Quarter Year

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Market Scene

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Somewhere on Bali

Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago.

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Bali Rice Paddy Awareness


Some details from a Balinese rice paddy.

by Mike

Bali’s climate is so f-ing perfect that on any day of the year you can see all phases of rice cultivation: sowing, growing, harvesting. We came across this little corner when we were lost and trying to find our way back to Ubud. We knew we wanted to come back, so we made a backwards map as we drove home – Azure took a picture of each corner we turned, then the next day we traced it in reverse.

While I’d always understood presence to mean a sharp focus on – say – your breath as it hits your nose, here it meant paying attention to the area within earshot, which I consider Place. When we look back at photos sometimes I remember, “At that time I was dealing with a window washing issue back home.” or something like that. How strange is it that I’m looking at photos and thinking of a far-away adventure, but at the time of the photo I was thinking about home? It’s one of the struggles of modern travel: leaving home at home, not just in words, but in thoughts and attention as well.

Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago.

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Daylight on the Jakarta Fish Market

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by Mike

As promised, here are a number of pictures from the Jakarta Fish Market during the day.

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(more photos)

Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago.

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Bandung

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“Mjgoldst Perfume for Men” a fragrance and a lifestyle by Mike

by Azure

Mul and Michelle took us to Bandung for the weekend. Apparently everyone from Jakarta goes to Bandung for the weekend and since traffic is so bad and the city gets so crowded, everyone from Bandung now reciprocates by going to Jakarta for the weekend.

Bandung is in the hills in the center of Java and is the “perfect temperature” which meant gray skies and hard rain. Wow, apparently Seattle has “perfect weather” too. (read more)

Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago.

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Jakarta

Mul picked us up in his brand-spanking-new Toyota SUV, announcing that the car is very famous in Jakarta. Plastic from the manufacturer even still covered some parts inside. When the driver was challenged with tough maneuvering, a dashboard-mounted screen showed video from external cameras on the passenger side and both bumpers. Between these times the screen displayed a map of Japan and our approximate position, somewhere in the middle, going in circles. Every once in a while a Japanese lady in the navigation system would speak up with her take on how to get where we were going (though none of us speak Japanese) or nearby landmark (in Japan) would flash on the screen, taunting us with attractions we could visit if only we were driving where the computer thought we should be. He said the car cost 80,000 USD, more expensive than similar models we might see around the city. He bought it about a week ago.

About a week ago one of Mul’s personal drivers had to quit because he needed to pay off a debt he owed his brother. He moved to Saudi Arabia and is working for no pay until the debt is settled. For the last week, the family of four, having only one driver (but three cars), was forced to borrow Michelle’s mom’s driver. (read more)

Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago.

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Jakarta Fish Market

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by Mike

We visited this place late at night and, as you can see, it was still bustling. At high tide the water runs into the streets, at low tide it leaves smelly puddles. Most people were wearing rain boots as they hauled their catches from place to place.

As far as I understood, the market is where the boats sold their catches to restaurants, then outside were people selling to anyone passing through. Maybe. There was also an area where small restaurants grilled and served fresh seafood. Families lived around here, some lived on boats and some lived behind the food stalls. We went back the next day and got a few more shots, which will be up soon. (more photos)

Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago.

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I don’t even know what to call this… karaoke?

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What’s the problem?

by Mike

On New Year’s Eve, Mul brought us to a karaoke room attached to a nightclub where we rubbed elbows with seven or eight of his close friends. Immediately on walking into the throbbing, flashing room I was encouraged to take the microphone. “Ok,” I thought, “so they’re asking the new guy to relax and show he can play.” I grinned, passed on the mic for a second, but reassured them I’d be ready after I downed a vodka & soda. There were shiny gold hats and colorful cell phones. The singer, dressed… boldly, finished her song and her friends broke into applause.

Someone again passed me the mic and this time I took it. The DJ cued my song: “To Be With You” by Mr. Big, a middle school classic. (read more)

Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago.

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Bali Wrap-up

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The roads we traveled (in red)

by Azure

We made it! There were no surprise homecomings for my parents like last year. And we liked it! I didn’t really expect that.

It’s difficult to recall what I thought Bali would be like after having now seen it. At first, before Mike told me it was a whole island, I thought it was a resort town, like Cancun or Mazatlan. I knew there were beautiful beaches that people liked to visit. I didn’t expect to be one of those people. After I learned it was an island, I heard you couldn’t get off the tourist track. It would be a third-world country that the first world had plopped its big body down on and squashed. I prepared to feel like I did in Colombia.

When we got to Kuta beach, I wasn’t surprised at all. I had planned to be disgusted by the tourism and I was. Well, actually I was tired from the 36 hours I spent in transit and sleeping in the airport in Bangkok. I was ecstatic to be somewhere that had a bed and (bonus) a pool. We dined in an alley in Kuta and all I could see were restaurants and bars made to attract the backpacker crowd. They played Bob Marley, of course, and sold t-shirts that said “I <3 Bali” on them. I happily ate my meal and sleepily followed Mike’s lead when he rushed us out of there in less than 12 hours. (read more)

Posted 6 months, 4 weeks ago.

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December 27, 2009

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by Mike

In retrospect, the decision to relocate from Ubud to Medewi might have been a questionable one. We’re farther west than the tourism corridor, we’re out of Ubud, away from Kuta, away from Munduk and the capital Denpasar; and though we’re ecstatic any time we leave the tourist trail, our first sign of trouble was the price of the ocean-front hotel room: it was LOWERED to 100,000 Rupiah ($10) before we even asked. The staff was apparently resigned to run a low-quality establishment. (read more)

Posted 7 months ago.

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Us vs. Bugs

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Mike all loaded up for the ride.

by Azure

The battle began as soon as we checked into the hotel. It had been a long hot ride and we pulled in to the Lonely Planet “pick” for Medewi simply because we were tired and gross. We had driven along the busy coastal road that acts as the only real connector between Java and the main part of Bali. There were big smoky trucks and slow tourist buses the whole way. We simply didn’t have the energy to go looking around for a good place in the heat of the day. (read more)

Posted 7 months ago.

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We <3 Gianyar

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The Gianyar night market

by Azure

Every night, we go to Gianyar for dinner. There is a night market there and it takes about 20 minutes each way. We get the Nasi Campur from the same dude every night because he makes the best crispy tempe and his sambal is just the right amount of spicy and sweet. Nasi Campur is very typical and it just means rice (nasi) variety/mixed (campur). He puts rice, roasted chicken, beans, coconut, peanuts, hard boiled egg, fried egg, tempe, tofu, and sambal on our plate and we split it because it is big enough to fill both of us. ($1.50, though other places sell it for $1.00-$1.20) (read more)

Posted 7 months ago.

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Ghostly Old Men

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Ari’s uncle is in focus on the right, Bapak is on the left.

by Mike

Ari’s Bapak (father) and diabetic uncle did not eat with us. The two old men sat behind us, ghostly, neither following the English conversation nor talking with each other. They happily contributed, though, when finally addressed. (read more)

Posted 7 months ago.

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Welcome to the Family Compound

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Fresh sambal!

by Mike

The light was low and we were aware of mosquitoes in this, the first Indonesian home we’ve visited: a two-burner kitchen connected off a small greeting & living area, open to the air, concrete floors reaching back to the dark bedrooms. (read more)

Posted 7 months ago.

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A young man with a lot to think about

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Ketut Ari has traveled the world.

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of posts about Ari, a 28-year-old man we met in Munduk, Bali, Indonesia. He invited us to eat dinner at the family compound, where most of the following conversations took place.

by Mike

We asked a travel agent how much it would cost to go to Surabaya, a city on the next island over, and she gave us a price we didn’t like. I tried to get the local price, asking, “How much do you pay?” She was puzzled.

“When you go to Surabaya, how much do you pay?” I asked again, trying to make my question more explicit. She looked at me, “I’ve never been to Surabaya, I can’t afford it.” (read more)

Posted 7 months ago.

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Kids and Chocolate

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Shelling chocolate with the ladies.

by Azure

I remember distinctly a warm day in July. Autsy and I were sitting in the front yard at Little Home and we heard the clunking and squeeking of Mike’s ladder fastened to the roof of his Explorer coming down the road. As he parked at the curb, shirt off, windows rolled down, we could hear the familiar tune that he had been whistling from his Indonesian language cds. He sat for a minute and repeated after Cici, “Makanan ini enak” (this food is delicious!). As he rolled up the windows and got out of the car, Autsy turned to me and said, “That’s your man.” We both laughed. (read more)

Posted 7 months ago.

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More from the Chocolate Farm

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That’s chocolate.

[Editor's note: This entry is extremely long, over 3,000 words, and I don't expect anyone to read it all, I'm even giving my mom a pass. But I want all the info here just for my own records. We spent an entire day with this family in several acts, and it culminated with us consulting them about how to better attract Western tourists. Either way, there are some pretty pictures inside, and those might be worth checking out.]

by Mike

The two oldest children immediately lead us past a few cocks in cages, past old men working, down to the orchard to meet the farmer, their father. He would be happy to give us a free tour! and he started pointing at fruits: Papaya, Mango, Mangis. (read a lot more)

Posted 7 months ago.

5 comments

Faces of the Dewa Family

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Made. “Mah-day.” This is the name/title given to every second-born child.

by Mike

In Indonesia, children are given names based on their birth order: First is Butuh, then Made, Nyoman and Ketut. Males are I, females are Mi, so a fourth male child is named, for example, I Ketut Ari. There is no family name. (more photos)

Posted 7 months ago.

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Our first talk with a Balinese girl (Iluh)

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Iluh and I after the walk.

by Azure

We went to the “tourist information office” today, which you can really never trust here. It is more corrupt than you would expect and our past experiences have been less than great. It usually means that only the high end hotels will be listed and the pay tours, rather than a free and unbiased information source that I usually expect. (read more)

Posted 7 months ago.

3 comments

Does that dog have rabies?

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I thought this coconut was my friend.

by Azure

When we were in Thailand in 2006, I thought I had contracted Rabies. We were sitting at the port, waiting to be picked up and this golden lab came over to us and started looking at us, tail wagging. I had just spent $1200 getting all sorts of crazy vaccines and was super paranoid. The dog circled a few times, looking at me in particular. It finally made its approach from behind and came in for a lick. (read more)

Posted 7 months ago.

5 comments

Drag & Claws, tire repair

Mr. Manager, Bali, Indonesia

Mr. Manager.

by Mike

Tires aren’t supposed to be flat, but if they must, it’s better that they be flat in the middle of a town.

We walked the bike to a repair shop only 20 yards away and I pulled it right into the small garage. The kid working didn’t really say anything to me, he just took the bike and started taking the wheel apart. I asked how much it would cost to repair – I thought his response was 5,000 rupiah (50 cents) but I must have misunderstood. It would probably be 50,000. Still, $5 is a good deal to repair a tire.

He couldn’t get the patch to work, so he said they’d need to use a new inner tube. He put the tube in, threw the tire back together and told us it was good as new. The price for a new tire? 30,000 rupiah. That’s $3. So I had been right – the simple patch would only have cost 50 cents. We paid $3.50 and he tried to give the extra money back to us, but we told him it was a tip, because he was so polite and a good worker. The kid handed all the money to the boss (pictured above) and the boss handed 30 cents back to the kid as his share of the tip.

So, about that manager: I could only understand that his nails were just one year old, believe it or not. In other words, it’s within our reach, but we’ll have to start today if we want those nails for next year’s holiday season. There are probably a lot of things he does with those things that would be entertaining to watch, but I think I saw the best thing – when someone paid with a large bill, he pulled out a wad of cash and leafed through the notes with his thumbnail. THAT would have been a rad picture.

Posted 7 months ago.

9 comments