Safe and sound in Santa Cruz!

Well folks I think this trip was supposed to end early for us. I was very disappointed that we had to cancel our visit to Borneo... but it seemed like the right thing to do.

Seeing that Ryan ruptured his eardrum, we worried about infection while we float up a river into the "bush". There is a very limited flight schedule back to Jakarta from the nearest "city" near the orangutan park. So, instead if traveling into the jungle, we took the cautious route and moved our flight up a few days to come home.

Had we taken our original flight home we would probably be stuck in Tokyo right now! As it is, we missed the earthquake by a few hours.

We wish the Japanese citizens well as they recover from this tragedy.

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Cold in Tokyo subway.

Everyone wears a mask in Tokyo.

Oedo sushi. Well worth the hour wait at 10AM for sushi breakfast in Tokyo.

Hachiko. Supposedly the busiest traffic crossing in the world.

Decisions.

Subway trip into Tokyo

Tokyo rocks!

Unfortunately we had to cancel our trip to Borneo due to some ear issues that Ryan was experiencing as a result of diving in the Gili's. All is well now thanks to some antibiotics. It was probably for the better as we made it in and out of Tokyo just prior to the earthquake.

Here is a shot in front of Oedo sushi in Tokyo's Tsjukiji fish market where we ate the best sushi ever!

It is our last day on Gili Air. We finished our open water dive course and went on four amazing dives around the Gili's. Now we can dive anywhere, anytime. Tomorrow we make our journey to Borneo in hopes of seeing many orangutans. Here's a shot from the beach.

Dinner seat on the beach at the Zip Bar.

Transport option on Gili Air.

No vehicles on Gili air. It is great! Only horse carriages for transport.

Our room. Not bad for $35 a night

Gili Air is everything it was promised to be.

Quiet... No motorized vehicles outside of boats.

Beautiful.... On land and under water.

Relaxing... Sleeping sound and eating great food. What more can you ask for!?!

And the best part, we are half way thru our Open Water Dive Certification! Diving has been a blast. It is so fun to learn something new. We have a great instructor and have already had a couple of great experiences in about 10-15 meters of water. Before we finish we will demonstrate our ability to reach at least 18 meters. We are able to see so much more while diving than snorkeling. We have already seen turtles, lion fish, a huge cuttlefish, schools of jacks and snapper, 2 eels, a lobster....etc. The water is warm and despite the rain we have had at night, visibility is good!

Sorry about the lack of photos. The I pod doesn't work under water.

We leave for Gili Air first thing tomorrow morning. It sounds like we have a "gauntlet" of a port town to negotiate.... So think calming thoughts for us as we run thru the hecklers and salesmen for the harbor ticket office.

On to a quiet snorkel / dive paradise. We will miss Kuta, but we have been here about a week and it is time to move on.

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Kuta

View from Segar beach in Kuta, Lombok.

Our ride

Beaches and scooter hair

Salamet Pagi (good morning). We left the island of Bali and are now on Lombok. It was quite easy to reach Lombok. We jumped on a short 30 minute flight and arrived in Mataram and then hired a guy to drive us to Kuta beach on Lombok's southern coast. We've been in Kuta for about four days and really like it here. It is far less developed than Bali and moves at a slower pace. The people here are very friendly as well. We are staying at a nice place called The Surfers Inn. It is pretty basic but has nice grounds, a pool, and a very international feel. I think we are the only Americans staying here. We are starting to lose track of what day it is, which is a good sign that we are starting to relax.

We immediately rented a scooter (with a surfboard rack attached) and have been using it as our main source of transportation here. We have been eating plenty of indonesian food and found an amazing restaurant called Ashtari, that is located at the top of the hill behind Kuta. The food is fabulous and the view is even better.
Lombok's beaches are very beautiful and the surf is always up here. I've been surfing two spots regularly, Areguling and Gerupak. Neither are easy to access, but are well worth the journey to reach. Getting to Gerupak consists of a 7KM scooter ride and then a 15 minute boat ride to get to the outside break. The waves are perfect A frames and have been head high to overhead. Paradise.

Tomorrow we will take a day dive trip out into Kuta Bay. We hear there are a bunch of manta rays in the area. Keep your fingers crossed for us. Can't wait!

Burning feet on the Ashtari deck. What a view!

Monkey vid

Here is a quick video clip of Rye's monkey. Sorry it is low resolution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1SPPzjNBiM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Fred left some slime on my shirt. Well worth it!

Fangs

Lots of rice in Ubud

Ubud

During our stay in Ubud we visited the monkey forest. While taking some photos a monkey jumped on my back and proceeded to hang out, yawn, and look for bugs. It was actually hard to get him off my back. This was an amazing experience! I didn't even have any food to entice him. Unfortunately I have lice now, but they sold me the shampoo and comb kit on our way out . Meet my new buddy, Fred.

So, it was time to leave our super comfy bungalow at Balangan Beach.

We fought off the jet lag, had plenty of sun and surf, and saw this part of the Bukit peninsula. The weather was fantastic!
We traveled south to Ulu Watu and stayed one night at a really basic guesthouse called Gong. Really nice people and located close to the Pura Lahur Ulu Watu. This is a very important temple to the spirits of the sea. It was absolutely beautiful perched on a cliff above the southern point of Bali. The monkeys at this temple were super cute but aggressive. They told everybody to take off all jewelry, sunglasses etc otherwise the monkeys will jump on your head and take whatever interests them! We actually watch a monkey grab a guys sandal off his foot!

This guest house is also located a scooter ride away from 2 world renowned surf spots. Padang Padang & Ulu Watu. Rye went out at Padang Padang but the waves were small.

We checked out the crazy little surf village at Ulu Watu this morning. Clinging to the cliff this ramshackle gathering of shops and snack shacks is like nothing either of us had seen.

Ryan got charged by a monkey that probably weighed 1 1/2 lbs! Naughty little monkeys, onshore wind and small surf, and too many mosquitos told us to move on.

Now we are in Ubud... about 1 1/2 hours inland. A busy shopping town with tons of art, temples, and Balinese dance. We have another nice guesthouse called Sama's Cottages; just a bit off the main drag and with pretty gardens and a pool. It is pouring out right now. The first rain of our trip. Enjoy the photos!

"Scream for me Bali!!!!!"

So I have to admit that I knowingly married an old school metal head. What I did not know is that I would end up at an Iron Maiden show on Bali.

Yesterday we met 2 fun couples at our hotel pool, they were hysterical. Maiden diehards! They invited us to jump in their car and go to the show. We partied all the way to the venue while our super nice (and very tolerant) driver Katut navigated the winding roads and heavy traffic.

Balinese metal heads are just like metal heads in the US. 95% male, black T-shirts, plenty of air guitar... you get the picture.

All in all the scene was pretty entertaining. They transformed an old limestone quarry into a cultural center/ music venue. Dragons and other cool stuff carved into the rock walls make for a very unique place to see a show.

Though this would not have been my first (or second) choice in bands to see, I had a blast. Needless to say Ryan loved it. Now he can't stop singing Maiden guitar solos... Perfect.

The best songs of the night were the old school hits such as The Trooper, number of the beast, running free, children of the damned, iron maiden. They played quite a bit of material off of their new album which they just won a grammy for.

Renee getting ready to eat some mie goreng.

Sacred cows.

I stumbled upon this temple; Pura Dalem, during my sunrise walk this morning.

Mango shake, bitang, and a nice wave in the background

The swell picked up last night. I took this shot walking down to dinner.

Scored some really nice waves at Bangalan today.  All lefts. There is nothing like paddling into 87 degree water.  Renee and I floated around in the shore break  and then had some nasi goreng (fried rice) at the beach front warang that offered phenomenal views of the swell at high tide.  We spent the later afternoon by the pool enjoying fresh fruit, reading  books, Renee had some bitangs, and we chatted with some ladies that recently moved here from San Diego.  I didn't know this was possible?  Hmm...?

Tomorrow, Ryan is going to sleep until at least 5:30am.  :)  Then beach time followed by massage and Maiden?  So many options.  Just gotta squeeze all of this in.  

After a couple days of travel, bad airline/airport food, and very minimal sleep, we made to Bali. We are staying on the Bukit peninsula at a really nice place called the Flower Bud Bungalows in Bangalan. We have our own little unit that is perched up on the cliff alongside other bungalows. There is a nice little pool onsite which sits in between the open air restaurant and massage hut.

It is a short walk down to the beach where there are a handful of Warangs serving bitang (beer) and food. So far the food has been great. We had grilled Mahi Mahi with mixed veggies and seafood noodles for dinner last night, which was far superior to the airline food we've been living off of for past couple of days.

This area of Bali is known for it's spectacular surf. At the time of writing this post, it is 3:00AM and I've already been down to the beach to check the waves. The moon is full and it tricked me into thinking that the sun was coming up. The waves look great but I'm going to have to wait another 3 hours to get into the warm water. Renee thinks I'm a crazed insomniac!

The plan is to stay here in Bangalan for a couple more nights and then head to Ubud. Hopefully we will get acclimated to the time change soon. Oh yeah, guess who is playing in Bali tomorrow night? IRON MAIDEN!

Mid flight magic.

Vancouver propellor from the window.

Foggy morning in Hong Kong.

Welcome to our Indonesia travel blog! We woke up at 3 AM Wednesday morning in order to make our 7 AM flight out of SFO to Portland, followed by a 3 hour layover in Vancouver, and then a 14 hour flight to Hong Kong. Michelle, thanks again for the ride, house sitting, and taking care of Biscotti. You rock!

The ambien didn't work so needless to say, we were wiped and ready to crash hard. We had plenty of time to mess around with some photos we took on our I touch. Enjoy!

It will never cease to amaze me how long these flights are. Of course we had to fly over Alaska and the Arctic Ocean on our way to the tropics.

We are looking forward to our hotel in Hong Kong... A few hours of sleep & a shower sound like paradise enough right now.

Now that our night in Hong Kong at the Royal View Hotel is behind us we are on to Bali!!!

Getting psyched up for a 14.5 hour flight is hard to do. Hope to get some Zs

We made it through Portland. Currently eating bad Japanese bento boxes in Vancouver