End of This Chapter, But Not the End of the Road

Thursday, July 17: Well, we saved the best for last - or at least the longest - travel day, that is. It amazes me that there is no nonstop service between Bali and the United States - not even to Hawaii. So we found ourselves taking a Delta codeshare flight on China Airlines to Taipei (5 hours and 20 minutes) and then, after a two-hour layover, on to San Francisco (11 hours and 50 minutes). The first flight was on an Airbus A330. We have flown this plane on a number of flights on this trip and find it to be very comfortable - especially because of the 2-4-2 configuration. The long flight was on a 747, Which is still a nice, big, impersonal plane with a 3-4-3 configuration - like sardines in a can! BTW, almost 12 hours in one airplane seat is unbearable! The other interesting thing about this flight is that since we crossed the International Date Line, we got to spend Thursday night on an airplane, and then got to spend Thursday night again, with Ryley and Jason and the kids. Groundhog Day déjà vu!

 

As the trip draws to a close, I have some reflections and general ideas that I wanted to write about. I've alluded to some of these ideas in some of the posts but this is just pulling these ideas together.

 

TV - It is amazing to us that we could go almost four weeks without watching TV - except for a couple of World Cup games in bars along the way. TV becomes such a part of life, or maybe a way of life, that we take it for granted. It was kind of nice not being "burdened" by it.

 

Internet - Like TV, the Internet is a way of life. All of our hotels had free Internet, and many of the airports did as well. However, out on the streets, in strange cities where they speak strange languages, not having the Internet is a real hardship. Did we get by, certainly, but there were times that it really would have come in handy. Although getting lost and walking down streets when we were unsure where they led, did provide a sense of adventure! We also carried paper maps of each city that we visited and referred to the map a lot. It usually didn't have the detail that we could have used. The Hotel Amira, in Istanbul, gave us a WiFi hotspot to take with us when we walked around.

Travel Agents - For our honeymoon, 44 years ago, we engaged a travel agent to secure the airplane tickets, hotels, rental car, etc. This time, we were our own travel agents - but we had great help called TripAdvisor, Expedia, Kayak, all of the airline and hotel websites, and email. The TripAdvisor recommendations were spot on - every hotel exceeded my expectations (Joani didn't know any of these arrangements - surprise!). Kayak and Expedia helped us get our total airfare to one-fourth of the first estimate. The airline and hotel websites really helped to fill in the blanks. And email allowed us to communicate, sometimes multiple times, with the airlines and hotels to make sure that our arrangements were perfect - and they were. 

FaceTime - When we are home, we are always FaceTiming with Ryley, Jason, and our granddaughters. When we planned this trip we wondered now effective FaceTime would be, given the free hotel networks that we would be using. It turns out that there was no problem whatsoever. Even in Bali, which is on the other side of the world, FaceTime was great. Our hotel in Istanbul gave us a hotspot to carry with us so we could have Internet in the streets. Thus on our cruise on the Bosporus we also did FaceTime. That was a kick - for us, but it was midnight for Ryley and Jason. Sometimes technology does get in the way!

 

People - For as long as we have been traveling together, and that's in excess of 44 years, we have always found people to be nice, agreeable, helpful, and they just go out of their way to please. When we would take out our paper map, in whatever city we were in, people on the street would stop and ask if we needed help, and in most cases, in English. At every hotel, the people behind the desk were only too happy to suggest restaurants or tour guides, etc. And in every city, unfortunately, we did see the Ugly American. Not as many as we used to – but then again, we didn’t see as many Americans traveling as we used to!

 

Walking - We walked and walked and walked. It is amazing how, when we travel, walking is the preferred mode of transportation! At some point, my Fitbit stopped working, but I really don't need to know how far we walked - we just know that we walked. Walking also is a much slower way of getting involved in the environment that you are visiting. On a tour bus or a taxi, the speed is really out of your control. On your feet, you have ultimate control. Walk, walk, walk!

 

Water - When I grew up in New York City there was no real bottled water, unless you counted Seltzer. But New York water was pure and clean and fresh - sounds like a laundry detergent commercial! Living in Arizona, the water really is terrible, so I drink only bottled water. I could drink the tap water, but ugh! Whenever we travel, I only drink bottled water. I only brush my teeth with bottled water. In the shower I clench my teeth and my lips very tightly so that when I wash my hair I do not get shower water into my mouth, and if any does I spit, spit, spit it out.

 

As we travel to all of these third world countries, it is apparent that bottled water is an absolute necessity - not just for us, but for the people who live there as well. They obviously can purify it, because that is what comes in the bottles. They just can't deliver it to the houses in water pipes without it getting contaminated in some fashion. If they drink the bad water they get sick. If we drink the bad water, not only do we get sick, but we lose precious time from our vacation. Montezuma's Revenge or Bali Belly are no fun.

 

Beach - A beach is a beach, is a beach! It makes no difference whether you face the sunset or it is at your back, whenever you are on a beach, it is a good day. On this trip we spent time at the beach in Tel Aviv, Barcelona, and in Sanur, Bali. On none of those beaches were we disturbed by people hawking their wares. The beach in Tel Aviv was one of the most crowded that we have ever seen, but it was clean and fun. The beaches in the Western Hemisphere could take a lesson.

Kids traveling - We saw a lot of young kids traveling with their parents. In most cases, these were well-behaved kids who obviously travel regularly. It didn't matter what language they spoke or what country we were in, the commonality was that most kids had an iPhone or iPad in their hands and they were very engaged in whatever they were doing. Thus they were not running around or making a lot of noise.

 

Thank you - When we travel we enjoy going to counties where English is not the primary language. You can always find someone who speaks English, but sometimes you have to look hard. Whenever we get to a county the first thing I ask is, "How do you say 'Thank You'?" We find that this goes a long way toward being able to communicate with the people that we came to see and experience.

 

Best - People have already started to ask us, "What was your favorite city?" "What was the best airline?" "Where was the best food?" There is no one answer to any of these questions. Every city was different, and every city was special. Every airline had pros and cons, but we never had a bad flight, and they were invariably on time. The food was outstanding and astounding wherever we went. We don't need to have a "best" to know that we enjoyed it all.

 

Flight Attendants - One of the things that stood out, from our first international flight on Jet Airways, to our last on China Airlines, was the pride that the flight attendants seemed to take being a flight attendant. The uniforms were crisp and well-tailored. They either changed clothes or accessorized with vests or aprons or sweaters during the flights. Their hair was never out of place and very much in concert with the uniforms. I got the feeling that being a flight attendant is viewed, by them, as a special job and they strut their stuff. Most of them speak multiple languages, or at least someone on their team speaks a different language so they can almost always communicate as a team if they can figure out the language that a passenger is speaking. They are most gracious and try to provide the best possible service.

 

Suggestions - Traveling is an adventure. Some of the excitement comes from discovering places with your travel partner. When people ask me for suggestions, I am happy to provide them. And we had a number of people give us suggestions for this trip. But in reality, discovering it for yourself is so much more rewarding. Thus if you ask me, I will give you suggestions, but I will not just expound for the sake of inflating my ego.

 

World Cup - The World Cup is the World Series. There, I've said it - sacrilege! In previous years, we have seen the World Cup while peering into a bar window in Sausalito, California; we have seen the Women's World Cup in a bar in Santa, Fe, New Mexico; and on this trip we saw the World Cup finals at 3:00 in the morning in a bar in Sanur, Bali, Indonesia. In each case, the crowd was multi-multi-national. There is no other sporting event - not even the Olympic Games, which so envelop so many people at the same time, regardless of their country or their pocketbook. What a kick! What a pun! That was my goooooooooalllllllll!!!!!!!!

 

Religion - We experienced many of the world's great religions on this trip. Most of the people in Barcelona were Catholic, in Israel they were Jewish, in Istanbul they were Muslim, and in Bali they were Hindu. The buildings and shrines that represent these religions are so beautiful and so sacred. It is sad that so many bad things happen, all over world, based on religious persecution or fanaticism. While I am not religious, it seems to me that a religious person should understand that whoever God is, or whenever God is, he or she, in all religions, is a merciful, peaceful entity. I cannot understand all of the pain and suffering and deaths that happen in the name of religion. And not just today, but for thousands of years. How sad!

 

Taxis - Other than walking, once we were in a city, we used taxis as our mode of transportation. In some cases it was spelled Taksi, but it sounded like Taxi. In many cases, while there was a meter, you had to check with the driver so you could agree on a price. In Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, it seemed like every taxi driver would say, "I'll give you a fair price of xx Sheckels. I would say, "No, please use the meter." "No problem," they would say. And every time the meter would be cheaper than the "fair" price that they quoted - every time!

 

Languages - In the 44 years that we have been traveling together, we have seen some things change. For example, you rarely see a squatty-potty anymore. On the other hand, some things never change. While the locals all seem to speak their language, plus some semblance of English, I can't say that the opposite is true. Even my Spanish, after studying it for two years in Junior High School, two years in High School, and two years in college, you a would think I could converse. Oh, I can get by, but barely. I should have been more motivated to learn the language, as we live in a global society that is shrinking everyday.

Blogging - I didn't realize how much fun blogging the trip would be - it was also a lot of work. We began the trip with three cameras: a large Canon with a 12x zoom, a pocket Canon with a 4x zoom, and my iPhone. We typically carried the cameras for the first day or so, then the large Canon would be left in the hotel safe, then after a week or so, we left the small Canon in the safe and just trusted the iPhone camera. Would we have gotten better pictures with the better zoom - yes. Would the weight of the camera been intrusive to us enjoying our walks - absolutely. The purpose of the trip is to experience it – not to photograph it!

Love and Respect - We have talked, a number of times during this trip, about how well we travel together. After 44 years, we certainly love each other and that helps us get along, but maybe more important than love is the mutual respect that we have for each other. It is not just the heart that lets us have fun together, but also the brain. We are always looking out for each other and bending over backwards to compromise or accede to the other person's needs, desires, or ideas. If you haven't tried it - give it a shot!

 

Amazing Race - This trip reminded us of The Amazing Race - the best show on TV. We even had some of the same experiences or, at least, similar ones. At the end of the last episode, when the winner is finally crowned, Phil says something like, "39 days, 14 countries, 24,000 miles, and you Fred and Ethel, are the winners of one million dollars and the Amazing Race." So here goes the Share and Share Alike version, "30 days, 8 countries, 14 cities or towns, 25363 miles, 55 hours and 20 minutes in the air, 13 hours and 45 minutes in layovers, and you, Mark and Joani, just had an amazing experience. 

Thanks to all of our readers for sharing it with us.

 

Sanur, Bali, Day Three

Wednesday, July 16: Our last full day in Bali and our last full day of this amazing vacation. We had an early morning appointment so when we went to breakfast the tide was at the lowest that we had seen and the water at its calmest. There were still fishermen out looking to make a catch. I have wanted to fish with them - to ask them if I could try it - but they are not fishing for fun or for sport - this is for sustinence. I just couldn't do it.

After breakfast our driver, Kutu, picked us up to take us to see Barong and Kris dance in Batubulan. The traffic was amazing - not because it was heavy, which it was for the size of the roads, but because of the hundreds and hundreds of motorscooters. I wonder how people got around before their invention! We had some time to kill so Kutu took us to see Batik and Ikat. The problem was that he took us to the same place where we had made our purchases a few days previous. Oh, well.

The dance, Barong and Kris, is a five act play. Even though they handed out a description in about eight different languages, we might as well have read the one in Balinese, because even in English we still couldn't understand the convoluted story! But that mattered little as the dance was really interesting and the costumes beautiful. Some of the characters reminded me of a cross between Sesame Street and Where the Wild Things Are! Kutu took a picture of us with a woman in full costume and I noticed that there was another guy taking the picture at the same time. I thought maybe it was her father and he wanted a picture with the Americans! When the show was over, there was our picture for sale, along with dozens of others. Oh well, it was like a donation.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped in Mas, a village that specializes in wood carving. We were looking for a mask. At the same time, I was intrigued by the huge wood tables that we had seen a few days ago. We stopped at a shop that displayed slabs of wood and I asked for the price of a piece that was about 8 feet by 3 feet by 5 inches thick. It was 8 million rupiah. If you've been paying attention then you would know that was less than $800US. Of course, shipping could double the price! Plus legs for the table, etc. They are still amazingly beautiful!

As Kutu pulled back into the hotel, I saw, once again, that every time a car comes through the gate there is a security man with a mirror on a stick and he looks under the car. I don't know if this is comforting or concerning. There does seem to be a lot of security both on the street and on the beach. 

In the afternoon we had our daily massages - I could really get used to that, and then worked on our tan - finally! We certainly won't have the kind of tan that we get in Belize most summers, but we have some color and are well-rested. At the hotel, we continue to be amazed by the beautiful grounds. They seem to take a lot of pride in the plants, the lily ponds, and the koi ponds that are spread throughout the property.

Sanur, Bali: Day Two

Tuesday, July 15: It is 7:00am and Joani is at a Yoga class in Bali. The most amazing thing about that sentence is not that Joani is at Yoga, because she regularly does that at home, nor is it that class is at 7:00am, because vacation time is a fleeting! The most amazing thing is that the class is in Bali and that we are here! We have found the people here to be so warm and gracious. I don't think that is indicative of just those in the service industry - I think that is who they are! 

Because Joani got up early, I got to see high tide. Well, close to high tide. It seems like the difference in high and low tide is 10 - 20 feet! It really is an amazingly picturesque beach - not white sand, although they call it that, but soft brown sand, with a nice collection of boats and the aforementioned fishermen.

We spent the day at the beach just vacationing. There were a couple of topless women who, no doubt, didn't heed the no topless bathing rule. Oh, well! We also had our daily two-for-one massage. Dinner was at a restaurant named CharMing's - get it? A nice place in Sanur with great fish dishes.

Sanur, Bali: Day One

Monday, July 14: If it is 3:00pm on July 13 in New York, 12 noon on July 13 in California, and 3:00am on July 14 in Sanur, Bali, it can only mean one thing - World Cup Finals! We found a sports bar named Flap Jaks, and at 3:00am we joined about 200 other people from all over the world to watch the World Cup Finals. We sat with two Canadian women, who were decked out in their Argentina shirts, and a guy from Germany. While the Canadians, and we, were rooting for Argentina, we really didn't care - it was the experience that counted. The German, on the other hand, while trying to portray his German aloofness, wasn't decked out or even cheered much - he just sat there with a smug expression. When the game went into extra time, there was a marked decrease in the excitement level of the crowd, which kind of matched the decrease in the energy level of the Argentina players. The German players were so much bigger and stronger and the Argentinian players were like little gnats that just kept buzzing around! Oh, if only Messi or Higuain had converted early on - different game. Well, maybe I did care who won!

The hotel has a beautiful spa and they made us an offer we couldn't refuse - two massages for the price of one in a shared room. We signed up for the next three days - we are on vacation, after all. The hotel also wanted to help us celebrate our anniversary, so they gave us a special wedding cake.

After our mid-day massages, we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach. There was a destination wedding - a couple from Australia was getting married on the beach and they must have had 40-50 people in attendance. It reminded us that our next big trip, other than forays to Walnut Creek and our new house in Concord, will be Audra and Robi's destination wedding in Cancun in November.

The beach is very pleasant although the weather today was a bit cooler and cloudier than we have been experiencing. We are hoping that tomorrow warms up a bit. The hotel is beautiful - very green and lush, with lots of idols, deities, and statuary that add to the environment. It also has about five pools and the ever-present beach!

Ubud to Sanur, Bali

Sunday, July 13: Checkout time at the Ubud Village Resort and Spa came all too quickly. We had hired a driver named Dewa to take us to our last hotel for this trip in Sanur, Bali. Driving through the all too narrow streets and roads was an "exciting experience." Not because it was raining, which it was, and not because we on the wrong side of the road which we were, but because a good part of the road was being taken up by cars, trucks, buses, and the ever-present motorscooters, also on the wrong side of the road - but the other wrong side! To compound the problem, we saw two traffic lights in 40 minutes time! The people on motorscooters buy their petrol in glass bottles - kind of like a Molotav Cocktail.

Sanur is a beach town. It has a number of high-rise (3-4 story) hotels and a myriad of typical beach shops, restaurants, and bars - and while like Ubud it has a Starbucks, it also has a McDonalds - joy! Dewa delivered us to the Puri Santrian Hotel and said goodbye. The hotel sprawls along the beach and is very comfortable and pleasant, although it certainly doesn't have the character or warmth of the Ubud Village Resort and Spa.

We spent the day walking along the boardwalk, which wasn't wood, but rather concrete pavers. We saw many, many shrines and offerings. We also saw a group of men and kids trying to launch an incredibly huge kite, with little luck. We spent the majority of time watching hundreds of fisherman who were fishing for maybe four-inch sized fish. They had waded out into the low tide and used about 12-15 foot telescoping poles with some bait and just lifted the rod when they got a bite. There was no reel at all. This is true National Geographic material. It was kind of like jigging for crappies back home. I am going to see if I can try it tomorrow!

Ubud, Bali: Day Three

Saturday, July 12: It was time to relax and spend the day at the pool. Of course, the day we picked as a pool day was the day that it chose to rain! Not all day, and not a lot, but just enough. It is amazing how even more fragrant the area gets in the rain because all of the plants and flowers give off an aroma when they are wet.

The hotel had prepared a special Anniversary Cake for us. Unfortunately, they tried to give it to us right after we finished dessert on Thursday night. Then they planned to give it to us on Friday at dinner, but we went out to a restaurant in Ubud so that was a no go as well. We felt bad so today, in the rain, we went to tea - happy hour - and they gave it to us then. It was a bit stale, and the writing, in chocolate, on the plate, after three days, was absolutely solid. We made the best of it and thanked them graciously. Because today was a full moon, all of the staff wore their best outfits and went to temple. Where else are you going to go on a Saturday? The woman are gorgeous in their outfits as opposed to their white uniforms - well, I guess they are just more gorgeous!

Since this was a full moon there was a special dance performance at the Agung Rai Museum of Art (ARMA). There is also a restaurant on the grounds, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and have a typical Balinesian meal. It was really good, with a lot of heat - great flavor. The dance was the Cak Rina Dance, a fire dance that is only performed at a new moon or full moon.

Ubud, Bali: Day Two

Friday, July 11: This is also referred to as Shopping Day. We decided to hire a driver/guide from the hotel to take us on a five-hour tour ($75US) to some of the villages so that we could experience more of Bali do some more reasonably-priced shopping. Our driver, Swayla (my spelling and probably not his) asked what we wanted to see and we gave him a list. We drove on, what we might consider, backroads. Each village seems to specialize in a certain kind of art form. This is very interesting because in Balinese there is no word for art - it is just a major part of the culture. Of course, many places use the word ART in English to tell tourists that they have art to sell, but in reality, this whole place is based on art. Everywhere you look it seems that either things are placed so well, or it is just a natural part of the environment. Maybe art is truly in the eye of the beholder, and in Bali everyone is a beholder!

We saw villages that specialize in wood carving and stone carving. Bringing these things home must be quite a chore. We stopped at one shop where they had huge slabs of mahogany that they had sliced into amorphous table tops. Some were ten feet by three feet and four inches thick - that just won't fit in the suitcase! The guy in the shop told me that a man from Texas buys a container-full every three months and ships them back. Either the guy has many, many dining rooms or he makes a great profit off these tables - I assume the latter!

In Batubulan, Joani hit the mother lode. Swayla took us to a batik and ikat factory where they sold piece goods. After seeing an ikat weaving demonstration, we shopped and bought some nice batik and ikat pieces for reasonable prices. We were able to compare the prices to those in the shops in Ubud from the previous day, and we know that we did really well and got great quality as well.

We also visited some jewelry shops in a village called Celuk. The first one was fairly touristy and even their Pandora beads cost more than at home. As we pulled into the second shop, Joani said, "I've read about this one - great quality but they don't negotiate." Well, if the quality is good and the prices are right then sometimes negotiation isn't necessary - and this was one of those times. We got a demonstration and then Joani bought some earrings and an ankle bracelet - beautiful pieces.

Our next stop was a coffee plantation. Coffee is grown in Bali, but this was a very small, kind of touristy place where they had a variety of coffee and spice plants and was interesting to go through. We got a taste of about 10 different coffees and teas. One of them, that we didn't taste, is purported to be the world's most expensive coffee called, Kopi Luwak. The unique way that it is processed is what drives the price up. It is made from coffee beans that are passed through the digestive tract of the Southeast Asian palm civet, which looks like a cross between a cat and a monkey. The civet eats the beans and processes them whole and then excretes them whole, unscratched and without dung. The civet seems to very picky and eats just the reddest and ripest beans, which are also the best for brewing. It only eats the outer covering, however something appears to happen to the bean as it travels through the civet's intestines. Yeah, what happens is that I'll never drink it!

Now that we were shopped out, or should I say cashed out, Swayla took us to the Goa Gajah Temple. This is a really old temple that, like most Bali temples, is still in use today. Every house has a small temple and every village has at least one temple of its own. Because it is a temple - a religious place - we had to dress appropriately. Luckily they were happy to provide matching sarongs for the two of us. I don't know which of us looks better!

After our long, hard day, we just had to treat ourselves to massages. Dinner was at the Indus Restaurant, high on a hill overlooking the rice paddies - at least that's what they say. Even with the full moon it was way too dark to see the fields! Nevertheless, the food was typically Balinesian and typically good.