Vancouver Holidays begin

okay so i'm getting worse at this blog stuff.. but i'm back in vancouver now..
spent lots of time with my parents.. we got a christmas tree today..

went out with some of the vanguard folks on friday got drunk the usual

travels pretty much have ended now..
hope you are all well

Merry Christmas and HAppy New Year

sam

LA LA land

so in LA now.. leave on tuesday

will write more later

Beijing come and gone

hey to anyone who is still checking this.. sorry i have been getting even more lazy with the blog as of late..
i spent a week in beijing at my friend andrew hunts place.. he works at the peking uni.. teaching animation and his place and work is way the fuck out of town..

will write more later.. but there are no pics so its not as exciting

Singapore - a rainy shopping week

so i have spent the last week in singapore visiting a friend cedric and doing a little shopping..
here is pic of his apt which is funny enough the only picture i have of singapore.. i thought about getting new digi camera but didn't and i have not been taking out the camera.. and of course the one time i did.. the batteries ran out ..whatever.. you can all google singapore if you like..

hey so i have added new pics through out the blog that i didn't get up before so scroll down and take a quick look.. later

so after the second tour of the gillis we headed back to kuta for one last shopping adventure and rest before we packed up and left the country for singapore.

so we got to our new hotel right in kuta off poppies lane 2 ..it was just meh..kind of place.. so no pics.. we were there for a night and when we were planning the rest of our nights.. we realized we had gotten the dates that we left mixed up and so we gained another day in kuta... opps.. least it was not the other way around. so we wanted to flash it up for the last couple nights.. so we moved hotels to one closer to the airport which was pretty nice.. check it out.. here is ONE of the pools .. our place was about 10 steps away from the pool...

We got to see Bucket and Bonnie again while we were in Kuta.. we bumped into them when we went to pick up our big packs at the hotel we left them out. they have rented a motorcycle for their last stint there and they were ripping around pretty good.. besides the fact that craig got a ticket for not wearing a helmet one day.

One day when we were at the pool they asked us if we would like a free sarong demo.. we said sure..and now you can see the results of that answer.. the demo was on us so we had a breif photoshoot ...very glamourous

to the south of Lombok and back to the gillis again

so we decided to head down to Kuta lombok to meet up with brendan and tim for a couple days.. so we got a bus down .. all good.. had lunch with the guys and had a dip in the really merky pool where we decided to head back to the gillis instead...

so they guys took us out for a quick boot around the area so we could see the beaches.. and the town.. was really nice but very quiet.. had dinner near the beach and then headed back up north first thing in the morning to get onto gilli t

So now we are back on the island after a boat ride with all the local ladies and all the food for the island for the next week it seemed like picture now included..look at amanda she looks so happy..it's cause she knows she is going back to the trawangen heehee .. staying in a really nice place with a gorgeous open air bathroom. Here you can see Amanda chillin on the deck of our place - Manta Dive is the name of the place if you ever find yourself on gilli t. Amanda and i will be here for about 2 more nights before we head off back to Kuta bali for some final shopping days before we hit the main event for shopping in singapore for a week..so place your orders now if you expect anything to come home with me for you

Lombok and the gillis

Okay sorry it's been so long... we have been on the gilli islands in lombok..
it's been great here really relaxed.. there are no cars or motorcycles here so i'ts a much slower pace. so since there are no cars or motorbikes when they call "transport" they mean a pony 'n' carriage as you can see amanda is making friends ..although we later found out she is quite allergic to them. Amanda and i flew over to Mataram and got a car to take us to bangsal where we prepared for the worst... craig, bonnie and craig had warned us that there are a lot of people there pretty much just trying to rip you off there and we had both read articles saying the same.. but when we got there it was so easy we wondered if we were getting taken by the scam... i was only offered a hat from a little kid and that was it.. we got on a boat about 5 ins after we got our tickets and that was it.. apparently the key is to go during lunch..

So we got to Gilli Trawagen.. so here is a pic of the main drag..although so parts do have cobbled road but this gives you the gist ..so we found a place to stay after looking at some real dumps.. and then we were told by everyone here that we had arrived in time for the full moon party ... lucky us.
we rested most of the day swam in the ocean a little.. the water is amazing.. and then went for a walk in the evening.. we ran into a guy we met in bali so we had a couple drinks with him..later we went to the full moon party but it was not quite the ones in thailand... terrible dance area and the first 2 dj's were not too good.. they were playing really hard music and it just didn't fit... so amanda and i went home.

for the rest of the time here we just did the usual sleeping.. eating and napping with a bit of swimming thrown in there once and awhile.

after a few days of that we thought a new island would be a good a good change so we booked a boat to the next island over gilli meno. this island is the smallest island of the three and it's definatley the most quiet.. lots of the hotels were not even open..but this was a good speed for amanda and myself.

so we were here for a day and we ran into paul the guy we had originally met on nusa lombongen.. he was with an israeli guy.. so hung out with them for the night and had some drinks..since that island was a little too slow the next we all went to the next island over.. gilli air

gilli air was a mix of the two islands..the first night we stayed in the same resort as the guys but then the next day decided we wanted a pool as the tide is always low here during the day so there is not as much good swimming on this island. we were also completley sick of salt water as there was not fresh water in any of the places we had been staying recently. so we had some laundry done and a room with a nice bathroom.

we were there for a couple nights.. the same program as all the other days.. my sewing is getting much better..i'm a few pages away from finishing another book.

AMANDA's Birthday!!!!!

So today was amandas birthday so we got up.. had breakfast.. and then went for a little spa action... amanda had an hour long massage and pedicure.. and i had a massage and body mask..heavenly.. best massage so far.

then after we we found out that another surprise for her b-day craig, bonnie and mesana were all here in semiyak back from lombok and they were not only staying in our hotel but in the next room over.. crazy.. i would say what are the odds but it seems to be a trend.

So we relaxed at the hotel for a litte .. the boys came to meet us and we went down to Jimbaran Bay for a seafood dinner on the beach... we got there found a good table watched the sun go down drinking Bintangs and eating peanuts.. great. The band came over and sung us some tunes..happy brithday of course ..no women no cry.. and hotel california.. great food!

After that we then went to the Bounty bar for some large cheap drinks where mesana and craig did a couple kareoke tunes ... after whcihwe decided to board the pirate ship and dance for a good solid chunk of hours..

Then we moved on to a more flash nightclub down by the beach called Club66 which was just a hop skip and a jump away from out hotel.. got drunk.. the party got thinner and thinner but brendan and i held on till about 3:30 when my legs told me to go to sleep.

next day was a true lazy sunday... did nothing but sleep lazy around and watch tv.. perfect for my brain speed of the day.

well we are heading to lombok for about 10 days not sure if we will get to computers much..and sorry for the no pictures..i have not been taking many and i have to go now so i don't have time to load any up.
next time

Seminyak with everyone for a couple days

Sorry this one is going to be a boring entry i have a feeling

got to Seminyak.. the same dudes who took us to the ferry came and picked us up and took us to Kuta.. and we hung out with them for a little.

Met up with Alex the first night for some Morrocan food in Seminyak and then we went to Kudeta for a drink and little lounge.. the whole palce seems kind of empty as well here.

Next day we checked out the guys ( tim g, brendan b, and alex w ) falsh pad that they rented for a couple nights... was pretty good with their own personal pool. as you can now see from the added picture.. we were there for about 30 mis and the place looks like a total mess...boys.. heehee.. Amanda and i then found a closer hotel to their place and dropped off our bags.. later met up with the boys for another drink at kudeta.

walked around a some days .. ate in between.. nothing much.

Ubud to Nasa Lombongen

So amanda organized some transport for us to pick us up at our hotel in ubud and take us to Sanur first thing in the morning so we coould get the fast boat to lombongen.. They rocked up in a lowered car blasting reggae a good ride couple of funny dudes and they shared some matches mind benders to us while we waited for the boat. Jono told us about the boat but no one else here seemed to know about it but he was 100% correct and we got the scoot boat over to the island which only took 30 mins over the 2 hour trip on the other more know boat!

There we stayed at a little place called Bungalow No7 ...and the relaxing began
finished one book " the time travelers wife" good book but sorry michelle i didn't cry. you can see me in one of the chairs there.. this is where we would retreat from the sun... amanda took the pic at our door and the tables in the background is the resturant bar..so you can see we had a lot of commuting while we were there. More news on my reading adventures i have now started "froth on a daydream" and "the little prince" which should be done in about 10mins next time i sit down to read.

didn't really do much on the island but rest and read and walk on the beach..and watch the cultivation of seaweed.

got to know the bartender at our place and we hung out with him and some locals one night and drank arak all night .. some local spirit that is made of rice.

one the second to last day we decided to rent a scooter and check out another beach on the island called dream beach .. and it was just that.. we have the whole beach to our selves.. Watched some hermit crabs and took a little dip. there were a couple of grass umbrellas on the beach so as the sun got angry wedug ourselves some chairs in the sand and read and napped while we waited till we were hungry. this relaxing stuff is really tough. i took the pic from the roof of where we ate lunch

after that we booted around on the bike a little and just got in one little minor collision with a dust pile... no injures just a couple scrapes on the bike... opps.. some ladies on the side of the road thought it was quite funny after they knew we were alright..and they were so sweet and helpful lovely people "welcome to my island"

i started sewing... well its not so much sewing as it is doodling with thread.. but it keeps me busy when i get tired of reading.

Here is the sunset on our last night there from the resturant we ate at

so we spent a total of 4 nights on the island and today we got te early boat back to sanur and have made it to kuta for one night before we go and meet some friends from sydney in seminyak tomorrow.

Dream Hotel room - Ubud

so we got a sweet pad in Ubud to stay at ...this whole building is it...downstairs we have our own outdoor living room all raised up with cushions. just behind that through the main entrance is the outdoor bathroom ..love those! then upstairs we had a double bed and a single... ( jer was staying with us at this place) and then on the upstairs deck there are two loungers and the whole place is over looking a rice feild ( picture will follow later )

The pool was the perfect temperature for me so for those who do not know me... that means as warm as bath water and it also had a raised platform for chillin on as you can see amanda here taking full advantage off



















So we took a walk through Monkey Forest one afternoon and you certainly do not need to look for them.. they are everywhere.. mostly looking like this dude ..balls out, pretty happy to scratch
them all day.


One day we organized a car to drive us around Ubud more to see some temples and terraced rice paddies and here you can see one of them.. May of the rice terraces were protected by the local wooly mamoths...they are like geckos here constantly knocking over tables... it gets to be a little much