You take the high road & I'll take the low road: Day 1

Day 1: Glasgow to Lochailort
Our "noon" arrival on Thursday was hindered by some flight delays - first in a long series of 'em - and we got into Glasgow at about 5pm. We had booked a premium, manual transmission car, but we had an automatic transmission, heavy looking Mercedes waiting for us. No dice - this trip is for the roads! The employee at Enterprise was lovely and got us quickly sorted out with a little Ford Fiesta - their zippy upgraded line, the SL(?) version - that Andrew seemed cool with. As he was want to say over the course of the trip, "it's more fun to drive a slow car, fast, than to drive a fast car, slow." Sure, Anj. Whatever you say. And away we went.

While sunshine had greeted us in the airport, the day quickly degraded to drizzle - ah well, we're in Scotland; whaddaya expect? That was the first half hour of our trip... and that was the last rain we saw in the UK! As we got out of the Glasgow suburbs and into Loch Lomond National Park we glanced right over the Loch and saw a spectacular rainbow! We had to drive a bit further before coming upon an appropriate stop off place for the car, but it was one hell of a welcome to Scotland.

Andrew & the Rainbow - Loch Lomond, Scotland

Onward we traveled til we finally hit the start of the Highlands. And what a welcome.

Welcome

Our trusty steed

Our first cairn

Munros

We stopped in Glencoe for dinner and had some incredible seafood. Even the pubs have unbelievable views here:

View from the pub parking lot. I mean, really?

Views AND humor

Back on the road to drive through Fort William to Glenfinnan, home of the viaduct (perhaps) best known for ferrying students aboard the Hogwarts Express:

No scarlet steam engine today

 I had visions of taking a ferry to the Isle of Skye the next day, but I wasn't really sure what time we'd want to hop on, so I didn't book the trip. Instead, I just made sure that our B&B was nearby and figured we'd wing it. Oops. Remember when I mentioned earlier that driving trips in June in Scotland aren't exactly an original pasttime? Yeah, every ferry was booked. Note for the next time: book ferry weeks in advance. So we hung out at the bar at the Lochailort Inn where we were staying and realized we'd have to take the long way around - back east to Fort William and then north through Invergarry and the Kyle of Lochalsh in order to take the land bridge onto Skye. Good thing that only added about 2.5 hours to our drive.

Anyway, the bar tender was super cool and the beds were clean and the beer was cold, so an additional 2.5 hours of driving the next day didn't seem SO awful, especially considering the countryside we were in. So off to bed I went, blessing the cool for allowing us to keep the windows closed and the midges out, and slept beautifully.

So you want to go to the Scottish Highlands?

A few months back, I stumbled upon a spectacular flight deal: $300 round-trip flights from Newark to Birmingham, UK. My brother, Andrew, works too hard and I sprang the idea of a British road trip on him to get him away from the grind. He bit, but said he'd be really interested in driving through the Scottish Highlands. Welcome to the Moran sibling road trip, 2018 edition!

Initial research took me to the nascent North Coast 500 website. It's a tourist draw: a 500 mile loop of scenic highways through the Highlands, beginning and ending in Inverness, Scotland. My early stage planning had us driving up through Britain - routed through the Peak District and Lake District on the way North and through the North Pennines and Yorkshire Dales on the trip South. Because I frequently attempt to fit 10 pounds of potatoes into a 5 pound sack, however, I only booked our flights for a 4 day trip (three full days, two half days) - arriving Thursday at noon, leaving Monday in the early evening. Some honest conversations made me realize that the 1700 mile journey I was busy planning was just not practical. Or even desirable, considering how little of the journey between Birmingham and Scotland would actually be spent in natural splendor. So puddle jumper flights to Glasgow were booked, a rental car was scheduled, and our journey was shrunk to a much more manageable 1100 miles!

Drive planning:

While a large chunk of our journey was comprised of a large chunk of the NC500 loop, far more of it was off-track. For one, a quick Google search on the best places to drive in Scotland will include the Isle of Skye at nearly the top of every list. Obviously we couldn't miss that. Glencoe, in the west, was also frequently cited as a can't-miss. Neither of those were on the NC500 route (though Skye is darn close to it), so our northerly route didn't join up with the NC500 until Friday in Strathcarron. Additionally, we really had no firm plans besides where we'd rest our heads. My research indicated that we're not the only ones who think a driving tour of Scotland in early June would be lovely, so we weren't about to risk no vacancy signs at every B&B on the route. Rooms booked, a rental car booked, and the map up above were all the planning we (ahem, I) did.

The general shape of the trip was:
Glasgow to Lochailort on Day 1. On to Skye for Day 2, joining up with the NC 500 in Applecross, overnight in Gairloch. Day 3 cover the rest of the west coast and head around the northern tip in John O'Groats, stay in Helmsdale. Continue south past Loch Ness, through the Cairngorms, and overnight in Dunblane (about halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh) to wrap up Day 4. Day 5, take the long way back to Glasgow through the Trossachs (final taste of those sweet, curvy roads) and head back to the states.

It mostly worked out that way. Except that we detoured to Ireland and Iceland on the way home. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Prambanan and the beginning of the end

Bobby's driver friend, Agus, is a chipper morning person. He chatted with us the entire hour ride to Prambanan Temple in the morning, and I hardly remember what we discussed. I am not a morning person.

Because we left Bobby's at around 6:30am, we were at Prambanan in plenty of time to savor it for a few hours. We made plans to return to Agus by 10am so we had a 60 minute window in which to travel the handful of kilometers to the airport (in case of traffic) and still get there with a two hour window. Not to get ahead of myself, but it only did take 15 mins to get to the airport.

Prambanan is fabulous, and we might have loved it even more than Borobudur. For one, it's easier to take in from ground level; the multi-layer, traveling-through-the-cosmos approach wasn't used for Prambanan (probably because it's a Hindu temple, as opposed to Buddhist). For another, it's set up as separate structures in a common compound, so it's far easier to navigate around swarms of people. "Prambanan Temple" is actually 240 separate temples, all in one site! Since neither Steve nor I are particularly fond of large crowds, and since we had spent the better part of the previous morning dodging 6th graders wanting selfies, we were very pleased to be able to mill about with more flexibility than had the temple been one large structure as was Borobudur. Not least, I think it's pretty cool that the largest Hindu temple complex in Indonesia isn't on the Hindu-majority island of Bali, but, rather, is on Java!

Prambanan Temple 

So we spent lots of time traipsing about the grounds, snapping photos and generally reveling in the fact that we were in Indonesia. Because it still hadn't set in and we were practically on our way out the door. 

Steve

Me

Volcano

Inside Prambanan

There were three other temples nearby inside the "park," if you will: Sewu, Bubrah, and Lumbung. It's incredible that these structures built in the 8th century have survived the volcanoes, typhoons, and earthquakes that ravage the Ring of Fire, but there you go. Really cool fact: Sewu, Bubrah, and Lumbung are actually all Buddhist temples, but are part of the larger Prambanan complex! Just goes to show that religions can peacefully cohabitate. 

Sewu Temple

Sewu Temple

After a few hours of meandering, we decided it was time to head back to Agus. We made our way out through the shopping area. We've noticed that all the temples are set up with a large complex of stalls as the exit. Great way to get tourists to buy things, but they're also accessible from the outside so that the temples can serve as the local markets, as well. We stopped and picked up some tchotchkes to bring back home. Agus scooted us off to the airport in record time and we started to wrap our heads around the trip ending. We were headed to Jakarta and would be flying back home in less than 24 hours.

We hit our first and only snag of the trip when we landed in Jakarta. I'm actually really glad to be writing this after a 3 week cooling off period because we were both STEAMING mad. We had decided to fly to Jakarta in the afternoon rather than the evening in order to be absolutely certain we'd catch our international flights. There had been some late night options which would have allowed us to spend the whole day exploring Yogyakarta and then only have maybe 4 hours in the airport before catching our flights home. I nixed that plans out of paranoia about flight delays and a desire to get a solid night's sleep. Since the Tokyo leg was due to take off at 6am, I wanted to get a solid night's sleep and not feel like a complete bag of... potatoes... on the leg home (24+ hours of daytime). So the plan was going smoothly until we arrived at the airport and discovered that our airport hotel, the one which advertised itself as being located INSIDE THE AIRPORT, was actually a 35 minute drive away. NOT in the airport. And there aren't any payphones at the Jakarta airport, and apparently the Information desk people can't make phone calls for you, so we were stumbling around like assholes trying to get my phone, which we had successfully NOT used the whole trip, to make an international call. It was an absolute nightmare. I think I've suppressed it because I frankly can't remember how we finally connected with the airport shuttle from the hotel except that we had already waited for more than an hour (and apparently he had too, because we were told to wait on floor 2 and he was on floor 3). Ugh.

So anyway, we take this bumpy-ass car ride to a hotel that's located a half hour away from the airport (so we'll have to wake up extra early to get there on time instead of being able to maximize sleep, as planned, and we all know how well I operate on not-enough sleep), get checked in, and find cockroaches in our room. I don't mind mice (until they poop on my cooking surfaces), I don't mind ants, I don't mind dog hair being all over my life. But I cannot do cockroaches, ESPECIALLY when I've been successfully living in random Airbnbs for a week and a half without them and suddenly the overpriced hotel that IS NOT INSIDE THE AIRPORT has roaches. So we're trying to explain to the guy at the front desk what was wrong with the room and he seems to just think we're having room key trouble so he sends along another guy to help us get in, and now Steve is steamed, and I'm suddenly having to be the voice of reason telling him that translating cockroach into English is probably pretty tricky and using the internet to do some of that work for me and FINALLY we get it across to them. So they're super apologetic and we figure well eff it, we're staying. So we get a new room, acknowledge to ourselves that at least 3/4 of our frustration is actually hanger, and head down to the hotel bar to have some dinner. It was the worst meal we had during our trip, but when we asked for a check they explained that they'd comped the expense due to our troubles. So that was very sweet. The poor server was pretty nervous all through our meal which we belatedly realized was because he was expecting us to be dicks because we were mad about the roaches. So then we felt like dicks. Anyway, went for a swim in the pool on the roof and watched a pretty spectacular sunset. We had it all to ourselves and, after all the bullshit, it turned out to be not such a bad way to spend our last sunset in Indonesia. And really, as far as travel snafus go, this one wasn't so bad. 

A lovely photo Steve took of Prambanan, because this should all end on a positive note

Our trip back to the airport wasn't so bad. The front desk guy suggested we leave at 3am(!!!!!!) to be sure we would get to the airport in plenty of time. We were seriously struggling to believe that we needed to leave that much of a cushion to make it there safely, but I wasn't about to doubt the guy and then miss our flight. There was a nasty thunderstorm raging when we woke up, and the poor doorman had to go out and physically flag down a cab in the rain. Our driver must've thought he was on a tryout for NASCAR or something, because we made it to the airport in a flash. No issues with security meant that we were there and ready to go with plenty of time to kill. All the flying we'd been doing meant that I was able to finish 6.5 books during the trip, so that last morning, waiting for our flight, was no different. Besides Steve almost murdering the guy next to him on the flight from Tokyo to Newark (he was a leg jiggler and I thought Steve's head was going to explode), the trip home was unremarkable. First trip to Asia is in the books.

So this is what being a celebrity is like

We woke up bright and early to get to Borobudur Temple on Saturday, and left the property at 6:15. Plan was for us to visit the temple for as long as we wished, use the free wifi there to send Bobby a message saying we had finished, and he'd come collect us. The trip to the temple took about 10 minutes and the sun was just settling low in the sky. An interesting quirk: there are two lines for visitors. One for domestic travelers, one for international. I believe at least part of this is because domestic visitors pay less, but I have to say our line was MUCH shorter! We were able to buy our tickets as a discounted deal by getting a two-temple pass which would also allow us to visit Prambanan the next day and save a few bucks in the process.

As we got inside, we quickly discovered that we were among a very small handful of western tourists, and a VERY large group of student tourists. Kids from age 5 or 6 through high school aged, clearly on school trips and all wearing matching tee shirts from their various groups. Considering how many kids (we're talking THOUSANDS of kids, all on bus trips, all visiting this massive temple complex) there were, it was a good call by all those various schools. Anyway, as we had discovered on South Bali when we met the college kids in Nusa Dua the day we rented a scooter, Indonesian kids are really psyched to have some native English speakers to practice on. Since they all start taking English in grade school, they're quite proficient, and they all want to just say hello and giggle at our accents. So we're walking into the temple complex, built in the 9th century and the LARGEST BUDDHIST TEMPLE IN THE WORLD, and there are kids everywhere. There are these beautifully manicured gardens, and there's a massive staircase you've gotta climb to get up to it, and then the whole thing is set up as a trek through Buddhist cosmology, moving steadily up through to enlightenment. So it's a series of square layers, topped by circular layers, topped by a dome. We're slowly approaching, doing our tourist thing, and some kids come up, giggling, and ask to take photos with us. We're so pleased because the little critters are so excited, as only middle schoolers who are slightly nervous can be. So en route up the stairs we're probably stopped 5-6 times by various groups of kiddos. When we get up the first giant staircase to get to the ground level of the temple itself, we swung around to the south facing wall, which looked less populated, and climbed from there.

Celebrities

Borobudur Temple from the ground

Relief on Borobudur

 The structure is unbelievably massive. You can hardly fit the whole thing into a camera frame. But we made our way around and slowly up to the circular layers which are covered with these giant domes that look like latticed bells just sitting on the ground. They're called stupa. Each stupa houses its own Buddha statue, and they overlook stunning views. If you Google Borobudur Temple, the stupa are probably what you'll see. As such, the stupa are where all the crowds go for picture taking. Including the kiddos. And by the time we got up to the stupa layers of the temple, they were all wide awake and no longer shy about asking for pictures. When I tell you that we were each asked to take over 100 photos with various folks - mostly kids, but not entirely - it is not an exaggeration. We had so much fun!!! They were so excited, I kept feeling like Bradley Cooper making my way through the site. We kept saying to each other "are you sure they don't think you're famous?" because we were so inundated with photo requests. We eventually agreed to stop making eye contact with people because that at least slowed the tide of requests! Our cheeks burned from all the smiling, but it was such a blast because every person would light up when we said yes like we had just made their whole day. It was a very cool feeling, but it was VERY tiring. There was another couple, Australian by their accents, and they were such jerks that it made us feel even better about being nice. They were rude to the kids and kept griping about how they were going to have to edit out all the people from their photos - um, sorry that the most-visited tourist site in Indonesia hasn't accommodated your Instagram habit well enough. Rude.

Stupa... inside each is a Buddha statue

Stupa are very large

Volcano AND stupa

Anyway, we had tons of fun snapping selfies with the other tourists, but the sun was a'coming and it was getting hot. We decided to roll out and wander the grounds a bit, and then go grab some food in town - it was nearly 10am by that point, so we'd been wandering a while. There was a fried chicken shop nearby that we decided to check out and someone had very casually left an owl tethered to their motorbike outside. Just hanging out on the handles. #casual. After some nosh, we wandered down a side street in the direction of a massage parlor that Google seemed to think existed (it didn't) and past the local Catholic church! They had very kindly left a mass schedule on the bulletin board along with whether the mass would be said in Javanese or Indonesian. There was a 6 o'clock mass scheduled in Javanese, so I made a mental note and we headed back towards the temple. Being so close to the end of the trip, we were pretty well exhausted at this point. Despite the afternoon downtime during the rainstorm the previous afternoon, we decided to replicate it and spend another low key day at Bobby's place. That porch was just too inviting to pass up, and it's not every day that I can enjoy the sounds of wild parrots and glance up from my kindle to see a volcano, so we went for it. Bobby had offered to do a tour of the village he lives in, and to go see a coffee plantation, but we weren't totally sure how to decline graciously (not least because it was going to cost like $25USD each), so we decided that our best bet was to just totally exhaust ourselves by walking the few kilometers home!

Middle schoolers

Who am I to turn down a selfie with this adorable little person?

So we set out. And we've barely made it a quarter mile down the road before Seo, Bobby's girlfriend, pulls up on a scooter and starts rapid-fire apologizing to us because she thinks we've been abandoned by our drivers! We try to explain to her that we've CHOSEN to walk back, that we WANT to walk back, but she's not hearing it. So she scuttles back 50 yards or so to a shop to chat with a guy who looks like he might be one of the scooter dudes who's been driving us around (you can't really chit chat on a scooter - too much wind noise when there's already a language barrier). We chase her, emphatically promise that we're not too tired to walk, that it's not too hot, that we're seriously just dumb bunnies and WANT to walk all that way. So she looks at us pretty skeptically and agrees. It was so so sweet, she was absolutely convinced we were just trying to be polite. So she lets us go, we continue walking along, and about 15 minutes later Bobby rolls up on a scooter with another dude in tow. Apparently Seo didn't believe us :) so we tell him that seriously we're good, he laughs at us for being silly white people out wandering in the freaking hot sun, and says he'll see us back at the house. They are seriously such sweethearts.

So anyway, we dumb dumbs continued walking and only stopped at a little corner store to pick up an ice cream cone and some water, and to reapply sunscreen so we didn't become silly lobster people. Made it back only to realize that Bobby was still going to feed us breakfast! We had forgotten that breakfast was included in the stay, and Bobby didn't disappoint. All kinds of fresh fruit, pineapple pancakes, hot tea, cold water, these little rice balls with chicken and coconut that had been steamed in banana leaves and were SO tasty. Man was it good. And, having already eaten fried chicken, man were we full! It made it really easy to head back to the bungalow, shower, and settle into vegetating. Or that was the plan. I made it as far as the hammock chair on the front porch before I passed out. For two hours. Oops.

The day before, when Steve left to pick up the dinner noodles and I hung out in the breakfast area, we returned to find two little pots of spices on a tray, along with a note explaining that they were freshly ground spice blends that are used in traditional Javanese spa treatments. Just add water, use it as a body scrub all over, and rinse! I had been too invested in my book the day before to try it out, but post-hammock nap, and still stinking from our temple explorations and long journey home, it seemed like prime time to do so. Honestly, it smelled like I was rubbing gingerbread spice mix all over my body - there was lots of cloves and cinnamon and ginger smells going on, and it made my skin feel as smooth as butter. Apparently it was originally used before Javanese princesses would get married and I can see why! Smelling freshly of delicious spice mix, I went to coordinate transit to get to mass. Steve said he'd join me before he napped, but I managed to forget that in my actual conversation with Bobby. So we decided that I'd fly solo to mass, we'd plan to eat dinner at a restaurant just down the road from church, and Steve would meet me there. Then we'd both head back to Bobby's together. I really do need to work on my listening skills.

Borobudur's Catholic Church

Mass was gorgeous. The church band was made up of traditional Indonesian instruments including the gamelan, a percussion instrument that is a bit like ringing a bell by tapping it with a pickax. The church choir sang hymns that were unlike any I've ever heard - mass was definitely true to following the customs of the local population! When M&D and I traveled around in Northern Italy back when I was in college, we went to a mass together in Italian and muddled along with the mass parts. Trying to do it solo, in a language that bears NO resemblance to English (at least that I can tell), was tricky. But Jesus and I spent some time chatting while I didn't know what was going on, and I left feeling great about having gone. Mass ran a bit longer than it does at home so I didn't get out til 7:15 or so. I scooted to get to the restaurant where I was due to meet Steve and as I was walking realized that he could, possibly, maybe, be concerned about my having disappeared in Indonesia without a means of contacting him. Apparently the church left its doors open during mass, so when he drove by it looked like we had already let out for the evening. So he was understandably panicked when I arrived. We quickly worked out the confusion, clarified that I had not been kidnapped by roving bands of school children, and enjoyed a really lovely dinner.

Back at Bobby's, we made plans for the following morning. Bobby had found us a driver who was willing to wait while we explored Prambanan Temple and would then drive us to the airport (which is only about 10km from the temple!). It would be another early morning, so we shot for another early to bed evening.

On to Java

Friday dawned bright and clear and I apologized for being an insufferable twat the night before. Steve forgave me and was happy to spend the rest of the day calling me Grumpy or Crankypants, so everyone won. He was also happy to eat the fancy breakfast that my Hilton status earned us fo' free. It came along with a cupcake, frosted, and had a little "thank you for being a Diamond member" flag. Cute.

Breakfast was a speedy affair and we headed to the airport on the free shuttle. We had been told that we only needed to arrive an hour early for a domestic flight, but we shot to get there an hour and a half ahead... All the traffic we've dealt with has made us paranoid. The check in line was long and slow, but security is SO fast that it hardly mattered. We still had to sit around waiting to board for 45 minutes. Boarding consists of walking out onto the tarmac from the gate  and just meandering to the plane. There seemed to be a government jet next to us, as it was cordoned off and had Indonesian Republic and the flag plastered on the side. That said, this trip has definitely enhanced my awareness of the ways that American litigiousness (and paranoia about violence) has shaped the way we do nearly everything - including board airplanes.  Bali had a bombing in 2002 that rocked the little island, but their way of living doesn't seem to have changed (based on conversation with Dina and others) anywhere near the way we have since 9/11 at home.

Flight went smoothly, we got a taxi at the airport without hiccups, and made our way to Borobudur. Our taxi driver wasn't chatty, but when the roadway to our Airbnb was closed he had to communicate. Google maps has been a lifesaver this trip and it helped us out again. Before I left home, I downloaded maps that could be used offline, including to get driving directions, with no need to use data. The maps just can't take into account traffic if used without data. So I whipped out my phone and got us to the stay...which seemed to be in the middle of some rice fields. Umm...?

We wandered around the corner a bit and finally found the place, and I've gotta say it was lovely. Beautiful, well maintained gardens spread throughout the guest bungalows that were for rent. Bobby, our host, was so boisterous in welcoming us and getting us settled in. The sky had impending rain clouds but he helped us get sorted out with takeout food (Steve ran with the guy on a motor bike, I held down the fort), brought us afternoon tea, and generally supported us laying low. It was so what we needed. Steve and motor bike guy had barely returned with lunch when the skies opened up. It poured for hours, with long rumbles of thunder and sharp lightning over the fields. We cuddled up on the porch with books and wiled the afternoon away. When the skies cleared a bit around 5 we went for a stroll through the teeny tiny village we were in. It took about an hour and then we were happy to get back and do more vegetating. Bobby swung by to make plans for the next day - the price of our stay included one round trip motor bike ride to the temple - and we pretty much called it a night. We planned to leave at 6am to get the early morning light at Borobudur Temple without paying the extra $10 bucks a pop for the "sunrise" tickets that open up at 4:30am. We didn't even eat dinner, just hit the hay early and enjoyed listening to the storms as they rolled through during the night. We also managed to set the A/C properly so we slept comfortably this time!

View during our stroll

View from Bobby's garden

The side of Bobby's house

Our Bungalow at Bobby's

The porch of our bungalow, complete with hammock chair!

Rice terraces and a half day tour - Central Bali

Neither of us slept well, for the dumbest reason: the A/C was too cold. And like two dumb dumbs, neither of us turned it off. I got up and put on my raincoat and slept in that for half the night, because that seemed practical to half-asleep Kate. I never claimed to be particularly smart. Anyway, the two of us being tired and cranky really didn't set us up for a great day, but then Bali still gave us one.

Wayan (the young and energetic one) met us for a rice terrace trek at 9am. That was good because we had time to get up and apply bug spray before heading out and since we didn't have any coffee/tea that was more of a process than it might have been. The silent guy who followed along behind Wayan did so again for the trek. It was so beautiful. Lush, green, and filled with information about the types of rice they grow and how they do it. We met several farmers along the way, and really enjoyed seeing the terrace we had observed from our house to close and personal. You basically had to be a mountain goat to make it along the pathway without looking like a nincompoop, but we were well equipped with bamboo walking sticks and those palm leaf, cone-shaped hats that the rice farmers wear. It worked out well and the hats were clutch for keeping us cool. 

The whole thing was upbeat until the last 5 minutes when Wayan suddenly froze on the pathway and said "stop!" in a very nervous tone. He pointed to a little green snake that was poking its head out of the greenery and told us it was a green Mamba and had to be killed. Silent guy swept into action using Wayan's walking stick to whack the little critter to death. Wayan was clearly shaken up and was very much in the "live and let live" camp, but also had to acknowledge the practicalities of living on a rice terrace - venemous snakes that left us alone might not do the same for the farmers that work there every day. It wasn't a happy note to end our trek, but it sure gave us an authentic taste of the way folks live here.

The tiny restaurant next to our house was open after the trek, so we headed that way for a blunch overlooking the terraces. The food was stupendous and the best part was the banana fritters and ice cream we had for dessert! We had about two hours to eat, shower, pack, and go to be on time for our 1pm pick up from Dina to get some of the sights in and head to Denpasar for our flight to Yogyakarta in the evening (*a note about pronunciation: jog-juh is what everyone calls Yogyakarta. It's rarely called by the full name, and you see it spelled with Y, J, and even Dj, but everyone leaves off the extra "karta" at the end).

Dina was prompt and we got rolling on our grand tour. Because we hadn't realized how long it takes to travel any distance in Bali by car when we planned the trip, we wanted to get in a few of the sites we had assumed we'd easily be able to see already. Before we left Dina and Ketut's warung the previous night, we laid out a basic plan of action for our tour and travel to Denpasar. We definitely wanted to see Tanah Lot, a Temple on the Western coast, a bit north of the big beach towns of Canggu, Seminyak, and Kuta. We definitely wanted to see Goa Gajah, the Elephant Cave. We definitely wanted to see the Sacred Monkey Forest. Everything else was gravy. Dina suggested we check out Pura Tirta Empul (Pura just means Temple), located just north of Tegalalong, where our rice terrace is. Then we'd head south twards Ubud to Goa Gajah and the Sacred Monkey Forest (practically around the corner from each other) and then we would still make it to Tanah Lot for sunset if all went well. Away we went!

Dina is Hindu and his English is fabulous so going to Tirta Empul ended up being an incredible experience. The temple itself is dedicated  to Sacred waters that flow from a natural spring there. Dina brought offerings for the temple so he was able to get in for free to worship, and he was so patient, explaining the layout of the temple compound (three parts, meant to help worshipers move physically towards holiness as they move mentally towards holiness through prayer), the history of the temple (basically Wishnu had to kick a bad Balinese king's ass because he had decided the people should worship him and then he killed a bunch of minor gods when they came down to try and stop him by poisoning them with the water at Tirta Empul. Wishnu not only cleaned the water after nixing the king, but he also blessed it so that each of the spouts of water imparts a different blessing to those who wash in them - everything from improving your memory and getting blessings for building a new home to washing your soul and forgetting the bad things that other people have said to you), and helping us to know how we could respectfully take in the experience without accidentally offending anyone. It was invaluable. Plus, the water was so clean and clear that we drank some and washed our faces (who doesn't want blessings that help us to stay mentally grounded?!). Other folks hopped all the way into the bathing area to wash under each spigot. People were mostly respectful, but I guess you can go anywhere in the world and find people taking glamour shots of themselves in sacred spaces. In short: touring with Dina was already a good idea.

Next up: Goa Gajah. The temple itself is only a few years old (some portions were built as recently as 2015), but the cave itself dates to around 900 AD. We walked in and sort of got suckered into having a tour guide take us around for what ended up being ten bucks, but he was funny and the cost of upkeep is all through those donations and the $2.50 or so that it costs to get in, so it was probably a good thing. The guy is from the highest caste here, for holy people. Brahman I think it's called. Wayan had explained during our terrace trek that even though Balinese follow a caste system, it's not socially rigid the way it still is in India (despite attempts to dismantle it). So our guide has been studying and living by Goa Gajah since 1991, and sounds like he spends a lot of time meditating. He explained that the cave originated as a school, a place to learn to meditate in the darkness of the earth. Inside were niches cut into the walls where folks would meditate for hours or days at a time. Because the site is such a popular destination, you can only meditate on the floor now, but it's open 24hrs a day for practice. He said that there are always students on hand, so twice a week he sleeps at the temple to help other worshippers. It was fascinating. There was also a Buddhist temple on the same grounds until the '60s, or thereabouts, when a huge earthquake leveled it. Apparently it was something to behold, and the rubble has been left there to commemorate what once was. Our guide was a bit long winded and Dina was checking his watch an awful lot, so we wrapped up and headed towards the Sacred Monkey Forest.

As we were driving, Steve and I briefly discussed skipping it in order to ensure our arrival at Tanah Lot before the sunset. Fortunately, Steve nipped that plan in the bud and we proceeded according to plan. And thank goodness we did!

My pal Bruce, from Elmira, had warned me about the Sacred Monkey Forest. When he was in Indonesia back in the '70s, he went there and said he had never been more frightened in his life. He said the monkeys were vicious and aggressive, and he was just happy to leave without being bitten. I mulled over whether that meant it was skippable but ultimately decided we should give it a whirl - things had likely changed since the '70s. They definitely have. It's a little like walking into Sea World, and costs probably as much (something like $40 per person, a ridiculously expensive admission price for Indonesia). Everything is clean, the ticket counter is very modern, and the decor looks like it came out of a hotel. There are also large signs with instructions for interaction with the monkeys that include tips like "don't make eye contact or smile with teeth" because those are signs of aggression, "don't feed them snacks" besides the bananas and sweet potatoes that are available inside, and "don't scream if a monkey jumps on you." Cool cool. We had 40 minutes before we were due to meet Dina outside, so we got hopping.

The area is sacred because of the temple located inside the forest, but it's a tourist trap because of the monkeys. And the place is TEEMING with monkeys. There are pathways around the area for visitors to stroll along, and the little critters popped up out of nowhere. We first saw monkeys back in South Bali at Ulluwatu Temple, where they would sneak up on folks around sunset, when they were distracted by taking photos, and would try to steal hats, glasses (sun or otherwise) and flip flops. We had watched one there sneak up behind and follow a little boy in flip flops to try and snag them as he walked. Little nudge. Anyway, at Ulluwatu there were monkey minders who walked around and clucked at the naughty things and made them get away from the people. But the critters were smart! As the sun set, they headed towards the main pathway that folks would take to get out so that they could more easily find things to snatch! Fortunately, the monkeys in the SMF were either better behaved or better fed, so they weren't interested in causing a nuisance. The critters had NO fear of people and just pretty much went about their business. So many Mama monkeys with teeny tiny babies running around. We sat and watched two infants, barely scooting around, as they explored. One young Mama was very protective of baby (or maybe it was an overzealous babysitter) and would grab him by the foot or tail every time he tried to get away to explore. The other Mama just sat and was groomed by a friend while her baby scampered around newrby, practically running into my feet as he checked things out. We got some really cool, really close up photos. Steve could see me antsing to touch a monkey and asked if I wanted to buy bananas to feed them, but I declined - rabies shots are EXPENSIVE, and I still had Bruce's worries in my head. We checked out the funeral temple inside, along with the cemetery located there and made our way to the exit - I was excited about having seen so many baby monkeys and we needed to make our way back to be on time for Dina - and to make it to Tanah Lot by sunset!

As we headed out we passed by two toddlers - they were still small, but no longer had Mom hovering around - hanging out on a low wall with a built in bench. I asked Steve to play photographer so I could have a photo of me with a monkey nearby. I sat down and one of the things immediately climbed on to my shoulder and down into my lap! I HAD A BABY MONKEY ON MY LAP!!!!!! He was definitely barely past infancy because he was grabbing at my shirt trying to nurse - no dice, bro. So I kept gently moving his hands away and tickling his belly to distract him while he rolled around my lap like a kitten. He would stick his little face into my armpit and then grab my fingers with his little feet. It was incredible. When he turned into a puppy and wanted to play by nibbling my fingers we decided I needed to encourage the little guy to get off me. But he wasn't super interested, so I eventually just stood up, slowly, so he had to scoot. He obliged and we giggled the whole way to the car - I had held a baby monkey!!!!!

We were giddy, but poor Dina had an hour and a half drive in traffic to try to get us to Tanah Lot for sunset. Traffic seemed to be following us, and he kept taking short cuts that helped... But then we'd hit traffic again. The guy is an absolute ace though, and he got us to the temple at 6:15; perfect timing for the start of sunset. The temple is a little odd: it's situated out in the water about 100m off shore and is only accessible at low tide. It reminds me a little bit of Mont St. Michel that way. That said, there's a second temple right next door (maybe 1500m down the shoreline) that is posted on this gorgeous outcropping with a natural bridge to it. It was low tide when we arrived, so the ground in front of Tanah Lot was filled with people. Because it's such a popular tourist spot, they didn't seem to be letting folks inside, so we posted ourselves overlooking the second temple (which I'm pretty sure is Pura Batu Bolong, but I need to confirm when I have WiFi again), and couldn't get over how spectacular the view was. We were SO lucky with sunsets this trip - days we went to sunset spots it was clear and dry, and days we hung out at our various Airbnbs it stormed spectacularly - and this one was no different.

On the way out, we grabbed some fresh roasted corn from a vendor that was absolutely slathered in salt and butter and was, consequently, delicious. It was nearing 8pm and we still had to drive to Denpasar. It took an hour and a half to drive the 25km, and Dina answered my questions and chatted the whole time. Guy was worth his weight in gold, and he wasn't even crabby about having probably a two hour drive to get back to Tegalalong. We had huge hugs, made promises to keep his business card and tell our friends about him, and paid him about $60 for the 8 hours of driving AND his excellent information sharing. We used my Hilton points to stay at a property that practically sits on the airport so that we wouldn't have to face the terrible Denpasar traffic in the morning and risk missing our flight to Yogya, and it worked out beautifully for that purpose. It was, however, very strange to be in a hotel after all these nights of homes! We decided that our Airbnb experience has left us feeling much more in touch with what Bali is actually like than we ever would have in a hotel. Each home has been remarkably different from the last - surfer crash pad in South Bali, partying Beach town in Gili Trawangan, a rice terrace in the agricultural heartland in Tagalalang, and still more to come over in Java. It was our last night in Bali which was a little sad, but we were so excited to get a taste of yet another flavor of Indonesia. So despite feeling like the hotel was a little bit of a sanitized Bali compared to what we've had so far, it was good to be nearby the airport.

We showered (no monkey lice for me, please) and headed down for dinner in the restaurant. It was priced for Americans, so we spent about $30 on some appetizers and beers. Far cry from $1.50 for some fried rice. As we headed up to crash (remember, we hadn't slept well the night before), we checked out the laundry room. It would cost about $8 to do a load and Steve was preparing to throw away some of his tee shirts rather than continue to carry them. I assumed that was a problem. A comedy of miscommunications occurred, Tired and Cranky Kate came out, and Steve was left staying up til midnight doing laundry. It wasn't pretty, but we sure slept well in that temperature controlled room.

Back to Tuesday

Well, Steve found my phone charger. It was hiding behind a curtain in our place on Gili Trawangan, and thank goodness he has a reflexive habit of tidying up Airbnbs before we leave them. I normally would, too, but was in a funk...due to the missing phone charger. Suddenly everything felt sunny again, and we headed out for breakfast and to book the ferry back to Bali. When we left Padangbai, they explained that we just need to give a half hour of notice to get a ferry, but we found instead that the early fast boat, leaving at 10:30, was already full. So we were looking at two extra hours to kill before the 12:30 and decided to walk over to the west side of the island for breakfast. We ordered pizza and juice, which was a mistake because both were terrible (though it's worth noting that ALL the other juices we've had have been more delicious than I even could imagine. It's just that this one tasted like drinking pureed ginger root), but the location was spectacular. We sat in chairs overlooking Serene Beach and it lived up to its name beautifully.

To get to the beach we walked across the middle of the island rather than the beach route because of time concerns. It was pretty eye opening. We had been talking a lot about how Gili Trawangan was a weird place, a little like Disney World. Everything is happy and fun, but you definitely aren't supposed to look past the veneer. The middle of the island was much more of a reminder that we're in an impoverished place, despite tourist attractions and pricing that might say otherwise. Everywhere we've gone, trash is a real problem. On the beaches that cater to visitors, staff are really attentive to cleaning it up and raking the sand to get it even and clear. On the dirt roads across the island it just sits. The horses that are used to draw carts are left in pastures that are covered with trash, with maybe a small clearing where they can walk on grass and dirt.

We took to calling the strip near the dock where we stayed Wildwood - filled with shops selling overpriced tee shirts, jewelry, food and tchotchkes. A lot less neon, but the same habits of overcharging tourists for crap. If you walked to the center, the same goods cost significantly less and were sold without the beautified shop space.

Anyway, we made it back to the ferry in perfect time and made our triumphant return to Bali. We hired a taxi to drop us off in Ubud for our next stay, only to learn that the house isn't "right outside" Ubud, but is, in fact, a whole different town 10km north. We have slowly been realizing that 10km is more than just an extra few minutes down the road... It's more like an extra 40. Because Ubud is very much the cultural capital of Bali, the tourist season is always going. As such, traffic is a nightmare. Our kind and patient driver took us all the way up to Tagalalang to the rice terrace our Airbnb was located on.

Thus far, the weather has been spectacularly cooperative on our travels. Rain might sprinkle in the afternoon for a minute or two, but the heavy storms have all come at night and the skies have been mostly clear and blue. Totally not what we had been expecting for our trip during the less expensive rainy season. That was not the case during the trip to Tagalalang. The skies absolutely opened up as we reached Ubud, and the roads were so filled with water that everything slowed. It became dangerous for the ubiquitous scooters to drive so they mostly pulled to the side to wait it out, but that still left cars jockying for space on already cramped roadways, made more narrow by the channels of water churning down the street. It was a mess. Our driver handled it like a champ and got us to the rice terrace village, but then seemed a little confused about where to go. The directions on the Airbnb confirmation just said to have our driver call for directions to the house, which he had done, but there was still some confusion. Fortunately the directions mentioned that the place is located next to the Dewi Cafe, and we were able to spot it amidst the downpour. It was a little touch and go for a second there though!

Two guys met us at the bottom of this rain washed hill, one exuberant and one decidedly not. They were expecting us, so that was a definite upside to the driver having called. They ushered us quickly to a rocky set of steps and away we went, trekking up to our house (trek is truly the best verb to describe the trip). We scuttled over rocks and wet leaves and used the stepping stones that were meant to make the walk easy, and 3 minutes later found ourselves on the front porch of a traditional Balinese home. That happened to be built on the rice terrace. After a VERY thorough introduction to the space by the exuberant fellow, we were happy to just sit down and relish the air conditioning that we hadn't expected. It was an exhausting trip.

We managed to shower and get out on the porch to watch the lightning storm over the ride paddies and I was ready for bed despite it being about 6:30. Steve, however, needs more frequent feedings than I do, and doesn't allow sleep to dissuade him from eating. Wayan (the exuberant one) had left us a cell phone to use to call him with questions and concerns, and also to let him know whether we would like to go trekking up the rest of the terrace in the morning. We called to confirm that, and asked him about places to eat dinner. He replied, " but it's raining!" Apparently that was supposed to mean that no one goes out so restaurants and warungs would be closed. He quickly recovered and said he would call us right back. *Click*

So we waited for maybe 4 minutes before he called back to say that the restaurant was closed but don't worry, his uncle would come by soon to get us and make us traditional Balinese food to eat at our place. Considering we didn't have a kitchen, that was a curious explanation. We didn't get a lot more detail though, so we just sat tight and wondered what the hell we had gotten ourselves into.

About a half hour later, Dina knocked on our door. He escorted us back up the hill towards the main road through town and explained that he owns a warung there. It seemed like he opened specifically to feed us! So obviously we felt like total buffoons, causing all these people to have to change plans to feed us, but he and his wife, Ketut, were so so so kind and wonderful that we got over it. They made us Balinese fried chicken and rice and soup and we chatted about Balinese life and they answered all my questions about Hinduism as practiced here and it was amazing. They could not have been kinder. Dinner wrapped up around 9:30, and one of my last questions was what time Balinese eat dinner usually. Apparently that's between 4-6. So they definitely went out of their way to feed us. We apologized for keeping them up, made plans for Dina to take us on a tour the next afternoon and to drive us to our hotel in Denpasar. Back to the house in the dark and rain, and to sleep under the thunderstorm that was still rolling.