Kind of gross, and really really uncomfortable. We both didn't last more than 5 seconds, it tickled way too much.

We were only supposed to be in Bali for a few days, before heading to the Gili Islands, but we keep pushing back our trip. We have been in Bali for over 2 weeks now, and have our place through next week. We have spent the last 2 weeks surfing and lounging out on the beach by day, and hanging out with our new friends by night. Unfortunately, I snapped a surf board in half yesterday so my surfing days may be numbered.

Starting my surf career

Sadly ending my career a couple of weeks later

With Sandro from Italy, Bogel and Jojo from Indonesia. Some of the chillest people I have ever met.

Breaking the board (and having to pay 1 million Rupiah to fix it) still can't get me down in this paradise. We went out last night and discovered our first legitimate Mexican restaurant we have found on the trip. A burrito and some margaritas got me out of the broken board funk. It was wonderful to have a familiar taste from home.

Californian owned Burrito spot on a small island in the middle of Indonesia, perfect.

I know it's hard to believe, but these burritos and margis were actually up to par (I would give them an 8). They have a burrito named "The Mission", and one called "Santa Cruz". For being half way around the world, I am very satisfied. However, the size is much different from the burritos in SF, about 1/3 of the size.

Soon we will leave Bali, and head to some other islands. We are not sure which ones as of now, the plan will unfold as we go.

Phuket - Patong Beach

We took a boat and bus combination to Phuket on Saturday.  It was a brutal bus ride, both Ben and I had terrible neck cramps.  The bus dropped us off on the side of a highway, literally near nothing.  It was very strange, luckily, there was a cab right there so we hopped in and negotiated 200 Baht ($6.66) for our cab ride.  When we got to our "hotel" the cab driver tried to charge us 400 Baht, and after telling him that's not what we agreed on he said he would call the police.  We said ok, paid the man, and got on our way, not a good first impression of Phuket.  Only a few minutes later did we realize that he had dropped us at the wrong hotel.  Thankfully, this hotel called "At Home Hotel" was a sister hotel of the one that we booked called "At Home Residence" so they called the owner who personally came and took us to our correct hotel.  The hotel itself is really nice, and at $17 a night, its a great deal. Just around the corner is the center of Patong Beach, the busiest and most touristy town in Phuket.  

Room

More Room

Letter in the Elevator about construction at the hotel

We were walking into the center of town the first night when I heard Ben say "OH, Watch Out!", I immediately looked where he was looking and about 10 feet in front of us was a baby elephant walking down the street being led by a Thai. The elephant was about 5 times the size of Ben, and while unusual for us, this is common practice here in Thailand. 

What we found in downtown Phuket was astonishing.  I equate it with the Thai version of Vegas.  Neon lights, go go dancers (and not the kind we have at home), and people trying to sell you everything and anything.  You cant get about 10 feet in some places without being offered a tuk tuk ride, massage, or ping pong show (yes they actually exist here).  It's also very built up.  There is a large American style mall near us, and many condo type buildings, almost all new or still being built, most likely from the Tsunami.  We spent that night walking around, and ate Subway both that night and for lunch the next day.

Bangla Road in Patong Beach

We started our first day at Patong beach.  Our $17 hotel includes a free shuttle around the town, and we arrived to the beach and saw what we wanted. It was packed from end to end with people, sunbathing, playing sports, parasailing, and jetskiing,.  Ben and I went bodysurfing then Ben found some Canadian and American friends, and ended up playing football with them and the Thais, while I sat under the cabana and read.  

Action shot of a Thai throwing the football to Ben

This is how they parasail.  A Thai jumps on top to steer and help land, and he rides the parachute holding on like a monkey and swinging around from about 10 stories up in the air.  

After this we went for some well needed shopping, and this is what we bought.

Total cost, $32

That night we went out on the town, focused on living the Phuket nightlife up, and we did.  In Thailand, Jenga and Connect 4 are very popular games at the bars.  You can play the bartender, and if they lose they buy you a round, and if they win, you have to buy a round for yourself and them.  They rarely lose as you can imagine.

My turn, if I lost, we didn't get a free round

I didn't lose this one!  Free drinks all around!  From left to right, our Bartender, 2 Australian guys we met and played with, me and Ben.

Some more Australian friends we met (Aussies are everywhere!).  The littler girl at the bottom is trying to sell us necklaces, she will throw them around your neck and then run away, only to come back and demand that you owe her 100 Baht.  As you can see I am defending myself against her impeccable necklace toss.  And yes, the guy in the background is holding up a Ping Pong show "menu."  You don't want to know what is on it. 

The next day we were pretty useless.  We went to a shopping mall by our hotel and it was like stepping back into the States.  It was a typical American shopping mall, clean, and comfortable, and it was a nice break from all of the dirtiness of Asia.  That night we discovered a night market for dinner, and got some of the best Pad See Ew and Fried Chicken I have ever had in my life.

Patong Beach Night Market

I got to choose my Fried Chicken at this stand!

Pad See Ew, sooo good!

That night it started raining harder than I have ever seen.  The monsoon rains here are intense, big rain drops that are blown in sideways.  If you step into the rain for 10 seconds you are completely soaked.  

Here is a video we took of the rain

Today, the rain has not let up.  We were going to go on an excursion, but it is raining too hard to do anything, so we just sat at a cafe and blogged and read.  We tried to order pizza, butt AGAIN we ordered it wrong.

That purple thing on the bottom right is squid!  Seriously people, why do you put seafood on pizza!?

Tomorrow we are off to Bali to continue our adventure!