For those of you who have been dying to hear about my life, my update for January 2016 is juicy: I'm still single, I still don't have a 401k, and surprisingly despite these two things, I'm still alive.
You can stop reading here if you were only reading this to figure out if I had a 401k yet.
INDONESIA (honorable mention to Kuala Lumpur)
Kuala Lumpur for one night: Embarrassingly, we spent almost our entire time in Chili's making love to unlimited chips and salsa. Anyone who has lived in Asia for an extended amount of time understands this. There are restaurants that you would never consider going to in the USA that immediately become romanticized when you enter Asia. I'm pretty sure heaven is a place on earth (Taco Bell in Itaewon, Seoul). With that being said, we did later enjoy some amazing noodles in China Town, KL and saw a beautiful view at Sky Bar.
So, despite my blood lust for deep dish pizza, I decided to travel to Indonesia for the Christmas holiday instead of making the 22 hour long journey back to Chicago. The minute that I arrived in Kuta, Lombok, I knew that I had made the right choice. I had two solid travel buddies with me, which is always key.
One thing that I have learned over the past few years is that you might be best friends with someone in real life, but incompatible during travel life. The most important thing to remember about this is that it's OK to admit that you might not be the best travel compadres. Like most things in life, don't force travel friendships. Vacation is about you. Pick your travel buddies carefully.
Kuta
If you are traveling to Indonesia, Kuta, Lombok is a must stop (Note: do not confuse with Kuta, Bali). Kuta is in south Lombok and is a cute little surfer town with amazing restaurants, beautiful beaches, and miles and kilometers of motorbikable roads. We stayed in Kuta for four days and this was a perfect amount of time. Would I have liked to stay longer? Of course, but this is true of virtually every place I travel. We spent our days motorbiking around the island to find hidden coves to chow down on pineapple pops while adorable Indonesian children played tricks on us. Snackin' with ravenous flies was more bearable with this view:
Other notable occurrences:
-Went to Christmas Eve dinner at the Novotel and while we were disappointed with the food, we were impressed with the Indonesian Santa Claus who busted in on a horse carriage adorned with oh so classy LED lights.
-I went "kneeling awkwardly on a wet board for three seconds"/surfing for the first time. Surfing is one of those sports that I wish I would have been exposed to at a young age but it just wasn't in the cards for a middle of the USA kinda girl like me.
-Swam to ocean swings while drinking homemade palm wine
-Ate more gado gado than I thought was physically possible (also I never actually knew this food existed prior to my vacation, so there's that)
Spots to check out:
The Barrell It's seems like merely a small surf shop with a black wooden surfboard outside to alert you of its presence, but this is a Kuta gem. The staff is amazingly friendly and the surf lessons offered are top notch. If you go, ask for a dude named Aussie. He showed us around the island, took us to a hidden cove for palm wine after surfing, and helped us find motorbikes to ride around for all four days. He also hosts whiskey guitar parties in his front yard. If there was a Yelp for Kuta, this spot would be #1.
The Corner Cafe
This cute little shop has delicious green teas, unique gifts, and is a perfect atmosphere to write your next children's book for adults!
Surfer Bar
Kuta is one of those beach towns where there is usually only one main party per night and it switches between venues. Surfer bar is one of the best with cheap Bintangs, eccentric staff, and great reggae tunes.
Shipwrecked
This is the late night spot where everyone will inevitably end up after aforementioned main party.
Warung Mario's
We were drawn to this place with the promise of pina coladas out of a pineapple. Gimmicky and delicious! This place has an excellent fresh fish BBQ and super cool staff.
Krnk
This picture speaks for itself.
Sari Inn
Sari Inn was just a 15 minute walk from all of the Kuta night life action and was a quaint little hotel. They were accommodating and we essentially had our own two bedroom apartment for four days.
UP TO BALI
After Kuta, we met up with three of our Gaelic football buddies at a private villa to celebrate Christmas (I promise it's not as douchey as it sounds. Asia is cheap, come check it out for yourselves).
Here is how I spent my Christmas Day:
-Woke up to a tropical rain storm and took a van to the Lombok airport. The van even had bluetooth so Heather played some nice, dirty rap for our driver. He really loved the f word and throwing his hands up in the air like he just don't care. Let me tell you, listening to Nicki Minaj sing about her ass while local Indonesian ladies carry buckets of water on their heads is quite the juxtaposition of emotions.
-Indulged in a peppermint mocha at the Starbucks at the Bali airport (How am I supposed to feel like it's Christmas without sugar, chocolate, and brand names?)
-A Balinese man picked us up in his van and drove us about three hours to our villa. He was so accommodating and stopped for food, snacks, and even answered Heather every time she asked if "we were there yet."
-Drank Luwak poop coffee in the rice fields...poop in your coffee is expensive y'all
-Were greeted with massages by the ocean (thanks Alyson and Lynda for setting that up)
-Ate a giant Indonesian Christmas dinner and exchanged small gifts
-Watched the mother f'ing Lion King before bed
It was a Merry Christmas indeed. This is not to say that I didn't miss home. Being away from
Northern Bali is beautiful. Heather and I rode a motorbike to Sekumpul Waterfall on boxing day and it was stunning. Instead of words I will show you:
After Northern Bali, Heather and I headed down to Ubud AKA the Love part of Eat, Pray, Love (I only ever made it through the Eat part of that book, so I was in for a treat. Pretty sure my travel memoir would be titled Eat. Think about eating. Eat). Ubud was superb. It is full of loads of yoga studios, holistic health shops, dress shops, and more yoga studios. We stayed in Ubud for three days and I feel like it definitely wasn't enough time. It is a place that I could see myself living in for a long term stint.
If you are in in Ubud, you must:
-Hike up Mount Batur at sunrise and play with the monkeys. They can be a bit vicious, so be weary of those fools. One of them tried to steal my hat and attempted to slap me in the face. Make sure you catch those banana eaters on a good day.
-Eat at Clear Cafe. Excellent, healthy food and it's even endorsed by Michael Franti so you know it must be radical.
-Just shop around. Explore. Ubud is a chill, excellent place and I would recommend it to anyone. It is a bit touristy, but it's charm is undeniable.
Places to stay:
Sri Bungalows: It was an excellent life choice to stay here. Free breakfast, outstanding pool, and spacious air conditioned rooms. It is also close to an amazing cafe called Watercress. Check it out.
Ani's Villas: This spot was situated amongst the lush jungly area of Ubud and right below Clear Cafe. A double whammy. The pool was superb and had statues spitting out water so you know it's luxurious as hell.
GILI AIR (no notable mention to Gili T- which blows)
After we were full of green juice and a new sense of self (if there was a sarcastic font it would be used for that last sentence), Heather and I headed back down to the Gili Islands. We did this whole trip backwards, but as the youths are saying these days YOLO. We were driven to a tiny port town on the edge of Bali and waited in a never ending line of smelly backpackers to get on our fast boat. We arrived on Gili Air and met back up with Marianna who had been doing a diving course for three days. Thanks to Marianna, we had four new friends to hang out with and thank god, because I'm awful at making friends. We watched the sunset on bean bags at a chill bar called Mowie's (Mourie's?) and then had an amazing fish BBQ at a beach bar called Chill Out. The rest of the night was pretty hilarious and all of us somehow ended up at the giant house of the owner of half of the island. This is a family friendly blog so I am leaving out details. Contact me for more information.
The next day (New Year's Eve) we made a crucial mistake. We decided to try to go to Gili T for New Years. This is why it's important to do travel research. The island was no where as nice as Gili Air and it had 300% more idiotic backpackers wearing Native American headdresses . Luckily, my stunningly forgiving friends Sam and Bill met us there to add to our misery train. The prices on the island were jacked up as they knew how to capitalize on the stupid travelers who thought that Gili T would be a nice place to spend New Years (me). Despite our negative feelings towards Gili T, New Years Eve was a good time because of who we were with. I could probably be in a tank of fire ant snake hybrids with these humans and still have a good New Years. Alas, we were not in said fire snake tank, but at Sama Sama reggae bar. That place was legit, so if you happen to find yourself stranded on Gili T, go there.
After less than 24 hours, we took a boat back to Gili Air. We spent our last true night of vacation having a delicious meal on the beach with those friends that Marianna made for us ;) In the morning, we drank coffee and coconuts and smoothies and all the beverages at Scalywag's beach bar. One major perk of Gili Air is that you can snorkel directly off the island and you don't need no boat to take yo ass out further into sea, yo.
Once again, we were driven to the Lombok airport by a man who was blasting Bryan Adams and stopped to get us street fish satay. We drove down winding roads and swerved to avoid the hundreds of curious monkeys that just wanted some processed food provided by humans.
Reluctant and with about 50 new sarongs, we boarded a plane back to KL. We stayed the night at a hotel near the airport and got some much needed air conditioning and rest. When we got to the KL airport, we almost missed out flight because we couldn't stop eating our Nando's. Can you blame us?
What you should take from this entire blog post:
Go to Kuta, Lombok
Eat as much gado gado as possible
Never go to Gili T, stay on Gili Air, save yourselves!
Ubud is Uhmazing (that didn't work did it?)
What's a 401k?
Cheers my friends. If I haven't seen you in a month plus, I miss you.
If I see you on a daily basis, thanks for reading this thang.
IN OTHER NEWS, I ONLY HAVE FIVE MORE MONTHS LEFT IN ASIA!
BRB eating all the pho....
A few days ago, my wonder friend Sam Rivera sent me this article:
http://matadornetwork.com/change/dont-women-celebrate-travel-accomplishments-way-celebrate-engagements/
It discusses why our society should start recognizing the travel accomplishments of women instead of constantly praising engagements, marriages, and popping out miniature drunk adults. Don't get me wrong, I love when my friends get engaged--it means I get to go to a wedding and see people celebrate what it means to be encompassed by everlasting love (cough open bar cough). I can just relate to this article in a big way. I mean, the most Facebook likes that I have ever gotten on one picture came from a fake engagement photo my lovely co-worker Alex Tat posted on my behalf. I have seen so many amazing things during my travels, but people in my social media jungle were more excited about a fake ring on a fake finger next to a fake ocean. Give the article a read if, like me, traveling and being single is your jam.
Hen Gap Lai, loves.
