lembongan island and THAILAND

we made it!

first off, we had a whirlwind final day of adventures with the motorbike boys.. we ate lunch overlooking some rice fields up the side of a volcano... and then stopped to boat to this temple in teh middle of a lake.. except 100,000 rupiah (10 bucks) and 40 mins later after renting our paddle boat to go "rafting" we landed on the shore of the temple.. which was basically next to the road that we would later drive down. whatever. the boat was amuzing at the least. and i guess we can say we paddled a traditional balinese boat. awesome! then we stopped off on the side of the road..and being two white girls.. these men come up to us offering to be our tour guide. we said we didnt need one.. but they wouldnt let us down the path without one. luckily jenna used some good bartering skills to get our tour down to 8 bucks... basically we paid him 8 dollars to carry our bags and point and say look! kopi (coffee) and vanilla! and paper plant! we still werent too sure of where this path was headed and then we get to these beautiful twin waterfalls... and we get to swim in them and swing across on a rope! yea! pretty cool! and worth it. as we kept driving to the other side of bali to see the hot springs, one of the boys decided they wanted to stay on the other side of the island.. so jenna and i pulled together our resources to ride the bembo home to kuta... aka the only form of public transportation in bali.. it was special and this crazy old man sat basically on my lap trying to speak indonesian to me.. i kept showing him my wedding ring on my finger since i thought he was saying single?? but he didnt really get it...maybe he was trying to say something else. i think i spoke more indonesian than he spoke english. it was our most authentic experience for sure, and although i cant say that i really enjoyed it... in a way i did because we were by far the only people that resembled anything white on teh bus and we really got to see how some of the ppl travel around.. not stopping at any marked stops.. school kids getting off the bembo...and so on.

the next day we headed to lembongan island of the southeast coast of mainland bali. the ride over was not so smooth..and i forgot how motion sick i get. luckily i made it in one piece and it was well worth it. we pull up to lembongan where were staying in a "resort" for big bucks... 15 each a night. theres a line of straw huts lining the beach where the seaweed farmers live.. and when i say huts, i mean huts. they might have two rooms, one being the entrance and im sure over half of them definitely did not have electricity. but who needs it when you have such an amazing view?! we walked down the beach to our resort.. and its pretty nice.. with a pool on the sand and a little bar.. our room was equiped with lots of bugs, a fan, and running cold water only. perfect! but really... it was! we relaxed all day laying by the beach/pool and then went on a little walk along the top of the island where the mangrove forest is.. (we skimped on the 1.50 boat tour through it) and we observed the simplest life we have ever seen. every few houses has a cow and a rooster or chicken runnign around.. maybe the neighbor has a mangie looking dog. and there is seaweed laying out everywhere to dry in the sun. at night.. we headed down a few 'resorts' where we saw a sign for the state of origin game (australian big rugby game) between queensland and new south wales.. we made a friend with our vip pulled up table next to the bar sipping on our cocktails out of a mini pineapple.. laela from coolangatta.. very close to where i lived in australia.. awesome! so we talked all night with her and friend robot who was from lembongan... we talked foot, colored, played hair... and o yes.. laela is 5. she told us more than anyone else about that island too cuz she lived there for a while and was going to school with the balinese kids for a few months... how awesome!

the next day we were greeted nice and early by the kooing of roosters from every angle.. some sounding like they were on their last koo of life but they kept going until the sun was waaay waay up. so we got up pretty early and decided we could walk to the other end of the island.. i think we got kinda sorta lost covering territory im sure only about 5 other white ppl may have been too.. but it was nice.. good scenery and building a nice tan. we found the yellow suspension bridge that leads to the next small island (where laela and the otehrs go to school.. she drives her motor bike there cuz all teh other kids get to too) adn we follow the signs to dream beach... we detoured at this underground house where this guy was hiding for many years of his life.. very crazy intricate underground world.. where i couldnt live.. i could only be down there a few mins before i ran for the first exit i saw. o yes. we had to pay for a tour of that too.. even tho no one went down with us. eh. we continued through the little town and ended up on sunset beach naturally because that wasnt where we were headed.. but it was cool.. crazy powerful waves crashing down and bright blues in the water... we then jumped over a wall, swung around a tree, trekked through a few shrubs and an open field before we got to the dream beach resort.. where laela had told us the turtles are.. she was right! that beach was nice too.. adn then we managed to find a shorter way back... the sun was just about setting and since there are no sarongs for sale on the island.. teh boat men come up and ask you if you want to go snorkeling or a tow out to the surf.. the reef kept the water on the beach calm and the waves were about 400 m out... so i bartered with this guy to go snorkely ..adn he took jenna and i out for 10 bucks.. and let me tell you it was worth every cent of that 5 bucks and the 25 for the mediore snorkeling before.. the reef was awesome and the fish even more amazing.. angel fish and bright color ones ive never seen before.. and a parrot fish that couldve eaten me in one gulp! he was at least 3 ft.. soooo cool!!! so we watched the sunset on our boat adn went in slow.. just how it is in bali :)

this morning we had to get up early to catch the public ferry back.. cuz it is 5 bucks vs the 27 for a private speed boat.. but no worries... the roosters were well at it again. the ride back was much better adn faster.. we got back to sanur where we spent the first few nights and had one last authentic lunch on the street for 50 cents.. a bit spicy and really delicious and unidentifiable.. and then we went to mcDs for 20 cent ice cream cone on our hunt for the post office.. we finally found it and they only took cash. so we had to carry our crap to thailand with us today! o well.

and now were at our hostel in bangkok.. its pretty nice for the 9 bucks a night or whatever it may be... we walked down the road a bit and had some pork and sticky rice from a street cart for 110 baht for both of us.. o bahts are way fun... we are going to get reallly good at converting in 3's.. 34 bahts=1 usd. so 100 baht is pretty much 3 bucks. and then we had a tiger beer for 90 bahts at the happy beer garden watching ppl in the street..we found some markets and walked through.. the people still hastle you like bali.. but in a different way..and here everything is knock off desinger.. so if you want a fake ed hardy shirt, or a purse, or tiffanys.. let me know! and theres men trying to get you to see ping pong shows.. i dont think they mean table tennis... it was nice to see a freeway and ramps and cars for a change.. although i cant read a street sign here if my life depends on it.. every once in a while theres an english translation underneath.. but for the most part.. thai has reallly pretty swirly cool looking letters that mean absolutely nothing to me. tomorrow we will explore more! and soon i reckon well be off to phuket and the islands.. we've heard lots of good things about them! because every white person we talked to in bali had alraedy been to thailand.. guess we went backwards. oops!