Jenna & Jason's Adventure Book: April 2010

We have determined that everything in Thailand is done out of good luck. We ask, "What do the different Buddha hand symbols mean?" Oh well you see that means good luck. "ah" we say. "What does it mean when you put the powder on our face for Songkran?" Oh well that means sometimes, well maybe I think you could say, good luck. "ah" we say. "What does the light fixture in the air mean?" Oh yes it is very nice and it could mean well yes it could be because of good luck. "ah" we say. "Why do they set off fireworks every night?" Oh well yes it is because of you and wishing you maybe good luck. Well yes you get the point, everything is good luck and it is a nice notion to think that everything means good luck and that because you were there right then you have the best of luck. I think we'll just go with it...but we probably could have been millionaires if we got a hundred dollars or a million baht every time we heard it!

Phuket was great! Especially when I got to see my friend Stephanie and share an amazing villa all to ourselves for a week! As soon as I got to the villa I called Jason and said he had to come - so we booked him a last minute ticket and he headed out there just in time for the Songkran Festival, the Thai water festival that is in celebration of their New Year. Steph and I had some time before he got there to see the Giant Buddha and of course I was feeling homesick for Singapore so we had to go to a few malls, one where I actually wished I could have registered there for our wedding and another one that had a spa where fish ate your toes! Well they actually eat the dead skin off your feet but it is the weirdest sensation.

Amanpuri Villa

Steph and I in the Adaman Sea at Maya Beach

Fishies eating our toes!

Sunset at Surin Beach

The Big Buddha - the largest Buddha in Asia and has been under construction for the past 5 years and is being built on donation alone. There were 3 construction workers working barefoot when we were there - it might be a long haul to get it finished.

This video is of me trying to keep it all together at the Big Buddha:

The Phuket weekend night market - they never seem to make anything taller then 5'4.

Green noodles...

Any takers for grasshoppers??? yum!

Whats a trip to Phuket without seeing Patong Beach

I had to kiss my food and wish it good luck before I ate it.

Tuk tuk!

We had a lot of fun on John Grey's Sea Canoe trip which we spent exploring miles of limestone caves and the natural beauty of the Andaman Sea. We even saw some jellyfish as we were swimming in the sea - always a good sign of good luck :) of course! The trip continued into the night, which was definitely one of the highlights as we made offerings, Katongs, out of palm leaves and flowers and sent them into the sea with a wish and maybe even some good luck.

I think it was after we took this picture that Jason had an incident with someone on the boat and with all seriousness looked at me and said, "I mean really do I look like a deck hand." I couldn't help but just look at him and laugh.

In the sea canoe at night with our Katong

Songkran, another super wet highlight, is basically a huge water fight in the streets. There is not a dry sole that escapes the day, well I think if you are a monk or pregnant you are excused, however we are neither of the above :). We were greeted by our villa staff at the beginning of the day with some blessed powder on our faces and a splash of cold water down our shirts. We ventured out into the city mid day in our rental car and got a good taste of the madness on the way in, or rather Jason subjected us to the madness early, check out this video:

The pictures will probably tell the rest of the story.

We loved Thailand and can't wait until we go back next week - next stop Chiang Mai!

We couldn't decide if we should name this post "Bali, the most amazing/fantastic place" or "Bali, the best place we have ever been" or "Bali, leaving us wanting more?" It was a toss up so we went with all three! Well the good news is after every horrid trip there is always a fantastic trip and Bali was just that, where as Tioman island we can quickly begin to forget. We booked this great trip with a few of our new Singapore friends, Katie, Quinn, Crystal, Merry and Fred! I feel like I should also add our driver as part of the group, Made. We grew to love his Sean Connery/Balinese accent as he took us all over town explaining things. He said he learned to speak English from watching movies and his favorite was James Bond, that explained it all...

So we haven't quite decided on how to show all 1200 of the photos we took and describe all the things we jammed packed into our week so we will do our "Best of Bali" and if you want to see the Full Bali trip in photos you will have to come to Singapore to view them!

So here goes...our week of Highlights in Ubud, Bali

The Villa Saraswati Staff :)

We arrived at our fantastic (I might use this word a lot in this post) 4 bedroom villa with a surprise welcome from our staff! Yes that's right not only did we have a 4 bedroom villa all to ourselves in this tiny yet wonderful town called Ubud but the villa came with staff. I mean I read the small print when I was booking but I didn't really expect there to be a whole staff just for us? It was amazing to say the least, not to mention that our room had two showers - an indoor and an outdoor one, I asked Jason if we could have an outdoor shower some day in SF, he said yes, I'm holding him to it even if its 20 degrees out! The first night we ate in and were blown away by our chef, Miss Made's cuisine! She made a Balinese style fish and fried duck...yum...I think we all took at least 20 photos of the presentation before sitting down to eat. I think I will insert some Bali facts here for the inquisitive mind:
Quoted from the one and only book, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert:

"There are only four names that the majority of the population give to their children, regardless of whether the baby is a boy or a girl. The names are Wayan (pronounced “Why-Ann”), Made (“mah-DAY”), Nyoman and Ketut. Translated, these names mean simply First, Second, Third and Fourth, and they connote birth order. If you have a fifth child, you start the name cycle all over again ... it’s totally possible (indeed, quite common) that two Wayans would marry each other. And then their firstborn would be named, of course: Wayan."

I'll let that one sink in a bit and move on to the next morning when we went off to explore the town of Ubud, a town in the middle of Bali that is best described as a mecca of artistic expression, or you better do art, make rice or get out.

We toured the windy, jungle streets that were dotted with one gallery after another and landed at the bottom where we found the Monkey Forest Sanctuary. Monkey's were the highlight for us but a little bit of a fright for others. These deceivingly cute long-tailed macaques were aggressive and it probably didn't help that when we entered the Forest they offered us bananas to feed them. No fewer then 2 seconds did they notice we had the bananas and were begging, tugging on Jason's pants, crawling up us to get them! This video will give you a good idea.

And some photos:

Hey got any bananas up there for me?

He must have been one of the smallest babies we saw, his eyes were still blue!

And maybe they could still smell the bananas on Jason after he had distributed them all or maybe its just that babies and animals will always love Jason (Or because he says he is the Beast Masta) but this little guy took a liking to him and crawled right up on him and began rolling his rock in his hand and checking him for bugs. It was pretty incredible and for a slight moment the monkey seemed cute and sweet.

This is by far my favorite monkey shot - I thought he was dead but no just relaxing

Another video of this secret river spot we found :):

After a long day with the monkey's we headed back to the villa to enjoy the pool and my outdoor shower :) Here is a picture of it!

Here are some photos from our trip to the Ubud marketplace and to another one of my highlights of the trip, meeting Ketut Liyer, the famous healer and medicine man. We got to practice our newly found skill of haggling at the marketplace and I got to pay $25 to hear my fortune read outloud in front of 20 tourists at an ancient, toothless but merry Balinese healer's house, and not only did I pay for that fortune but my friend Katie paid for that exact same fortune. Funny that he predicted we would both live until we were 100 and that our lips were both sweet as sugar and that we were VERY pretty, almost rehearsed on repeat over and over again. But alas, he was "VERY happy that we came to see him and he did tell me someone was VERY in love with me", but I predicted that before he read my palm.

Offerings that are everywhere in Ubud. They place them on the ground of storefronts too and sometimes they get stuck under your shoe...I hope that's not bad karma

Whats another country without a Vespa photo...

Ketut Liyer

Handmaking Jewelry

Another highlight of the trip was the bike ride we took with one of the locals, Wayan, across the rice paddies and little villages and a coffee plantation, where we drank the most expensive coffee in the world, kopi luwak, you have to check out what this is! It was an unforgettable 9 mile bike ride that seemed much longer considering the 90 degree humid heat, but truly a remarkable experience.

This darling old woman that allowed us to have breakfast at her house before our bike ride

Dad this ones for you! Take a look at that stone work!

Every stalk of rice is planted by hand one by one...makes you not want to waste one piece of rice ever again!

Two school girls telling their Mom about their day

Some locals along the way...

Women out in the fields

Here is a video of of me filming on the bike:

The last days were filled with temples, Balinese dancing and finding that perfect piece of art to take home to remind us of this fantastic journey. I think Jason had a hard time choosing which painting he liked most, ok I did too, which is probably why we ended up with 4 pieces of art! Our friends probably found the best deal in town when their art dealer decided that beer made art even better and popped open a few in the gallery with us!