It ends up that the longer we stayed somewhere the harder it was to leave. The staff at our homestay became our second family while we were away and we "wasted" our days there spending time with them learning about there culture and explaining ours. In the Balinese culture, family is everything, which explains why the guys asked "Why get married if you aren't having kids? That's the whole point!" Also, several generations of family all live together in the same family compound. It's considered a blessing to be born as the youngest son because he automatically assumes the responsibility of caring for his parents his whole life and inheriting the family compound. Also, when the boys marry, the wife moves into the family compound. This cycle repeats itself until grandparents, parents, and children all live together working together to care for each other. Its very common to see a grandmother shopping in a market with a basket on her head and a baby in her arms. So the idea of kids moving out at 18 seems crazy to them, and they asked, "But then who will take care of the parents?"
When it was finally time to Nusa Lembongan, we were lucky enough to head back to the place it all began... with Mikael and Brahma. Even though their homestay was completely booked, they opened up their "special" guest room just for us. They were also like our family as they invited us to eat at their house with them and watch them cook all the fabulous Balinese food. We spent the last two days of our trip talking and eating with them. Their generous hospitality is beyond words.
It was interesting returning to the same place we started our trip at because we are somehow different, changed, so to say. There has been a connection formed with the people of Bali and those who go there. It is the most special place on the earth (that we know of so far). The people there have the sweetest souls you can imagine and open your mind to change.
As we return home, we prepared ourselves for the adjustment back to "our world". Although there are a few things we have missed, like our bed and clean water, there are so many thing we now know we can live without. This experience has put life into perspective and we feel so blessed to have realized what is really important to us. Although a 6 week trip is by far an indulgence, we hope that our blog has introduced this other world to you and that it inspires you to go somewhere and learn something you never thought possible.
We're working on posting pictures, there's over 500 and we hope to have them up in the next couple days.
Adam & Heather
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
A few more days of paradise...
The last 5 days have been jam packed with new adventures here on Nusa Lembongan. Besides the fact that N.L. is very much like what Bali would still be like is no tourists ever came, it also has the perfect mixture of young travellers and funky villages gathered on the seashore.
A few days ago we awoke with ambitions of walking around the entire island, thinking somehow it must be as small as the guidebook makes it sound. About 4 hours and 8 miles later, we were looking at the happy tourists riding their scooters around, asking ourselves, why the hell didn't WE think of that! :) Adam looked like he had rubbed himself down with coconut oil (AKA sweat & sunscreen & humidity). He was so hot he ventured into the water where local villiages were loading cows into boats with no ramps- quite a spectacle- and quite brave of Adam! Along the way we were offered the opportunity to in with a local farmer on his peanut and tapioca garden, which we politely declined explaining that we've killed every garden we've ever planted. He understood.
The next day was filled with ocean adventures and Adams 100th scuba dive! Yeh! We spent the rest of the day lounging around the dive shop and pool with new found friends. Since arriving to Indonesia, we had yet to spend more than 4 or 5 nights (at the very most) in one place, so we've really enjoyed spending time in one place and find you meet many more people that way too! We went to dinner with a Canadian couple who have been living in Australia for 3 years and a solo traveler from Geremany, how adventurous! After several Bintangs and lots of laughter, it's been decided we're going to Austrailia! (No not this trip, we wish!)
Today we sang "Born to be Wild" as we drove our hot rod scooter around the island. Nusa Lembongan is also connected by an old, rickety, wooden suspention bridge to another island. So of course, we felt the need to cross this bridge on a death defying act of courage, but obviously not Heathers courage. Actually, Adam was very proud of Heathers courage, let alone the fact that she even got on the back of the thing! Although we had a blast scooting around the islands, the wierdest, or maybe scariest part, was that it actually felt completely normal to drive on the left side of the paths (aka road). I think we've been here a little too long!
Okay, time to return our Hog and have a Bintang while the sun goes down over Bali... rough life, but someones gatta do it.
A few days ago we awoke with ambitions of walking around the entire island, thinking somehow it must be as small as the guidebook makes it sound. About 4 hours and 8 miles later, we were looking at the happy tourists riding their scooters around, asking ourselves, why the hell didn't WE think of that! :) Adam looked like he had rubbed himself down with coconut oil (AKA sweat & sunscreen & humidity). He was so hot he ventured into the water where local villiages were loading cows into boats with no ramps- quite a spectacle- and quite brave of Adam! Along the way we were offered the opportunity to in with a local farmer on his peanut and tapioca garden, which we politely declined explaining that we've killed every garden we've ever planted. He understood.
The next day was filled with ocean adventures and Adams 100th scuba dive! Yeh! We spent the rest of the day lounging around the dive shop and pool with new found friends. Since arriving to Indonesia, we had yet to spend more than 4 or 5 nights (at the very most) in one place, so we've really enjoyed spending time in one place and find you meet many more people that way too! We went to dinner with a Canadian couple who have been living in Australia for 3 years and a solo traveler from Geremany, how adventurous! After several Bintangs and lots of laughter, it's been decided we're going to Austrailia! (No not this trip, we wish!)
Today we sang "Born to be Wild" as we drove our hot rod scooter around the island. Nusa Lembongan is also connected by an old, rickety, wooden suspention bridge to another island. So of course, we felt the need to cross this bridge on a death defying act of courage, but obviously not Heathers courage. Actually, Adam was very proud of Heathers courage, let alone the fact that she even got on the back of the thing! Although we had a blast scooting around the islands, the wierdest, or maybe scariest part, was that it actually felt completely normal to drive on the left side of the paths (aka road). I think we've been here a little too long!
Okay, time to return our Hog and have a Bintang while the sun goes down over Bali... rough life, but someones gatta do it.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Still Traveling...
We moved on to Tulemban, a smaller village up the east coast of Bali, totally devoted 100% to diving. We stayed at a nice little dive shop with a great cafe. The room was our cheapest to date, a whopping $8. The next morning we dove the USS Liberty, a ship that was intentionally run aground after being torpedoed by the Japanese during WWII. When a volcano erupted in the 60's in threw the ship into the water and broke it in half. Alright enough history. So we dove the wreck, which was simply amazing. It was in Adam's Top 2 dives ever and it was Heathers deepest (90 feet) and one of her favorite dives to date. There was literally hundreds of thousands of fish and coral covering every inch of the wreck. We even managed to find pygmy seahorses which are only about a 1/4 inch big and apparently very rare.
After leaving Tulemban we headed south to Sanur for 2 nights. We found a cute little homestay that was near the harbor. Our first night was a full moon and the tide was unusually low. The water dropped at least 10 feet leaving no where to swim. We still managed to work on our tan though and Heather is officially now brown. No longer ghost white! (AMAZINGLY, SHE CAN TAN!)
We took an island hopper boat over to Nusa Lembongan, a small island off of the coast of Bali. It is a lot like the Gili Islands, as there are no motor vehicles and the pace of life is slower here than on Bali, which is what we really like. The natives of the island make their living harvesting sea weed which they then sell to be used in ice cream as an emulsifier. Everywhere we look people have seaweed spread out on tarps drying. It is very cool. Our room here is a cute little dive hotel run by a fantastic staff. One of the guys speaks very good English and likes to joke with us a lot. He says his name is Jack but somehow we highly doubt it. Every time Adam calls him Jack, "Jack" erupts in laughter. We plan on doing some more diving next week in hopes of seeing the elusive Mola Mola. They can grow up to 14 feet tall and only come to these waters once a year. Very big fishies.
We've really found our groove of traveling abroad and think that next time we'll be able to do it even cheaper... and maybe longer too. We can't believe how fast time has flown by! We've already been here more than a month and the thought of coming back to reality is beginning to set in... shucks! Although, we are beginning to miss everyone back home just a bit, we really miss Belly Dog! :)
12 days to go...
After leaving Tulemban we headed south to Sanur for 2 nights. We found a cute little homestay that was near the harbor. Our first night was a full moon and the tide was unusually low. The water dropped at least 10 feet leaving no where to swim. We still managed to work on our tan though and Heather is officially now brown. No longer ghost white! (AMAZINGLY, SHE CAN TAN!)
We took an island hopper boat over to Nusa Lembongan, a small island off of the coast of Bali. It is a lot like the Gili Islands, as there are no motor vehicles and the pace of life is slower here than on Bali, which is what we really like. The natives of the island make their living harvesting sea weed which they then sell to be used in ice cream as an emulsifier. Everywhere we look people have seaweed spread out on tarps drying. It is very cool. Our room here is a cute little dive hotel run by a fantastic staff. One of the guys speaks very good English and likes to joke with us a lot. He says his name is Jack but somehow we highly doubt it. Every time Adam calls him Jack, "Jack" erupts in laughter. We plan on doing some more diving next week in hopes of seeing the elusive Mola Mola. They can grow up to 14 feet tall and only come to these waters once a year. Very big fishies.
We've really found our groove of traveling abroad and think that next time we'll be able to do it even cheaper... and maybe longer too. We can't believe how fast time has flown by! We've already been here more than a month and the thought of coming back to reality is beginning to set in... shucks! Although, we are beginning to miss everyone back home just a bit, we really miss Belly Dog! :)
12 days to go...
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