Bali - Surfs up

Herman, my instructor

Across the street from our hotel, there was a surf shop that offer three hour surf lessons for 250,000 IDR ($27.5).  The price included transportation to the beach, board, rash guard, and direction.  I quickly got the basics from one instructor on the beach and then Herman took me out for some one-on-one time.  He was pretty helpful and encouraging as he offered tips and held the board until I got used to balancing on it.  After about an hour of that I was getting tired and we took a break.  We were trying to catch smaller waves and even though I wasn't swimming too much, the repetitive motion of walking out to the break and climbing onto the board took a lot out of me.  After the break I had another two hours of solo practice with Herman offering some advice from the shore.  For the most part he had taught me all he could and it was up to me to practice.  I think I was getting better as the day progressed, though I was moving at a much slower pace.  It was fun and I'll definitely try to get better.

Ba Guan: "Fire Cupping"

Renee and I decided to try cupping as a massage technique and I think we got cup-raped more than cup-massaged.  The idea is to release toxins that have accumulated in you body through suction-cup glasses placed on you back.  The darker the marks, the more toxins one has.  I guess I'm pretty toxic.

The process took about 25 minutes, when the cups were placed and left to do their work.  It felt like a giant clothes pin was placed in each spot.  The pinching sensation did ease as the process continued, but I think it helps to try an relax during the treatment.

We weren't supposed to shower or drink alcohol for six hours afterwards, so that the treatment could be most effective.  For 32myr ($10), was it worth it?  Yes.  I think the experience was unique and I kind of feel like my shoulders released a bit of tension.  Renee, however, was less impressed and thought it was just painful.

Claypot in KL

Renee and I ran next door for some food and we were greeted by this place making Cantonese food outside for all to see.  The resturaunt makes the normal chinese-food fair, but what peaked out interest were the claypots everyone was ordering.  They offered these pots with just noodles, noodles and mushrooms (our favorite), and then any combination with chicken, beef, or fish.  The pots come in small and medium sizes, while a medium was enough to share between the two of us for 15MYR ($5) and something else ordered as a side.

As a respectable Chinese food establishment, they also served such goodies as fried rice, noodles, broccoli beef and other standard fair.  The fried dumplings, 1.2MYR/ea. ($0.38), were more like shrimp wantons, but good none-the-less.  

Planes, trains, boats, and buses: Will it end?

We just completed a marathon travel session.  We left July 24, at 6:30pm and got to Koh Samui the next day around 2pm (bus and ferry).  We left for Koh Phangan on the 28th at 5:30pm and got back the next day at 6am (minibus, speedboat, minibus).  We started our journey back to Bangkok at noon the same day and arrived the 30th at 10am (minibus, ferry, bus, train).  We are officially tired of traveling!

We wish that we could slow down or stop for a bit, but our Thai visas expire on the 2nd, so we are now enlisting the one thing we though we would only need to get to Hong Kong and then again to get home.  That is right: an AIRCRAFT.  Just the thought of sitting on anything that moves slower than 200 mph gives us chills.  I don't care if it is a VIP, super, rapid, express, direct, sleeper, 1st class, air conditioned, magic people mover.  I want to just stay somewhere for a while and even that isn't likely to happen soon.  As I dread moving to the next place, we are in talks about buying rail and air tickets for coming home twice more and getting around China and Europe.  All this has caused us to open our wallets and deal with airport security to get from A to B as fast as possible without dealing with C.

Granted, all our land and sea crossings are cheap by comparison (especially when a hotel isn't needed for sleeper trains/buses).  But nothing beats the allure of shooting to your destination at 36,000 feet in hours rather than days.  W also have a time crunch as we cut out some stops (anything hiking related) to make room for the ones that we can relax at (read: beaches).  So wish us luck and hopefully the roll of the carriage can once again swing us to sleep.