10.13.10 - 10.20.10: Bali

Once again I'm afraid I have been remiss in reporting my adventures here on the other side of the globe. In my defense, internet access in Bali was not the best. But other than that I really have no excuses other than pure sloth. My week in Bali was filled with more gorgeous beaches, volcano vistas, and amazing sunsets. But the highligh by far was the diving. I decided that since I would be in Bali by myself, and I had heard really good things about the diving there, that I would continue my learning experience in diving and take my advanced open water course. So I booked myself at a hotel right next to the beach on a little island off the coast of the Balinese mainland called Nusa Lembognan. I'm feeling a bit guilty for not getting off that little island and seeing more of Bali, but at the same time I saw so many beautiful things under the water that I could not possibly be dissappointed. On the first day after I arrived, my dive instructor was not there yet as she had gotten held up with some troubles obtaining a visa in Singapore, so I decided to go for a snorkel. The first site we went to was on the corner of the island, unsheltered by other land. The wind was high that day so the waves were choppy, and there was a fairly strong current as well, but I jumped off the boat in my snorkel and fins and dutifully followed my divemaster and fellow students, watching them from above as they descended and swam off. I decided to follow them for a bit, as it is a little unnerving to be by yourself floating around in the open ocean, so I swam above them for a while, and suddenly, without any warning, there underneath me maybe 7 meters down was a beautiful manta ray, gliding effortlessly through the water. It was huge! I stopped swimming where I was and just looked down on it as it floated underneath me, swimming off into the darkness of the deeper waters. I couldn't believe my luck...I only had to founder and gag down salt water for about 5 minutes before seeing a manta! After that I struggled and flopped around for a few more minutes before giving up and heading back to the boat. The water was too choppy and the visibility too poor to prolong the agony of constantly choking on sea water. So I opted for tanning on the roof of the boat until the rest of the group got back. I was rewarded for my prude decision, however, with the next site we went to. It was called Crystal Bay, and it was aptly named. The water was clear and still, and as it was a beautiful sunny day the visibility was great. The coral was so beautiful; it streched as far as the eye could see on all sides, bright reds and purples. blues, yellows and greens. I have never seen anything like it. The rest of my week of diving was much the same, although I didn't see any other mantas. I learned how to navigate with a compass underwater (and believe me I am no Magellan), and I also had the opportunity to take pictures underwater, which I will certainly post when I get back. I had a beautiful little room at the hotel, right next to the restaurant and overlooking the beach. Every morning I would wake up to find offerings and incense laid out on my balcony and the sun coming up from the east making the water glow a soft blue. In the evenings I could sit on the balcony with a book and a beer, and watch the sun set over the ocean. In short, I could have spent a month in Bali and not wanted to leave, and in fact next time I am in this part of the world I think I will do just that. I didn't leave Lembognan, so there is so much that I missed, but I really enjoyed my time there. I even got to see the running up to a cock fight...where the contenders show their birds to eachother and see which one gets his feathers all ruffeled up and looks very fierce, and then people place preliminary bets. I was told there that cock-fighting is so popular, that the men will come and wager almost a year's salary on the chance to win. One really does notice the prodigious number of roosters on the island, because they make it nearly impossible to sleep past dawn; they are very noisy animals. I of course had no desire to watch them peck eachother to death, so I did not come back for the real thing. Balinese architecture is also quite a site to behold, but I didn't take any pictures because I felt really weird taking photos of people's houses and their family shrines. I'm sure people probably do it all the time but it seemed a little bit invasive, so I have to be content with my own memory. On my list of things to do when I go back is to hike the volcanoes, visit the temples in the mountains and to see more manta rays! It was a really beautiful week, although it did culminate in a 10 hour layover in Korea, which I could not leave the airport for because I had by accident packed my sweater and was in only a t-shirt and I was freezing. After that I was on to Hawaii! More about that later...

10.4.10 - Leaving Bangkok

I can't believe that I'm coiming to the end of my stay in Thailand! How do two months go by so quickly?? I think it's the amazing company, the great food, and the copious amounts of shopping that has sped time up. In fact, time went by so quickly, that I over-stayed my visa entry allowance by 18 days. When I realized this, I made a trip to immigration, thinking that it would be a quick fix. I would pay the exorbanant fee that was brought on by nothing but my own stupidity and irresponsibility (so I really couldn't be mad about it), buy a proper visa, and extend my stay in Thailand a few weeks. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I could only obtain a 7 day visa after over-staying as I had, and that in order to obtain a 15 day visa, I needed to leave the country. Immediately. Because they charge 500 baht for each day that you stay over in their country. This is how they trap all the drunken Westerners who come here to blow their pension on cheap beer and cute girls. I am not one of those. I am just impossibly irresponsible for no good reason sometimes. Anyways, so from the immigration office, I had no choice but to get a taxi to the bus station, and hop on the next bus to Cambodia. After a 5.5 hour ride, I arrive at the border, and after a quite expensive hour I make it through customs and back again, catching a taxi back to the bus station just in time to make the last bus back to Bangkok. The ride home didn't take quite as long, but all together what started out as a 2 hour errand turned into a 15 hour day trip to another country. And as I was standing on the other side of the Cambodia border, I reached into my purse for my camera to document the fact that indeed I was there, even if it was only for 10 minutes, and my battery was dead. Of course.
I'm so sad to be leaving Bangkok. I had gotten used to spending a lot of time alone, but now that I've been hanging out with friends all the time, I remembered how wonderful it is to share traveling with someone. I mean, when you're alone, you have no one to laugh with at your blunders, and no one to commit them with either! I've eased my anxiety by booking my stay in Bali and am going to continue with diving and get my advanced open water certification. I've also booked my first five days in Hawaii and I'm starting to get really excited about it :) The faster time moves, the closer I am to returning to the States and to real life...that part is not so easy to get excited about, but I'm working on it.
That's it for now...more later, from Bali!