Creepy Fog

There are few things in life that really set my nerves on edge. I've encountered all kinds of new and unusual experiences that I've embraced while living here. I've seen huge spiders in Bali, large lizards lurking overhead on walls and little ones scurrying across our kitchen counter, an old man with both feet facing almost backwards, and reaching into my handbag and feeling goo. In case you're wondering, the goo was from a forgotten piece of Halls throat drop that melted in my handbag. It's so hot in Singapore, that throat drops and hard candies don't have a chance against the merciless heat and humidity. But one thing that sends me running for the hills....is the bug fogger!

Shortly after we moved to Singapore, I heard the sound of a weird motor. Curious, I looked outside from our 4th floor and noticed a greyish fog drifting upward into the trees and then dissipating into the sky. I saw a man walking around carrying something that looked like a strange leaf blower. This was the bug man. Mosquitoes and other insects are pretty bad here, so buildings are fumigated frequently. Exterminators walk around buildings, surprisingly without masks, blowing around this chemical fog, and it floats everywhere. I am thankful that when it's time for our building to be fumigated, that signs are posted in the lifts telling the tenants when to expect it.

(I'm so excited!! As I was typing this post, I heard the fogger outside. So I grabbed my camera and took these pictures. I didn't have any pictures to show until now. Trust me, this will be the only time I will show excitement over the foggers.)

When I hear that familiar sound now and I'm home in the apartment, I make sure the windows are closed and everything's good. But one day I was doing laundry and the back window was open with the dryer vent hanging out. I heard the fogger, saw the smoke approaching and then I remembered the window! I sprang up from my chair at the computer, ran down the hallway and threw myself at the window to slam it closed just before the poisonous gas drifted in and killed Gracie and me.

One time Kevin and I were in a gondola leaving Sentosa Island, and I spotted the fog below us. It was drifting up and our gondola was heading straight for it! The windows were open and couldn't be closed. We were trapped liked two caged rats. No where to go. We quickly covered our faces in our shirts, gagging on the stinky fumes infiltrating the gondola.

I thought about including some pictures of the lizards and humongous spiders, but that would have set my Mom's nerves on edge.

Beautiful Bali - Part 2

One afternoon we had tea at the cafe and watched girls make offerings made out of flowers, moss and some kind of leaves. They gave these to the guests. We have seen these offerings and other kinds all around the resort and in the town of Ubud. Since we don't share the same belief, I put them on the window sill in our villa to be admired only for their beauty.

Ubud is known for their hillside rice fields. So we chose to go on a walking tour led by the resort activities guide. It was a small group of about six people. He led us through a couple of small villages, remote country homesteads and vast rice fields. There should have been a waiver form for all of us to sign by stating that this walk was advanced, crazy level. Walking through the village roads was a breeze, but then we found ourselves traipsing through muddy, slippery, extremely narrow hillsides with steep drop offs and nothing to hang on to except the person in front. People in our group were working as a team to help everyone get over these hills. There was someone in front reaching a hand to help me up the hill and a hand pushing my rear from the back. (It was Kevin, so that's OK). Anyone else would have been thrown off the cliff! One guy in front of me started to slip on mud and slide down toward me. Great!! I was bracing myself for impact and being thrown off the hillside falling into thick brush and pigs. Thankfully, he caught his footing just in time.

Chicken peering at us from above

 Sure-footed villagers working on steep hill

Bravely walking across another bamboo bridge

Rice fields

 

There are dogs roaming all around Bali. These dogs are property dogs, not pets. They guard houses and property from intruders. They roam around freely, but stay close to the owner's property, while looking homeless and skinny. They tugged at my heart strings. It started to rain, just to make our walk even more wet and slippery, so we all ducked into a rice field shack for cover. A puppy was there and didn't know what to do about all of us invading his territory. He let out a howl-like, squeaky bark but quickly stopped when he discovered Kevin's shoes. He started licking his wet shoes over and over. This little guy had plenty of water, with all the puddles around, and a bowl of white rice to eat. It was time to move on before he got attached to Kevin, or vice versa.

There are scooters and motorcycles everywhere in Bali. That is the common form of transportation. Families of three or four people would ride on one scooter. Most of the houses we passed by on the road had a combination ramp and stairs in front. The ramp was for driving their scooters up and down from their property. Very clever.

We walked by what appeared to be a small school or group assembly of some kind. I noticed a few girls looking at us, and I waived to them. A bunch of them waived back. These people are very friendly. I noticed that most of the people have serious expressions on their faces until I caught the eye of someone and smiled at them. They would always flash a big smile right back.

Gated entrance to a residence or temple

We went into the touristy town of Ubud to look around and do some shopping. We made the mistake of bringing two large umbrellas with the resort's name on it. All the taxi drivers spotted us and bugged us continually about wanting to give us a ride back to the resort. How it works is that there are salesmen all over the streets offering, or actually harassing, passerbyes their taxi services. If you're interested, you tell them where your going and they give a price quote. These taxis are not metered. You agree on a set price, then they call for their taxi driver to come and pick you up where you stand. That's great if you want to go back to the resort. But we just wanted to walk around for a few hours and shop. They still aggressively approached us at every turn, especially with the Ubud Hanging Gardens umbrellas. That won't happen again.

Restaurant overlooking a temple

Since we arrived at Bali, we have been eating authentic Indonesian food, and really enjoying it. But when when came upon this Starbucks, we had to stop in and get a latte. Yum! I've never seen a Starbucks with a gong in front. Pretty cool!

There are some really nice handcrafted things available in Bali. Hand carved wood, jewelry, batik sarongs, Balinese puppet dolls, etc. There are also some serious bargains. The street market is rows upon rows on many streets of everything imaginable. We almost collapsed from heat stroke while wandering through these market stalls. Haggling is expected. I'm not all that comfortable with haggling, but I had to pick up on it quickly if I wanted to pay a fair price for something. 

One thing I did pick up in Ubud was a nasty stomach bug. I guess I ate or drank something contaminated. I got so sick that night, which was the night before we went back home, and was nauseated the whole day traveling home. Yuk! I'm glad it happened the last day instead of at the beginning of our trip. Lesson learned! I will never drink anything with ice or that doesn't come from a bottle while traveling out here. I was also told to stay away from salad and produce that is washed in tap water. It is safe to eat peelable fruits, but no fruits with the skin. It's also a good idea to brush your teeth and rinse using bottled water. No more iced tea for me on trips!

Hand carved Balinese dancer mask

We had a great trip in Bali and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, friendly people and delicious food. We even learned a few words in Bahasa, the language spoken in Indonesia. Terima kasih (thank you) for reading my blog post on Bali. Have blessed day!

Beautiful Bali - Part 1

I know that quite some time has gone by since Christmas, but this is my chance to finally talk about our special time in Bali, Indonesia. We stayed at Ubud Hanging Gardens the week before Christmas. This was our first time ever visiting a place in December wearing flip flops and shorts.

We chose a resort in Ubud, which is in the mountains and some distance away from the beaches. We wanted a mountain top, jungle experience with the monkeys. When we arrived at the resort around midnight, we were warmly greeted by the staff wearing Indonesian sarongs and embroidered tunics.  We were taken to our small villa by a hillside venicular. This fun little mode of transportation carries guests to different levels at the resort. Villas, main pool, restaurants and gift shop were on different levels.

Front entrance view looking down toward gift shop

Venicular

Entrance to our villa

All the villas have their own infinity pool for private swimming, and the view from the pool was nothing but dense tropical foliage as far as the eye could see. While swimming one afternoon, we did spot a monkey high up in a tree near us. We didn't have any bananas to entice him to come down.

Our pool looking toward cafe

View from our pool

Kevin relaxing under hut by pool

Inside the villa was an elegant bed surrounded by white mosquito netting. I thought the netting was a romantic touch. I quickly found out that it was there for a reason. I saw mosquitoes trying to get in every night, and other little creepy crawlies hanging on the outside staring at us like we were a tempting blood meal. It got pitch dark in the room like no other darkness I ever experienced. So, when I was tempted to get up in the middle of the night to visit the loo, I thought twice about leaving my safe little shelter in the netted cave. In the morning, all the little creepies were gone. Where they go....I don't know. I don't want to know.

Bed with mosquito netting

View looking toward the pool villas

Backside of our villa

Infinity pools overlooking temple

Relaxing at the resort lounge

We learned about a walking trail on the resort property that we decided to embark on. We love hiking. No problem, we thought. Well, it started off easy by riding in the shuttle which dropped us off at a temple where the trail started. We walked onto the temple grounds, and this little old guy came out of a dark and mossy corner and greeted us. I think he was the temple guard or a relic who lived there. He attempted to give us a history lesson on the temple. There are many Hindu temples in Bali, and this one was right on the resort grounds. Men and women need to wear sarongs (long, wrapped skirts) when entering a temple. Before we left for our walk, we got a lesson on how to put on a sarong from two resort staff members. Tying a sarong is involved and the steps are different for men and women.

Temple view from resort

Entrance to temple

Resort view from temple

We started our decent down the slippery temple stairs to the beginning of the "trail". The little path was covered with wet leaves and moss and was hardly noticeable. We felt like explorers from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". So we walked on grabbing tree branches and using umbrellas as walking sticks to keep us from tumbling down overgrown, spider web infested cliffs. We walked down very steep stone steps on a narrow winding path. We passed several little shrines with remnants of moldy fruit and soggy flowers left as offerings by villagers. It was quiet and creepy trying to get down the hillside.

When we thought our hiking adventure was coming to a close while approaching the resort, we spotted one more challenge.....a super narrow bamboo bridge hanging over the river. We had to cross it. No turning back. Thankfully we both have good balance and don't have trouble with heights. I was a little tense, carefully crossing the bridge with only one handrail, while envisioning jungle people blowing poisonous darts at me from behind. But all is good. We made it alive.

Kevin claiming victory after crossing the bridge

While recovering from our jungle hike, we relaxed at the deck watching local village girls perform Balinese dance. They were in training for professional dance when they get older. They were all so cute, but the girl in pink and white quickly became my favorite to watch. She had such expressive eyes and a pretty smile.

Tune in next time for Beautiful Bali Part 2...