Hope everyone had a very happy thanksgiving! We sure did. Eleven of our friends came over to celebrate. Some were skeptical about the holiday seeing as we celebrate a peaceful meal with the native Americans and then proceeded to slaughter them, but by the end of the night we had converted everyone to the amazing ness of the holiday. Hannah and I slaved all day over our 2 gas burners and minimal Utensils to make the meal. We made tempeh manis (a sweet soy sauce fried tempeh), stuffing consisting of bread ramen soup seasoning (closest we could get to veg soup stock) apple and shallots, green bean and carrot coconut milk casserole, and very garlicky mashed potatoes. We were able to purchase a phenomenal pumpkin pie at a bakery which was the most expensive part of the meal but crucial. Our friend gusti got 4 local bbqed chickens which came with heads and feet still attached. Hannah and I made him "carve" them up because they kind of freaked us out. They were a little dry for my taste but still cool to try something new. Since we didn't have plates we all ate on banana leaves with our fingers. I forced everyone to share what they were thankful for and it was really amazing what people had to say. And that was our celebration!
Our last week in Ubud was filled with lots of time with friends seeing live music and going out to our favorite late night place, cp lounge. During the day we would drive our motor bike through the country side and rice fields, lazily sip ice coffees at cafes in town with eccentric expats, haggle with the locals in the markets, so overall not too shabby. We had a huge meal with our good friends from France of many local dishes and I took photos and notes. I'm hoping I'll be able to recreate some dishes for all of you. We are both bummed to say goodbye to the magical world of Ubud and all our friends, but know we will be back one day.
On a side note Hannah and I realized just how scared of giant spiders we are. One appeared in our living room the size of my outstretched hand. It was black with big pincers and super fast. Hannah ran away to our room while I took a broom handle and tried to kill it. The spider was to fast though and started jumping so i turned heal and followed hannah's lead. We hadn't eaten dinner yet but both of us refused to leave the bedroom so we ordered delivery...who knew you could get delivery in Bali! We then proceeded to climb in and out of our window to retrieve said food and didn't realize quite how ridiculous we looked until the delivery boy asked what we were doing with a very confused look on his face.the next day we wearily went into the rest of the house and fortunately it was gone.
We are now in kuta, the most touristy area but close to the beach and airport. We have two days to get tan on the beach and soak up warmth before we leave on sat for china! We decided to go cheap to save money but so far it has been a brutal transition from private house to dingy, smelly, dirty hotel room that looks like it hasn't been cleaned in a few years. Oh the life of a backpacker. We are about 2 min walk to the beach though so cant complain too much.
Once were in china life will go to the fast lane. Hannah and I are attempting to go to 8 or 9 cities in china and Laos before seeing our friend spiro in Beijing for new years. Hoping to have some photos uploaded once in hong kong but will keep you updated. Much love to you!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Volcanic Sunrise
So yesterday morning Hannah and I hiked a volcano and watched the sunrise. Definitely the coolest most unbelievable thing we have done so far and possibly one of the top things I've done in life. We woke up at 2:30am after a night of tossing and turning and trying to sleep. The guide picked us up at 3am and then there was an hour drive to the mountain. We had two other people hiking with us, two cousins from France who turned out to be awesome. You hike the mountain which is bigger than mt. phylo (for those vermonters reading), but still not huge. It still kicked my butt on the way up and I have temporarily resolved to excercise more :) Anyway we there are pretty much two segments: one is just a steady walk upwards and then the second is a very steep straight up the mountain path on volcanic gravel that loves to slip out from under your feet when you are on the edge of a steep drop off. When we got to the top somehow the balinese built warungs (small shack like restaurants) on the top of the mountain. Our guide cooked us a breakfast of hardboiled eggs and fried banana sandwiches that we ate while sipping hot tea and watching the sunrise over Bali. It was breath taking. My pictures can even do it justice. There were huge fluffly clouds, a big pink sun, other volcanoes in the distance and a dense fog hovering over the land below making you feel like you are at mount olympus. I have to say it was also really nice to be a little cold for a bit on the top of the mountain, clearly I'm not meant for year round tropical climates. Our guy was a great guy always high fiving us and making awesome comments about how we are his "top guests" because our lack of complaining on the ascent. He liked us so much that he extended our hike to take us to see two more craters in the volcano. There were fissures that were hot and smoking and if you picked up a rock from them you could still here them crackling and hissing from the heat. Apparently you can also take and egg and bury it in the fissure and in 15 min. it will be hard boiled. We ate all of our eggs so we didn't have a chance to give it a whirl. The rest of the day was made up of naps and chilling, but i hope that we'll get to do some more hiking soon whether here or in china.
On a seperate note HAPPY early THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!! Hannah and I are hosting a thanksgiving dinner for 8 of our friends at our house tomorrow. It will be an interesting american balinese fusion of food, but we're excited about it even though we only have 1 wok and 1 frying pan to cook with! More to come of our celebration later. I hope you all have great thanksgivings and wish you the best!
Also I am thankful for all of you, for your support and love while i'm on this trip as well as you being a part of my journey through reading my blog.
Much much love
sarah
On a seperate note HAPPY early THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!! Hannah and I are hosting a thanksgiving dinner for 8 of our friends at our house tomorrow. It will be an interesting american balinese fusion of food, but we're excited about it even though we only have 1 wok and 1 frying pan to cook with! More to come of our celebration later. I hope you all have great thanksgivings and wish you the best!
Also I am thankful for all of you, for your support and love while i'm on this trip as well as you being a part of my journey through reading my blog.
Much much love
sarah
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
I'm in love with a little place called Ubud!
Hey everyone, so I know I haven't updated in awhile so I'll try to catch you up to speed.
We had a wonderful two weeks in Ubud. We met a couple from France and became close friends and are invited to France to see them. We also met an amazing local named gusti who we've become very close with. He grew up in Bali but went to university and lived in France for ten years. He is now back constructing his own houses to rent to tourists in the rice fields outside of Ubud. He is a great combo of western and Balinese living and has proved to be a great friend. We spent most of our time eating local food for cheap (you can get take out noodles in a paper folded into a cone) and doing the touristy things like seeing the museums, gardens, monkey forest and traditional dance.
After that we left for the "farm" to be there for the remaining month of our time in Bali working in exchange for food and housing. Turns out it was much more of an organic garden at a hotel than a farm. It is also monsoon season now sorbets weren't any guests. We decided that a week of being alone, in the middle of nowhere, and weeding and cleaning the hotel were not what we wanted. The owner and food were definitely highlights though. The owner is margret. She is originally from Germany but has been, studied and taught all over the world. She has a very German manner which took some getting used to but became a good friend over the week. She understood and was ok with us leaving and continues to be in touch, especially to ask Hannah questions of how to use her MacBook :) the food was incredible there and the local chef, Made (ma-day), dictated some recipes for me so hopefully I'll be able to recreate them.
Now we are once again in Ubud and loving it. It is an interesting balance of local culture, night life and yoga/meditation (which is completely tourist run because the Balinese don't do yoga). We've rented a house outside of town for 17$ a night total!!! And a motorbike to get around for 2.50$ a day total!!! We've settled into our place and love being able to have groceries and have our own space. Gusto hooked us up with everything. The place was normally 25$ per night and the bike 3.50$ per day but he talked the locals down for us. He also helped us clean the house because it was a little messy and taught to ride the bike. We've also made friends with one of the only good bands in Ubud and are seeing them again tonight. Were planning on signing up for yoga today, hiking a volcano soon, snorkeling at a shipwreck, and having a day at the spa for 25$ including massage, seasalt scrub, floral bath, pedicure and waxing for a total of 4 hours. Pretty sweet. The fruit juices are incredible and we have a new one everyday! Were also putting together our own thanksgiving. Gusti and the band are attending. Gusti is going to cook a chicken or duck and we haven't decided on the rest. Anyway should be fun!
Well love you all and will write more soon!
We had a wonderful two weeks in Ubud. We met a couple from France and became close friends and are invited to France to see them. We also met an amazing local named gusti who we've become very close with. He grew up in Bali but went to university and lived in France for ten years. He is now back constructing his own houses to rent to tourists in the rice fields outside of Ubud. He is a great combo of western and Balinese living and has proved to be a great friend. We spent most of our time eating local food for cheap (you can get take out noodles in a paper folded into a cone) and doing the touristy things like seeing the museums, gardens, monkey forest and traditional dance.
After that we left for the "farm" to be there for the remaining month of our time in Bali working in exchange for food and housing. Turns out it was much more of an organic garden at a hotel than a farm. It is also monsoon season now sorbets weren't any guests. We decided that a week of being alone, in the middle of nowhere, and weeding and cleaning the hotel were not what we wanted. The owner and food were definitely highlights though. The owner is margret. She is originally from Germany but has been, studied and taught all over the world. She has a very German manner which took some getting used to but became a good friend over the week. She understood and was ok with us leaving and continues to be in touch, especially to ask Hannah questions of how to use her MacBook :) the food was incredible there and the local chef, Made (ma-day), dictated some recipes for me so hopefully I'll be able to recreate them.
Now we are once again in Ubud and loving it. It is an interesting balance of local culture, night life and yoga/meditation (which is completely tourist run because the Balinese don't do yoga). We've rented a house outside of town for 17$ a night total!!! And a motorbike to get around for 2.50$ a day total!!! We've settled into our place and love being able to have groceries and have our own space. Gusto hooked us up with everything. The place was normally 25$ per night and the bike 3.50$ per day but he talked the locals down for us. He also helped us clean the house because it was a little messy and taught to ride the bike. We've also made friends with one of the only good bands in Ubud and are seeing them again tonight. Were planning on signing up for yoga today, hiking a volcano soon, snorkeling at a shipwreck, and having a day at the spa for 25$ including massage, seasalt scrub, floral bath, pedicure and waxing for a total of 4 hours. Pretty sweet. The fruit juices are incredible and we have a new one everyday! Were also putting together our own thanksgiving. Gusti and the band are attending. Gusti is going to cook a chicken or duck and we haven't decided on the rest. Anyway should be fun!
Well love you all and will write more soon!
Monday, November 14, 2011
attempting photos
Ok hey everyone so I just spent 20min.s spending money to try to put up photos and it just isn't working. I'm officially waiting until Hong Kong, because it is just too frustrating. I'm going to write a whole bunch in a min. but am going to go go free internet.
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