Glover's ongoing report 2 mos. In sea
 

Will try to do this as we go. Hope I get better at using my iPad keyboard over time.

We've been planning this 2 month trip all year, with lots of help from. This board. Husband fell in love with Asia on a trip decades ago and always wanted to return. It's my first trip there. We've travelled a lot always independenty in Mexico, central and south America and Europe. We're nature and culture and food lovers.

Our itinerary is an ambitious busy oneweknow but we may not pass this way again. We used miles to get us to Singapore and back from hong kong (to dc. )

The iron is sing, Bali, java, Yogyakarta,Borneo, Cambodia,Laos, vn, and hong kong.
A lot of flying.

Sadly only enough miles for biz class one wY. So we did the Econ grueling flight onwY over. Hardes skinniest united seats ever. 5 hrs to SFO, 13 to hk, almost 4 more to sing
Slept nary a wink as always, but survived.

4 great nights at the very lovely and convenient intercontinental hotel in sing. We arrived just after the new year. Sorry we missed the celeb in sing as it sounded fabulous lights all over the amazing new marina bay area. Instead we just managed to score 2 very expensive drinks at the hotel bar before closing and crashed.

Generally took it easy in sing, but really enjoyed it. Thought it lush and lovely. Spent an afternoon at botanical gardens, had relaxing lovely but overpriced lunch at halia there.
Walked some distance back in tropical rain. Conquered mrt subway. Masses of people out on new years day. Loved looking at all the diversity. Spent another day walking around Arab sreet then over to new marina bay area. Amazing construction going on there. Couldn't resist riding Singapore flyer to view it all. Huge ferris wheel. Chilled fin a
Ly at brewpub at riverside. Spent other whole day at bird park. Thought it beautiful also. Had a nice spot for afternoon shower. Under pavilion at african waterfall exhibit. Hoped to do museums in afternoon but never made it. Two dinners Recs from hotel. The very cheap and local kamala villas. Indian veggie where we practiced eTing with only righthand challenging. Other was blue ginger. Both decent and reasonable.

Took air asia to Bali. All went well except for one hour wIt for visa on arrival there. We're now ensconced in the lovely puri santrian resort in Sanur. Sanur is not whT we expected, but it's grown on us. More later

nice report great detail and job on Ipad typing

I still cannot type on mine every other word is a typo...

sounds like a good trip so far....

we really liked the intercontinental and its location...

visa on arrival in bali is a crap shoot... once we waited 1.5 hours and last time we whizzed through...

sanur is good.... make sure you eat at the village italian rest., expensive but worth it... nice pool at PS....

Good to hear from you glover! I have been thinking about you.

I hope your IPad doesn't autocorrect like my IPhone - some of my text messages are cryptic and embarrassing.

Check out Tandjung Sari for a drink one night... we liked Warung Pregina, (across the street from Wicket Parrot) for cheap cheap authentic Indonesian satays and curries.

My husband is very interested in the old vespas and scooters and made his way from Sanur to Kuta to look through some auto body shops and parts stores.

Indeed pools here at puri santrian are wonderful. Grounds are beautiful. Spent yesterday just lazing around Pool. Will have massage today and go to hotell,s special dinner with entertainment etc. Great breakfast today at cafe batu jimban. North of hyatt. Wow hyatt is huge and gorgeous. Will dip toes in Indian ocean today. When we said Sanur is not what we expected, guess we're still wondering about quiet. Streets a very busy. Also very little beach down here below hyatt at ps. But we're happy. We move to alam shanti in ubud tomorrow.

have fun at AS... i so hope that you like it as much as we did....use their shuttle to your full advantage... order big at breakfast and allow plenty of time to eat on your porch

Thanks for reporting in.

The Hyatt at Sanur is gorgeous. You say Hyatt and people think nah, just another chain hotel. My first trip to Bali many years ago, a travel agent recommended the Bali Hyatt. She convinced me to stay there, and it was (and is) indeed, beautiful. Award winning grounds, and the most "Balinese" swimming pools... I love the one with the cave.

I love Bali!

Alam shanti Wow! We're ensconced in gayatri room. Looking out over rice fields from one of our two porches. I just hope we'll be able to leave the room to see the town!
thanks for the great rec bob.

Last night's special Bali dinner at puri santrian at Sanur .... Just ok food though beautifully presented.
Great dancing and gamrelon music. Am reading collinmcfee's A House In Bali Old book from. 40's
Filled with info on Gamelon and dance.

Ok,off to see ubud

following bob's advice, we enjoyed some good porch time here in our alam shanti digs. We,re in Gayatri, the second floor of one the newer buildings looking over beautiful rice fields, A wonderfful breakfast is delivered to us each am. Today we had fruit, baanana pancake for husband and omelet for me. Then we went off to do a long walk from town out to and through rice fields. A great flat walk with lots to look at. Workers in fields. Folks commuting to town. Lush foliage everywhere. Aatrtist shops along the way. Very hot and humid though. Walked back to town too. Ate lunch in Satri's Warung. We'd read about it in frommers and thought it sounded interesting and noticed sign for it on street. satri is apparently well known for her smoked duck. But as that requires 24 hours notice, we had banana chicken instead. Satri gives Balinese cooking lessons. As we were alone there, she came over and talked to us. Chcikenand it's accompanying veggies were delicious.

Walked back to alam and fell into pool. Thunder rain threatened but never materialized. Had alam shuttle deliver us to town to Dirty Duck for Dinner. I had the special chicken kebab with pepper sauce, h had nasi goring. Both were good. With a couple glasses of hat ten wine and a large bin tang, the bill was $32!!! the Only expensive restaurant item unfortunately is wine. why? Taxes? Importing?
Seems even the cheapest Australian or nz wine is $10 or more $ pere glass, so I,ve ordered some Bali local stuff.s. It's not terrible,and costs half the price.

Tomorrow we'll be up early for a day with the famous Putu. We're driving east. . . .

Yes, taxes on imported wines and alcohol of all kinds are exorbitant. Hatten and Artisan which are made in Bali from Australian grapes are a good value. Still a little rough but getting better.

Enjoy Bali!

how was putu?? isn't he fab!!!!

we have used him all 3 times we have been to bali...

AS is the best.....did you see the other pool...its now so private for the bldg next to it only.... we always try to rent that bldg... the shuttle, for free, is a real bonus too...

We're loving it here in ubud. After 2 night's in alam shanti's beautiful newish gayatri room Out overlooking the rice fields, where we watched a worker dig for eels each am and saw a fabulous Javanese kingfisher light on a branch, we moved over to the perhaps even nicer shindu room near the office. Here rather than two outdoor upper porches we have a lovely porch surrounded by lush greenery, lotus ponds, etc. Huge room with two big beautiful paintings and hung textiles. An amazing outside walled bathroom complete with blooming orchids and our own koi pond. An enormous hard bed. Soon we'll have aanother delicious. Breakfast delivered to the porch.
Yes, bob we saw the private pool, looked great. But of course we had the public one to ourselves the other day too. Nice little cafe and spa area over there too. The day before yesterday wAs Alam's 7th anniversary, so they had a nice party for the staff. Lovely cake and other desserts laid out by office which we were invited to taste. One staff member A "second. " brother stopped and chatted with us for about half an hour yesterday. It will be Very hard to leave here tomorrow.

We had a great day with Putu yesterday. He picked us up at alam at 8 and we went eAst. Visited gGunung Kawi monuments, Besakih temple, Lake Batur, Sideman Valley, texttile making and market, court of justic, etc at Klungkung. may have even forgotten a few. Stopped to sample poop coffee that had been mentioned by some here. an interesting story indeed behind that, Nice strong coffe though. Had nice leisurely chat with Putu over coffee re Indonesian and Bali govt and politics, elections. Such an intelligent guy. Couldn't resist buying some poop beans - even at the inflated price of $35 for 100 g. We got a great workout up and down many steps. The am was hot and even sunny. Besakih was jammed with people. Many ceremonies occurring so it was great to see some of those. Textiles were beautiful, but I was simply to overwhelmed to buy anything, without specific idea, use. Felt like I would have needed 2 or 3 leisurely hours without more impatient husband to shop. Putu managed to buy a couple thing though. . . Back to Alam about 5, just in time for rain.
Some rough roads and driving, all of which Putu negotiated carefully and calmly. When I mentioned fodors he said what funny guys bob and Andy were. Always with jokes.

relaxed on our new Shindu porch and listened to rain with glass of wine. After a while walked across the street to the Chili restaurant. Nice outdoor atmosphere, food pretty good. Sun is shining again this am. We'll go to some in town sites today, museusms etc., probably do some time at the pool, maybe a dance tonight.

dance on your porch even....then a snooze on the sofa...

i can't fault AS in any way....for me it is some of the best travel money i have ever spent... the beds are hard, but somehow quite comfortable...

anxious to read more....what's next?

Glover, try Laka Leke restaurant, near the walking path to the Monkey Forest for an interesting atmosphere, especially at night. Good is pretty good, as well.

i thought the bed in Ganggha was the softest of any that we had on our trip. The hard beds in Asia were great!

A lovely relaxing am on the shindu porch. Even some sun. Had leisurely breakfast of fruit, coffee, the great juice,and the wonderful banana pancake. Had the shuttle take us to the neka museum. Beautiful setting, nicely done exhibits of Balinese art. Highly recommend. Really nice gift store too.
Then took a cab to pura saraswati - the temple and waterr garden built in late nineteenth century. Hoot and ,sweaty by then we fell right into the Lotus Cafe in front of the temple for a couple bin tangs, chicken salad, gazpacho. Then we went on to the royal palace and puri lukisan museum. Not nearly as nice or interesting as neka, but they're clearly working on renovating all around. Decided to buy some tickets for a kecak and fire dance in town. Super sweaty by now, we took cab back to alam, where we jumped in the pool and then had tea. Shuttle back to town for dance. Drizzle of rain moved concert under pavilion. We both had seen kecak before, tough probably a different story.
The calling, chanting, are fascinating. So much going on. Must have been 100 "monkeys" and another half dozen costumed characters. Kecakwas followed by a fire dance, a single dancer who was astride a " horse" who danced in and out of burning coals, until they'd all been scattered and swept. Sadly there were only about 40 people or so at the performance. Putu told us the performers make nothing really. Ticket sale money is almost entirely used to maintain costumes, instruments etc.
Putu said he had danced in high schoo - just part of village life for most....

After cooncert we walked down to terrazzo and had a great dinner there. I had beef, greens,and noodle mix (kee yeuw?)' h had fish of day - opaki- both were excellent. H also had a chocolate fondant dessert. There were just a handful of people there. Big difference from insanely busy weekend. We get one last short porch sit tomorrow am. We'll hate to leave. But we're being picked up by Ijen resort people tomorrow to go to Ijen in java via the ferry.

all good things have a temporary ending---you will return to AS again..

We were picked up yesterday at alam shanti about 9:30 by a driver from the Ijen resort I java. Enjoyed the several hours drive northwest to the ferry to java. Lots of the drive was right along the coast. Drove right onto the ferry. Driver stayed with car and we went up to top deck. Not terribly full. Interesting to watch a full size bus maneuver onto ferry and into spot. It was hot, hot, hot on the upper deck, air very still, no sun. Boat stayed in place for some time as I suppose it waited for space out there. Many ferries back and forth. Should be just a quick jaunt

Finally we were across and in java. Begin to notice more mosques. About another hour, including the very bumpy last 3.5 km up to the resort. As we pull up in front we're rushed by staff bringing hot tea. We're checked in by very young looking woman in head scarf. All rest of staff seem to ,be youngish men. Hotel and restaurant English only spoken here. All eager to please. Place is probably about 25 Percent full. We love that it's called the Ijen resort And conference center. Can't imagine what group will brave that rocky road for a conference mid nowhere. But the grounds are absolutely beautiful. We think we must have the best room 101, with a small flat patio that looks out over 270 degree view of terraced rice paddies. Just beyond the patio is a canal lined with can a, giinger, bird of paradise etc. There's a beautiful pool and outside restaurant. Weather starts to change as we Re getting settled. Wind whips into a frenzy and a long hard rain falls. Power goes out briefly. We have a simple dinner of nasi goreng and bitangs. Lots of choice on menu, but food just ok. Only choice here as "town" would be a bit of a hike and have nothing. Crash early for 5 am wake up call for hike to mt Ijen crater. The main purpose for folks to visit this spot.

After quick breakfast, we meet our guide Albert for the hike up to the crater. He's with our same driver from yesterday. Albert is great, smart lively and good at spotting things. We drive 1 and a half hours on the worst road ever, and then hike another hour and a half or so up to the crAter, which is ttotally socked in. At the top it's like we've arrived on the moon. Winds probably 45 mph. Sulphur smell. Fog and mist. All the way up we have met workers coming down with 80 or so kgs of sulphur chunks in baskets on bamboo poles across their shoulders. They mine the sulphur from the volcano crater. For this work they are of course paid next to nothing. Interesting and depressing to see.

Albert helps us spot some new birds though and also spies a troop of java monkeys, related to lemurs he said. Large, grayish, with funny pixie hair cuts. Albert very much wants the weAtheer to cleAr so we can see the fabulous crater lake. . . But it.'s not happening. Latest he shows us a video of it on his phone. Indeed lovely. Sorry we missed it. Slog back down the mountain. Another rocky road ride back. Branches down everywhere from high winds. We're just glad we survived. . . .

Meanwhile weather back at resort is pretty decent. Have a porch sit, a swim in the icy pool,and a walk around the grounds. After another dinner in the restaurant, we'll fall into bed early and hopetobe able to move tomorrow. A 2 day wedding celebration down in the village meant nonstop music all night last night. Tomorrow we have our same driver (what nerves of steel) to java banana hotel near broom.

and the adventure continues