Hey everyone! Well I just arrived in Bali last night! We almost didn't make it out of the airport because the visa is one whole page in your passport and Brittney didn't have enough space. She didn't realize how full it was and the customs never told her. So, we had to pay off the boss at customs to put the visa over other stamps in her passport- $50. Another customs agent that we first spoke to was charging $200. Lame. Apparently, it is very illegal to do it. I guess if you have enough money you can do anything.
Today we have walked around just a little bit and it's already my favorite place. We are in Ubud right now. It is the town where the woman in the book Eat Pray Love stayed in. It is amazing. Our home-stay looks like a temple- for real. When we arrived last night the town was experiencing a black-out. There was no lights anywhere. We had to walk down this dark alley that was so narrow only one person could walk through at a time. I am a tad afraid of the dark. Just a little... AND I have seen far too many scary movies that start out where girls do stupid things in the dark. I was picturing very bad things until I saw the sign of our place through the moonlight and knew we probably weren't going to die. We walked up to this counter and this guy popped out of the darkness and said welcome. We made it. He brought us candles for our room and we chilled and laughed about it all. The power came on a couple hours later. I guess it happens once a week because of the lack of energy in Indonesia. Cities switch off being without power every evening for about 5 hours. Tomorrow I am going on a cycling tour thingy to see the surrounding country-side. Yeah!
More about Thailand...
Thailand was an amazing place. It was paradise on the islands and the food was SUPER cheap! I had most of my meals including a fresh mango shake for $1-$2. The food we had in Bangkok was not impressive, but everywhere else was great!To me, pad thai was impressive anywhere! We ate mostly on the street at little outdoor food stands along the beach. You could find them everywhere. Depending on your lifestyle choices, you can make Thailand cheap or expensive. All of the places we went to were very touristy. I'm sure there are areas and islands that are more secluded but we didn't have time to find them- or money to get there. In Phuket (one of the most popular islands) we saw the sex industry in Thailand first hand. It was really sad and annoying. There are so many dirty old men who come to Thailand to find Thai women. At most businesses there would be a group of girls waiting to be picked up from the foreigners. We didn't even want to go to the bars there because it was full of Thai women looking for work. There were a lot of transvestites/ trans-gender men who were dressed like women. It was quite entertaining to try to figure out if they were male or female. The markets and shopping in general was a little overwhelming on the islands. The workers were very aggressive in selling and would even grab your arm to get you to come into their store. They were harmless, but it was annoying. We had to be rude and not answer their questions as we walked by or they would harass us to buy something. The funniest thing was they would ask us if we were shopping as we were... shopping. We started making up different things like " No, we are swimming." ha.
So, overall Thailand was great! I had a wonderful time! I think my favorite day was on Phi Phi Lay. We took a boat from the island Phi Phi and went to the island. It is a national park, so it is uninhabited. Our driver took us all around the small island. On the island the movies "The Beach" and "James Bond" were filmed. We went to a small secluded beach and hung-out for a while, went snorkeling, and swimming. I can't even describe how beautiful it was. I wish I could have taken you all with me. The total cost for the day was $7 each. I would have paid $100.
Time to explore Ubud.
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