Indonesia Video!

As I was cleaning my hard drive I came across tons of short little videos that we (mostly Landon) took while on our trip in Indonesia last summer.  Collectively we had about 20 minutes of videos from our little Android ghetto fab phones and I tried to cut it down to this fun short video. Pictures are a moment captured in time but videos really bring me back to the experience, I was so happy to come across all of these! It was really hard for me to sum up our trip in 3 minutes and 41 seconds and not to include some of my favorite videos so I'm working on combining all of our videos for memories sake and I will post that soon too...so this can be considered a "trailer" to the entire video :)
PS. Make it big so you can see the cute little baby orangutan!

Last Day in Indonesia

This photo was taken in the busy streets of Ubud. He was lit up by the headlights of cars coming towards us honking. haha It was definitely a rush getting this portrait.

While in Ubud we debated back and forth if we should go to one of these traditional Balinese dances.  We felt like we should go, but we were just too exhausted, cheap, and were kind of done with the touristy things.  Well it was our last night in Indonesia and we just spent our last rupiahs on dinner.  As we were returning back to our hostel we were stopped by this man to buy tickets (probably our 100th time being asked) and we spontaneously decided, what the heck let's go!

We had 10 minutes to exchange our money and get there before it started.  We ended up getting seats on the very front row!! All of these images were taken with a 50mm so you can see how close we really were.  I was in heaven!  This was the best decision we could have made.  It was the perfect ending to our time in Indonesia, it really wrapped up our trip nicely.

I can't really describe this performance there was just so much going on it was like a sensory overload at times. What really stood out to me was how the women would isolate their neck and eyes and move them back and forth to the music, I tried doing it afterwards and it just gave me a headache, they've got some talent! I found this video online if you want to get the general of it.  And since my attention span lasts for about 1 minutes, I suggest skipping to the middle just to see how the ladies dance!

Tropical Storm

I've tried to delay these last few Indonesian posts because I honestly don't want my Indonesian posts to stop,  I just loved Indonesia so much! But sadly, they are coming to an end.  This is my 2nd to last post and well I didn't feel like these images can make up one post, but I wanted to remember the story behind them because it was one of my favorite memories with Landon.  We always have great cultural experiences together interacting with others but this was a memory between him and I that I will never forget.

A Portrait's Story

So let me tell you the story to these portraits.  As we were heading back from the Tegalalang Rice Terraces we realized we were low on gas. Finding gas in another country is more like Landon driving super slow and I frantically looking left to right, left to right searching for little glass petrol filled jars on the side of the road.  This gas-petrol stop in particular was my favorite out of all our travels.

Right when I took off my helmet and saw this little old lady sitting in the back, I instantly knew that I needed to get her portrait. So we started talking to her daughter and granddaughter and they shared with us that they were 3 generations and it was so great to really get to know their story. I took a picture of all 3 of them but this great grandmother was my favorite in particular.  She couldn't understand me, I couldn't understand her but we were able to connect. I tried to use my hands across my face saying she was beautiful and she returned to me the sweetest most sincere smile.
After that we made sure to stop by a couple more times to see them and talk.  These experiences are the reasons why I love to travel.

Tegalalang Rice Terraces

My excitement just continued to rise as I held on tightly to Landon on the back of the scooter.  With seemingly no traffic rules, the scooter ride is usually half the fun.  As we exited the city we began to see rice fields appear one after another.  This was exactly what I had envisioned Indonesia to look like.
As the climb increased and our scooter slowed down, we finally arrived at the Tegalalang Rice Terraces.  A view that instantly took my breath away, a canyon filled of rice terraces stacked one after another continuing throughout the hills. (Continue reading our Ubud experience -->)

It was a very sticky, humid hike up the rice terraces, but such a beautiful experience to be surrounded by such lush vibrant green rice patties. Being there finally hit me like "whoa I'm really in Indonesia".

I feel like Ubud was the perfect city to end our month long travels of Indonesia in.

Ubud's Street Food

Street Food. Say that to Landon and his eyes light up, mouth starts watering, and well, he will just keep talking about it until he finds something good to eat.  I've heard him tell me multiple times "I can live off street food for the rest of my life!" (with great enthusiasm of course!)

He lived in Madagascar for 2 years, and even though he was cautiously warned not to eat off the street, guess what, that's all he ate.  He may of had years of stomach consequences afterwards, but that's one of the greatest memories he has of Madagascar, and that's what matters right?! 

The food shown above is known as Sate in Indonesia, and they had something very similar in Madagascar. So you can only imagine how excited Landon was to see these.  I felt like every time I looked over at him, he had a new set of Sate sticks in his hands reminiscing of Madagascar.  

(Keep reading to see more pictures of Ubud!)

I SPY... pliers...

Ubud was such a beautiful city, it was somewhere where I could definitely see myself living for a longer period of time.  It was our last city before we left to go home, so it was extra bittersweet.  After traveling for 1 month in Indonesia, I felt like my body and mind finally fully adapted to the surroundings, food, culture, and I found myself being more brave with everything around me.  And I just love that feeling!

For our days in Ubud we rented a scooter and just drove miles on end.  We had no clue where we were going but it was so fun to stop and shop on the side of the road, and then hop back on and keep going.  After a couple hours of this, I had arms full of souvenirs and guess what else?! A 3 ft. mask strapped to my back! Oh Ubud, I want to go back...

Gili Air was the last island of the three that we visited.  Looking back at our time there, all I can remember is eating the best pizza everyday (made by Italians... yum), watching the vibrant orange sunsets, and taking a late night stroll in the pitch black just to end our evening with a Magnum chocolate ice cream bar.  We're all about the food. :)

The Infamous Night Market

When we first arrived to Gili T. all I wanted to eat was fresh fish fried whole.  As we were in search of this, we asked endless locals where we can buy it and they all would point to this empty lot and say "market".  We were frustrated and we didn't understand why this so called "market" had not a person or stall there.  As the sun began to set the market started to come alive.  It all made sense, we realized all the fresh fish had to be caught that morning, only allowing us to have it at night.

What once was just an empty space of land quickly filled up with smoky grills, freshly caught fish and endless amounts of tourists... really there were more foreigners than locals and I wasn't too sure if I liked it.  Landon said most of Thailand was like this as you traveled the "tourist trail" but this was my first time experiencing this.  It was definitely the place to be.  As we walked the maze of food stalls all I wanted was fish, while Landon wanted to try every single thing he saw!  So we compromised and did that each night there on Gili T.

I chose a big red snapper for grilling.  They would take the fish and either cut it on the floor on a wooden board or hand it over to the "fish gutter"... I tried not to watch that man too closely because fish is my most favorite thing and I didn't want to spoil anything :)  They then would open the fish and place it into a cage and put it onto fire, hot coals.  They had their teriyaki/bbq sauce they would slather all over and when it was ready, they would serve it with their spicy peppers and rice... yum! Without a second hesitation I could eat that fish for dinner every night.  Gili T's night life was one of my favorite experiences there.

Gili Trawangan Island, east of Bali in Indonesia

The Island for Lovers

Sticky pineapple fingers,

Sandy coated hair,

Crispy sun baked skin, and

Pruned water soaked toes...

we were definitely living in paradise.

The clearest water of all the islands, where all the honeymooners could be found, was Gili Meno.
The air was filled with love with couples scattered across the sand.  We embraced this lover's island and spent our entire day soaking in the salty sea.