Old posts from my very first travel website and my first backpacking trip (a year in 2000-2001)!

We both loved Indonesia. We did a lot in our 24 days, so this might be pretty long. Rice paddies, active volcanoes, and a perfect island paradise.

Did tons of shopping in Ubud, Bali where they had lots of great wood carvings and other art, and also took a meditation class. There are temples everywhere and offerings are made twice a day and are hard not to step on. The women all work very hard and carry heavy things on their heads while the men play cards. We saw some traditional dances, and fed the monkeys in the monkey forest. The food is good and easy to get vegetarian. We are now addicted to banana pancakes and Fanta orange. Steve has taken on true Indonesia style and now wears a sarong.

The Muslim wailing songs out of loudspeakers 5 times per day (incl 4am!) were something to get used to but now we love the sound. The Indonesian language has a lot of phonetic English words such as bisnis, eeksekutif, fotokopi, and taksi.

After Bali we went to Java to Borobudur (world’s largest Buddhist temple). The cities are crowded and full of pollution! We had certainly left the world of the flush toilet. They are either squat or sit, and flush with a ladle of water poured in. No toilet paper, and you can only guess what the locals use instead! We bring in our own.

The smaller buses are full sized vans and we have been on one with 25 people on it! They are literally hanging out the doors and even one guy no the roof!

Also went to a zoo on Java and as the only white people there, we were also one of the attractions.

Then back to Lovina, Bali - a lovely quiet beach town. Hung out w/ a local guy named Boby the whole time - went dancing, made a bonfire on the beach, and did the best snorkeling ever!

Then on to Gili Meno off of Lombok which is truly a spec of paradise. Met some great friends (Katerine and Jake) who we hung out with the whole time and stayed in a 3 dollar bungalow near the beach. Not many tourists and the locals are so friendly! We ate w/ one family and the guys from the hotel had a little birthday party for me with a cake and everything! I don’t know how anyone was able to make a cake since they seem to live in little shacks, but it was great. The electricity generators shut off at night and you have to use a lantern. We LOVED it!! The bathrooms here are certainly different. Most places don’t have hot water. Our Gili Meno place had salt water mixed with fresh water, so showering didn’t get us very clean and tasted funny. It’s not a good idea to drink any of the tap water which creates a problem - plastic drinking water bottles are everywhere. Most toilets don’t flush, but you’re provided with a basin of water and ladle (3 or 4 ladles will do the trick, more if you’ve just went number 2). Most bathrooms don’t have TP either so you need to bring some, or do like the locals and wipe with your non-shaking hand or use the little hose to spray yourself off like a bidet. Many places don’t have a shower head, so again the ladle comes in handy for bathing.Now we’re in Malaysia and it is way more citified and a little more expensive than Indonesia. We managed about 35 dollars a day for the two of us in Indonesia!