The Jungle Book

Sunday, April 11, 2010

April 7 (Ko Phi Phi, Thailand)

April 7

We woke up in time to check out of our bungalow to arrange transport to Ko Phi Phi. Our boat didn’t leave until 1pm, so we went to West Rai Leh. Again, the beach was beautiful with giant limestone cliffs jetting out of the ocean. At 1 we jumped on the long tail boat back to Nammao Pier where we then took a cab to Krabi town where the ferry left for Ko Phi Phi. After a short boat trip we arrived in beautiful Ko Phi Phi. Although it’s quite the tourist destination, largely in part due to the filming of the Leanardo DiCaprio movie The Beach here, Ko Phi Phi is spectacular. We found the cheapest room possible (500 baht/night which is expensive here) and grabbed a bite to eat. Ko Phi Phi is mostly a spring break type party destination, but we did our best to escape this. At night we did go to the beach to check out the scene which was full of bars/parties, loud music and fire twirlers/dancers everywhere. Pete struck up the nerve to test his fire jump rope skills and the ring-of-fire, which you can see in the photos below. On the way home we stopped to watch a muy thai (Thai boxing) match.

Panorama of Ko Phi Phi - from viewpoint 2

Loh Dalum Bay, Ko Phi Phi

Pad Thai in an egg basket...so good!!

Fire dancer

Pete jumping through a ring of fire

April 6 (Thailand)

April 6

We flew, without any delays or major hurdles, from Denpasar through KL to Krabi. On our flight we happened to run into another American (WOW), John, who was also backpacking through Thailand. Together, with another Finnish couple, we headed to East Rai Leh via longtail boat from Nammao Pier. The Rai Leh peninsula is pretty spectacular because it isn’t accessible by land and the high limestone cliffs are a climbing mecca. We stayed at the Rapala bungalows, atop a flight of terrifying, decrepit stairs which you practically fall through with the weight of your backpack. The rooms were pretty simple, with mattresses on the floor and a small porch with a hammock to rest in. We shared our room with John to make it that much cheaper.

Since we just arrived in Thailand, we were extremely excited to have Thai food so we ate at a local spot. The food was delicious, but later turned out to not sit too well for Steph. After the meal which was served by a ladyboy (a common site in Thailand – they even receive special prices at bars, somewhere between what women pay and what a man pays), we walked around East Rai Leh for a little (it’s extremely small). We then had a few beers out on our porch and met some new people, one of which was a German girl who we later met up with in Ko Phi Phi. From the porch that night we could also hear Steph regurgitating the Thai food she so eagerly wanted earlier in the day.

West Rai Leh

Panorama view of West Rai Leh

Arriving in East Rai Leh

Longtail Boat/Ferry

Potential snacks at the KL airport...

Yes that is "sugar cuttlefish chips" or

"spicy cuttlefish chips"

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Sunday, April 4 (Cremation Ceremony)

Sunday, April 4

Saturday night we listened to Banyar Taman Sanur’s gamelon practice until one of the members, Ida, invited us to come see their performance the next day. It turned out, they were playing at a cremation ceremony.

Again, Pete and I had to dress in traditional sarongs to see the ceremony (the Balinese men found it hilarious to see Pete in traditional clothes…so again he was the butt of another Indonesian joke.) We hitched a ride with the orchestra, whom we met at the Banyar in the afternoon.

The ceremony was for a priest who had passed away a few days prior (for clarification, the term priest in Balinese is slightly different than the term ‘priest’ as Westerners know it. Balinese refer to these people as brahman priests or of the brahmana or priestly caste which is the highest caste). Since this was a ceremony for the highest caste, only other priests were allowed to touch the body and prepare the offerings for the deceased. Although the priest had requested a small ceremony for his cremation, because of his status, everything was very elaborate and traditional (the priest had also predicted the timing of his death, right before the full moon).

The ceremony began with the gathering of about 6 or 7 other high priests who were to perform the cleansing rituals and prepare the offerings. They then led everyone in a prayer and the body (wrapped in white cloth because he was married…yellow is for the unmarried) was brought out onto a platform in the center of his home. Everyone there gathered around this platform, all trying to get a glimpse or photo of the priest.

Only the male family members were allowed to directly surround the platform, and they helped the priests in the wrapping and unwrapping of the body. The body was then washed in holy water and elaborately decorated with offerings of flowers, banana leaves, and cloth. The priest presiding over the ceremony also washed his hair and tied it up in the priestly fashion…a small bun or knot on the top of his head decorated with an offering. Those surrounding the body chanted/sang throughout the process and many women cried a bit. The mood though, was not somber; the decorations and dress were bright and colorful.

After all the offerings had been presented, the male family members wrapped the body back up and placed it in the coffin-type box (unlike a coffin, it was brightly decorated and placed in a sacred spot in the house surrounded by offerings until April 10, when the actual cremation will take place). Following this there was a short prayer and then a meal was provided for everyone in attendance.

We both agreed that this was one of the most amazing cultural experiences we’ve ever witnessed. The cremation ceremony here was, as you can tell, vastly different then what we are used to in the US. In fact, a few people asked us what a funeral is like where we come from. We could sum it up by saying in America a funeral is the complete opposite of what we had seen. For Pete, this was the first time he’d ever seen a deceased person so this added another level to the ceremony.

We were the only two Caucasians there, which, to no surprise, was not a problem at all. Despite a couple looks here and there, everyone was extremely friendly and hospitable towards us (a common theme amongst the Balinese). During the ceremony this girl struck up a conversation with us and provided commentary on what was going on. She also introduced us to many of her relatives and took us to her house next door and generally showed us around during the 4 hour ceremony. As the member of the gamelon orchestra who brought us there mentioned, you spend 5 minutes among the Balinese and you have 100 new friends. This couldn’t be any truer.

In the early evening we went back home to relax for an hour before meeting our friend Trevor for a couple drinks for our last night out in Bali – before we head to Thailand first thing Tuesday morning!!

Priest performing offerings

Priest at the platform

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Friday, April 2

Friday, April 2

In the afternoon we went to the beach again where we read, hung-out, and had lunch. Somehow the water was even clearer than the day before and you could see fish swimming around with the naked eye. After spending the entire day at the beach we went back to the beach bungalows that play movies and saw Bad Lieutenant – which is a bad movie.

Because of the tropical climate here, every day there were lightning storms over the ocean. The lighting was going off throughout the night so we walked down the beach to watch it and take video. Steph caught an amazing video of lightning over the ocean, but unfortunately is too big to upload to the blog (below though is a screen shot of part of the storm). On the walk home we again stopped at the Sama Sama Bar to listen to more music. We then headed home before our departure for Bali the next morning.

This is a photo from the lightning video Steph took.
It was completely dark, then when the lightning struck,
it looked like mid-day.

Thursday, April 1 (Pete’s BDAY!!!)

For Peteys bday we decided to dive again. This time we went to Hahn’s Reef off of Gili Air. What the dive lacked in terms of visibility, it made up for in topography and fish species. We started off swimming along various reef outcroppings until we reached a huge rock/tower/mountain reef. We just circled this huge mountain, seeing all kinds of sweet species. Fish included: 3 Rockfish (very very poisonous and hard to spot), leaf scorpion fish (really cool looking fish), hawksbilll turtle, yellow mouth eel (I spotted this guy), leopard flounder, peacock mantis shrimp, thorny oyster and giant clam (so cool to see these open and close, they were HUGE), large porcupine puffer, common cowrie shell, emperor angelfish (beautiful blue white and black stripes), baby schools of feeding catfish, clownfish, trigger, and nudibranches. The coral formations were really interesting, huge underwater mushrooms, and beautiful colors.

After a tiring morning, we went to the beach in the afternoon to relax and swim. The water was clear and bright turquoise and Pete enjoyed all the topless Swedish girls.

We went out to dinner at the Irish bar…nothing beats pizza and chimichangas on the ocean. We then went to Rudy’s bar, where we befriended the locals working there who are hilarious and only speak broken English. After chilling at the bar for a bit, we went to the beach and played in the sand for the rest of the night. On the way home we stopped for a bit at a bar that was playing amazing live reggae music (Sama Sama Bar). This concluded what was an unforgettable bday for Pete.

Da Beach

Bartenders made us sweet straw decorations

Pete and the locals on his Bday

Wednesday, March 31

Wednesday, March 31

The next morning we went for our early morning dive at Shark Point. Our guide, Ana, was awesome (a bit crazy) and spotted so many things. The visibility was amazing, crystal clear, and although there were no sharks, as the name implies, there were SO many turtles. The gently sloping reef was a turtle cafeteria, hotel, and playground. They were everywhere and HUGE. All of a sudden 24 ENORMOUS bumphead parrotfish stopped by (the biggest fish Pete has seen while diving). We saw tons of other sea creatures: juvenile batfish, trevalies, blueface angelfish, seven baby cuttlefish, titan triggerfish, black ribbon eel, green and black nudibranch, midnight snapper, and spotted sweetlips. Out of the 36 dives Pete has done, this was in his top 3!

In the afternoon, we dove at Sunset Reef, where they typically get Mantas this time of year, but none had been spotted so far. The visibility was good, not as great as the morning, and Ana had to help another diver equalize so we got to explore alone a bit. The highlights were the cuttlefish I followed for a bit, mostly because I missed the 7 babies before and the baby SHARK! Other fish we saw included: trumpetfish (I spotted this one and had no idea what it was at first), lionfish, triggerfish, pufferfish, featherstars, and boxfish.

For dinner we went to Pesona (Indian Hookah Lounge), smoked apple mint hookah and grubbed on some amazing Chicken Saag and Masala. I don’t understand how they make some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had on an island so small. We met up with some diving buddies at the Irish bar (Tir Na Nog) for a few drinks…they were throwing a party for 2 girls who completed their dive master courses.

SHARK

Giant Bumphead Parrotfish

Cuttlefish

Ocean Floor

Dinner

Tuesday, March 30 Gili Trawangan

Tuesday, March 30

Pete and I decided to take the fast boat to the Gili’s as opposed to the very very slow boat (1.5 hrs vs. 9 hrs). The Gili Cat car picked us up in the morning and took us to Padang Bai, the main harbor on the west coast of Bali. Before the boat left Pete grabbed some lunch, which to date, has been the best satay. The boat ride to Gili Trawangan (Gili T) was about 1.5 hrs sailing northeast from Bali. After the short ride we got to Gili Trawangan, one of the three small islands off of Lombok – the other two being Gili Air and Gili Meno. These three islands are all extremely small with no cars (bikes or horse drawn carriages are the only means of transport), unreliable electricity, no fresh water but spectacular white sand beaches. Gili T is the most populated of the three, with the most amount of homestays/bungalows and the only five star hotel (which we did not stay at). We found ourselves a nice little homestay for $15/night (Trawangan Cottages) which were very clean and close to the main strip. This did not include AC but with a simple flick of the fuse box we had ourselves an arctic climate room.

Once we were settled in the room, we scoped out a few dive shops (there are about 10 on the small island) and went with Blue Marlin Dive shop. All dive prices are fixed on the island ($38/dive) so since Steph is bonkers for diving (aka she thinks she is a mermaid) we immediately signed up for the morning and afternoon dives the next day. By now it was around sunset and we decided to walk around the entire island which only took 1.5 hrs. For dinner we ate bbq at the Beach House, which because of Steph’s affinity for underwater exploration and life forms, was her last seafood meal for life. After dinner we had a drink and checked out the beach huts where you can watch movies. Pete loved these because they are super relaxing, free (you just have to buy a drink or popcorn), and have a huge movie selection (Pete wants one in his house). We watched 7 pounds…really good for those who haven’t seen it (Steph cried).