Bali, Day 1: Sanur, Uluwatu, and Jimbaran

Today was our first full day in Bali!

We woke up at 8 feeling a lot better and somewhat refreshed. Our room was slightly dinky, but it wasn't too bad. There was mosquito net in our bed, which was a bit weird to use because it was small and only covered our top half of our body. There was some small gardeny areas and a pool at the hotel too, which was pretty small, I think 17 rooms in total? Breakfast was either some kind of egg or some kind of pancake, plus tea or coffee and fruits. Aaron and I got scrambled egg with toast and pineapple pancakes.

After that, we explored our town, Sanur. We were walking down, looking for a swimsuit for me, since my bikini strap broke. We ended up going to Hardys, this multistory discount store looking place. I actually did find a denim looking bikini which looked nice. I also found a nice sundress, much better than any of the dresses I found in Korea. Aaron bought 3 shirts and 1 undershirt and a pair of sunglasses. There was a lot of salespeople though, they were also pretty pushy, sorta like the stores in China. There was also a little supermarket type store in the building so we went in and bought some snacks and drinks, as well as some shampoo and body wash and such. We had to buy some sun screen but unfortunately that was one of the pricier things in Bali (apparently Balinese don't sunburn) for like 18 bucks.

After that, it was around noonish so we were ready for lunch. We started walking back to our hotel, since we passed lots of restaurants. It was very hot by then, and very very humid, and the sun, since we were near the Equator, was coming down pretty strong. We were sweating like no tomorrow by then, since we non-Balinese people aren't used to the sun and humidity. We found a little restaurant soon enough, and ordered some Satay and a pizza and a mixed fruit drink. It was all about 8 bucks, and the pizza was pretty big. Satay was a bunch of stick with meat on it, dipped in a peanut sauce.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a short break before we went to meet our driver for the rest of the day. First we headed towards Kuta, which was a big touristy beach town. We walked along the beach a bit, but there wasn't too interesting, a few stores here and there, some people sitting here and there. Kuta had a lot of stores, and we found another supermarket, where we bought a drink and a few other small things. And then we found this huge multistory building that was filled with stores. We headed in and looked thorugh some some swimsuits and dresses and souvenirs, but we didn't end up buying anything there.

After Kuta we headed to Uluwatu for the temple and the Kecak dance. There was monkeys in that area as well, which we took some pictures with. There was a few fat monkeys there as well. The temple itself was on a cliff overseeing the water, which was a nice shade of blue and very pretty. Then we headed to the Kecak dance. It was a bunch of stone benches in a circle, and they really packed us in, because it was filled with people, barely had any room for the performers. There was this guy next to me who was annoying - first he was pretty large, and then he had a huge camera which he click clicked and tested the flash many times, and then he had a huge bag between his legs so that his legs were way on my side. And lastly, near the end of the performance, he asked the girl in front of him to switch places with him (although he was taller than she was) because he just HAD to take pictures. Anyway, the performance itself- there was a ton of half naked men chanting to the fire, and occasionally other characters will come up and tell the story. The basic story is that some demon guy wants this woman, so he told his advisor to be a deer and have the woman's husband and brother chase it, and then he pretends to be some old guy and when the woman brings him water, he kidnaps him. And then this white monkey helps the woman by causing disorder in the demon god's palace, and then giants come and capture him and try to burn him, but he has powers so he can't die and gets them back. At the fire part, the fire was pretty hot and intense, but it burned pretty fast and before you know it, it was over. It was a pretty interesting performance.

After this show, we headed to Jimbaran for some seafood dinner. It was pretty nice because the tables were on the beach and we can choose from their fresh seafood, but unfortunately I felt duped because I thought the price was supposed to be a lot cheaper than it was. I thought it woul be 25, but it was 68. So.... yeah. At least the food was pretty good - we got clams, lobster, and prawns. Also had some rice, soup, and some greens which might be collard greens. We also ordered a melon juice and cocnut juice, which gave me an actual coconut. Of course, as soon as we got our drinks the first time, the guy dropped our coconut all over the table and Aaron's left leg, so we had to change tables and they gave us another coconut, of course. After this dinner, we headed back to our hotel. We tried to find the night market, but after walking for quite a bit and not finding it, we just decided to go back and just relax the rest of the night.

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Bali, Day 0: Our Long Journey There

Our trip actually started on July 22, Wednesday, since that is when we left our apartment.
So on Wednesday, right after my class, which I got to go home an hour early, yay, we packed our last minute stuff and headed towards the airport, which was a long journey: First the 20 minutes bus from our area to the bus terminal, waited for an hour, and then the three hour bus to the airport. And the waiting doesn't stop there! At the airport, we got there around 8 pm, and our flight was at 9:30 am!

The reason we didn't go in the morning is because we would barely have enough time and be rushing, so we just decided to spend the night in the airport. After all, Seoul's Incheon airport was one of the best sleeping airports. So we headed towards the fourth floor, and saw some beanbag chairs, which we sat in until they told us they were closing that area. So then we headed to this place that had big flat circular shaped benches, where we slept the rest of the night. I was pretty tired so I slept relatively well, although these was noise and people walking, but since it was in the fourth floor, there wasn't as much people walking at night, which was very good.

We woke up around 6 and checked in our luggage, and headed to our flight. And so begins the whole flight journey. The first flight was from Seoul to Hong Kong, with a stopover in Taipei. That flight wasn't very eventful. We had little screens in front of our seats but we didn't figure out until the second flight, but it was relatively short flight, about 3-ish hours total flying time, although we did have to wait in Taipei for a bit.

At Hong kong, we had to wait for a pretty long time, because we got there at around 2 and our flight was at 7. So we basically sat around and waited. We didn't have any HK dollars so we didn't buy anything there. Also, there was no water fountains because of everyone was paranoid about swine flu. Lots of the airport people were wearing face masks. The area around HK was actually pretty scenic, lots of green islands in clear blue waters.

When we finally got on the plane and this time, we figured out the monitors so I was able to watch dirty jobs and alice in wonderland on this flight. By the time we got to Bali, it was around midnight, and it had been over 24 hours since we left our apartment, and yes, we were very tired. And there at the airport we had our first problem. So we had to pay for a $25 visa, but the guy only gave me the rupiah worth $2.50 and hoped I wouldn't notice, so Aaron went and yelled at the guy and got me the right amount of change. And then after we got our baggage, these two guys went home and took them and tried to carry them, but I figured they will ask for money after they carry it, so we told them we can carry it ourselves. Outside we met up with the driver of our hotel and went to our hotel. We were pretty tired so we pretty much went to bed immediately. Click here to read more

Back from Bali

Back from Bali and back to work.

Will be updating with Bali pictures and trip reports soon. Click here to read more

BALI!

BALI HERE I COME!!!

Won't be updating probably until I get back Click here to read more

Mudfest

So last weekend we went to Mudfest at Daecheon beach, we went with AdventureKorea.

And wow, Saturday morning was a big adventure. We had to meet up in Seoul at 8am for the AK buses, so we headed to our local bus stop at 6, but when it didn't arrive by 6:20, we were worried, because our bus from Anseong to Seoul was at 6:40. By 6:25, the local bus on our side still wasn't here, although the other side had 2 buses already, and no taxis either since our taxi stand was empty as well. And suddenly this lone taxi drives down the road so we flagged him down, and we tried to make it to the bus terminal but we weren't going to, since it was already almost 6:45 by the time we got there. So on the way we picked up our friend, and we made the decision if we should just cab it to the Seoul, since it wouldn't be feasible to wait for another bus to Seoul and still make it to the AK buses in Seoul.

So we took a taxi all the way to Seoul, and together spent like 90k. Ha! We spent like 70 usd on a taxi just to make it because of all this stupid local buses won't run like it's supposed to.

And then we got to the place in Seoul we were supposed to meet the buses, it was super confusing where it is, so we walked and ran around in circles from one place to another until we FINALLY found the spot. What a morning! And it was only 8:10am by then.

The rest of the weekend was okay. First we stopped at a Mud Beach at around 2 or so, and we stripped to our bathing suits, got some military gear, and headed to the mud flats. We played a little bit in the mud, and there was a race as well, but we didn't even finish it. It was VERY windy and the mud flats were full of little shells, and we even found a nice one to take home.












After the mudflats we headed to our accomodation, which was a minbak. It was an okay place, a small room with one blanket and pillow each, and a small bathroom. It'll do though. We fit 4 of us in the room reasonably well, but I don't know how some of the other people who had 5 in a room could do that. But anyway...

It was starting to rain and gust wind that evening, so we didn't really do too much. We walked around a bit, got a big pot of seafood noodles for dinner (which was delish), and just explored, but then since it was so windy and so rainy we just decided to stay in and play some games.










On Sunday we awoke to sun, so we headed down to the sand beach. We walked along the beach, stepped our feet into the water, and just enjoyed the nice weather. It wasn't too crowded in the morning, but as the day went on, it got very crowded, so I was glad we got to enjoy the beach when it wasn't as crowded.








Behind the beach there was a row of streets, filled with very similar restaurants. Every restaurant seem to have tanks of seafood swimming around, and we wonder how some of them make more money than others since it was ton of the same kind of restaurants everywhere. At the actual mud area, there was some mud slides, mud jail, other games etc. I do sort of wish I did more mudding, but on Saturday my bikini strap broke (I had a shirt on top, thank god, when that happened) so I wasn't able to do much mudding around, but there was always next year!

The rest of the day we sat in the shaded grass areas behind the beach and just relaxed. For lunch we found a Korean restaurant that actually didn't have any foreigners in it, and had some bulgogi soup.

At around 4 the bus left Daecheon beach and we had our journey back to Anseong. Click here to read more

Summer Plans: summer camp, mudfest, and bali

We haven't posted in a bit, so here are some random updates in the last week or two.

First of all, it's almost summer vacation! Actually Aaron's starts this Friday, but I don't get off until next Thursday, so our days are different. However, I start class again three days after Aaron, so it's all good.

Both of us has to school school, but mine is three weeks and his will be two. I have to teach 4 different classes, the 3-4 grade, and 5-6 grade, the basic, and the advanced. It'll be four hours each day!

In other, more fun, news, next weekend we'll be heading to Mudfest. The weather has been very crappy lately, rain and all that, but I hope it might clear up at least a little bit of that. It'll be fun though, can't wait to have a mud fight!

Oh, and then for our summer vacation, we're going to Bali! I'll be sure to post lots of pictures and stories when we get back. We'll be leaving on Thursday and coming back Sunday (not the one after, the next one, so it'll be 9 nights I think). 9 glorious days in the beach and jungle and visiting temples and monkeys and eating mangos. Ahhh, bliss, it'll be such a joy to get away from this drab Korean lifestyle. Click here to read more

Doggy Update

So we finally named our doggy. He's going to be "Baozi" aka Chinese Steamed Bun.

Here's some very cute updated pictures of him, as well as a video of him doing his "sit" and "down."







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Mexican Food and Dr fish in Seoul

Happy July 4th, my fellow Americans!

However, since we are in Korea, not America, we weren't able to wolf down greasy food while watching fireworks, so instead we did something else.

First, we were craving Mexican food, being from Texas and all, so we went to Dos Tacos in Seoul. We got a burrito, taco, quesadilla, and chimichanga. It was pretty pricey for the Mexican food we're used to, and not completely authentic, but it was still pretty yummy all the same.





After that, we decided to do Dr Fish. This was located in a cafe, which seemed very comfy and cozy. We first bought some drinks - a pumpkin latte and a green tea iced latte, which both were pretty yummy. And because we bought drinks, it also came with free unlimited bread, coffee or tea, and some snacks. We were pretty full because we just had Mexican food AND all this food and drink as well!




So after eating, we did the Dr Fish. After taking off our shoes, we first washed our feet in this sink thing, and then we stuck it in the tub filled with the tiny nibbling fish. At first it tickled a lot, but then your feet get used to it, and it just feels like little nips on your feet. It was a bit weird, but not too bad. You get used to it. We were timed for 20 minutes in the Dr Fish tub.





Apparently my feet were tastier than Aaron's feet, since all the fish seemed to have all crowded over my feetsies and not as much on his, although they did seem to like nibbling on his leg.

aaron's feet

my feet

Here's a video of us comparing the fishes on our feetsies.


After our Dr Fish adventure, we went to a new foreign food store called Hadden Supermarket and then to Costco, where we bought some new foods as usual. Click here to read more