Kuta- Australian for Bali!

* warning: the following post is not a reflection of all tourists or countries. Please forgive my rant... I just need to get it out of my system!

A transcendental travelation


We should have known better. We should have, yet again, trusted our instincts and the advice of fellow travelers. We should have....not gone to Kuta!
Having spent the majority of our time in Bali in the beautiful area of Ubud, we really were jonesin for some beach time. Nate and I have both shared fantasies of surfing our way around the world and from what we had read, Kuta is said to be a great place for beginners. Nice easy surf and some pretty inexpensive lessons. Boy howdy did we make a mistake. Well, I can't really say it was a mistake as we now know where we DON'T want to return to. Kuta is essentially Cancun but swarming with Australian "dude bros" on spring break rather then Americans. Had we not had the misfortune of landing there during the off season, it still would have been a poor choice. There is no resemblance of the beautiful Balinese culture and spirituality that we experienced in Ubud. Rather it is a massive, overwhelming display of neon, hawkers and vomit. Ha, well maybe not that severe but it really was such a juxtaposition. Sadly the beach is very dirty and you can't walk more than 10 paces without some swarm of ladies wanting to rub you down for a few rupiah. God knows where those hands have been before!
We managed to escape for the day on Sunday with our Dutch neighbor friends and take a tour to see two temples. One of which belongs to the royal family and the other being the famous and highly over-touristed, Tanah Lot. It is a series of three small temples, each built on its own natural peninsula on the ocean and one of which can only be reached at low tide. They are dedicated to three separate gods. The largest being for the Water God, the second for higher learning and the third for transportation. They were incredible to see but you cannot help but feel so saddened by the tourism surrounding what is meant to be sacred. It looks like the carnival came to town and brought the worst of the souvenirs with it- complete with live snakes and velvet posters! I know that we will experience this almost everywhere we go and as tourist we think, gosh how can they do this to their country? How can they exploit their heritage like this? But AS tourist we feed into it and just fuel the fire. It maybe wouldn't be half as discouraging if tourists on a whole were respectful but in the larger more populated areas it's as if all manners are forgotten. People seem to feel entitled. Entitled to "western food", demanding service right then and there and do not respect or learn about the customs of the country they are in. Why travel if you just want everything you have at home?
It takes courage and an open mind to step out of your comfort zone. We all want to feel safe and it always feels good to have a piece of home when abroad. I just hope that Nate and I will continue to follow the road less traveled...


...and I guess we must look pretty exotic over here because people from Java always want to take their picture with you!

Nate-Guy Post. Version 1.0

Nateguy entry 1
Version 1.0

Blessings to all whose eyes are awake.
So whereas Amanda has been providing beautiful blog tapas of our travels, I think my style is more of a blog entree...maybe even buffet. help yourself and sorry if there are repeats....

We spent eleven days traversing California's northern coast, with a good chunk of it in the spanking city of San Francisco. Small towns, saskwatches, bad beds, the whole deal. Highlights include, but shouldn't be limited to;

Paula the Impala.
Our trustworthy rental car.

The Avenue of the Giants.
Epic Redwood trees. Ancient brothers standing firm. No comparison to anything in the East. Nothing, nada. Show me a drive thru tree.... Sorry East Coast.

Mr. Dave-Guy and Ms. Laura Kelty, Briandeye and Sir Scott.
Four of our closest friends sharing some city adventures. Love love.

A new haircut on Haight Street.
From an awesome, well decent, Asian dude at his family's hair salon. Fifteen bucks. The price even included a drunk street woman. She smelled of pee and ranted nonsense all while eating her drippy burrito...INSIDE the salon.

Trinidad California for a reggae show.
A quasi-we're-lost-drive, but an amazing evening filled with friends, family, African food, Amandala musicians and Rise Up Family.
Do good...do good.

A missed flight to Bali...
12am differs from 12pm. Lesson learned, as Amanda has stated earlier. We got the same flight the next evening no problem.

I was greeted in Bali by the kind lady in front of me. She decided to vomit backwards and towards my feet just as we hit the runway. Why she didn't use the complimentary airline provided barf bag, we will never know. Luckily I was spared direct hit...It was eerily similar to the episode of Seinfeld where Newman gets hit second hand by the magic loogie.

Our first night at the hotel in Sanur I woke up to reeeaalllyyyy bad, really bumping dance music at like 4am...I thought it was our neighbors partying and just rolled over to catch up on my zzz. The next night though, the same music came on at the SAME time.
Not cool. Amanda slept through the first night's clubbing but not this one.
It's 4:11am. I went to investigate.
Lo and behold it was not our neighbors as I believed. The hotel was hosting a week long conference for some Asian computer company. I guess 4am seemed a good time to go to the tennis court, located outside of our room, to practice aerobics with possibly the worst, loudest music they could find. We got up pretty early that day.

Ubud is a happening little spot with lots of expats, European visitors and us. Religion, mainly Hinduism is so alive here. You can feel its pulse in the streets. In the homes. In the faces that always smile at you. Every day, life is given to the Gods with daily sacraments and offerings. The people may be financially poor, but they are rich in spirit and they share and care more than any culture or region I've experienced.
Now that I'm away from the farm, and the hustle of every day work work work, I've been given time to reflect on the very negative experience I received back in VT. It hasn't been easy. Seems like I held it in for the past two months and have only begun to face these demons lately. But I can't think of a better place to heal. Combine that with the undying patience and open hearted love of Amanda and I know my wounds heal. Time, Nate-Guy time...love to all.

Here in Bali...

There is peace amongst the chaos. There are hidden temples and shines everywhere you can see and everywhere you cannot. You try to avoid stepping on the small offerings that were left on the sidewalk from the day before and find yourself stepping on another one in the effort. The flow of traffic has a mind of it's own and whole families and a dog somehow fit onto one motorbike. Rice fields are sprawling within the confines of the busy city center and yet harmoniously they sing together. Bali is simply unlike any place I have ever been. Devotion is the pulse and lifeblood of this nation. Our waiter the other night, stopped work to light incense and pray at the alter off to the side. In the afternoon women will sit and make baskets out of banana or palm leafs for the next days offerings. The owner of our guesthouse gathers flowers every morning to line all the stairs, tables, statues and alters reminding me that there is prayer in all of our actions.
I wish this was something we understood more as a nation in the US. We are so worried about getting to work on time and updating our Facebook page that we don't give the proper love to all the gifts that we have been given.
We have been here only a few days but as more time passes, I become more grateful and more loving. Thank you Bali for opening my eyes again.

Bali wrapped it's warm frangiapani arms around us yesterday afternoon after traveling for more than 24 hours. Give thanks. It was all we could do just to stay awake until we got to our hotel. We decided to really splurge for the first two nights (and by splurging I mean $50 per night) and stay in a nice hotel. I was blown away to behold this magical oasis just off the busy road. There are mango trees growing and birds singing and sun shining... We were greeted by the ever smiling staff with a watermelon juice and then whisked off to our room to shower and pretty much pass right out (after room service of course, which was $7 for the both of us) into our canopy bed. Around 10 pm we were woken to the loudest thunder I have EVER experienced. I had to ask Nate this morning if I had dreamt it. I really can't stress how loud it was. It felt like the heavens were cracking open right over our canopy. Now we wake up to blue skies and birds singing, how blessed are we!... Time to order room service again!

Travel lesson # 1

When traveling by airplane, always make sure to check for a distinction between 12 am and 12 pm. DUH!!

So yesterday morning, after sleeping in a sleazy airport motel, jamming our bags full and catching the airport shuttle, then and only then, did I think "hmm maybe we should double check our itinerary!". Unbelievable. Yeah, we were a good 12 hours late. We had even seen our actual plane the night before when we returned our rental car. Needless to say, we did only what one can do, cursed a bit, laughed, and then found the closest happy hour! Thankfully we have amazing friends (love you) to keep us company and 24 hours later, here we are AGAIN, back at the airport. We still have 10 hours to go until takeoff so I guess its happy hour round 2! Ding ding. Preparing for takeoff...

The road to "the lost coast"

Onward....

And so we head onward... After almost five weeks of dedicated and beautiful works, we are heading out on the open road. We are eternally blessed to have made the bonds we did these past few weeks. I still can't believe that there were so many beautiful souls in one place, all working towards the same goal - peace and love. Thank you family!
Today we drive north. I myself have done this drive before, 12 years ago with my friend Colleen. After high school we packed up her car and headed west for a month. This was before the days of full blown Internet and cell phones. A beat up atlas and a book of cd's was all we needed. I look back on that trip with such love and gratitude. It's the trod that sparked my wanderlust. I always vowed that I would once again make the winding and magical drive up route 1, needing to satiate the curiosity of a teenage desire to live here...someday...
The road hugs the pacific coast, rugged and harrowing at times, it hard to believe that it was built by men and not giants. I imagine the redwoods extending their giant limbs and patting down a path for us to travel on. Silent and proud, the ancient wisdom of their years whispering into our unconscious...'protect us, honor us'. As we drive north these giants are to our right, the powerful rugged pacific coast to our left. Hand and hand we begin to realize the enormity of the journey that lays ahead of us...