BALI 2008!!

HI GUYS! SO, THE TRIP WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING AND IF I HAVE TO SAY ANYTHING IT'S THAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO GO TO BALI!! If you are trying to find a good surf trip/ romantic getaway/ honeymoon/ vacation/ celebration of any sort, or just need to go somewhere to escape from everything- Bali is it! We loved it so much and are already planning our next trip out there! I am feeling a bit lazy after putting the pictures together that I decided to just include the emails that I sent a few people while we were away. I'm sorry for the length of the reading, but it is interesting if you are ever planning on going there. Enjoy the pictures and the reading! It's good to be home:)

August 26, 2008

Hello Everyone!

I apologize now for the group email, but I have to pay per minute here and my phone (which I paid for to have internet and world traveler minutes) is not working- at all.

Kirk and I made it through our gnarly day of traveling with no problems. We left LAX Sunday night and got here Tuesday afternoon Bali time- crazy time change!

The flights were cramped and we didn't get to sleep much, but we were able to sleep really well last night in our nice hotel in Legion (outside of Kuta). We have air conditioning and hot water- it's awesome! This hotel even has 3 beautiful pools and is right on the beach where Kirk got to surf yesterday afternoon when we got in. I went for a run along the beach where I found sand dollars and shells and a myriad of people playing, lounging, partying (we are in the party area but not for long) and surfing. The beach reminds me of Costa Rica and it's so lush and warm and humid you feel like you are in a tropical paradise which, we are!!!

Indonesia is a gorgeous country! The people in Bali are really friendly and we are surprised to hear that most everyone speaks English. Tourism is huge for them. While I was laying out on the beach yesterday this little girl that couldn't have been more than 5 was pressuring me so badly to buy one of her bracelets. I told her no thank you and she kept saying "oh come on, you know you want it. Oh come on. Come on." Kirk was a little more firm with her and said "Tidak” (no). The sunset was beautiful on this side of the island and tomorrow we will get to see the sunrise on the east side of the island. We leave for Uluwatu in a little bit.

We just enjoyed an amazing breakfast along the beach of papaya (my absolute fav!) pineapple, melons, toast, potatoes and bacon. They had a guy making omeletes here too, but so far it's hard to eat a lot. I'm not sure if it is the humidity or the time difference, I mean we are probably having breakfast at dinner time and sleeping during day light hours at home.

This is mostly for my dad, but I have to tell you about dinner last night! It was delicious and authentic Indonesian food! Kirk and I were saying how much we wish you were here to enjoy it with us. You would be having a blast for sure. (not sure if you want to hear that:) Kirk had Kure Ayam for dinner and I had Udang (something) Manis. They were both really, really good and also cheap! Our dinners plus three Fanta sodas were ten bucks! They also had nasi gorgeng and sate which I wanted to get, but I figured we'll do that another night for dinner. Thanks again mom and dad for the ride to the airport- we love you guys and wish you could have come with us. This place is sooooo cool!

They just celebrated Christmas here so there are hanging decorations around the city and every family has it's own personal temple- it's rad. There are shrines and statues all over the place.

The water isn't as warm as Hawaii- that was a surprise to us, and it's also not as hot as we thought it would be. It's perfect. We meet up with Derek and Mitch on Thursday so until then Kirk and I are just living it up and exploring this beautiful place. It feels like we are on a second honeymoon.

What else? We are healthy and happy and doing good! We are taking our Malaria pills and drinking bottled water. No crazy side effects from the pills. You can get just about anything here and the people totally bargain with you. There are tons of Aussies around here, and they are all really friendly too. Gotta run now, but we love you guys and hope all is well at home! I'll try to write again soon!
XOXOXOXO

Chelsea and Kirk

August 27, 2008

Hi everyone!

It was awesome reading all of your replies! Bali is super rad with super nice people and scenery. We are staying in this lil hotel on the edge of this cliff, lots of stairs, overlooking the ocean and jungle cliffs. Feels like we are in Greece or something, and it's only 30 bucks a night.

Kirk and I just had green banana pancakes that were delicious and omeletes and juice and this panini like thing all for under 5 bucks- awesome!

We got to play with the monkeys yesterday and visit the big temple in Uluwatu-it was amazing to see this beautiful old place perched precariously along these huge cliffs. We also got to eat Nasi Goreng for dinner right on the beach. Every restaurant has ocean views and I heard you can buy a house with 3 acres of land and a cute litle house for under 16,000! We might have to look into buying a vacation home- anyone else in? We love it here: the weather, the friendly people, the good food, the lush scenery- I would recommend this place to anyone.

Today Kirk is going to surf Impossibles, a surf spot in Bingin and I will probably explore the beaches and maybe do some shopping?

Ok, time to go, but thanks for writing and letting us know what you guys are up to, we love you all!

Chelsea and Kirk

August 30, 2008

Apa Kabar! (or however you spell it:)
What's up!
It's official, Bali is my favorite place on earth so far! I can't get over how amazing everything is here! The people alone are enough reason to move here. They are kind and sweet and very tender hearted. Almost everyone you meet is Hindu and their religion teaches them to be loving and peaceful, meaning they are really respectful and kind to those they meet. Today is a holiday for them here so I have seen most of the men and women in religious garb. I even had the priviledge to watch a lady perform one of the ceremonies in Uluwatu- so neat.

Today Kirk and I are back in the Kuta/Legion area. It reminds me exactly of Waikiki except in a more third world experience. Tons of vendors and shops and everyone that wants to bargain shop.

Last night, Kirk and I took a break from the local cuisine (which is good but we've had it for every meal since we've been here) and dared to try pizza here. It seemed like they microwaved some cheese and sauce on a tortilla cracker- not the yummiest of things here. Oh well, what did we expect? The Baliense are good at so many things, just not pizza.

Our room is amaaaazing here! There’s a homemade carved door that leads into a marbled floor room. The bathroom has flat rocks along the floor and an open shower that is out of a modern magazine. There is even a window looking into the bathroom from the bed- a really nice place perfect for two people in love!

We did a little shopping last night and then swam in our pool. Today I think we are going to meet up with Mitch and Derek again (they stayed in Bingin last night) and go to the Purah Tunah lot- a super rad temple along the cliffs. We have a pet monkey by our hotel room that I kept company this morning. He likes to play hide-n-seek with you. When I smile and make a clicking noise he smiles back to show off his dirty and somewhat gappy smile. I love the monkeys here. The weather has been perfect. 80's with rather high humidity. I have a really nasty burn on my leg from the tail pipe of a motor bike that we were driving the other day. Looks like a giant birthmark on my right leg that is now starting to bubble and peel. Don't worry though mom, we are taking good care of our wounds, keeping them clean and using lots if neosporine.

Kirk has some reef rash from the other day on his thigh and feet. Poor guy got in a fight with the reef at the surf spot Impossibles and the reed won. We are having a great time and are really getting used to spending 2 bucks on dinner and 2 bucks on t-shirts. We feel like we are splurging when dinner costs more than 5 bucks.

We are off to G-land this evening where we will take a 9 hour bus ride through the night to get to East Java. I'm not sure yet if we will have internet. Hopefully we will because I am probably going to get a little bored seeing how this is a total surf destination with not much else to do. Maybe I'll start surfing more and perfect my 360 hit off the lip with a double back side grab.. yeah, I'll do that! Ha! I'm going to pass on learning to get good at surfing out here on razor reefs. There was this one Brazilian girl that was surfing with the guys though, and she was gnarly! She was tore up everywhere! Back, shoulders, legs, feet, hands, knees- she charged, but at a very high price!

We miss and love you all!

Dad, again, you should be here with us. You have to be in good shape to have done what we've been doing (ie TONS of stairs and walking and hiking) but you could've done it for sure!

Dawn, I was telling Kirk this morning that we wish you and Ian were out here, we would have all had a great time together.

BB, good luck with school and I love you!

Trav, I got you a cool shirt that I hope you like

Girls- next time we all need to come out here together! Talk about shoppping! And spa treatments for under 5 bucks, it's a pampering dream.

We'll talk to you all later!

Chelsea and Kirk

September 4, 2008

Hello!

You know what I miss? Good icecream! :) The Indonesians get so many things right, but a sample of things that they don't get right are Italian food, burgers and ice cream. I tried some icecream the other night and could only muster a couple of bites.
So, we are in "G-Land" now. They call it G-land because it stands for Gragarijan or something hard to spell like that. G-land consists of a couple of surf camps, very small (like 10 people or so) fishing villages and not much else. I am impressed to hear that Bobby's camp where we are staying is the coveted surf camp in the area. It's hard to get reservations here! It might be because the accommodations are the nicest and the people are more friendly than any Disney princess!:) I love the people here! It cracks me up too because in Indo they have this soap opera called "Chelsea" so everyone knows how to say my name and love saying it! Every time we are walking to or from our room all the sweet brown boys are like "hey Chelsea!" "where are you going Chelsea?" "how was breakfast Chelsea?" They are awesome. And they don't even say hi to Kirk, but I think this is because they have the hardest time pronouncing his name. He'll say his name and they look at him for a while with a confused look on their face and attempt to say it. Usually it comes out sounding like "Kook" He now goes by "Coke" because they know what that means and how to say it!
Despite the fact that pretty much all there is to do is surf aroud here, we are having a blast. The boys go out for a few hours twice a day and I spend that time attempting to take awesome surf pics of them or exploring the beach and laying out. When I get bored of getting sun, I go for walks and runs through the jungle (serious thick authentic jungle with tigers and snakes and stuff) or look for shells. I have found the raddest shells I have ever seen, and tons of them! I love it! Today I found this beautiful cove to swim in that was sand bottom (hard to find around here) and had various fish swimming around me. It was surreal. I felt like the little mermaid.
Here at Bobby's camp they serve you all three meals and you get to pick out in the morning what you want for the rest of the day. The food is pretty good. They have this awesome strawberry fanta that is totally flat but cold that we drink with dinner. Other than that, lots of water. I sweat so bad here, it's crazy!
Our wounds are healing nicely though. Kirk's reef rash is barely noticeable anymore and my burn (which is called the "Bali Tattoo" funny enough) is doing ok. Derek and I have matching moped burns that we got from sitting on the back of the moped and hitting the tailpipe- so fun.
At night here we've been watching the movies that I bought back in Kuta for a dollar apiece. You can't even rent movies back home for that! I'm sure they broke some copyright laws with these movies, but it's cool how they have every movie you could think of including movies that are still in theaters.. weird.
My one girlfriend out here left this morning so I was kinda bummed to see her go. With there being about 200 guys here and 2 girls, you really stick to those females that you see. She was 26 and from Newport here on her honeymoon and we had a great time together. She's gone now so I guess I am left to play with the monkeys (which they have) and dodge the green mambas (which they also have). I woke up the other day to one of the local boys in the camp shooting monkeys with a pellet gun on our roof! It was hilarious! The monkeys are mischief makers and the locals laugh trying to shoot them. We also have a pet mouse in our cabana or hut or room or whatever they call them. We are staying the superior rooms though because we get hot water AND air conditioning. it's awesome.
I've written so much, sorry about that! Hope all is going well at home. Shoot me a line or two and let me know what is going on with you guys! Love you all!