Thursday, May 27, 2010
getting back into the swing...
So I know I still need to continue the story that is Indonesia, however, I have taken some time away to get my butt back to the USA. I am home now and so far it's been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. Let's face it though; when is my life not in the state of dire confusion and emotional turmoil? Thank goodness for dear and life long friends to sweep me away and bring my crazy head some clarity. I love you guys. I will be sure to update more, I am trying to be strong in my commitment to let go and let God in certain aspects and let nature take it's course. You never know where the future will find you.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
"The life is best, we got it!" - Stampy
After a fun-filled weekend in the Gold Coast, which I would describe as a prettier Orlando, FL with outstanding beaches, I was dropped off at the Brisbane airport by the lovely Nicole Green to meet up with Tiffani and depart on a truly unplanned journey to Bali, Indonesia. We purchased our tickets on Easter Sunday and since that time I had been plagued with worry and feared I would never be able to convince my travel partner that we should take the easy way out and book an all-inclusive tour. I didn't want to risk things and end up failing. I was worried, mostly just wishing I had a good guide to set me straight and tell me if anyone was about to rob my blind (flashback to Madrid on my Europe trip 2006). But, of course, Tiffani is stubborn and truly had her heart set on us doing this solo. And so we did.
The flight was made better, ok, enhanced, by tremendous amounts of alcohol and a very interesting flight attendant who was a budding author. We read one of his short stories from his own personal laptop and together, reading paragraph by paragraph, Tiffani, our new friend Kane and I started a booze driven bond that would conveniently last the duration of the flight to Denpasar airport. About 5 hours of drinking really makes time fly and we got to know Kane and our flight attendant pretty well. Kane was there for the surf and his brother owned a hotel somewhere on the island. We never quite made it to contacting either of them again, but we did have our good intentions. The airport in Denpasar was stuffy and the signs proudly displayed in broken English made us laugh as we waited to pay for our visas and pass through customs. Most people came with surfboards and a few others were there to party. Many families, mostly Japanese and Australian were also in tow. We got through and were immediately hit with a wave of extreme heat, the calls of money changers, and a crowd of men in blue taxi driver suits as far as the eye could see. Haggling was in store for us, but remember we were a bit buzzed and very tired and quite overwhelmed. This was my first real experience in Asia.
The cab drive into Kuta left me stunned. I must say I wasn't as much surprised by the dirt, poverty, or clear inequalities I saw, but rather in huge juxtaposition of beautiful Hindu sculpture and a HardRock Cafe and a Starbucks. It sorta made me sick. Motorbikes are like a heavy cloud of flies darting next to our car and all the while Tiffani is chatting up our cabbie and getting the hang of some key phrases in Indonesian. I can't even think about that right now, I am too drawn to the vista outside my window. The beach looks grimy and here we are in Kuta. I was not sure if I would enjoy this place, it certainty wasn't the pristine beaches and jungles I had imagined. Or had I even imagined much at this point? I mean sure I had googled a few spots in Bali, but my main introduction to this country was from Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Eat, Pray, Love" and I don't think she ventured into the tourist shit-hole that is Kuta.
I definitely didn't nor haven't since wrote off this city. It has it's purpose and it's fun to be had. We found Wes, Tiffani's friend from OZ at the hotel down some alleyway and he hastily showed us our room before he ran off to some spa, never to be seen again. Well sorta, at least until the next day. Without knowing what to do, we grabbed some Bintang, the one and only beer served in Indonesia, and jumped into the pool. Why not? It was filled with about 7 dudes and no girls. We were still buzzed from the plane and I was on the verge of a breakdown when I saw we had no towels or real sheets in our hotel room (my bed affectionately had what I call the blood stain) and we had to pay for our own toilet paper. Sounds rough, but it was really a nicer version of a camp cabin. Plus we got mosquito netting on the windows, Score! In the pool we made some friends, or should I say Tiffani made the friends. I am not as good at striking up conversations as she is and luckily met many people because of her initial eagerness to learn as much as possible from fellow travelers. The boys from the pool, agreed to show us a good spot to eat, and before we had been in the pool for long it began pouring rain. The rainy season was not soon ending. We chilled out in the pool for a bit knowing we only had a cold shower to go back to in the room and then attempted to clean up a bit for dinner. I never really considered myself "clean" for the entire duration of the trip by the way
So within a few hours of leaving Australia, I had basically done just as my mother had warned me I would do. I drank profusely, had no real guide in Tiffani's friend Wes, and has jumped three deep on the back of a motorbike with a British dude who had never been to an orthodontist to arrive shakily at some random restaurant from which I definitely could not have walked back to the hotel despite the close proximity. Oh yeah, in the rain. Adventure here I come. I decided to embrace it all, even the strange chicken curry with bits of meat that were for all intents and purposes shady at best. Oh well. These boys were really nice, not at all threatening, and offering to show us a good time in this hole they had been living in for months. They were prisoners here, not able to get a flight back to England with the volcanic ash flooding the skies, but happy captives for sure. Surf, motorbike, eat, sleep, party and do it all for cheap. Indonesia was looking up.
The quote in the title comes from a quote written in our dresser in the hotel. "The life is best, We got it! Just an advice, don't put life ... "and something about living in the present. All by a dude named Stampy. AMAZING in the since that this guy was probably in a state of euphoria and his english suffered. It was amusing and more positive than the anonymous quote "get out of Kuta now, this place is shit" an opinion I really didn't understand until I saw more of the country.
More to come...
The flight was made better, ok, enhanced, by tremendous amounts of alcohol and a very interesting flight attendant who was a budding author. We read one of his short stories from his own personal laptop and together, reading paragraph by paragraph, Tiffani, our new friend Kane and I started a booze driven bond that would conveniently last the duration of the flight to Denpasar airport. About 5 hours of drinking really makes time fly and we got to know Kane and our flight attendant pretty well. Kane was there for the surf and his brother owned a hotel somewhere on the island. We never quite made it to contacting either of them again, but we did have our good intentions. The airport in Denpasar was stuffy and the signs proudly displayed in broken English made us laugh as we waited to pay for our visas and pass through customs. Most people came with surfboards and a few others were there to party. Many families, mostly Japanese and Australian were also in tow. We got through and were immediately hit with a wave of extreme heat, the calls of money changers, and a crowd of men in blue taxi driver suits as far as the eye could see. Haggling was in store for us, but remember we were a bit buzzed and very tired and quite overwhelmed. This was my first real experience in Asia.
The cab drive into Kuta left me stunned. I must say I wasn't as much surprised by the dirt, poverty, or clear inequalities I saw, but rather in huge juxtaposition of beautiful Hindu sculpture and a HardRock Cafe and a Starbucks. It sorta made me sick. Motorbikes are like a heavy cloud of flies darting next to our car and all the while Tiffani is chatting up our cabbie and getting the hang of some key phrases in Indonesian. I can't even think about that right now, I am too drawn to the vista outside my window. The beach looks grimy and here we are in Kuta. I was not sure if I would enjoy this place, it certainty wasn't the pristine beaches and jungles I had imagined. Or had I even imagined much at this point? I mean sure I had googled a few spots in Bali, but my main introduction to this country was from Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Eat, Pray, Love" and I don't think she ventured into the tourist shit-hole that is Kuta.
I definitely didn't nor haven't since wrote off this city. It has it's purpose and it's fun to be had. We found Wes, Tiffani's friend from OZ at the hotel down some alleyway and he hastily showed us our room before he ran off to some spa, never to be seen again. Well sorta, at least until the next day. Without knowing what to do, we grabbed some Bintang, the one and only beer served in Indonesia, and jumped into the pool. Why not? It was filled with about 7 dudes and no girls. We were still buzzed from the plane and I was on the verge of a breakdown when I saw we had no towels or real sheets in our hotel room (my bed affectionately had what I call the blood stain) and we had to pay for our own toilet paper. Sounds rough, but it was really a nicer version of a camp cabin. Plus we got mosquito netting on the windows, Score! In the pool we made some friends, or should I say Tiffani made the friends. I am not as good at striking up conversations as she is and luckily met many people because of her initial eagerness to learn as much as possible from fellow travelers. The boys from the pool, agreed to show us a good spot to eat, and before we had been in the pool for long it began pouring rain. The rainy season was not soon ending. We chilled out in the pool for a bit knowing we only had a cold shower to go back to in the room and then attempted to clean up a bit for dinner. I never really considered myself "clean" for the entire duration of the trip by the way
So within a few hours of leaving Australia, I had basically done just as my mother had warned me I would do. I drank profusely, had no real guide in Tiffani's friend Wes, and has jumped three deep on the back of a motorbike with a British dude who had never been to an orthodontist to arrive shakily at some random restaurant from which I definitely could not have walked back to the hotel despite the close proximity. Oh yeah, in the rain. Adventure here I come. I decided to embrace it all, even the strange chicken curry with bits of meat that were for all intents and purposes shady at best. Oh well. These boys were really nice, not at all threatening, and offering to show us a good time in this hole they had been living in for months. They were prisoners here, not able to get a flight back to England with the volcanic ash flooding the skies, but happy captives for sure. Surf, motorbike, eat, sleep, party and do it all for cheap. Indonesia was looking up.
The quote in the title comes from a quote written in our dresser in the hotel. "The life is best, We got it! Just an advice, don't put life ... "and something about living in the present. All by a dude named Stampy. AMAZING in the since that this guy was probably in a state of euphoria and his english suffered. It was amusing and more positive than the anonymous quote "get out of Kuta now, this place is shit" an opinion I really didn't understand until I saw more of the country.
More to come...
brief update on life
Hello again. I obviously have taken some time away from blogging, but for very good reason. I last wrote the week before I departed on a very impromptu journey to Indonesia. This journey, unlike much of my experiences in Australia, was very unstructured, I was not catered to, and it was all together a bit rough and in some cases more dangerously thrilling. I think the added discomfort that my parents refused to accept my travel plans made it all the more compelling of a destination (sorry mom and dad). I have taken a few weeks since my trip to get back into the swing of things here in Melbourne and reflect on everything slowly. I have a tendency to get over-excited when I first return from a trip and as much as I wanted to capture that enthusiasm in a blog post, I figured I should cool it a bit and see how the experience is retold after truly setting in.
So in the next few posts I will attempt to tell the story of Bali, Indonesia; the ups and downs, near downfalls of friendships, and near catastrophic motorbike endeavors. The friendships I made along the way are both astounding and unexpected. Basically, I found what I was looking for this semester, and it wasn't in Australia. Don't get me wrong, I am extremely blessed and thankful, but just as I am learning, from one of my favorite quotes "God hates control freaks," planning an external trip to have an internal effect is futile. God works in mysterious ways and that is something I truly learned. The purpose of this is that. It's never what we intend and things are always leading to the next domino down the road.
Well right now my controlling nature is getting the best of me and I am truly starting to dread home because of the uncertainty it brings. Where will I work?, who will still be in my life? Will I have lost many dear friendships? Will new ones take me completely by surprise? Will my family be happy to have me back, or ready for me to move on again? Where will I even be living? It's sorta up in the air at present. Maybe I should take my own advice and just let God take me where HeShe wants me to go. I feel renewed. My new spiritual high comes directly from travel that is true, but not all types of travel apparently. Independence and uncertainty and conquering fears seem to factor into it all. Australia has not been a place of real independence or growth, but I have learned a lot and led a privileged existence. I have learned the value of friendship and seen people come from near and far to recreate the magic of friendships that were forged less than a year ago at a camp far, far away. I have learned about immense generosity and met a multitude of lively and happy people. I have been humbled by the world's knowledge on politics, geography and culture. When a random Australian man who learned I am from Tampa Bay, FL comments about how I must be affected by the tragic oil spill in the Gulf, I am a bit taken aback. Would anyone in Tampa Bay, FL be able to comment or wish the same condolences if a similar tragedy occurred off the coast of Melbourne? I don't really think so. So here I am, one week till departure, feeling a bit confused and a bit guilty. Happy about Indonesia, confused about Australia, ready to move home, yet concerned, hoping that the bonds I have forged here are not in vain. Not sure if I will make it over to this side of the world again. I think I have a lot still to learn from this country and its people, but feel equally about many places. The U.S. is a strange fishbowl and I don't necessarily think we have it right.
To avoid another tangent I will simply say, the next few posts will be recapping my amazing experiences in Indonesia. However, it may be difficult not to continue commenting on the present as this is the lens through which I am reflecting and the existence I am chosing to live in, the now. I am feeling like I have things sorted out more than I had previously to my adventure. That's a definite plus right now :)
So in the next few posts I will attempt to tell the story of Bali, Indonesia; the ups and downs, near downfalls of friendships, and near catastrophic motorbike endeavors. The friendships I made along the way are both astounding and unexpected. Basically, I found what I was looking for this semester, and it wasn't in Australia. Don't get me wrong, I am extremely blessed and thankful, but just as I am learning, from one of my favorite quotes "God hates control freaks," planning an external trip to have an internal effect is futile. God works in mysterious ways and that is something I truly learned. The purpose of this is that. It's never what we intend and things are always leading to the next domino down the road.
Well right now my controlling nature is getting the best of me and I am truly starting to dread home because of the uncertainty it brings. Where will I work?, who will still be in my life? Will I have lost many dear friendships? Will new ones take me completely by surprise? Will my family be happy to have me back, or ready for me to move on again? Where will I even be living? It's sorta up in the air at present. Maybe I should take my own advice and just let God take me where HeShe wants me to go. I feel renewed. My new spiritual high comes directly from travel that is true, but not all types of travel apparently. Independence and uncertainty and conquering fears seem to factor into it all. Australia has not been a place of real independence or growth, but I have learned a lot and led a privileged existence. I have learned the value of friendship and seen people come from near and far to recreate the magic of friendships that were forged less than a year ago at a camp far, far away. I have learned about immense generosity and met a multitude of lively and happy people. I have been humbled by the world's knowledge on politics, geography and culture. When a random Australian man who learned I am from Tampa Bay, FL comments about how I must be affected by the tragic oil spill in the Gulf, I am a bit taken aback. Would anyone in Tampa Bay, FL be able to comment or wish the same condolences if a similar tragedy occurred off the coast of Melbourne? I don't really think so. So here I am, one week till departure, feeling a bit confused and a bit guilty. Happy about Indonesia, confused about Australia, ready to move home, yet concerned, hoping that the bonds I have forged here are not in vain. Not sure if I will make it over to this side of the world again. I think I have a lot still to learn from this country and its people, but feel equally about many places. The U.S. is a strange fishbowl and I don't necessarily think we have it right.
To avoid another tangent I will simply say, the next few posts will be recapping my amazing experiences in Indonesia. However, it may be difficult not to continue commenting on the present as this is the lens through which I am reflecting and the existence I am chosing to live in, the now. I am feeling like I have things sorted out more than I had previously to my adventure. That's a definite plus right now :)
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