It's been a while since we've updated the blog because we've been travelling with G Adventures down the Mekong River. We started our journey in Siem Reap staying at the Royal Angkor Resort, an absolutely beautiful hotel! On our arrival day we decided to try a traditional Khmer Massage (Khmer is the local name for Cambodia). It's not like a traditional massage, instead of using oils they put you in robes and have you lie face up on a bed. Once your comfortable they proceed to kneed, slap, bend and step on you in all directions. It may not sound very relaxing to have a 100 lb Cambodian woman man handle you but once we knew what was happening it felt really great and got some kinks out! Next day we snagged a tuk tuk and headed to Angkor. Angkor is a massive complex built in the 10th to 14th century spread over 400 sq ft with over 150 temples to explore! It's impossible to see them all so we decided to visit the main temple of Angkor Wat. It's an absolutely incredible building to explore with endless sculptures and carvings to admire and long hallways leading to various parts of the temple. It's built in three layers. The top layer is comprised of the towers that are iconic to Angkor. This space was reserved for only the King, nowadays anyone appropriately dressed is welcome up to enjoy the view from the top. f you havn't got your shoulders and knees covered to the liking of the local guards you arn't permitted inside. This is because it's a still used as a holy place for the monks living next to the Angkor Wat. Once a month the top portion of Angkor Wat is closed to tourists so the monks can worship. We saw tons of monks in their bright orange robes around the complex during our visit. Some where even offering blessings to anyone interested. Here the men don't have to be a monk for life they can do it for a short time if they like, many children are sent to be a monk for a short time here as well. IThe second level includes 4 pools (now empty) representing the 4 elements where the king would bath to purify himself before heading into the top temple. The bottom level includes several walls of base relief sculptures representing various Hindu stories and stories of the king. Angkor Wat took us around 2 hours to look through and I'm sure we could have spent longer if the heat and rain hadn't washed us out. The next morning we returned to Angkor Wat at 5am to watch the sun rise over the temple. We weren't the only ones with throngs of people out to catch that perfect photo. It was worth the eary wake up to see the magnificent views. While most of the other tourists headed back to their hotel for breakfast we continued onward into the Angkor Complex. We visited a bit more of the Angkor Wat temple with our G guide before heading to Ta Prohm, made famous by Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider in 2000. It's a beautiful temple unique because of the many tress growing out of them. Bird droppings are to thank for the massive trees that now grown within the original temple ruins creating a beautiful harmony with nature and the man made. Our last stop was Angkor Thom and the Bayon Temple. This temple is made up of 52 faces sculpted into the towers representing the 52 states of Cambodia at the time the temple was built. Its a wonderful temple complex and a great way to end our visit to Angkor. You may have noticed the water surrounding the temple, this is how they transpoarted the stones from the main river, using these man made moats. It also created extra protection for the temples and it's very beautiful. The large temples have these moats surrounding them including Angkor Wat. Makes for a really surreal setting and excellent photo ops! After Angkor we went to G Adventures Planet Terra poject, New Hope. It's a school set up in a small village where students come to learn vital skills that help them get better jobs. They teach english, cooking, bar tending and many other skills that allow the villagers to get better paying jobs in the community. We had an excellent Cambodian lunch here though the grasshoppers weren't my favorite. After lunch we drove 4 hours to the port and boarded the Toum Tiou II. It's a small river cruise boat owed by G Adventures perfect for traveling the Mekong River. The staff were incredible, rooms were great and the people on the tour with us were excellent travel companions! We did so much in 7 days that I'm spreading it over a few blogs, more to follow soon!
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Kuala Lumpur was not on my radar when we started planning this trip. Originally we were going to go straight to Cambodia from Bali. Turned out the least expensive flight put us through KL so we decided to check it out! So glad we did because it's a pretty cool city! We stayed at the beautiful Face Suites Hotel in the KLCC ( Kuala Lumpur City Center). Our studio apartment on the 50th floor was incredible, it was massive and well outfitted with a washer dryer, kitchen, walk in closet and beautiful marble bathroom. The real selling feature is the view! Overlooking both the KL tower and Petronas Towers it's a spectacular sight. Just above us on the 51st floor was a large infinity pool and gym overlooking the city. I still can't believe we only paid around CAD $100 per night to stay here! Our first 24 hours in Malaysia was a bit unexpected. During our drive to the hotel our driver warned us to stay away from certain parts of the city and to not wear red or yellow. Turned out a major protest was taking place over growing tensions towards the Malaysian government. After trying to find more details about this situation I found it difficult to find much about it. We decided to stick around the hotel that day and enjoy the rooftop pool. In the afternoon the protest of yellow shirts marched right past our hotel. Thousands of people showed up in various parts of the city wearing red or yellow shirts depending what side they were on. Despite all this there were no major injuries or incidents and the police seemed to handle everyone and traffic really well. These protests are illegal but the government doesn't seem to react harshly to them as long as people behave. Several of the organizers were arrested however. On Sunday with the protests over we headed out on a bus tour. Our first stop was at a pewter factory just outside the city. This may not sound very exciting but it was actually really interesting what they can do with this material and how integral it is for the growth and wealth of Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia's economy, especially that of Kuala Lumpur, boomed upon the discovery of what our guide referred to as white gold and black gold. Black gold includes the tin used in pewter which is mined throughout the region, oil and coal as well. White Gold includes palm oil, sugar and salt. The rainforests of Malaysia are rich with spices and herbs that fetch a high price as well. Because of this Kuala Lumpur is one of the fastest growing and most developed cities in South East Asia. Kuala Lumpur has plans to construct 300 new high rise buildings by 2020. It's easy to see the gentrification taking place especially around our hotel in the hear of the city where new buildings are going up. At the same time of it's growth Malaysia has pledged to reduce it's emissions by 45% by 2030. Time will tell if they can meet these lofty goals. Our next stop was to a craft store where they hand paint silk. It was beautiful to watch, we even picked up a couple items. Our final stop was the famous Batu Caves. The caves are home to Hindu temples and have been used in one form or or another for centuries. The temples seemed out of place in the cave with their flashing lights and brightly painted deity figures. The temples are still used and construction is constantly going on to build up and reinforce the caves and expand the temples. The caves themselves were spectacular with high ceilings and impressive stalactites. Next to the Temple Caves is the Dark Cave experience where you can pay a small fee and be led through an adjoining cave in the dark. We didn't have time unfortunately you take advantage of this but it looked awesome! Our last day in KL we hoofed it and covered a lot of the city. First we headed to China Town. Malaysia has an absolutely huge Chinese population making up about 30%. There were excellent markets here where you can find just about anything at a great price. After a romp through the market we headed to the Butterfly gardens. This is a must do for nature lovers in KL! The garden isn't very big but it's home to hundreds of different types of butterflies in a tranquil setting. We made a quick stop at the I heart KL sign at the KL City Gallery (gotta get that photo op in). The Gallery was pretty lame to be honest, the highlight was the scaled city model of KL which was pretty impressive. Our last stop was Bukit Bintang an area known for shopping and entertainment. We had a heck of a time trying to find it and got lost several times. By the time we found Jalan Alor in Bukit Bintang, KL's most famous street, we were too tired and hot to stick around for when it gets busy. Jalan Alor is a street dedicated to food and is open from 5pm-12am daily, it doesn't really get going until after dark though.
We only scratched the surface of all that KL has to offer. It's a entertaining city worth a few days if you find yourself this way! Now we're on our way to Siem Reap Cambodia! We're joining G Adventures here for a 10 day cruise down the Mekong and we can't wait!! Our time in Bali has come to and end! We spent the last week taking in as much of Bali as possible. Echo Beach and Old Man beach, both near our hotel in Canggu, have seen a lot of us for both lounging and surfing. Renting a board is only 50 000 IDR ($5.00) for 2 hours! The ocean feels like bath water, the downfall of swimming in Bali is the heaps of plastic hitting you in the face with each wave. The plastic problem in Bali is really disheartening, there were quite a few people cleaning the beaches and we did our small part to reduce waste but it's pretty awful. We saw this problem throughout Bali and it's the major draw back for this country when it comes to tourism. People just leave their plastic bottles and cigg butts all over the beach and streets, really disgusting way to treat a country you're visiting. Despite the state of garbage we made the most of our time. We hit the gym and the pool at our hotel most mornings, working off the Bintangs from the day before. Our hotel had a nice gym with glass walls overlooking rice terraces. The glass walls turned the gym into a greenhouse however which made the pool that much more welcoming! Bali's rainy season starts in late October so we've been treated to lightening storms almost every night and the odd afternoon shower. The rain doesn't last long and helps to lift the humidity at least. A rainy afternoon is also the perfect excuse to get a massage which we've been doing every other day. The Kirana Spa is excellent and super affordable. The south of Bali is filled with excellent beaches and temples so Chris and I arranged a driver for the afternoon to check some of them. Unfortunately for us we booked a cookie cutter itinerary from the hotel which turned out to be a bit hit and miss. The first stop was a water sport park. We knew going in we probably would regret this one but hoped it'd be a nice beach and a fun place to hang out for a bit in the morning. It turned out to be a 30 minute sales pitch until we finally gave in a did one of the paid activities. We chose the sea-dooing largely because it was the least expensive thing to do and Chris had never done it. It was 20 minutes of fun which we took full advantage off but in the end probably would have rather skipped it. Our next stop was better, we stopped at the Bali Cultural Park. It's a large park that was constructed to show the story of Wisnu with sculptures and also a place for worship. The sculptures are immensely big and there are more going up as we speak. The park itself has an odd landscape of carved out hills. It was an odd park and worth the visit. After this we stopped for a quick lunch and headed to Padang Padang Beach. This place is pretty cool, you walk through a small temple complex down a steep stairwell lined by boulders until you reach the beach. The beach has rock formations scattered around the beach revealed at low tide. The only down side is how touristy it is. There was an endless parade of selfies and burnt tourists walking through the small beach but was still pretty nice little spot. After an hour of tanning and swimming we headed to Blue Point Beach just up the road. We preferred this beach over Padang Padang for sure. It was filled with surfers, excellent sand, and some fantastic cliff side bars overlooking the beach. Great place to hang out, meet new people and watch surfers go for it. By this point is was around 5pm so we headed to Uluwatu Temple. Uluwatu is an active temple built on a cliff over looking the ocean. At sunset it makes for a spectacular view. They do cultural dances here as well but we skipped these in favour for a more secluded section of the cliff side that gave us an uninterrupted view of the sunset, temple and the rain coming in. We were here on the full moon (super moon in fact) so there were tons of locals here praying and having festivals for the full moon. Our last stop was Jimbaran Bay. It's a section of beach filled with outdoor restaurants. There are dozens of restaurants with candle lit beach tables set up. Each restaurant had a small stage as well where they would have short cultural dances take place as your eating. It's supposed to be the best place for seafood in this part of Bali, unfortunately we were extremely let down. The calamari was tougher than liquorice and the crab, fish and clams weren't that fantastic either. The real kicker is how freaking expensive it was! Up to this point we've been getting a full dinner and drinks for two for under $30.00 per night no problem. Here was over $100 and it wasn't good. Definitely a let down but at least we had ocean views with lightening, fireworks and the large full moon to enjoy. We loved Bali and can't say enough good things about it but we are excited to move onto somewhere new. Next stop is Kuala Lumpur where we have a few days before heading to Cambodia, can't wait to take advantage of our time there!
Bet you can't read the title without singing the song in your head! Before leaving Kampung resort we headed back into Ubud where we were able to catch a Yoga class at the Yoga Barn and take in a cultural dance. It was Chris' first yoga class ever! Aside from being extremely hot and sweaty he crushed it (as I knew he would). Yoga Barn is a highlight in Ubud whether you're a yogi or simply a casual yoga participate like us. It's set in a garden oasis walking distance to downtown Ubud. They also have a raw food restaurant and press juice cafe making for a healthy afternoon. After class we wondered the streets of Ubud as the sun set until we found a fun restaurant, Nomad. It's is fantastic eatery for a fare price, there are so many places to choose from in Ubud you can't go wrong. Ubud is hopping at night with tons of tourists and locals hitting the streets for dinner and drinks. After dinner we headed to Ubud Palace for a cultural dance! Ubud palace hosts a cultural dance every night starting at 7:30pm. We caught the Legong dance which is a series of performances telling short stories. The costumes were incredible and the way the dancers use their eyes and hands was beautiful to watch. The live band playing traditional instruments was really neat as well. If you're in Ubud is definitely worth catching one of the dances, people sell tickets on the street for around 100000 IDR (approx $10.00). Last Wednesday we said goodbye to Ubud and headed to Canggu. Unknown to us November 9th was an auspicious day for a wedding according to the Hindu calendar so our 1 hour drive took 4.5 hours! Our poor driver lives in Ubud and had to make the drive back as well so we left him an extra tip for the trouble. It's tradition for wedding guests to drive back and forth from the brides house to the temple a few times with an average 15 cars per wedding! Every other temple seemed to be hosting a wedding. The streets are congested on a good day so this really clogged things up. Thankfully we weren't trying to get to the airport or we would have been screwed! Kirana hotel in Canggu is beautiful. It's about 10 minute walk to three different beaches (including Echo Beach) and set between rice fields. Canggu is starting to get really built up, there is tons of construction and quite a few big brands lining the streets but still considerably quieter than Seminyak. The major reason people come here is for the surfing! The waves are great for everyone not too big in most areas and some good breaks for experienced surfers. If you're not into surfing you can rent a lounger for a couple bucks and grab a beer and relax in the shade. We went into Seminyak a couple days ago to meet up with a friend we'd met a year ago while on a cruise! Seminyak is very built up with tons of designer stores and fun restaurants. It's not as conservative as Ubud and much more touristy and Canggu. It still made for a fun afternoon of window shopping and dinner at Ultimo with great food at a good price. Our drive over was a bit unnerving after our driver hit a motorbike. Thankfully they were okay but it left a huge dent in his car causing us to switch drivers.
Today we had a good relax day, Chris did a bit of surfing in the afternoon and we watched a rain storm come in. Bali is incredible, we're loving every second and still have a few more days to enjoy! We're having a fantastic time in Bali so far and staying at the Kampung Resort has made our stay near Ubud extra special. The scenery, staff and quality of food has been outstanding. On top of having a fantastic resort to relax in we're in the cultural hub of Bali. Since our last post we've done a lot of exploring. Yesterday we decided to hire a driver to take us to some of the most popular places around Ubud. He was absolutely fantastic and explained a lot about Balinese culture. Each village is divided into three parts; at the top is a village temple where big celebrations take place, in the middle is where the people live, and at the bottom is the cemetery. Top and bottom here are very literal (at least in Ubud) as the land is all hills and mountains. The three sections represent the spirit, life, and death. Driving down the street almost every other building is a temple. Our guide explained how every family has it's own temple where they pray in addition to the the village temple. It's no wonder they call Bali the land of temples! It takes multiple generations for family temple to be paid for a built and its extremely important to them. They also build shrines and temples in places of businesses, farms and more each with a specific manifestation of god in mind so that offerings may be given to promote good fortune and happiness. After our short drive through some villages our first stop was at the Holy Spring Water Temple, Tirtha Empul. This temple is located by natural spring water ponds and is used by Hindu to purify the mind and body from bad thoughts and influences. Visitors are welcome to use the spring as long as they wear a sarong and give an offering. This temple was founded in 962 AD and has grown since to include 2 pools with 30 showers, several temples and koi ponds. It's a beautiful temple and very peaceful despite dozens of other tourists wandering around. When visiting temples in Bali men and woman should wear a sarong. I bought a beautiful sarong near our hotel for $15.00 you can find some as cheap as $2.00 though. Chris borrowed one from our guide. Our next stop was at the Satria coffee plantation. I love coffee! This was one of our favourite stops. Our driver took us through the gardens explaining the uses for various plants and how Balinese people will use these natural remedies to heal themselves. When we reached the coffee making demonstration a lovely young woman showed us how they produce their organic coffees and teas. We had the chance to taste 15 different types of teas and coffees for free! Here they also produce Kopi Luwak. It's going to sound awful but Luwak coffee is made from the excrement of the luwak (a catlike mammal). During the night the luwaks' go around having their fill on only the best and ripest coffee berries. The next day locals go through the forest collecting the luwak droppings which look like little bean clusters. At some point in history coffee farmers realized during digestion a type of fermentation happens to the bean that concentrates the flavour and cuts the bitterness making really excellent coffee. This process makes the coffee extremely rare and fetches a pretty penny internationally costing around $600 US per pound! We can honestly say after tasting the Luwak coffee along side regular Bali coffee it's a stunning brew. You need to be careful where you purchase Luwak coffee however. There is a practice in Bali of capturing, caging and force feeding the luwaks in order to keep up with demands. Unfortunately the Satria coffee plantation did have a couple of luwaks caged and on display so visitors could see the animals that produce the famous coffee. When we asked if they used only wild luwaks for making their coffee they said they do and they pay local people for the excrement they bring in to the plantation. Whether or not it's entirely true we'll never know but it was a interesting experience regardless. We were pretty hopped up on caffine by this point so our driver took us to a well known waterfall, Tegenungan Waterfall, just outside of Ubud City. It was worth the stop to see the beautiful waterfall. As we climbed down the steps towards the water it became more and more clear how much garbage the river had accumulated. It was really unfortunate to see all the rubbish washed up everywhere. Despite the conditions tons of people were still swimming around and playing in the water. We decided against it and enjoyed the views for a while instead. After climbing back up to civilization we continued to our last stop, the Elephant Caves locally known as Goa Gajah. It's not the biggest temple you can visit in Bali but it's certainly one of the more unique ones. It dates back to the 11th century built as place for meditation. Inside the cave there are small areas for shrines and offerings. The site wasn't discovered until 1929 and many years later in the 1950's a bathing spring was found near to the cave mouth buried under the ground.
Hiring a private driver for the day was definitely the way to go, we had a fantastic time! There are literally hundreds of temples to visit in Bali though many are off limits to visitors so having a guide suggest where to go was super helpful! We have a few more days here before heading to Canggu so more adventures to come! I don't even know where to start describing how much we're loving Bali! We had been looking forward to getting here for some time. New Zealand and Australia were fantastic but basically extensions of home in culture and language. After 2 months roaming New Zealand and Sydney we were missing the exotic factor with the exception of our short stay in Fiji. Bali has filled every expectation and more in our first few days here! Upon arriving we made our way to the hotel on an adventurous 2 hour drive from Denpasar airport weaving between cars and dozens of motorbikes. Our driver was extremely skilled at maneuvering the roads whilst telling us about the best places in Bali to visit, what food to try and a little about the culture. For our first 9 days we are staying just outside of Ubud at the Kampung Resort. It's an unbelievable place to stay only a few minutes walk from the famous Tegalalang Rice Terraces. Our second floor room is larger than our Vancouver apartment with a wall of glass doors over looking the lush forest and rice terraces. Directly below our room is a beautiful pool and further down through the property are little gardens with fish ponds, shrines and grassy areas for relaxing. Even the screeching bugs, birds and chirping geckos can't ruin the zen vibes of this place. During our drive to the hotel we were advised to take advantage of our location and jet lag to visit the Rice Terraces. The driver was spot on with this advise. We were up at 6am (9 am for us Sydney time) the next morning and decided to head over. We only had to walk a few minutes down the road until we came upon the rice terraces. This early in the morning nobody else was walking around giving us an uninterrupted view. It's not an easy walk through the terraces with steep steps and slippery surfaces but well worth it for the extraordinary views. There are donation boxes everywhere and a small fee is expected to enter (usually 10 000 IDR approx 1 dollar Canadian). There are locals around the terrace who will suggest you take their photo and expect money in return, you can politely say no and carry on however. There are plenty of rest stops and even a few cafe's, though nothing was open so early in the morning. The irrigation system used in the rice terraces is called "suback" and is said to have been passed on from a holy man as early as the 8th century and hasn't changed much since. Before tourism took over Bali, rice was big business and the village where our hotel is located was predominantly farmers. There are still local farmers but many have switched to selling their arts and crafts to tourists along the roadside leading up to the terraces instead. As with most beautiful attractions the rice terraces can be a bit of a tourist trap. As we prepared to leave around 8:30am bus loads of people started to pass by us and make there way to the terraces. I image as the day progresses it gets even worse. After a fun morning we headed back to Kampung for some breakfast. The food at Kampung Cafe is incredible and cheap! Breakfast is included in our room rate so we've been gorging ourselves daily on fresh fruit, juice, local coffee and teas and a big breaki. Lunch was even tastier, with tempura spinach chips, corn fritters, curried veg, spring rolls and more all for $5.00 washed down with a $2.00 Bintang Beer!! The hotel only has 9 rooms but tourists visiting the rice terraces keep the restaurant busy for lunch and dinner. After a $7.00 lunch we thought it was high time to spoil ourselves some more and got $20.00 1 hour massages in our room. Bali is truly a place where anyone can live like a Queen. On top of spoiling ourselves we're here for the culture so today we headed into Ubud City Centre and the Sacred Monkey Forest. The Sacred Monkey forest is incredible. There are around 600 Balinese long-tailed monkey's roaming freely through the grounds and temples. The park was created to provide an escape from bustling Ubud so one can find spiritual and physical well being. On top of being a spiritual and mental escape from the city it's a conservation area for rare plants used in rituals and the monkeys are protected. It's also an important space for research programs, particularly ones on the monkey's social interactions. There are some guidelines to consider for interacting with the monkeys such as not feeding them human food and not forcing an interaction with them. You can however buy bananas inside the park for a small fee and hold out you arms for them to climb on you to retrieve it. They're very friendly little beasts and extremely clever so watch you belongings! Ubud city is an endless parade of yoga stores, art and clothing shops and cafes. It's a haven for vegans, yogi's, hippies and fun for everybody! It's crowded and hot so we were glad to have packed some water but also made a few stops as we walked to have a beer and coconut water.
So far we are completely in love with Bali. Everyone we've met is incredibly friendly, they try very hard to speak English with us and teach us about their village and culture. We're only a few days in and still have a ton of exploring to do so I'm sure we'll have lots to write about in a few days from now! |
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