Cyclone Hamish

Hari, Mary and I flew up to the north of Australia to see Fort Douglass and Daintree. We stayed at this awesome hostel resort, Dougie´s Backpacker Guesthouse, that is exactly the way a backpackers hostel should be. A perfect hostel kitchen area ie. huge refrigerators, lots of room to hang out, great swimming pool, and bar happy hours. No wonder people stay here for months at a time.
Our first day at Fort Douglass was beautiful weather so Mary and Hari took bikes to check out the town, while I made an appointment and went to the doctor to see if my eardrum was healed and if I would finally be able to scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef. I went to the doctor and he told me that my ear was not healed and that I could not go scuba diving. I was devasted. Again I was not going to be able to go scuba diving and would have to sit out, just like I had to in Thailand and Indonesia.

This was probably the toughest period of the trip for me. Besides the worry that my ear was still not healing correctly, I was facing the realization that Mary would most likely go with Hari to Argentina and I would be going to New Zealand alone. Clearly their relationship was now a life commitment and it didn´t make sense nor was it fair for me to tag along with them. Although Mary and I had planned on going to New Zealand together, I knew it wouldn´t make either of them happy to leave eachother. Each time Mary and I had split up from Hari they had always made an effort to meet up and travel together again. Naturally, they wanted to be together, travel together... I just didn´t really know where that put me or what I would do when I got to New Zealand, which was now about a week away. I clearly had never planned on traveling alone for such a long period of time.

The next morning as Cyclone Hamish blew through Fort Douglass, I basically told Mary and Hari they had made a life commitment to eachother and going off and traveling together just made logical sense. It was ultimately what I think they both wanted. New Zealand would alway be there and Mary could go there anytime. About her leaving me and our plans of travel together, I guess that often life does not work out as planned. Mary and I would be meeting up again in Chile as we had a Peru trip booked- trekking the Amazon and Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, but the trip dynamic had changed.

The next day the Cyclone was still in full swing but we made to decision to rent a car and go see if the Daintree Discovery Center (rainforest walk) was open. Unfortunately it was closed, but we made the best of our day and went on a river cruise to see some crocodiles. Althought the rain was pouring down we did see some Crocodiles, Fat Albert being one. The tour guide and owner was an awesome guy who knew all about each crocodile and where they liked to hang out. The crocs were like his kids. We saw a small snake which Mary and Hari managed to take a small peek at (they are both terrified of snakes) and a cool looking green frog.

The next day the weather had cleared and we took another trip to the Daintree Discover Center where we walked in the rainforest. We were able to get close up to rare plan life and see all the different levels of the rainforest. The Center provided lots of information about the different plants and their purpose in the rainforest. When we looked up through the canopy of the trees we could see small rays of sunshine, it was quite beautiful. We then went north to Cape Tribulation where we walked along the beach and discovered awesome mangrove treeroots. Our final stop was at a winery were we were persuaded into buying two horrible bottles of wine, one was even left unopened- yes it was that bad.

The next day it was time for us to say good-bye. I had booked a snorkel-scuba trip leaving from Cairns early that morning because I couldn´t miss out on seeing the Great Barrier Reef, even if it was only from the snorkel surface. Mary and Hari were of course going to get their scuba diving on and still needed to find a trip down in Cairns. We would see eachother again in South America.

Sydney and Kangaroo Valley

We had an awesome time with Megan down in Melbourne and driving the Great Ocean Road. It was a great start to our time in Australia and we had even more to look forward to...from Melbourne we´d fly up to Sydney where we would stay with our traveling buddies from Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos, Brad and Esther! And even more exciting for me, Hari would be waiting for me at Brad and Esther´s apartment...after separating in Indonesia we weren´t sure how long we´d be apart for, and as it turned out, it was only about a week. Our flight landed and Hari and Esther picked us up at the airport. We were all excited to see each other and were looking forward to the weekend - it was Esther´s birthday and she had planned a big celebration in Kangaroo Valley.

Just a short 2o minute ride from the airport we arrived at Brad and Esther´s pad in Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach is an extremely happening area of Sydney with kilometers of stunning beaches and views. Their apartment was just a 10 minute walk from Tamarama Beach, and their terrace had a perfect view. Not only did their place have an ideal location, but the apartment itself was spacious and comfortable. It is a 2 bedroom, but Brad had converted the second bedroom into the ¨Man Room¨ - Brad is a musician and works in website design so this room is full of computer and music recording equipment, guitars, and a plethora of other testosterone pumping gadgets. After our tour of the place we settled down and started catching up on everything that had been going on since we had last seen them in Laos. Our flight landed in the morning so Esther had a delicious breakfast spread waiting for us, and then we´d pack up their rental car to head 2 hours south to Kangaroo Valley to ring in Esther´s birthday.

Esther and some friends had planned to properly celebrate her birthday and rented out a house, okay not really a house, more like a mansion, in Kangaroo Valley. There would be about 20 people staying at the house so Sarah and I were told to prepare ourselves for some hard-core partying. After a nice breakfast we packed up some small weekend bags and got ready to hit the road. Now there would be 5 people in a rental car (Brad, Esther, Sarah, Hari, and me) so our space was limited...rental cars are always quite compact so we had to squeeze a lot of stuff into a small trunk. We started laying out everything we were bringing, mostly backpacks of clothes and such, when Brad came out of the Man Room with armfuls of stuff - a croquet set, blow-up pool toys, laser tag. Laser tag? Brad, do you really think we are going to need to bring laser tag for a 2 day trip? The answer to our question was ¨ahhhh, yes¨. Brad and Hari did some strategic packing and we somehow managed to fit everything in the car. Soon enough, we were on our way.

The 5 of us were the first to arrive at the house and like kids in a candy store we ran around checking out our first-class lodging for the weekend - at least 5 massive bedrooms, a huge kitchen that opened up to the pool area, proper well-kept grass tennis courts, a huge yard area (good thing we brought the croquet set), a billiard room, and a bbq area. Quite a change from the dodgy hostels we were used to staying in, but we had no trouble adjusting. We quickly unpacked the car, claimed our beds, and were on the tennis courts to play some sets and absorb some sun. We spent the day living like socialites, sipping on some delicious rum, mint, and ginger beer concoctions, playing tennis and croquet, and dipping in and out of the pool. It was the perfect start to Esther´s birthday weekend. We welcomed Esther´s friends as they arrived with drinks in hand and were ready for the festivities to begin. For dinner Brad cooked up a spinach and cheese pie that was to die for, and we partied until all hours of the night.


I could go into more detail, but in summary the rest of the weekend was spent living in luxury and partying - we spent our days sipping cocktails in the sun by the pool, on the tennis courts, or playing croquet. We had some interesting American Gladiator type games in the pool with the blow-up toys and water guns that Brad brought. Hari and I became addicted to laser tag and spent hours running around the house shooting at each other (I´m sorry we doubted you on that one, Brad, it was a good call to bring the laser tag!). We feasted on bbq for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as one of Esther´s friends manned the grill and was constantly cooking up something for everyone. Johanne even made an appearance! He was also in Sydney for the weekend and we insisted that he make the trip out to Kangaroo Valley so he borrowed a friend´s car and came for an evening. He was the hit of the party, as he is an artist and draws some funky, cool designs on plain white shoes...everyone wanted a pair, but only Sarah, Esther, and I were lucky enough to receive authentic Johanne Silva custom-made kicks. It was one of the best weekends I´ve had on the entire trip, aside from the awesome house, we got to bond and party with great friends.

We were all pretty beat after our weekend and headed back towards Sydney to recover. We stopped off at Brad´s mom´s beach house for an evening where we watched a few movies and ordered in pizza. Unfortunately the weather was not too nice so we didn´t get to spend time on the beach. The next morning we headed back to Bondi Beach and spent the afternoon walking along the bike/running trail that lines the shore. Brad and Esther showed us some local places to get some good eats and were beach bums for the afternoon. That evening we relaxed back at their pad and watched Slumdog Millionaire - if you have not seen it, go see it ASAP, it is excellent.

After Esther´s crazy birthday weekend and spending a few days relaxing, we made our way into the city to explore more of Sydney. Hari, Sarah, and I walked along the bridge that overlooks the Sydney Opera House and did all of the touristy things that you have to do while in Sydney. It is a beautiful city, one that I could definitely see myself living in at some point in the future. It has all of the big city sights that I love, but also has the ideal beach location and weather. I am a huge fan of Sydney. We just walked around and wandered for an entire afternoon. Hari and I indulged in a big sushi lunch, I LOVE sushi and had not had it in so long. After a few hours on our own Esther met us in a park and we headed back to Bondi Beach. Hari, Sarah, and I were heading north to Cairns and had to have a goodbye dinner with Brad and Esther before our journey continued. We had the greatest time with them in Sydney and Kangaroo Valley and were so happy to spend time with them. We were all a bit sad to split again, but we had a feeling we´d see them again somewhere along the way...

What a great,Great Ocean Road

Megan suggested that we see one of her favorite parts of Australia and go on a roadtrip along the breath-taking coastline of south-west Victoria on Australia´s famous Great Ocean Road. This was one of my most favorite things that we did in Oz. Not only was it a girls roadtrip with good tunes and good friends, but it reminded me a lot of driving up the coast of California with its beautiful ocean views and cliff formations.

We made loads of stops along the way as Megan is quite a pro when it comes to the GOR; she knows all the best things to see and do. Our first stop was to try and spot wild koalas in their trees at an area known for koala bears. And did we see koalas!! We saw about seven of them, mostly just looking all cute and being lazy sleeping in their trees. One koala was actual up and moving and we got up close and personal with it. We watched it climb down his tree then he gave all his spectators the evil eye as he got off the tree and darted across the road to the other side. Once I saw the vicious look in his eye I bolted out of there- all I could think of was the monkey bite episode.

It was a cloudy day in Oz, but we still made several stops at lookout points along the 4 hr journey. We also had a nice picnic lunch of wine, cheese, fruit, and crackers. We also kept our eyes open for kangaroos, the other wild animal we hoped to see while in Oz. Unfortunately, we didn´t see any roo´s during this road trip. Our last stop that day was at the world-famous Twelve Apostles. These are a series of amazing rock formations that stretch along the coast. That night we arrived at our destination and looked for a room to stay in for the night before we started our journey back the next day. The only thing we could find was this amazing suite-apartment type accommodation complete with two rooms, a huge kitchen, and living room. We were in heaven and felt at home immediately. We had brought a movie, ´Tropic Thunder´to watch that evening, and for some reason our amazing suite didn´t have a DVD player. We ended up sitting in Megan´s car with her computer and a couple bottles of wine watching the movie with our spacious accommodations unoccupied.
I awoke the next day to the sounds of coffee being made in the kitchen and a beautiful day outside. We had perfect weather for our day back to Melbourne and we took advantage of it. Our first stop was for Mary and Megan, who love cheese, at a place appropriately named Cheese World. After we got our cheese on, it was time to make all the rock formations stops in this beautiful weather. We stopped again to see the world-famous Twelve Apostles and made other stops at Bells Beach, Apollo Bay, the Surf Coast and many others. It was a full two day roadtrip and we all had a great time just getting away from the city and spending some great time together.

Melbourne

Sarah and I had both been excited to get to the Land Down Under from the very beginning. Neither of us had ever been before, and we had heard from so many friends that Australia is an awesome place. Plus we had met so many Aussie travelers throughout our journey that we wanted to meet up with again. Megan, a close friend of my sister´s from Villanova, moved to Australia after graduating and is now happily married to Matt, one of the sweetest Aussies we have met so far. They so generously invited us to stay with them and their adorable puppy, Lola, for as long as we were in the area.We arrived at the Melbourne airport and Megan and Matt were anxiously waiting for us at the arrivals gate. I had not seen Megan in at least 2 years and was excited to catch her up on everything that had happened since the beginning of the trip. Megan is also a fellow traveler, so she was able to relate to a lot of our adventures and traveling stories. After lots of hugs and excitement, we hopped in the car and were on our way to Megan and Matt´s place. We arrived and were happily greeted by Lola who was so excited to have company that she ran around the house in circles for several minutes. Megan and Matt showed us around their place and within minutes were making us as comfortable as possible - Megan had stocked up at the supermarket on all the goodies she knew we´d be craving (popcorn, candy, and other munchies) and Matt made us some delicious cheese and tomato toasties. It was so nice to feel at home and in a place where we could unwind and be comfortable. Megan and Matt are huge Seinfeld fans and had the entire series on DVD so we quickly popped on several episodes in the background while catching up.
Megan does not yet have her Australian work visa so during the day she would be able to be our personal tour guide. After sleeping in a bit and doing some laundry (so nice to have a washing machine at our disposal), we piled in the car and drove around to get a feel for the city. Megan and Matt live just minutes from the beach so she took us to a cute little cafe for breakfast and then we just walked along the shore for awhile. Megan also took us to a popular area of the city where people go to get a glass of sangria while soaking up the Melbourne sun. Let me just say, the Aussies are very attractive people...it was funny coming from straight backpacking life in SE Asia where girls never wear make-up and guys wear the same outfit 3 days in a row (hey, if it doesn´t smell, it´s not dirty!) to a chic metropolitan city where everyone is all done up and beautiful.After Matt got home from work one evening he promised he would cook us up an authentic Aussie bbq so we stocked up at the supermarket and made a huge feast, he is a bbq expert. We had everything from burgers to pasta salad to chips and guac, it was all delicious. We also picked up some Vegemite, as it had been talked up by every Aussie we had met along the way and we wanted to try for ourselves. Matt promised he´d make us a ¨proper¨ Vegemite sandwich - a thin layer of Vegemite, avocado, and tomato. It was...okay. Really salty, really just...interesting. Sorry all you Aussies, it´s definitely not something I would indulge in often, but the way that Matt made it was alright. I certainly would not want to eat a spoonful of the stuff, though. It is an acquired taste, kind of like how we Americans love our peanut butter but some cultures find it nasty. To each his own.

Megan and Matt live closer to the beach scene in Melbourne, so we had to hop the train to get into the city proper. Megan walked us around some of her favorite areas - the botanical gardens, the farmer´s market, and all along the water. I really loved the feel of the city, it was very laid back and chilled out, yet at the same time in the Financial District area there was a bit of the same hustle-bustle of New York City that I love. The weather was gorgeous, sunny but not too hot, a perfect day to walk around the gardens and explore.
Another reason Sarah and I were excited to get to Melbourne was to meet up with 2 friends who we met at the very beginning of our trip, Johanne and Peter. We shared a hostel with them in Berlin and they promised us that when we arrived in Melbourne that we would all meet up, so we had planned on getting together for some drinks and dinner in the city. After walking around for several hours, Megan headed back home and Sarah and I went off to meet Johanne. It was so great to see him again, even though it had been 6 months since we had seen him last we picked up right where we left off and immediately began sharing traveling stories and catching up. Peter joined us a short while later and we enjoyed a few pitchers of sangria at a hip rooftop bar. After a few drinks the boys we grabbed dinner, walked around a bit more, and eventually they drove us back to Megan and Matt´s to hang out there for awhile. It was really great to meet up with Peter and Johanne again.

Megan has been living in Australia for about 2 years now and has done quite a bit of traveling around the country, so we asked her suggestions for must-see places. Her first recommendation was taking a drive on the Great Ocean Road...so we hopped in her Outback (how appropriate) and were off.

Gili Air

Just off the coast of Lombok lie the Gili Islands - Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, and Gili Air. These 3 tiny islands are a popular destination for travelers and backpackers who end up on Lombok. Just a 30-45 minute boat ride away, they offer quiet beaches, scuba diving, a wide variety of chill bars and restaurants, and spectacular views of Mt. Rinjani, the 3700 meter mountain on Lombok. Gili Trawangan is known as being the party island, Gili Meno is the super quiet island, while Gili Air is somewhere inbetween. We all opted to head to Gili Air, as we didn't need a huge party island but did want the option to have a few Bintang beers on the beach while socializing with other backpackers. We took a long, extremely indirect local bus from our hotel on Lombok to the port where we could catch the boat to Gili Air - had we taken the logical road the bus ride would have been 30 minutes, but instead we had to go all through the center of town to make other stops so the bus ride ended up taking almost 2 hours. After finally arriving at the port, we found our boat and quickly realized that this boat would be insanely crowded - the boat itself was quite small, in reality it probably had room to seat 30 people comfortably, but we would end up cramming 60 people plus baskets full of food on this little boat. Since the Gili Islands are so small and secluded, almost everything has to be imported from Lombok, hence everyday the boats that go to and from the Gilis are filled with fresh fruits and veggies, bread, eggs, meat, you name it. Thankfully the boat ride was only about 30 minutes, so despite being crammed onto the boat, we didn't have to endure discomfort for too long.

We arrived on Gili Air to quickly see that there are NO cars or motorbikes on the islands, the only mode of transportation is horse-drawn carriage, bicycle, or foot. It was so nice to be surrounded only by the sound of the ocean and the click-clacking of horses hooves on the dirt road. Sarah, Hari, and I found some cute beach-front bungalos complete with hammocks on the porches and decided that we would easily be able to park there for several days. After dropping off our stuff, we walked along the narrow white sand beaches and explored the island. Gili Air is so small that you can walk along the entire beach front perimeter of the island in about 1.5 hours. I immediately loved this island, it was so peaceful and while there were other people around, I still felt completely secluded and not at all like I was on a tourist island.

Another reason we chose to spend our time on Gili Air was because Hari´s has a family friend, Kelly, who insisted we stop by there - Kelly is married to a Sasak man who was born and raised on Gili Air and now owns a bar/restaurant on the island. Kelly and her husband currently reside in the US but her husband´s brother and friends are in charge of Zipp Bar. Kelly told us that if we made it to the island to go to Zipp and ask for Didi, who she promised would take good care of us. Since the island is so small we found Zipp Bar very quickly and as Hari approached the bar, Didi was there waiting for us. He could not be nicer - Hari had contacted Kelly a few days earlier to tell her that we would be going to Gili Air and she told Didi to expect us. Didi immediately made us a drink introduced us to ¨The Boys¨, the rest of the crew who help out around the bar. Zipp Bar had a first-class location on the island, it was on the nicest part of the beach and had awesome views of Lombok.

We spent a lot of time at Zipp hanging out with Didi and The Boys. The food at Zipp was delicious, I ate the chicken and pineapple salad almost daily and they had a wide variety of fresh, Indonesian specialties. We spent most of our time on Gili Air relaxing on the beach, walking around exploring the island, and snorkeling. During that time Hari and I both had a lot on our minds - at this point in our journey not only had we become extremely close, but we were now a couple. Based on our general travel plans we would have to separate after Gili Air, as Sarah and I were on schedule to head to Australia for about 3 weeks, while Hari was going to spend more time in Indonesia and make only a brief stop in Sydney. After that we would all head to South America, but Sarah and I had a completely different path in mind than Hari so we did not think that meeting up in South America was really a possibility. Neither of us were really sure about what was going to happen when we separated but we did know that we were not ready to be apart...

Sarah headed back to Lombok a few days ahead of us because she wanted to spend a few days in Singapore before we flew to Australia. I had gone to Singapore with Hari before Indonesia so Sarah and I decided to meet at the airport in Singapore in a few days time and fly to Melbourne together. Hari and I thought that these would be our last few days together, so we spent every second together. We managed to get in a few scuba dives off the coast of Gili Air, but aside from that we relaxed on the beach and had a few romantic dinners. On our last night, we went to Zipp Bar to have one last dinner and hang out with Didi and The Boys.

We arrived at Zipp just before sunset. After a drink and a few rounds of Hold Em with The Boys, Hari and I looked at the sky and saw pink, orange, and yellow as we had never seen it before. It was, by definition, the perfect sunset. Hari asked me if I wanted to go for a walk on the beach and of course I said yes. We walked along the edge of the water and watched in awe of the brilliant colors illuminating Mt. Rinjani on Lombok. Along our walk we found a perfectly situated log on the beach and sat down to take it all in. We started chit-chatting, nothing out of the ordinary at all. Hari was a bit quiet but I didn´t think much of it. After spouting out some random thoughts about missing friends at home and blah blah blah, Hari took a deep breath and started talking - he told me how happy he was that we were able to meet in Vietnam a few months earlier, and that we were able to continue our travels through Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Indonesia. We were both very concerned about what was going to happen when we separated, especially since he was supposed to be moving to Africa for 2 years to join the Peace Corps. Somewhere along the way when we realized that our relationship was much more than a fling, I asked Hari if he would be willing to stay with me even through his journey in Africa. In his ¨speech¨, he told me that he had given it a lot of thought and that he wanted to commit to me even when he was in Peace Corps. At this point I wasn´t really sure what to think, I could tell this was not just any regular conversation...but the next thing I knew, Hari said that he had gotten me something on the island and pulled the most beautiful coconut wood ring out of his pocket. Before I could even realize what was happening, he asked me to marry him. I was shocked, thrilled, ecstatic, so many things at once that I could do was give a little giggle. Poor Hari thought that I was laughing at his speech and rejecting him, but that could not have been further from what I was really thinking. Without an ounce of hesitation I said yes and with that neither of our lives would ever be the same...

After embracing and realizing that we were ENGAGED, we headed back to Zipp Bar as future husband and wife. We enjoyed a quiet dinner and found ourselves just sitting and smiling at each other through the whole dinner. It was nothing short of magical, I couldn´t have asked for anything else in the world. To be honest, the rest of Gili Air and Lombok is kind of a blur to me...we did head back to Lombok for a night, and then had to sadly split for an undetermined amount of time. We were sad to be leaving each other, but given that we had just committed to each other for life we knew that we would figure out a plan for the rest of our travels to work for us. And so I headed to the Singapore airport to meet Sarah and tell her the news - she screamed, jumped out of her chair, hugged me, and even cried a little, it was so sweet. Sarah is the one person who watched my relationship with Hari unfold from the very beginning - we met in Vietnam as friends from work who hadn´t seen each other in several months, and ended up falling in love and agreeing to spend our lives together. Sarah and I hopped a flight to Melbourne and were both excited to start the next leg of our journey...Down Under.

Lovin' Life on Lombok (part II)

After finally arriving in Bali, I headed out to Lombok to meet up with Mary, Hari, and Steve. Now I was a little MIA for awhile (my bus from Mt Bromo, a volcano in eastern Java, broke down while in a town with no cell phone capablities let alone internet so I was a day late getting to Bali. I was not able to contact Hari/Mary so they were obviously getting pretty worried. But I lived to tell the tale and made it to Lombok alive, but a day late). Lombok is what people say Bali used to be like ten years ago - a quiet beach island, not flooded with tourists or crazy clubs. But since we were in Indonesia during rainy season we did get a lot of rain, especially while on Lombok.

I had brought some friends I met in Java with me to Lombok and on our first day on the island we all got motobikes and went out to a local beach to go surfing. As the rain began to pour down we abandoned our misson and instead visited a small village on the island. There we learned about the local weaving that is done on the island, which is a way that many people make money. We also spent some time meeting the local village people and children. Back at Senggigi Beach we quickly discovered a great happy hour, they cleverly called CRAZY TIME! just a minute walk from our hostel. Some spicy red curry and several mai-tais later and we were ready to party. It was really great to have Steve back with the crew and we definately celebrated that night.

The next day Steve and I checked out the Sengiggi beach since it was nice out. We spent the day just laying in the sun, playing Jenga, drinking fancy drinks, and then avoiding the storm that soon rolled in. Ahh the rain. That night Steve departed the island bound to go home to America so when he left it was just the threesome back together again.

We woke up the next morning and decided to again take out our motobikes and explore this beautiful island by going north. After we took off the sky opened up on us and we were stranded at Monsoon Point, named the day earlier by Hari and Mary, and were forced into our rainstorm hut. There are small huts all over the island becasuse quick rainstorms happen so often, but they only last about 10 minutes. Sharing the hut with us was an Indonesian man carrying a rather large saska. Let's just say we got out of there as soon as the sky cleared. We continued north around the island and it seemed that at every turn in the road there was another breathtaking view. I was just enjoying the beautiful scenery that the island had to offer. This island is really something to see. Eventually we turned and started heading east into Monkey Forest. The road through Monkey Forest was very lush and filled with trees and yes, monkeys. We all know how I feel about monkeys (see China monkey blog entry) but for some reason I did stop to take a picture of a monkey when he suddenly began to charge at me. Luckily I had stayed on my bike to take the picture and was able to get out of there quickly. Further along the road we encountered a line of cars and bikes, after some investigation we realized that a huge tree had fallen across the road and men with large chainsaws were attempting to cut it up so that bikes could pass. After waiting about 15 minutes they had carved up enough of the tree to pass and we were on our way. After we returned to Senggigi I took off for a while on my bike to do some exploration of my own. I came across a small village where I stopped to play with some of the kids. It seems that cockroach on a string is the next big toy for young kids.

For our last day on the island we actually decided to rent a car because we really wanted get to the northern most part of the island. This car was a minivan and the three of us felt like school kids on a roadtrip, complete with snacks and good tunes. There were a few random tapes in the car and one of them just happened to have good music on it. That day we cruised around the island, saw some waterfalls and local villages. For the sunset we pulled over at a village and suddenly the car sank into a mud pit!! We could not get the car out and soon the entire village was over by our car to watch us. The village men got together and pulled, pushed and put wood under the cars wheels to get us out. While the boys worked I talked to the villagers and took pictures. That was our last day in Lombok and we left for Gili Air the next day.

Bali and Lombok, Indonesia (Part I)

Indonesia is the world´s 4th most populated country after China, India, and USA. Kind of hard to believe when you just glance at a map, the cluster of islands doesn´t appear to comprise that large of a country but looks can be deceiving; Indonesia 17,508 islands are home to 237+ million people. How would we possible decide which of these islands to visit in only a few weeks?

Well, Hari and I started with probably the most well-known island: Bali. I´m sad to say that we were both disappointed with our first choice. For me, Bali had always been built up in my head as the epitome of island paradise, but it was quite different than I had imagined. We arrived late in the evening and headed to Kuta Beach, the backpacker hub. We drove past huge shopping malls covered in advertisements for Cartier and Louis Vuitton. There was even a Planet Hollywood, not exactly the Bali that I had pictured in my mind. I knew that Bali is a tourist hot-spot but I guess I more pictured it as a small, sand covered island. I did not expect the city center to be so developed. Nevertheless, I still couldn´t wait to get to the beach scene. We got to our hotel just after 11pm, dropped off our bags, and went down the road 5 minutes to the beach. Sadly, it was covered in trash. Covered. We learned that because it was low season the tides changed and washed garbage onto the beaches. We didn´t let this get us down, though.

The next morning we got out early on motorbikes to explore other parts of the island. Fortunately we did find some really cool secluded beaches, coves, and cliffs, but again there was so much garbage covering the beaches and in the water. Bali is a big island, and I know I did not see all of it, so hopefully we just had some bad luck and missed out on the good beaches. We were also there in low season so I hope it is nicer and cleaner in high season. We did some research and asked around and decided to cut out stay on Bali short and head to Lombok the next morning, another island just a 30 minute flight away.

A definite highlight of Bali, though, was unexpectedly meeting up with my dive team buddies from Koh Tao, Steve and Matt! We actually knew that they would be in Bali but we did not plan on meeting anywhere specifically. I had sent them an email telling them the name of our hotel and surely enough after we had gotten back from exploring and were relaxing/taking showers and such, our room phone rang; Steve and Matt were standing in our lobby. We were so excited that they found us, we all went to dinner to catch up. They told me and Hari of their Cambodia experiences (they had some crazy stories) and we caught them up on our diving trip to the Similans. After dinner we all went to town and hit up some bars. We did get to stop and see the site of the 2002 bombings that killed 202 people. The memorial was very nicely done, it listed the names of everyone who had died and their nationalities. While it was a sombre sight, it was surrounded by bustling shops, restaurants, and bars that gave a positive vibe that despite the tragedy that occured there, Bali is still thriving and will not let the past bring it down. We had a great night with Steve and Matt and were glad we got to see them again.

The next morning Hari and I got our stuff together and went to catch our short flight to Lombok. As we were sitting in the airport waiting to board we saw Steve walking towards us - the evening before we tried to convince him to come to Lombok with us (Matt couldn´t come, he was heading back to the States) and he decided to come along. So in his hungover state he trudged to the airport and got on our same flight. After an extremely turbulent but short flight, we landed in Lombok. This island was much more what we were looking for - the center of town was not at all touristy and really authentic feeling, the island was covered in green palm trees and forests, and the black sanded beaches were lined with people watching surfers riding the huge waves. We found a cute guesthouse near Kuta beach and spent the day exploring and watching the surfers, they were awesome.

Over the next few days we rented motorbikes (I told you that we are all about motorbiking) and drove all around the island, through the main town and the lush palm tree forests. There was just so much to see, it is one of the most beautiful islands I have ever been to. After Sarah´s Malaysia adventure, we all agreed to meet on Lombok. After a few days her flight landed and she, Hari, Steve, and I were reunited. It was great to all be together again. I´ll let Sarah pick it up from here and tell you about the rest of our time on Lombok...

Similan Islands, Thailand

As I have mentioned, Hari and I very quickly became scuba diving addicts. We loved Koh Tao and diving in the Gulf of Thailand, but while we were there we couldn´t stop hearing all about the Similan Islands which are located in the Andaman Sea off the west coast of Thailand. Since we were already planning on going to Phuket for a few days, we could not pass up the opportunity to head to the Similans, which were just a few hours from the mainland. Plus as things between us were getting serious, we wanted to spend some more time together on what became known as ¨The Honeymoon¨.

After a few days on the beaches of Phuket, we did a bit of research at some of the local dive shops and found out that a live aboard dive boat is really the only way to go to see the Similan dive sites. Day trips are possible, but we wanted to spend some more time and see as much as possible. We signed up with South Siam Divers for a 5 day/4 night dive trip where we would be able to get in 19 dives. We could not wait.

From Phuket we took a 1 hr mini-bus to the port where we boarded a speed boat that would take us out 1.5 hrs to our home for the next 5 days, SSD3. The speed boat ride was rough, so bumpy that several people on the boat got sea sick. Luckily, Hari and I both have strong stomachs so we made it to the dive boat unscathed. As soon as we arrived at the SSD3, we met the crew, dive masters, and the rest of the divers. The boat was quite small, about 35 people total, but really cozy and comfortable. The lower deck had a large dive deck for all the equipment where we would wet suit up before getting into the water, the middle deck had tables and benches where we would eat and just hang out, and the top deck was lined with lounge chairs to relax on in the sun inbetween dives. All of the cabins were either on the same level or below the lower deck and they were quite nice; we didn´t expect much since most of our time would be spent in the water, but we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the rooms.

Now let´s get down to business - within an hour of arriving we were getting ready for our first dive. Vincent, the head dive master, gave us a briefing about the dive site and got us excited for everything we were about to see. He said conditions were excellent and improving everyday. The water was a bit warmer than Koh Tao, 27°C, blue unlike I have ever seen, and so clear; even from the top deck of the boat you could see down several meters. So we wasted no time and got right into the water with our dive team and Stefanie, our dive master who would lead us around the sites. Stefanie was great, she simply acted as a leader to show us the best parts of the dive sites and gave us freedom to go off with our buddies to explore. She has over 3,000 dives and is only in her mid-20s! I strive to be her someday...

We jumped in, descended, and immediately knew why everyone had told us that the Similan Islands are some of the best dive sites in the world...the visibility was 30+ meters, unbelievable to be able to see everything even from so far away. And the coral formations were spectacular, some were easily the size of a house. I thought Koh Tao was great and this put it to shame (don´t get me wrong, I still love Koh Tao and the diving there is awesome). The acquatic life was incredible and the colors were absolutely brilliant. We were constantly surrounded by schools of fish and saw fish that are considered rare during every dive. Hari and I were like kids in a candy store during every dive, we kept grabbing each other´s arm or leg to signal that there was a massive parrotfish or a coral formation covered in Christmas Tree Coral which look like tiny, colorful trees growing out of hard coral that go into hiding if you wave your hand in front of them.

Our lives for the next 5 days pretty much followed this schedule: up at 6am for a beautiful sunrise, dive, breakfast, dive, take our small dingy to a private island where we were the only people to hang out for an hour, dive, lunch, relax on the top deck of the boat and jump off 10 meters to cool off in the water, dive, dinner, beautiful sunset, dive, hang out for a bit, bed. Like I said, it´s a good life.

There definitely are many highlights of our time at the Similan dive sites, but I´ll go through a few (in no particular order):
#1: One afternoon while hanging out on the top deck inbetween dives we saw some huge sea turtles just swimming around the boat. Everyone ran down to the dive deck to see them closer and the crew started throwing bananas into the water, sea turtles love bananas. They were so relaxed and friendly that we jumped into the water and they would eat the bananas right out of our hands and swim all around us, they were so cool.
#2: Hari and I were on a shark hunt during our dives, we made it our mission to find sharks, as neither of us saw any in Koh Tao. During one dive I turned my head ever so slightly and saw 2 massive (at least 2 meters long each) leopard sharks just lying on the bottom of the ocean. They are not aggressive towards humans, so we were able to get within a few meters of them and just checked them out for a few minutes, it was very exciting to see them up-close and we were lucky enough to see several leopard sharks over the 5 day period.
#3: We learned in our dive courses about nitrogen narcosis, which occurs when diving at extreme depths. Essentially, you get a little bit of nitrogen poisoning which makes you feel and act a little bit high. It sounds dangerous and it is, but as long as you are not too deep for too long and stay with your buddy it really is not that big of a deal. All the dive masters talked it up and said it is actually kind of fun, but neither of us had ever been deep enough to get narced. Then we went on a really deep dive. Thirty-eight meter deep. I started to feel it and looked at Hari who signaled to me via hand wave that he was a bit loopy. It felt kind of strange, I was giggling a little bit into my regulator, but it wasn´t that intense that either of us worried. We were only down that deep for a few minutes and as soon as we ascended to a safer depth we were both fine again. It was interesting to feel the narcosis that we had heard about but there is really no need to dive that deep when there is so much to see at 20 meters.
#4: The highlight of all highlights, manta ray day. We went to one dive site that is known for being home to manta rays. We didn´t want to get our hopes up too high and be disappointed if we didn´t see any, but once again the Similans did not disappoint...they delivered, oh they delivered more than we could have ever imagined. During this one dive we saw at least 6 massive mantas, I´m talking 6+ meters wingspan massive. They were just swimming all around us, it was as if they were putting on a show for us and knew how excited we all were to be seeing them so closely. They hovered around us for a solid 45 minutes, we didn´t even really explore much of the dive site, as we all just stationed where we were and looked all around us to see them so gracefully swimming around. It was almost like huge airplanes flying above us, they would block out the sun completely when they were above us and all we could see was their huge wingspan. Hari was the luckiest one during this dive, at one point he was just hovering and one of the mantas swam directly above him, he had to be less than a meter away. Stefanie had an underwater dive camera and got the whole thing on video, it was awesome. After the manta swam away everyone at the dive site did some underwater clapping, Hari was the star of the day.

Needless to say again, I obviously loved the Similans and could go on for hours about them. If you are a diver spend the money and go there, you will not regret it. In addition to having 19 incredible dives during our 5 day stay on SSD3, we met some really cool people and got to go to some beautiful secluded Thai islands. It was definitely 5 of the best days I´ve ever had.

Patriot Games

While Mary and Hari were on their 'honeymoon' scuba diving in the Similian Islands I headed south to Malaysia. I really enjoyed my time in Malaysia. It was quite refreshing to be away from all the 'package tourists' that were on the islands in Thailand and to be somewhere really new and different. Malaysia is a country made primarily of Chinese, Indian, and Malaysian people. Each of the cities I visited had their own China Town or Little India. I was in Malaysia during the end of the Chinese New Year so the cities were in full celebration mode.
I arrived in the evening in my first Malaysian city, Panang, a city known for its food. The streets were packed with food stalls, red lanterns, and people. There was a huge parade that night packed with children doing a ridiculous synchronised drumming set (think smaller version of Olympic opening ceremonies in China), dancers, and floats. Lots of food, drinking, and general happiness filled the streets and the town enjoyed the festivities of their New Year. I enjoyed lots of food- cookies, candies, beer, dumplings, some strange duck meat noodle concoction, cookies, and more beers. Yes in that order. Good times. Good times.

The next day I was off to explore the city, I walked along the city's Heratige Trail looking at the historic sites, the Khoo Kongs Temple, went into some art and photo galleries. The city is so old that many of the buildings date back to the 1800s. I happened upon Little India and knew it right away with the incense filling the streets, women walking around in bright colored saris, Hindi writing on all the store fronts, and Indian music blaring out of huge speakers out on the sidewalks. Welcome to Little India. For lunch accidental I walked into a packed restaurant that serves the best beef soup in all of Panang. It is so good in fact that it is the only thing on the menu. I sat with two guys that work for the government in Malaysia. I got into a fascinating discussion about politics and Obama, what the election means to the Malaysian government and the positive affects that they have already seen in their government (younger guys running for office, general hope that bigger changes regarding parties or candidate's now being given consideration). The conversation really stayed with me.
The next day I took off on a motorbiking trip with two guys I had met at the bars the night before (Holland, France). One guy had lived in Malaysia for years and he knew all the secret spots to take us. We started off with a traditional Jim Sung breakfast of dumplings then rode to the nearby beach. From there we took a scenic drive and hiked down some crazy jungle type hill where I was eaten alive by spiders type things, but we eventually made it to the river we were searching for and had a swim. We stopped at a roadside fruit stand to eat some of the local spiky fruit that the Chinese say "Tastes like heaven, smells like hell". Our day continued onto a small local village where we encountered local Malay fisherman in the middle of an illegal card game (illegal in this country to gamble, they even had spotters watching out for cops). We joined in the game and they got a kick out of the fact that I am a girl playing with them. The fun slowed a bit as we started to win money, their money. I started to make larger bets in hopes to loose my money because I realized we couldn't leave until we broke even. Eventually we were even and we able to get out of the game. The next stop was at the village faire for dinner and I got distracted playing with all the little kids that were following me around yelling "hello" at me. I love playing with the local children in villages. It was really a very special day for me.

Koh Tao: Wet Suit Up!

Paradise. As much as I love big cities, I am a beach bum at heart and had been anxious to get to the Thai islands. Koh Tao is one of the 3 major islands off the east coast of Thailand. Ferries run between Koh Tao, Koh Phangan (famous for the Full Moon party), and Koh Samui at all hours of the day so it is common for travelers to island hop. We started off on Tao, but I never actually made it to the other islands as I intended because I fell in love...I will get to that more later.

Tao is renowned for it´s world class scuba diving. Not only is the water crystal clear and the acquatic life incredible, but it is one of the most inexpensive places in the world to dive. So naturally people come from all over for their Open Water, Advanced, and Dive Master licenses. I had been looking forward to getting my Open Water certification since Plan B was born, so as soon as I arrived on the island I signed up for classes at Buddha View Dive Resort. Unfortunately, Sarah would not be able to join me...she hurt her eardrum while tubing in Vang Vieng and could not dive because of the under water pressure. I was bummed that I would not be able to buddy up with my partner in crime, but she kept her spirits up and enjoyed the many beaches Tao has to offer while I was taking my classes.

I started off in the classroom for a day, learning all about how depth affects water pressure, air density, and heat. One of the first things you learn is that you always dive with a buddy and since Sarah couldn´t join me, I buddied up with one of the guys in my dive class, Steve - Steve, Matt, and Jake are from Seattle and were traveling through Thailand and Cambodia for a month. We immediately hit it off, shared travel stories and Sarah, Hari, and I were able to give them tons of advice on Cambodia since that was their next stop. After our classroom sessions were complete and we passed all of our written tests, our Fab 4 dive team (Steve, Matt, Jake, and I) hit the water.

Day 1 was pool sessions which are not the most exciting things in the world, but you have to ease into it and learn the way the equipment works and get used to the concept of breathing under water. It. Was. So. Cool. At first it does feel a little unnatural (especially with all the heavy equipment on), but after just a few minutes I kind of forgot that I was under water and was having the best time. We learned how to clear our masks, read our gauges, use our regulators, and went through emergency training if something were to happen to our air tanks under water and we needed to share air tanks with our buddy. It was all the technical stuff, but it is absolutely mandatory for any diver to know so even though we weren´t yet seeing anything exciting, we were learning necessary skills.

Day 2 my dive team finally got into the ocean. We took the dive boat out to the site, wet suited up (that one is for you, Lis and NPH), and hit the water. It was amazing: 26°C, 20m+ visibility in the tropical blue ocean. As soon as we descended just a few meters I could see beautiful coral and brilliantly colorful tropical fish - butterfly fish, angel fish, moray eels, trigger fish (keep your distance - they are territorial, temperamental, and just plain mean), blue-spotted sting rays, clown fish (Nemos), nudi branches, batfish, barracudas, and so many more. It was simply beautiful. My eyes remained wide open the whole time, every time I turned my head I saw another amazing fish or coral formation. After we completed our underwater skills tests in the ocean, Steve, Matt, Jake, and I were officially Open Water (OW) certified divers.

On day 3 the real diving began. Since we had passed all of our tests it was time to fun dive. We descended to 15 meters and followed our dive master around the dive site to explore. Again, so many tropical fish everywhere and got to get really close to the coral to see all of the tiny fish and nudi branches that lived inside. Everything was just beautiful. Since I was now OW certified, I could finally dive with Hari who got his OW certification earlier in Vietnam. We were both very quickly addicted to diving and got in the water at any opportunity that we could. While I was getting my OW license, Hari completed his Advanced course and he convinced me to do the same. So only one day after I had my OW certification, I decided to keep diving and signed up for and started my Advanced classes.

During my Advanced OW course, I learned peak performance buoyancy skills, under water navigation (using an under water compass to navigate dive sites), completed my first deep dive (30 meters) and went on my first night dive with Hari as my buddy. Night diving is so cool, at first I was a little freaked out to go down 20 meters in the pitch black with nothing but a small torch to find my way around; but as soon as I got in the water and started swimming around I loved it. At night many fish that you cannot see during the day are out and we even got to watch barracuda hunting. We shone our torches on their prey and once I was lucky enough to watch a barracuda swallow a small fish in one quick bite, it was very exciting. When we ascended to the surface there were millions of brilliant stars shining above us, it was kind of a surreal experience and one that I will never forget.

Aside from diving, Koh Tao has tons of tiny beaches off small dirt roads and trails. Sarah rented a motorbike and checked out many of the beaches during the day and got in some snorkeling at the shallower dive sites. When I wasn´t diving I was soaking up the rays, relaxing, and enjoying the peaceful scenes. At sunset everyone seemed to congregate at Eazy Bar, oh how we loved Eazy Bar. It was right on the beach and had a small deck with pillows to lounge on while enjoying a Tiger beer and listening to excellent classic rock/reggae music - everything from Bob Marley to Pink Floyd to Pearl Jam. Every night, one of the guys who worked at the bar would practice poi, the Thai art of fire juggling/dancing. This guy was mesmerizing, he so gracefully twirled around lit fireballs on the ends of approx. 1 meter long chains for hours. He is a poi master. Everyone at the bar just watched in awe, he made it look so easy to be playing with fire.

Now earlier I said that I fell in love. This has multiple meanings - I fell in love with the island; I fell in love with scuba diving; and I fell in love with Hari. We had been close friends through good old Citigroup in NY for 3 years, but we were always ¨just friends¨. After we started traveling together in Vietnam, something happened along the way and we both started looking at each other differently. It is kind of cliché, but there was something magical about Koh Tao that made us realize that love was staring us right in the face for 3 years. Sparks flew. We finally ended up together and it felt so natural and just so right. I had intended on going to Koh Samui but we were so content on Tao and with diving that we stayed put. Sarah witnessed everything develop first-hand and knew that this wasn´t just some little fling, so she went to Samui for a few days while Hari and I stayed behind to spend more time together. In those few days, things intensified and we decided that we weren´t yet ready to part ways as we originally had planned. We stayed on Tao a bit longer and then sadly left our island paradise to head west to Phuket to reunite with Sarah and check out the west coast.

The beaches of Phuket were beautiful but overall none of us were really fans of Phuket - in my personal opinion, it is too developed, too touristy, and lacked any sort of real Thai culture. It is really just a crowded tourist beach. But we still made the best of it and found one really cool beach, Karon, away from the crowds. It was really interesting to see Phuket post-tsunami, there were evacuation signs and routes posted everywhere. We only stayed a few days and after that the 3 of us discussed future travel plans and routes. Being dive addicts, Hari and I really wanted to go out to the Similan Islands off the west coast of Thailand and Sarah decided to head south to Malaysia, so again we temporarily parted ways. Of course none of this was expected, but all these surprises are just part of the adventure...