Quarter Year

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Hutyee Boat

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by Mike

That’s his name, don’t wear it out.

Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago.

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Sleeping over the high tide

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by Mike

Sam says the Thai don’t sleep on soft pads because the fabric against their skin is too hot. Instead they sleep on wicker mats so air can circulate through the floorboards and under their bodies. Besides, he said, he likes to feel the wood on his skin. (read more)

So that night we slept on the porch over the high tide. We listened to the wind and waves. The Muslim call to prayer woke us at 4:30am, clear and present with the wind, and we stayed awake to look at the stars over the water and the sliver moon over the neighbor’s silhouetted house. Distant motors suggested squidboats returning to port in the middle of the channel, but we couldn’t see them: they ran without lights.

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Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago.

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Coast of Ko Lanta

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and/or

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Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago.

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Krabi is like…

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by Azure

We flew to Krabi from Singapore. It felt really good to be out on our own again. We had been to Krabi for a night in 2006 on our way to Koh Lanta and decided to spend a few nights there this time around. We rented a scooter and drove northish out of town and hooked back around to some of the beaches. We were immediately struck by the dramatic beauty of the area. Large treed cliffs rise out of the horizon in every direction and the roads are lined with rubber tree plantations, that give a dark, eerie feel to the drive even in the daylight. (read more photos)

Posted 1 month, 4 weeks ago.

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Swimmerkids!

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by Mike

Kids playing in the surf – near Krabi, Thailand.

(more photos)

Posted 1 month, 4 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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Posted 2 months 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 2 months 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 2 months, 1 week 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 2 months, 1 week 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 2 months, 1 week 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 2 months, 1 week ago.

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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 2 months, 1 week 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 2 months, 1 week ago.

3 comments

Drag & Claws, tire repair

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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 2 months, 1 week ago.

9 comments

This soapbox smells like fish

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A fisherman and his fishersons.

by Mike

Pressed against the roots of a high forest lies a fishing village whose houses stand close enough together that only footpaths run between them. An impressive Hindu temple punctuates the village. Az and I discovered this place one night around sunset, when laughter from the town raced across the lake’s surface and bounced among the hills that rise like walls of a bowl. No motors, no radios, just a calm lake and the laughter of a village with close houses. Four young men were heading out on the water in their dugouts after sunset that night, carrying a lantern to attract the fish.
“Ikan besar?” I asked. Big fish?
“Tidak, kecil kecil.” No, very small. (read more)

Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago.

3 comments

We set the sky on fire

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by Mike

Nothing but pretty pictures in this post.

(see more)

Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago.

7 comments

Sarong tree

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by Mike

If Mom asks for a picture of something, I have to deliver, right? The pictures here are from the tree we visited on this day.

Today we went to a different tree that also had checkered sarongs tied around it and a local guy said it was holy. “So we can’t climb it?” “Oh, of course you can.” As long as we weren’t menstruating. Not that I know how to say “menstruating” in Indonesian, it was written in English on a sign at the tree.
(see more)

Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago.

4 comments

Morning with Ketut Liyer

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by Azure

We got up early to see Ketut Liyer. Ketut is the medicine man that Elizabeth Gilbert befriended and was helped by in the novel Eat Pray Love. We were planning to leave Ubud that day and so we had to make sure we had enough time to see him and still check out by 11am. To be honest, I wasn’t so excited to go see the man. I had gone back and forth with the issue. At first I had wanted to go. I have always found people with special gifts to be fascinating and valid and had a strong feeling that Ketut was for real. (read more, it's long)

Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago.

7 comments

A couple more from the rice paddies

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by Mike

I guarantee you there will be more to come.

We’re still holed up in Ubud, home of Ketut from Eat Pray Love. Apparently it costs about $20 to visit him and have a spiritual consultation (I didn’t read the book, so I don’t really know what he does).

One of our friends from Colombia has joined us here in Ubud and the lady with whom he’s traveling has a well-worn copy of the book. She didn’t realize this was Ketut’s town until we told her, and now she’s not sure if she should go visit. We told her, “Uh, yes, you should.” You just HAPPEN to show up in Ubud and it just happens to be the home of one of the main characters in a book you love? Do it! It would be like visiting Paris without getting a spiritual reading from DJ Cam. Tragic!

(a picture of Mike)

Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago.

2 comments

Beneath the Trees

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A dangerous professional choice.

by Mike

Two immense trees tower over parts of the landscape in southeast Bali. In the evening, when it’s cool and beautiful, the trees are visible against the orange sky like temples on the horizon. They can be seen across emerald rice paddies where farmers work late into the evening; they’re visible to the farmers’ kids socializing on the street; they’re visible to duck herders, using long sticks and whooping noises to herd their frantic flock past the kids. All this happens on the road as it bends between rice paddies to the ocean. We set course for the trees.
(read more)

Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago.

9 comments