As you know from past blogs, this is rather long!! Pictures follow in the following blog. Enjoy!??!Bali + two friends + a sister of one of them + 7 10th grade ASD students + countless massages + sun + surf + perfect weather and a few days in Bangkok thrown in to boot = a fantastic Spring Break 2009!
After what seemed like an unbelievably long stretch of school from January to the end of March, Spring Break finally arrived and I couldn’t wait to get on the plane to Bali. Not to complain about what I’m teaching (Yearbook), but it is a pain sometimes. It’s really just a lot of organization and making sure things are getting done (with no grading thank goodness), but at this time of the year, that one subject does dominate my time. There is always something else to do and plenty of editing. I am trying to get the book out by the end of the year for the first time EVER in the history of ASD! After returning from Egypt and the tennis tournament, almost every day after school was spent with yearbook details. The afternoon of the last day of school before the break began, I put most of the yearbook on a hard-drive and sent it off to the printers.
I had been to Bali before – for a few days during my gap year while visiting a friend in Jakarta (Frank Thomas for those in the know!). It was incredible then and I was really looking forward to my return trip. But as nice as it was then, it surpassed all of my expectations this time around. I took a long way around in getting to Bali. Since I had a ‘cheap’ air ticket to Bangkok and love the city, I decided to fly through that city. With me were my friend and fellow tennis coach Ashley and her sister, Cristin who was visiting Dubai (and along on the Bali trip) from Oregon. We only had one day in Bangkok but long enough for me to get completely metroed (foot massage, mani, pedi, shave, steam facial, etc!) Now, that wasn’t the first time for me with any of those things but what is funny is trying to explain how that’s just the way things are for expat guys in Bangkok! While in the salon, I noticed several other guys, mostly with really short hair and well built. As I listened to their conversations, I gathered that they were in the military and on R&R in Bangkok from assignments in Pakistan and Afghanistan! I guess there are lots of guys that like to be pampered by pretty Thai girls…me included!
That night my friends and I met up with a Nepal friend (Nancy Tulli for those in the know) at an Outback restaurant (one of the few that they DO NOT have in Dubai), and it was fun catching up with her after not seeing her for a few years. We taught together for two years in Nepal, and I visited her in Vienna on my gap year. The flight to Bali was at 6 AM so there wasn’t much to do after dinner except take a tuk tuk ride home after dinner. This was Cristin’s first time in Bangkok, so Ashley wanted to give her a little taste of the city that she enjoyed last year when we were there for a conference. For me it was at least my 15th time in the city….if not more. It’s one of my favorite cities in Asia, so I never get tired of returning. From Kathmandu, Bangkok always seemed like the big, modern, glamorous city with so much to do, see, and experience. I’ll give you all that and raise it with the city that is Dubai, but it has a type of culture, vibrancy, and ‘real life’ that is lost in Dubai. It also helps that I have my favorite restaurants, salon(!), hotel, favorite area of town, and I know how to get around the city, so it’s really easy to spend time there.
We made it to the airport and our plane for Bali departed on time. I was lucky to sit in the back and have no one next to me, so I was able to stretch out (sort of) and sleep for most of the 3.5 hour flight. I joined up at my hotel with the other friend, Jen while Ashley and Cristin stayed at another hotel down the beach, but only a 10 minutes walk away. My hotel was just fine. The rooms were nothing special (they could of used a little Design on a Dime) but the grounds were incredible with two huge swimming pools, beautiful landscaping (a big deal when you live in a desert!), and just across a walking path to the beach. And the beach was the stuff of paradise….wide, palm trees, blue water, and twice a day, huge waves! It was a surfing paradise! You had to put up with the beach-hawkers selling everything from jewelry, hats, watches, fruit, ice cream, drinks, and…..massages! SCORE!! My massage lady was #9! She had a classic face that you would want to take a picture of. I didn’t because I didn’t take a camera to Bali….the side effect of taking/looking at/photoshopping way too many pictures in Yearbook. # 9 was probably at least 100 (J/K!), wrinkled beyond belief from years in the hot tropical sun, and with exactly two upper buck teeth in her mouth. I swear she looked kind of like Bugs Bunny. No matter, her hands were strong and when get a foot massage on the beach with oil and sand in the mix, it not only is a massage but also exfoliation! There’s something to be said for sitting under an umbrella, sipping a drink, watching the blue waves roll in while getting a massage. I guess someone has to do it and I’m glad that someone was me! The hotel was filled with Aussie families. There must have been some kind of fall (our spring) break for school kids because there were plenty of them there. If there is the equivalent of an Aussie redneck vacation heaven, then this is it. (Bali is less than a five hour flight from Australia). I’ve never seen so many tattoos, people who smoked, wife-beater t-shirts, or heard more f-bombs being dropped in normal conversation outside of North Charleston or Myrtle Beach in my life! It was a hoot. While in Bali, I took some time out away from the sand and surf to go diving one day. The two 45 minutes dives turned into an all day trip as the dive site was on the other side of the island. It was a beautiful drive through rural Bali and it’s farmland with rice patties, banana trees, and rising volcanic mountains that are covered with greenery. In fact, the dive site has a black beach due to volcanic eruptions. The dive destination was the USS Liberty, a WWII warship. It was hit was damaged in the war and hauled to the coast as it was sinking to be salvaged and to get supplies off. A few years later, the volcano in the area erupted and the lava flow pushed the boat to its resting place about 50 meters off shore in about 30-80 feet of water. It’s hard in some areas to even tell that it is a ship, but in other places, you could definitely make the form of the ship out. There was great coral and a lot of colorful fish, a few small rays, and a few big groupers. We were unlucky and didn’t see any of the sharks that frequent the area. Another high light was going to this bay that overlooked the runway of the airport. Tables were set up on the beach and we drank beer as we watched the sunset. If you liked seafood, you just picked it out of a tank and it was cooked for you. As for me, I had chicken! We also went to a famous Hindi temple called Tanah Lot. I’d been there before at high tide and watched the Hindi pilgrims wade through the waist deep water to get out to the temple. This time it was low tide, so we were able to wash our face in the holy spring and check the place out a little better….not much better though, because as a Hindu temple, non-Hindus are not allowed to enter. Still, it was cool to get a closer look than I did three years before. Another day, my posse and I joined with the aforementioned 10th graders for a white water rafting trip that took us through the jungled hills in the interior of the island. That was a fun day as well with some pretty good rapids and a pretty big waterfall to get out and stand under. It was fun seeing my students and hanging with them for the day in a place so far from Dubai! Another teacher and her husband own a vacation house on Bali and they were all staying there. The next afternoon, I went out to see them at the house and had another dinner and long walk on the beach with that group. Since they are in a more residential district, when I left after midnight, taxis were few and far between. I had to walk awhile to get one and when I did it was rather a funny (you had to be there) moment that involved a sleeping taxi driver, my ChipCharm, and a really good looking (but not tacky looking) Bali prostitute!
Jen left a day before the rest of us, so on her last night we went in search of a bar that featured this hilarious drag show that I went to the last time in Bali. This was a Wednesday night, and sadly, the drag show only happens on Friday nights. We passed another bar and heard a Bali cover band pumping out the Western music, so we decided to stop in for a drink or two…or three…or in the girl’s case four! Ashley and I, being tennis coaches, use the song “Smack That” as our theme song, so she requested the band to play it. For y’all that don’t know, it’s an R&B/Rap song and I was thinking no way they would know this song, though it was a #1 hit in the US. Well they did! Again, another memory and ‘you had to be there moment’ that won’t long be forgotten. We walked back to our respective hotels along the beach and it was almost perfect….no one but us, starry night, moon beams on the water, and slow walking in the surf as it crawled up the beach with each wave. I love Bali!!
We flew from Bali to Bangkok for two nights. In an attempt to let Cristin experience it all, we went to the famous Vertigo Bar which is an open air bar on top of a 63 story hotel in downtown Bangkok. Though it was Friday, it had been a holiday so the pollution that usually plagues Bangkok was light, so the views were pretty good as we watched the sun go down and the night lights come on. We followed this with dinner at the infamous Cabbages and Condoms Restaurant and some street shopping. Then it was back to Dubai and the real world and work once again. Though I love my job, after the four day week I was longing for the beaches of Bali! What a great vacation. And as many great vacations that I’ve been on in my overseas time, I just don’t think you can beat a beach vacation in Bali!
Until the next blog,
Peace
**I haven’t quite figured out how to put pictures into the text in the way that I want them to appear, so they actually follow this blog.
After what seemed like an unbelievably long stretch of school from January to the end of March, Spring Break finally arrived and I couldn’t wait to get on the plane to Bali. Not to complain about what I’m teaching (Yearbook), but it is a pain sometimes. It’s really just a lot of organization and making sure things are getting done (with no grading thank goodness), but at this time of the year, that one subject does dominate my time. There is always something else to do and plenty of editing. I am trying to get the book out by the end of the year for the first time EVER in the history of ASD! After returning from Egypt and the tennis tournament, almost every day after school was spent with yearbook details. The afternoon of the last day of school before the break began, I put most of the yearbook on a hard-drive and sent it off to the printers.
I had been to Bali before – for a few days during my gap year while visiting a friend in Jakarta (Frank Thomas for those in the know!). It was incredible then and I was really looking forward to my return trip. But as nice as it was then, it surpassed all of my expectations this time around. I took a long way around in getting to Bali. Since I had a ‘cheap’ air ticket to Bangkok and love the city, I decided to fly through that city. With me were my friend and fellow tennis coach Ashley and her sister, Cristin who was visiting Dubai (and along on the Bali trip) from Oregon. We only had one day in Bangkok but long enough for me to get completely metroed (foot massage, mani, pedi, shave, steam facial, etc!) Now, that wasn’t the first time for me with any of those things but what is funny is trying to explain how that’s just the way things are for expat guys in Bangkok! While in the salon, I noticed several other guys, mostly with really short hair and well built. As I listened to their conversations, I gathered that they were in the military and on R&R in Bangkok from assignments in Pakistan and Afghanistan! I guess there are lots of guys that like to be pampered by pretty Thai girls…me included!
That night my friends and I met up with a Nepal friend (Nancy Tulli for those in the know) at an Outback restaurant (one of the few that they DO NOT have in Dubai), and it was fun catching up with her after not seeing her for a few years. We taught together for two years in Nepal, and I visited her in Vienna on my gap year. The flight to Bali was at 6 AM so there wasn’t much to do after dinner except take a tuk tuk ride home after dinner. This was Cristin’s first time in Bangkok, so Ashley wanted to give her a little taste of the city that she enjoyed last year when we were there for a conference. For me it was at least my 15th time in the city….if not more. It’s one of my favorite cities in Asia, so I never get tired of returning. From Kathmandu, Bangkok always seemed like the big, modern, glamorous city with so much to do, see, and experience. I’ll give you all that and raise it with the city that is Dubai, but it has a type of culture, vibrancy, and ‘real life’ that is lost in Dubai. It also helps that I have my favorite restaurants, salon(!), hotel, favorite area of town, and I know how to get around the city, so it’s really easy to spend time there.
We made it to the airport and our plane for Bali departed on time. I was lucky to sit in the back and have no one next to me, so I was able to stretch out (sort of) and sleep for most of the 3.5 hour flight. I joined up at my hotel with the other friend, Jen while Ashley and Cristin stayed at another hotel down the beach, but only a 10 minutes walk away. My hotel was just fine. The rooms were nothing special (they could of used a little Design on a Dime) but the grounds were incredible with two huge swimming pools, beautiful landscaping (a big deal when you live in a desert!), and just across a walking path to the beach. And the beach was the stuff of paradise….wide, palm trees, blue water, and twice a day, huge waves! It was a surfing paradise! You had to put up with the beach-hawkers selling everything from jewelry, hats, watches, fruit, ice cream, drinks, and…..massages! SCORE!! My massage lady was #9! She had a classic face that you would want to take a picture of. I didn’t because I didn’t take a camera to Bali….the side effect of taking/looking at/photoshopping way too many pictures in Yearbook. # 9 was probably at least 100 (J/K!), wrinkled beyond belief from years in the hot tropical sun, and with exactly two upper buck teeth in her mouth. I swear she looked kind of like Bugs Bunny. No matter, her hands were strong and when get a foot massage on the beach with oil and sand in the mix, it not only is a massage but also exfoliation! There’s something to be said for sitting under an umbrella, sipping a drink, watching the blue waves roll in while getting a massage. I guess someone has to do it and I’m glad that someone was me! The hotel was filled with Aussie families. There must have been some kind of fall (our spring) break for school kids because there were plenty of them there. If there is the equivalent of an Aussie redneck vacation heaven, then this is it. (Bali is less than a five hour flight from Australia). I’ve never seen so many tattoos, people who smoked, wife-beater t-shirts, or heard more f-bombs being dropped in normal conversation outside of North Charleston or Myrtle Beach in my life! It was a hoot. While in Bali, I took some time out away from the sand and surf to go diving one day. The two 45 minutes dives turned into an all day trip as the dive site was on the other side of the island. It was a beautiful drive through rural Bali and it’s farmland with rice patties, banana trees, and rising volcanic mountains that are covered with greenery. In fact, the dive site has a black beach due to volcanic eruptions. The dive destination was the USS Liberty, a WWII warship. It was hit was damaged in the war and hauled to the coast as it was sinking to be salvaged and to get supplies off. A few years later, the volcano in the area erupted and the lava flow pushed the boat to its resting place about 50 meters off shore in about 30-80 feet of water. It’s hard in some areas to even tell that it is a ship, but in other places, you could definitely make the form of the ship out. There was great coral and a lot of colorful fish, a few small rays, and a few big groupers. We were unlucky and didn’t see any of the sharks that frequent the area. Another high light was going to this bay that overlooked the runway of the airport. Tables were set up on the beach and we drank beer as we watched the sunset. If you liked seafood, you just picked it out of a tank and it was cooked for you. As for me, I had chicken! We also went to a famous Hindi temple called Tanah Lot. I’d been there before at high tide and watched the Hindi pilgrims wade through the waist deep water to get out to the temple. This time it was low tide, so we were able to wash our face in the holy spring and check the place out a little better….not much better though, because as a Hindu temple, non-Hindus are not allowed to enter. Still, it was cool to get a closer look than I did three years before. Another day, my posse and I joined with the aforementioned 10th graders for a white water rafting trip that took us through the jungled hills in the interior of the island. That was a fun day as well with some pretty good rapids and a pretty big waterfall to get out and stand under. It was fun seeing my students and hanging with them for the day in a place so far from Dubai! Another teacher and her husband own a vacation house on Bali and they were all staying there. The next afternoon, I went out to see them at the house and had another dinner and long walk on the beach with that group. Since they are in a more residential district, when I left after midnight, taxis were few and far between. I had to walk awhile to get one and when I did it was rather a funny (you had to be there) moment that involved a sleeping taxi driver, my ChipCharm, and a really good looking (but not tacky looking) Bali prostitute!
Jen left a day before the rest of us, so on her last night we went in search of a bar that featured this hilarious drag show that I went to the last time in Bali. This was a Wednesday night, and sadly, the drag show only happens on Friday nights. We passed another bar and heard a Bali cover band pumping out the Western music, so we decided to stop in for a drink or two…or three…or in the girl’s case four! Ashley and I, being tennis coaches, use the song “Smack That” as our theme song, so she requested the band to play it. For y’all that don’t know, it’s an R&B/Rap song and I was thinking no way they would know this song, though it was a #1 hit in the US. Well they did! Again, another memory and ‘you had to be there moment’ that won’t long be forgotten. We walked back to our respective hotels along the beach and it was almost perfect….no one but us, starry night, moon beams on the water, and slow walking in the surf as it crawled up the beach with each wave. I love Bali!!
We flew from Bali to Bangkok for two nights. In an attempt to let Cristin experience it all, we went to the famous Vertigo Bar which is an open air bar on top of a 63 story hotel in downtown Bangkok. Though it was Friday, it had been a holiday so the pollution that usually plagues Bangkok was light, so the views were pretty good as we watched the sun go down and the night lights come on. We followed this with dinner at the infamous Cabbages and Condoms Restaurant and some street shopping. Then it was back to Dubai and the real world and work once again. Though I love my job, after the four day week I was longing for the beaches of Bali! What a great vacation. And as many great vacations that I’ve been on in my overseas time, I just don’t think you can beat a beach vacation in Bali!
Until the next blog,
Peace
**I haven’t quite figured out how to put pictures into the text in the way that I want them to appear, so they actually follow this blog.
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