What a difference a day makes

Bali Blog update... full day 1, day 2-5 Notes... more to come at some point. Merry Christmas to everyone! Much Love,

Ethan

What a difference a day makes

Yesterday, Rachel and I were frantically packing to get ready for our trip, I was playing in my last game of the first half of the season in Australia (9-1, get some) and were in an English speaking country.

Today, we woke up as the plane touched down in Bali, the first stop on our SE Asia odyssey. Before getting here, I was told that this place was something special, and it has certainly lived up to those expectations and then some.

Our first thrill was the cab ride from Denpasar airport to Ubud, at 5 am. Traffic was already making for some close calls as we drove away from the coast and towards our first stop. No sidewalks and a disregard for any sort of lanes means that men, women, and infants are walking, biking, crawling, driving, or scootering (sometimes with up to 5 people on a scooter) in the street, narrowly avoiding each other. Amidst all this chaos, everyone is calm. Business as usual in Bali. A natural calm is in the air and this place seems special.

For brekky, we dine at Green Field, our hotel for the next two nights. For only $28/night, we have a room with a/c looking out onto rice fields, a beautiful swimming pool, a porch, and it includes free breakfast which you can take at your room or at the restaurant. I dive into some noodles, loving every bite. Pretty exhausted from the late flight, Rach and I decide to take a cat nap before we start the day. After waking up, we spend no time monkeying around and head for the Sacred Monkey Forest, located a short stroll from our hotel. The forest and temples within are the home to some several hundred macaws (spelled horribly wrong). They are certainly not scared of humans and go about their business. You can feed them bananas, but one of the first monkeys that we saw was chillin’ out on a tree eating an ice cream cone. Somewhere close by, I’m sure there was a small child crying, scarred for life by the monkey would stole his ice cream. What monkey wants, monkey gets… which I found out the hard way a little later.

After strolling through the forest, admiring age old temples and the surroundings, witnessing monkeys grooming each others testicles and babies jumping around like a tether ball as their mothers held their tails, we had our first up close and personal encounter. We came across a couple that had monkeys crawling all over them. We walked up to snap a picture and see what was going on. Before I knew it, the guy asked me if I wanted to have one on me and without a chance to answer, I had a monkey on my back. I didn’t really know what to do, but it was a pretty cool experience. Rachel had a go, but the monkeys liked her too much and started to get a little frisky.

After putting the monkeys down, I took out the hand sanitizer so that we could try to get rid of the plague that was probably now all over us. Bad idea. One of the more aggressive monkeys shot up my leg, onto my back, biting my hand and shoulder in an attempt to steal the hand sanitizer. I didn’t know what it was after, and when I realized it I quickly relinquished the bottle. I was free from the attacking monkey, but our hand sanitizer was definitely not out of the clear. As the monkey chewed up the bottle, we got one of the workers. “Don’t worry, monkey knows what to eat and what not to eat,” he said. He threw a sling shot at the monkey, who released the bottle and ran away yelling. We got the hell out of the forest, delighted with the monkey business that we had encountered, but scared of another attack.

After the forest, we walked around Ubud, checking out the main drag and downtown market. A few hours into our touring, we decided it was time for a bit of luxury. We stopped into one of the many spas, signing up for hour-long full body massages. Does life get any better? Yes. The massage and post massage shower cost the equivalent of $5. I think I have found my paradise. I think I can hear all my friends who I constantly pester for massages taking a collective sigh of relief. With the massage over, it was now time to eat. We found a small hole in the wall join on a side street and ate some delicious food. I had a chicken dish that tasted like it had a sweet caramel in the sauce, and Rachel enjoyed a tuna curry.

Next was our first attempt at bartering at a market stand. Fail. Turns out that being a hard ass is a little bit harder than it seems. Overwhelmed and a bit confused by how it worked, Rachel made some old woman’s day with an overpriced purchase of two sarongs. No worries. Since then we have gotten a better feel for how the haggling goes down. I guess the Oregon Trail computer game fomr elementary school didn’t prepare me for an Indonesian Market.

The night wrapped up with a delicious dinner at a chill restaurant. A few notables from our first day… there are offerings everywhere here. Little bamboo baskets with flowers, rice and other goodies being offered to presumably some God or ancestors. Even the motorcycles and cars have them on the front or the hood. The people in Ubud are extremely friendly. Although there are a fair share of tourists around, it is certainly not swarming with tourists and aside from someone on every corner asking if we need a taxi, really doesn’t feel touristy at all. A good start to the trip. Day 1 in the books.

More on the rest of the days…. Here are some notes:
Day 2: Bali Belly 

Today we signed up for a Cultural Biking tour of some of Ubud’s surrounding villages, breakfast, coffee, rice fields, temples, traditional home and caste system, biking in rain, villages with everyone busy, arrange to travel to padang padang or elsewhere and share cab with dutchies
Met Dutch travelling buddies, ate at dewa warung, met William and friends, local joint, got food poisoning, tough night

Day 3: Got well enough to make car ride to Chocky’s or Nyo Man, get to bingin beach parking lot, dirt lot, labrynth to get there on little muddy alleys, get there, right on beach but not suitable for dutchies… booked up at leggies, walked to dreamland beach, more of a disaster, nice walk along ridge to get back, saw python, hung out at leggies, played yahtzee, listened to music, planned to go surfing the next day. Massage ladies

Day 4: Got up, went surfing with ketut, caught some waves… ate lunch, tried to plan where to go, ended up taking a cab to leggian, more insane scooter action, got to leegian, kuta by night, legian by night….

Day 5: Legian by day, bus ride to padang bai met interesting characters on bus, walked to blue lagoon, and hotel,

It Begins...

Tonight's Jay-Z and U2 concert definitely lived up to the hype. My ears are still ringing like crazy, but at this moment that is a good thing. In my time away from rap (Europe and Australia), I had seemed to forget how unreal Jay-Z is. He was awesome, setting the stage for a great night of music. U2 put on an incredible show, playing for two hours and I left a happy happy man.

I have worked every day this week and between preparing to leave on this trip, moving out of the Broadway apartment and the holidays, there has been little time for anything... sleep included. I just wanted to leave a little skeleton of what the next 3 weeks look like, in case (in all likelihood this will be the case)I don't get to update my blog on the regular. Here is the trip in a nutshell... the finer details will be made up as we go along... should be crazy and fun.

Dec 20, 1 am: Fly from Perth to Bali
Dec 20-22 stay in Ubud, in the mountains of Bali
Dec 22-26 Make our way towards Kuta and the main tourist center of Bali
Dec 26 Leave Bali
Dec 27-29 Chiang Mai
Dec 29-30 Bangkok
Dec 31-Jan 8 Ko Phi Phi, Koh Lanta, Koh Lipe, Koh Adang (Southwest Thai Islands)
Jan 9-Jan 12 Malaysia travel
Jan 12 Fly back to Perth (me), Rachel back to Bangkok to meet wit people and move our north of Bangkok.

I'll try to give regular short updates but I am not planning on being on the computer very long on this trip. Before the trip, first things first... Bears return to the Bear Cage to finish up the first half of the season on a high note against UWA... Go Bears Go!

Bears Win, Move to 8-1

Yesterday we moved to 8-1 on the season in a nail-bitter turned blowout. It was 2-2 going into the 8th, and despite having multiple runners on base almost every inning we were missing that big hit. After 7 innings of working through jams and throwing a lot of pitches, Curtin’s import inevitably couldn’t hold us down as we KO’d him pushing across somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 runs. After a short bottom half of the 8th, we tacked on another 5, batting around for the 2nd consecutive inning. I was on the hill and pitched well. I controlled the zone, striking out 9 and walking 1 in the complete game effort. My only blemishes coming to the same batter, who hit a solo homer and then a 2 run job with the game well out of reach in the 9th. The solo shot was hit well, but the second one was nothing more than a fly ball that our CF would have caught had he not tripped over the 3 foot high home run fence (that is legitimately how high the portable fence was). All in all, a good start and another good win for the bears.

In other news, I have been working a lot and started a second job today. I started working at the Uni Sports Camp for Kids, teaching and facilitating sports for a group of 5-12 year-old day camp goers. The job seems like it should be a lot of fun, but definitely will test my patience, as I already wanted to kill a few of the campers by the end of the day.

I also got in a small fight with the bread slicer at the bakery the other day, cutting a few nice bread slices into my thumb and adjoining nail. That was a hellish day at work, having been woken up at five fifty something by the owner of the bakery asking why I wasn’t there opening the shop. It would have been nice if they had told me they switched my shift from a 9-1 to a 6-2, as I am not that great of a mind reader. I got ready in a hurry and got down there, but wasn’t very happy as a mix up, as I take pride in being on time and have slight panic attacks when I am not. Okay, lets be honest… nothing puts me in a worse mood than something making me late… I go sour pretty quickly. When I get blamed for being late when it’s not my fault and it wakes me up at 6 am… not a great start to the day.

I rebounded nicely, spending the afternoon doing some shopping with Rachel at the Freemantle Markets before heading to the Free residence for a BBQ and some good, old fashioned weekend shenanigans. The night reminded me a little bit of a few nights I had in Davis with the boys back in the day. Got to love it.

This week promises to bring more craziness, culminating in a U2/Jay-Z concert on Saturday, a ball game on Sunday at home, and the beginning of the holiday break and Rachel and my 3 week trip to Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Perhaps the biggest news of all, however, is that Rachel will be staying in Thailand for 3 months after I return to Perth to volunteer in an orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS. While I am very sad that she will be apart for 3 months, we are both very excited that she will get this opportunity, as she has been unsuccessful in finding volunteer work around Perth. It will be a challenge for her and no doubt a rewarding experience for her and those she works with. Let’s just say my last 3 months in Perth will be much different than the first 3.

I’m out for now, thanks for reading. Miss you all… Cheers, E.

Photo Update

Girl in background is wearing American flag shorts, and a belly shirt that reads "Indiana"... Rachel's face just about sums up the Perth fashion scene, with the Jack Johnson concert amplifying that by about 10



Insert sexual innuendo here................ . Rach enjoying a brat at the JJ concert.




The man, the myth, the legend, the environmental savior... Jack Johnson.



Rach and I at Kings park, Perth central Business district and Swan River in the background...



A four shot sequence of how to steal third base and then call yourself safe...

Liftoff

Saturday started what promised to be an epic 6 weeks. It is easy to throw the word epic around and take away from the value of using such a word, but I genuinely mean this... the next 6 weeks have epic potential. I will throw out a few happenings just so we are on the same page from the start. Jack Johnson conert, U2/Jay-Z concert, baseball games, Christmas in Bali, New Years in Thailand, first week and a half of 2011... more Thailand and a bit of Malaysia, finish with a touch of Singapore before returning to my second girlfriend, baseball. Sound delicious? We are off to a good start...

After a solid days work at the bakery, I went to the field to hit and throw before swinging back to the house to pick up Rach en route to the Jack Johnson concert. We got there early and were rewarded by some good opening acts. Then JJ hit the stage and absolutely rocked it. Pretty much 2 hours and 20 minutes of musical heaven as the chill beats made their way through my ears and into my soul. The bloke was awesome, played for forever, donates all his tour proceeds to charity, and with his band puts on a killer show. Oh, did I mention that from where we were standing (about 10 rows deep), I could throw a baseball at him and 1. actually hit him and 2. it would still be traveling fast enough to cause him pain. I say this not because it is something I would want to do, rather to illustrate without just coming right out and saying that we were about 60 feet away. Would pay to go see his show again in a heartbeat. Epic start to the 6 weeks... check.

Day 2 of the 6 week plan was not so shabby either. After sleeping in a bit, it was game time at the Bear Cage against Kelmscott. A little refresher... they were the first team I played when I got out here, we beat them 35-3. This time around, the result was slightly more competitive, as we won 25-0. The game featured some exciting moments. Drumroooooooooll..... and you may not believe this.... continue drumroll, but I hit my first home run in probably 6 years. I know, I can't believe I hadn't hit one in that long either but the oppo poppo was in order and I sent a 3-1 solo shot over the right center fence.
The more "sexy" play of the game was a near webgem. A ground ball to my backhand side up the middle, that I glove flipped to Lee who came across and gunned it to first. The guy was safe by a step, but I will guarantee that by the end of the year this play gets completed for an out. In fact, I won't leave Oz until it does.
For some reason, the peanut gallery that is the PL2s and 3s decided that it was my first ever home run... come on guys, does my swing struggle that bad? Being my first home run ever, after fines session, I was treated to a continuous flow of Doug-o's... the worst drink ever if you are having more than one. After about 6, my gut was rotting, things were getting out of control, and it was time to head home. After a pit stop at the Stephenson house around the corner, it was back home for a dinner of pickled onions straight out of the jar. Yum. Day 2... success.

Day 3 brought more 'nanigans... for the second week in a row, Rach and I headed to the Free residence in Ballajura for some good eats. And man was it goooood eats. Great food, great company, and the beginning of a weekly dinner ritual? I can only hope so. Another awesome day in the books with good food and company. I also rescued, for the second time, about 10 sandos and 30 lbs of bread from the rubbish bin... Doing my part to spread the love... handles.

I hope day 4 continues the streak... with a day off work, things are looking up, down under.

Until next time, Cheers Mate!

Ps More pics and possibly video to come soon

Quick Pics

Game time at Barbagallo for the USA series



Nice illustration of going out to get the potential low strike




Luke Hughes taking a hack



Watch out for them sea snakes... only the 11th deadliest thing in Australia or something like that



Entrance to paradise... still safe from sharks




Chasing Rachel towards paradise... now in danger from sand sharks



Funny license plate on a Toyota, however, still second to DRPTHBEAT plate I saw the other day



Santos and friend practicing Capoeira at sunset, Cottlesloe Beach



Surfer at sunset, Cottlesloe Beach



Kayaker post sunset, Cottlesloe Beach