Continued Oregon Adventures: Bagby Hot Springs and Oneonta Gorge

Hello, vicarious travelers!

I have had a few busy weekends the last couple weeks, and a few more adventures with the (not so) new-ish boyfriend that I thought I might add in here, for those of you Oregonians looking for new things to do in the area or those of you from far away wondering what the hell Oregon has to offer.

Some awesome things, it turns out, none of which I'd ever done before.

I made a big list of the all the things I wanted to do and see in the United States, and decided that job #1 was taking care of all the Oregon sights unseen.

Last weekend my boyfriend and I both had Saturday off, so he picked me up from work on Friday and we drove out of town, east, toward Estacada.  Just past Estacada is a long, narrow valley with a winding highway right down the center, and we drove along it toward Bagby Hot Springs (which boyfriend helped re-build several years ago when he was working as a carpenter).  It took about two and a half hours from Portland, but that was mostly due to traffic coming out of town.  On the way back it took less than two hours.

Bagby Hot Springs is pretty well described by its name: it's a hot spring that was discovered by some dude named Bagby (let's hope it was his last name).  The water is far too hot to touch for prolonged periods of time, so the water was diverted into tubs using a woodworked piping system, and a nearby stream was diverted into a pool from whence bathers take buckets of cold water to cool their too-hot spring water.  There is one very large communal tub that is right next to the mouth of the hot spring, then a few smaller group tubs and five private tubs a little further on down the hill.  The private tubs are clothing optional, and the smaller group tubs might be as well (the signage was a bit unclear, but there were naked people there, so probably clothing optional, unless they're rebels).

The hot springs is located a lot farther down the valley than most of the major campgrounds, so we tried to find a campsite on our way up there.  Most of the campgrounds allow online reservation, and have thus been full for months.  However, we found one spot that was open in one campground.  If we hadn't found an official spot, we would have just found somewhere a little secluded and off the road to create our own unofficial campsite.  A lot of people had done that along the road.  There were even a few good spots along a hike that was just past Bagby, on the same hillside.  The only problem with unofficial campsites is that the bathrooms are either non-existent or shitty (pun quite obviously intended).

I hadn't been camping since I was a kid and I had completely forgotten just how much gear it entails.  A lot.  A lot of gear is what it entails.  The thing that struck me once we started to get unpacked was just how nature-y everything was.  That might sound stupid, but I've been living in cities for so long, and have spent so little time in forests in the last few years that I was stunned by the ancient behemoths and unrelenting green that surrounded me.  After we got our site all set up, we were tired so we just made dinner, played some cards and crashed.

In the morning we got up pretty early and made pancakes.  As we sat eating we heard a huge crunching sound, and turned to look over our shoulders at the forest deeper into our campground.  At the top of the tree line, maybe 100 feet away, two trees were swaying precariously at the top as one teetered on allowing itself to be broken by the other, and then with a massive CRACK the top of it disappeared and there was a huge rumble of debris thumping menacingly down the side of the hill.  A few rocks and large pieces of wood made it all the way down to the road about fifty feet away from us, rendered harmless as they stopped, their thirst for destruction sated.  We were both amazed at how close it had been, and yet it somehow didn't occur that it might have been closer to others.  It turns out that the top of the tree barreled through another campsite and went over the table, through the fire pit, and stopped within a foot of the tent.  Thank god it stopped, I guess.

After our eventful breakfast we set out for Bagby.  It was about a thirty minute drive from our campground, but it was through a beautiful valley of trees, rivers, and cliffs, so we didn't mind much.  There was a parking lot at the bottom, and rangers that warned us there was no potable water at the top.  We probably should have brought more water with us (note to self for next time) but obviously we survived.  The hot springs were really nice, and we made use of a private tub to have a nice long soak.  After about an hour we left and headed down a twelve mile hike into the Bull of the Woods Wilderness.  We didn't do the full twelve miles, but we did take a detour down a dried up creek bed and do about half the hike.  Then we headed back and went for another hour long soak in the tubs, relaxing and luxuriating in the warm mineral bath.  Along the way back we stopped frequently so I could take pictures of the beautiful valley, and just to get a closer look at things as well.  We hung out for the night and left early the next morning, taking more picture as we continued out of the valley.

Then yesterday (a Monday) we both had the day off again, so we decided to tick another thing off my list and head to Oneonta Gorge.  Boyfriend had been before, but it was my first time and I was really excited.  Oneonta Gorge is a small gorge that runs perpendicular to the Columbia River Gorge, a large and very famously Ansel-Adams-photographed wonder of Oregon.  It's along the historic highway just past Multnomah Falls (another must see if traveling to Oregon).

The hike starts out easy enough, picking your way across dry rocks across a creek, which was made easier for me by the fact that I was wearing water shoes I had just purchased as someone forgot my hiking shoes.  You hike along for a while, trying to keep your feet dry, and then you come to a huge pile of log and boulders.  Not so easy.  On the other side is knee deep water.  Not so dry.  You wade through that for a while and then the water gets shallower.  And then it gets deeper; about waist deep to be exact.  You wade through that and come to a small pool and a beautiful waterfall that rounds out the back side of the gorge.  It's a short hike, and takes only maybe 20 to 30 minutes each way, depending how sure footed and unafraid of scrambling and shimmying and scraping over rocks and logs you are.

There's another trailhead a few dozen yards past the opening of Oneonta Gorge, and the trail takes you along the top of the gorge, although there are too many trees to see well.  However, the trail continues back farther into the woods and ends at Triple Falls, a beautiful sight of three waterfalls cascading gleefully over the edge of the same cliff, distinct from one another and yet only a few feet apart.  We hiked into the creek that feeds the falls and found that there was an almost eerily still pool at the top of each waterfall, two of which went right up the edge of the falling water.  We ate lunch on a log and then sat in one pool for a while, then moved onto a rock right at the edge and watched the water falling just beside and below us.  It was absolutely stunning.  We hiked back down and took a different turn to Horsetail Falls.  When we reached the next waterfall along the path, we assumed it was Horsetail Falls.  The path itself went under the cliffside, right behind the waterfall.  We walked right down to the spot where the falls hit the pond and took a few pictures, then continued on our hike, eager to find the road and get back to the car which we could use to drive for more water.  We never bring enough water.

When we reached the road we very quickly came upon another waterfall, labelled Horsetail Falls.  So who knows what the other one was.  The real Horsetail Falls was also quite pretty, though less so than the other we'd seen that day, in my opinion.  We walked a short way down the road and found our car, then headed back to Troutdale for water before heading back to Portland.

It was a really nice way to spend a late morning/ early afternoon.  I would highly recommend it as a day trip from Portland, and would recommend Bagby Hot Springs, as well.

Malaysia and Bali Circa 2010... So a Bit Belated

During my time living in other countries I went on a lot of vacations and did a decent amount of traveling.  A few times I neglected to write blogs about it, but that stops now.  I’m going to write about the larger trips that I had previously slacked on.  Luckily for me (and my readers) I often take notes in a notebook that is perpetually in my purse, so a lot of the details will remain intact.

First up is a trip I took to Malaysia and Bali from July 24, 2010 through July 31, 2010.  It was my summer vacation from my first job at Maple Bear in Suwon that took place at the end of my first year there, and immediately after the trip I went home to America for two weeks.

The most important thing about traveling I learned during this trip, is the people you travel with.  I went with Amanda and Shannon, both of whom I had traveled with in the past.  For some reason this trip was different, and the whole thing devolved so rapidly that the lesson is one I’ll never forget.

Amanda and I went a day early because Shannon had to work an extra day.  Our plane stopped in another city of Malaysia (we were headed to Kuala Lumpur) but we didn’t realize we were in the wrong spot.  We got off and went all the way through customs before we realized we were in the wrong town.  We ran back and caught the plane before it left.  It ended up being a good idea, however, because we didn’t have to go through customs again once we got to Kuala Lumpur and we got to race through to the taxis.  We got to our hostel, which was pretty bare and utilitarian.  That was fine with both of us because it had everything we needed.  The bathroom was unisex, open air, which made cold showers feel GREAT because it was so muggy there.  The shower was one of those huge round heads that points straight down and it was really nice.  We dropped off our stuff, chatted briefly with a few cute guys in our dormitory-style room, and then headed out to see the neighborhood and find some food.  When we came back we played cards with a good-looking young Australian man for a few hours and then crashed.

We tried to do things the first full day that Shannon might not find interesting, but inevitably we ended up showing her most of those things anyway because they were cool.  Still, the first day was one of the less exciting.

First off we booked a tour to the Batu Caves, which are a hugely popular sight in Kuala Lumpur.  We booked the tour for the day after Shannon was due to arrive so she could come with us.  Then we set off for a walk through our neighborhood.  It was extremely muggy and hot because it was the monsoon season, but hadn’t rained in a few days.  Our first destination was a local shopping area where we walked through stalls filled with local handicrafts and souvenirs.  Neither of us bought much, and we mostly just looked around because we knew Shannon would want to go there as well.

Next we headed to the National Mosque, not having many expectations because we didn’t know anything about it.  I, for one, was stunned by its beauty. It was one of those places that are so open, so simple, so beautiful, that it reminds you that man can do some amazing things- that at heart man is essentially good.  I wouldn’t have expected to have that experience in a mosque; I’ve never felt like that in a church (churches feel so oppressive, with the heavy architecture, dark wood, and stained glass).  Although unexpected, it wasn’t at all weird.  It just felt that way, easy.  We had to wear large purple robes that covered us from neck to ankle, but people stared less.  All day long people stared at us because we weren’t Malaysian and because I was showing some skin.  Generally I try to observe and respect local customs on what clothing is and is not appropriate, but it was just too hot and I couldn’t bear to do anything but stay bare.

Our last stop for the day was the world’s largest free flight walk-in aviary.  There were amazing birds everywhere, and both Amanda and I were taking tons of photos.  Amanda doesn’t particularly like birds, and she was a little scared when they got too close to her, but she kept up with me just fine.  I’ve noticed that when people spend time with me they tend to face their fears a lot, particularly if they’re afraid of things I like, such as the ocean.  Maybe it’s just because I’m adventurous and have a keep-up-or-quit attitude, who knows.  Anyway, the birds were absolutely incredible.  My local zoo in Oregon has a section where you can walk in and feed apple juice to lorikeets.  This place had a similar area, but with ten times more lorikeets and more options on feed.  We were both covered in them.  Amanda was freaking out a little, but she mostly had a good attitude about it.  Then we took tourist-y photos holding larger birds, like owls and hawks.  It was pretty cool and I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Kuala Lumpur.

That night Shannon arrived and we prepared for our trip to the Batu Caves the next day.  The tour also offered elephant riding at the end, which Shannon was pretty excited about, and which Amanda had never done.  We took a small van about thirteen kilometers outside of Kuala Lumpur out to the caves with just the three of us, and once again it was extremely hot.  I wore a sundress and flip flops (not typical spelunking attire) because I hate the heat.  There was a huge Buddah statue at the base of a really long set of stairs.  We counted.  Two hundred and ninety two steps up.  At the top the climb was totally worth it- there was an amazing view of the outskirts of the city, and the cave was incredible.  The texture of the walls defies description, and the screams of the birds flying around by the ceiling were deafening.  The monkey climbing up the stairs and climbing around inside the caves were also quite loud, and apt to steal things if you weren’t paying close attention.  Inside the cave were lots of small Hindu statues and shrines, with incense burning and monks milling about in certain areas.  As we prepared for the two hundred and ninety two steps down I slipped, skidded down about five steps, and left behind a decent sized piece of the skin on the back of my butt and one ankle.  So the sundress was, indeed, a poor choice.

We continued on to the elephant sanctuary, where we met several baby elephants, the youngest of which was only ten months old.  One of the youngsters, a two year old, only had three legs, and most of a fourth.  When he was wild he got his foot caught in a trap, and gangrene had set in by the time people found him a few days later.  They had to amputate.  He was my favorite.  He also loved me.  He kept trying to grab me while I fed him and then he wrapped his trunk around my leg when I tried to walk away.  In the water he hit me with his trunk.  We fed them peanuts, rode them a little bit, and went in the river with them. It was fun.  It was a much better experience than riding elephants in Thailand (the first time, though later times were much better). 

Our guide also taught us a lot about elephants on this trip, and after researching them more, they are now my favorite animal.  They are some of the most intelligent animals on Earth, they are one of the most oft cited when making claims that animals have emotions, and they are the only species other than humans who bury their dead (and show respect to other dead creatures by burying them as well).  They also mourn.  They mourn, you guys.  They’re so cool.

On the way back from the sanctuary we passed grass huts.  Our guide told us the people inside were Che Wong- a native tribe of Malaysia with no religion, they believe only in the spirit of the jungle.  There are only about five hundred people in the tribe, and they live only in the jungles of Malaysia.  Some of them are extremely isolated, living deep in the rainforest and living off what they can catch and collect from the forest.  It was pretty interesting to hear about them.

We went to Skybar that night.  Skybar is a bar on the 33rd floor of the Trader’s Hotel.  It was INCREDIBLE.  There was a shallow, long, rectangular, swimming pool in the center, and it was sort of like an infinity pool but not quite.  The lights were dark and the ambiance was very cool.  Two walls were made entirely of windows, which overlooked all of Kuala Lumpur.  There was a perfect view of the Patronus Towers, which are the (formerly) tallest buildings in the world.  Along one of the walls of windows (and along one long edge of the pool) were couches and pillows with a sunken floors and short tables for using whilst sitting on the floor.  We drank some Absinth, but didn’t hallucinate because most Absinth these days is made differently than in the past.  It was a fun time.

The next day we had planned to leave early for Melaka, but decided to leave late so Shannon could see more of Kuala Lumpur.  We went back to the National Mosque, and a guide gave us an hour-long instruction on Islam, which was really interesting, and contributed to the lateness of leaving for Melaka.  Shannon didn’t seem that interested; she was pointing and laughing at some of the pamphlets, and didn’t even really look around the mosque much.  The guide asked us if we would like to do the next call to prayer, and Shannon immediately said no.  Then we left for the Central Market.  We all bought tons of stuff, mostly souvenirs for others.

We finally got to Melaka and walked around.  It was a really beautiful city.  There were remnants of the Portuguese and Dutch occupations mixed in with the more current Malay structures.  We saw little benches pulled by bicycles, with the bicycles decorated lavishly and strangely, one covered in Barbies and most coated completely in faux flowers.

Shannon, being a slow walker on vacation with long legs and speed demon, constantly lagged behind.  She had a sourpuss attitude all day and kept telling us not to wait for her.  Later, after we showered and were hanging out at the guesthouse, she didn’t come to hang out with Amanda and me, staying in her room alone.  We went and invited her and she said no.  She chose to stay alone, it’s not like we sent her off.  When she finally came by she accused me of excluding her, saying I’d done the same at Mudfest.  She said I was only able to have one friend at a time and I kept leaving her out.  I’m sorry, bullshit.  It is not like I actively kicked her out, and it’s your responsibility to include your own damn self.  Yes, I am closer with both you and Amanda than you are with one another, but that doesn’t mean it’s my job to take care of you.  We’re walking too fast?  Either keep up or ask us to slow down.  You got here a day late?  Your fault- you should’ve switched your flight once the school schedule changed.  It was then that I realized that traveling with people can be a bit of a crapshoot, even if you’ve traveled with them in the past.  It’s the people that can make or break your experience of a place.

The next day we flew to Bali in the afternoon.  We had to take a two-hour cab ride from Melaka to the airport first, which was a bit brutal.  Then in Bali we couldn’t find the guy from our hotel, and had to sit outside the Bali airport for a while to wait for him.  When we finally found him we had a hilarious van ride to our guesthouse.  Our guide’s name was Baru, like all first-born Balinese men, and he was twenty-two with a wife and an eighteen month old son.  He was really funny, and we liked him a lot.  He then took us to a local roadside restaurant for dinner, where we got noodles with vegetables and egg and a soda for $1.50.  The hotel itself was beautiful little huts with thatched grass roofs and tons of beautiful flowers and small trees in between.  All good things.

Our first morning there we tried to take scooters to the beach.  We failed. Shannon and I got separated from Amanda when she failed to make a turn, mistook the brakes for the gas, and shot forward through a banner, off a pole, into a stone wall.  Before we ever noticed she was missing she’d been carried off to a hospital (she was fine).  Then Shannon and I got lost about ten times.  We finally passed Amanda on the road and found the beach together.  Echo beach was pretty shitty; there was tons of trash in the water and black sand.  That particular beach was mostly for surfing, I think.  We went back to the hostel, showered, then went for Indian food.  It was a bit of a dud, as days in Bali go.

The next day was my last day, and I was flying out that night.  I wanted it to be packed with fun, so Baru took us on a longtail boat to a nearby island with an animal sanctuary.  We got to pet, feed, and hold sea turtles, hold a giant bat, put a snake on our shoulders, pet a hawk, and hang out with some chickens.  Then we went snorkeling, but the water was choppy and visibility was low.  When we got back he took us to the most popular tourist beach, Kuta beach.  This is the place where I stayed during my second trip to Bali.  It was much nicer than the previous beach, though still covered in trash.  At least the sand was white and there were good restaurants and stalls around for food and souvenir shopping.

That night I flew back to Korea and got back to my apartment just before midnight.  Then I got up at four in the morning, took a cab to the bus to the airport and got on a sixteen turned twenty-three hour flight.  I got to San Francisco just fine, but then my flight home was delayed.  And delayed.  And delayed.  And cancelled.  I was so stressed from my day and a half spent almost entirely on planes and in airports that I immediately burst into full-on sobbing tears.  Downside: I had to wait until one in the morning for a flight home.  Upside: I was crying so hard that everyone on my flight let me get rebooked first.

I’m gonna go ahead and call that a win.

A New Kind of Adventure in Newport, Oregon

My general kind of adventure is, as many of you know, traveling to new and different places, learning about new cultures and expanding my perspective.  I’m currently trying out a new type of adventure, one on which I very rarely embark.

I’m staying in the United States for a while, and trying out the serious relationship thing.

I know this isn’t that kind of blog and I don’t particularly want to go into details, so I won’t bore you by talking about him.  However, we recently took a weekend trip together within the US, and because that still constitutes traveling (albeit, in a very short burst), I thought I’d write about it.  After all, the majority of my traveling for the foreseeable future will be within the United States of America.

For my birthday this year, he took me a few hours southwest of our hometown to Newport, Oregon, a nice beach town, for a relaxing weekend away.

I did the majority of the research for the trip, because I’m a nerd who loves travel research way more than any person should.  I generally like Trip Advisor because its mostly user generated information and has pretty accurate information about the quality of different sights.  I only made one small mistake in my research for this particular trip.

I was looking at Newport, Rhode Island.  If you want to go there, hit me up, because I know a couple cool things to do there.

I only realized I’d done that when we got there, but it was fine because Newport, Oregon has a couple of great things to do as well.  On our way down we stopped at the Devil’s Punchbowl, which is a large sea cave whose roof partially collapsed, leaving a large circular hole that looks down onto the sea floor, where the waves crash into the walls of the cave and the rocks along the shore.  It was beautiful, but a pretty quick stop.  Then we kept driving down toward Newport.  When we arrived we mostly just hung out, and went to the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area.  After an appropriate amount of time spent mocking the name, we headed into the area and saw its main attraction: the lighthouse.  It was closed, so we couldn’t climb up to its top, but a nearby hill provided a good viewpoint of the lighthouse and the edge of the coastline.  A small pod of whales were hanging out nearby, and we spotted a few coming up for air, spouting and showing their backs on the way up and their tails on the way down.

We looked over the map we’d been given at the entrance, and found that there were a few spots that had some good tide pools.  We planned to get up early and come back the next morning.  We went on another hike through the area, down to the spot where some of the tide pools would be exposed at low tide in the morning.  There wasn’t much to see when the tide was high, but it could be cool tomorrow morning.

The rest of the night was very relaxed.  We just went swimming at our hotel and used the sauna, which was nice.  Then we headed out for dinner at The Chowder Bowl down on Nye beach.  We shared the clam chowder, calamari, and marionberry cobbler, and every bite was delicious.  We watched a movie in our hotel room and went to bed early so that we could get up early for the tidepools.

We left the hotel at around seven in the morning in order to get to the tide pools during the lowest part of the tide.  The tide pools in the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area were really cool, even though there was a large group of middle school students there on a field trip.  We climbed all over the rocks, trying to avoid stepping on anything living.  We saw anemones, starfish, and a large amount of other really cool sea life.  The starfish were particularly surprising because a disease had recently wiped out the vast majority of the starfish all along the west coast.  But we were lucky and there were still a few to see.

After that, we were tired because it was so early, so we took a nap.

The afternoon was spent at the Aquarium, always conscious of the time so we wouldn’t miss high tide in the afternoon, which is the best time to see Devil’s Churn, Thor’s Well, Spouting Horn, and Cook’s Chasm.  The Newport Aquarium is pretty cool, and we had a lot of fun, again in spite of the group of high school children there on a field trip.  They have great interactive tide pools there where you can touch the starfish and anemones, which are a weird combination of wet, sticky, and smooth.  The jellyfish were my favorite part, as they always are at any aquarium. They just look so cool.  The octopus and giant crabs were pretty cool as well.

We headed to Devil’s Churn first, since it was the northernmost spot.  The churn is a spot in the coastline that was weakened by strong waves, resulting in a long, thin inlet that endures a constant barrage of waves against its walls.  You can walk right down to the edge of the rocks, where the water crashes against the sides just a few feet below you.  I’d been there before, but he hadn’t, so we stayed a little while to explore.

From there we headed a little further south past Yachats (pronounced Ya-hots because English is stupid) to Cook’s Chasm.  Captain James Cook discovered much of the Oregon Coast, including this particular chasm, which look much like a larger version of the Devil’s Churn.  Cook’s Chasm, however, has two really cool sights among its rocks.  First, right at the edge where the open ocean meets the rocks, there is Thor’s Well, a hole in the rocks that seems bottomless, but fills with water from below each time the waves hit the shore.  The water bubbles up from below and cascades over the sides, emptying itself partially over its own borders and partially in the hole below sight, where it is fed by the waves.

Again, you can walk right up to the edge of the well, but it can be dangerous at high tide.  Luckily, there are some slightly raised rocks nearby that look down on the well, but are too high to be affected by the incoming water.  It was pretty cool.

On the other side, along the chasm’s edge, was Spouting Horn.  As the waves crashed up against a small underwater cave, water was forced up toward the ceiling of the cave, which had a small hole.  Mist burst up through the hole with each large wave, spitting water high into the air seemingly in imitation of a spouting whale.  It was pretty cool, and the mist shot pretty high, although getting pictures was pretty difficult.

At the end we stopped for dinner in Newport along the boardwalk, at the original Moe’s.  We decided to mix it up this time, and so we shared the clam chowder, the calamari, and the marionberry cobbler.

We’re so cool.

Bali Temples, Bali Dances, Bali Bali

I got to Incheon Airport super early and THANK GOD I did because my flight was delayed so I would miss my connection.  They put me on an earlier flight, which seemed a bit like fate.  Waiting for the transfer bus in Shanghai it was just one other guy from my Seoul flight and me.  We got to talking and found out we lived three subway stops apart in Korea.  Then he told me he was from Oregon, Portland, Jesuit!  His dad works with Mike.  Crazy coincidences.

We were also sitting together on the flight to Bali, so we decided to just travel together for the first few days, until I moved to a new city or his girlfriend arrived from Korea.  We had bunk beds in a very run down hostel our first night and then moved on to a nicer hotel (same price- gotta love SE Asia) the next morning.   Got burned with some unfortunate tan lines, but whatever.  We met a German guy named Mario on the beach and ended up hanging out with him.  He was forty-two, but looked in his mid-thirties with longish hair.  He was a happy-go-lucky, slightly strange guy but he was fun.  That night we went to all you can eat tacos and enchiladas ($4) and then free drinks until 11.  I got pretty drunk, spoke Spanish with some cute Chileans, met an Irish guy named Paddy because of course he was, sliced my foot open demonstrating a proper pitch when someone made fun of softball, danced on a bar, and still went home pretty early.

Wednesday I kind of regret because I wasted it feeling like terrible from lack of sleep.  I went to the beach alone, but couldn’t leave the shade due to a headache and the previous day’s burn.  Brian (from the flight) was booking stuff for his girlfriend’s arrival.  I went back to the hotel and took a short nap.  After, I felt better so I went to find Brian on the beach.  He was with Mario, who he’d run into.  We hung out a bit, then went back to the same buffet for wings night.  Then we went out again to the same free drinks place.  We met another solo traveler who was cool.  His name was Tice and he was Dutch.  He was tall, skinny, awkward, but nice once you got past that.  We all shared a hookah and watched Mario crawl around on the floor trying to get a closer look at a prostitute’s shoes.  Honestly.

Thursday I got up early and packed up, booked a bus to Ubud and took off with a few nineteen year old British girls (Natalie, nice brunette, gave in to traveler chic, Georgie, tan, blonde, quiet, Abby, blonde wanna-be fashionista type, sunburned, and Jo who was super obnoxious “I quit that job.  A the end of the day I was so tired of riding their horses that I didn’t even want to ride my own horse.” Shut up, Jo). 

We went to the Sacred Monkey Temple when we got there, after finding a nice hotel.   The monkeys kept trying to hide in and climb up my long, white skirt.  Then we did nothing until around seven when we ventured out in the rain to get dinner.  The weather had been beautiful up until then.

Friday was the busiest day of the trip so far.  I got up early to finish planning and then hired a taxi to take me around a bit.  For $15 he took me around for 2.5 hours, to Goa Gajah (the elephant cave) and Gunung Kawi (the rocky temple).  Goa Gajah was cool, but OH MY GOD Gunung Kawi was incredible.  Goa Gajah has lots of little waterfalls and holy water fountains.  There was the small cave with Buddhist carvings inside.  There was a waterfall down some stairs that had huge, carved stones in its pool, the remnants of ancient pillars.  That was about it.  Gunung Kawi was down a ton of steps, but partway down the venders stopped, the jungle opened up, and spectacular rice terraces were right there in front of me.  I saw the one on the left first, just above the river, which was rushing at the bottom of the hill.  There were palm trees along the edge of the terrace, and at the bottom, around the river, it gave way to pure jungle.  I wasn’t expecting that view at all, so I unthinkingly said “Holy fucking shit.”  An old Balinese woman nearby making handicrafts chuckled, stood up next to me looking down and said, “Yes.  Holy fucking shit.”  Then I laughed and we shook or awkwardly held hands for a moment before I moved on.  To the right the terraces were more extensive and organized because the hill didn’t give way as sharply.  Still beautiful but in a more obviously artificial way.  I continued down the hill to the bottom, where I crossed a bridge that went over a river.  It said entrance to the right, but a lot of it was under construction.  When I got through the stone structures (some carved right out of the hillside).  I came to a huge stone wall that came right out of the hillside, with carvings in the middle.  It was stunning.  There was another across the river, just to the right of the path I’d been walking down, at the base of the rice terraces.  The walk back up sucked a little bit, but it was still worth it.  I went back to Ubud and got lunch.  It was some delicious spicy-ish chicken, tasty yellow rice, and traditional green vegetables.  Very yummy.  Then I went back to the hotel, changed, and headed out to the Campuhan Ridge Walk (2 km through hills of lush jungle with a steep drop on each side leading down to two rivers).  Then on to the Saraswati temple, a Hindu temple dedicated to the goddess of literature, art, and learning.  Two beautiful lily pad covered ponds with a path between them lead up to the temple.  Inside the temple there were a lot of beautiful plants and old grey temple structures, with statues sprinkled in here and there.  It was very quiet, peaceful, and beautiful considering it was in the middle of the city, right next to Starbucks.

That night I went to the Ubud palace to watch a performance of traditional Balinese dance.  There were three dances: the Legong Kraton dance, the Bapang dance, and  the Telek.

The Legong Kraton dance is performed by three women in bright, colorful costumes.  It is about an arrogant kid who wants a princess who has no interest in him.  He plans to slay her father so that he can be with her, but ends up dying in battle instead.

The Bapang dance is an overture to the Telek.  It consists of a monster called the Barong, who is controlled by two different men.  The Barong looked a bit like a very fluffy, hairy dog who had bred with a dragon.  There was another dancer dressed as a monkey, who teased the Barong with a banana.

Then came the final Barong dance, called the Telek.  It started with a dance between virtue and vice, represented by dancer wearing beautiful masks and others wearing ugly masks.  They leave a four women enter, students who study under a witch and are performing a strange magic rite.  They are chased away by the king’s spiritual leader, a white magic guru.  The guru asks the witch to stop doing evil magic, but she refuses.  They fight to see whose magic is stronger and he wins.  Enraged, she turns herself into a monster.  To fight her once more, the guru changes himself into Barong, the dog dragon creature from the Bapang dance.  Her evil power is gone, and it goes into the villagers who were helping Barong.  They feel the evil and kill themselves rather than give in.  Their lives are restored.

The dance itself was bright and beautiful, and a welcome respite from the pouring rain that seems to come every night in Ubud.  The women were all very beautiful, and the dancers’ movements were very precise and elegant.  Their hands and fingers bent in ways I hadn’t realized were possible without force.  All in all, I was very glad I went, even if I did have to walk home barefoot (having ripped open four gaping blisters per foot during the course of the day’s activities) through puddles up to my ankles while the rain continued to pour.  That’s what adventure is all about- not knowing what will happen next and rolling with the punches, so to speak.

Saturday I woke up at two in the morning and got on a van.  We picked up some other people at another hotel.  Then we went to a small parking lot and sat on a platform.  Another van pulled up and the two drivers made us breakfast and gave us tea and coffee.  They made banana pancakes and gave us mango.  Then we continued on, with me in the other van so that we were split four people in each.  We drove to a volcano toward the north of the island.  At around three-thirty the two Finnish girls from my van and I started to climb.

It wasn’t the hardest hike I’ve ever done, but it was far from the easiest.  Some parts required both hands and legs to pull and push yourself up to the next platform, and the ground was covered in scree the entire way up, making it difficult to keep your footing.  The point of going so early was to reach the top before sunrise, which I managed to do in spite of the fact that it was pouring rain once again and there was a thunderstorm over the top of the lake at the base of the volcano.  We reached the top, waiting twenty minutes for the sunrise.  Unfortunately, the cloud cover never dispersed and the sunrise was completely obscured.  We climbed back down quickly, though the Norwegians who ran straight down the side of the mountain, completely forgoing the path, go to the bottom much faster than we did.

After a short nap, I returned to the street outside and found another taxi driver to take me to the Western side of the island.  I went to the water palace, called Tirta Gangga, which was a beautiful garden filled with ponds and fountains.  It was drizzling slightly, but it was still gorgeous.  There were small creeks from one pond to another, with dragon bridges that spanned the barely moving water.  One of the ponds, right next to the largest fountain, had stone steps throughout so you could walk on the water to get closer to the fountain.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a rice terrace on the side of the road and ate lunch.  My driver was really nice and he spoke great English.  He bought me some soup at a roadside hut.  It was a kind of soup that I used to eat in Thailand sometimes, with fish cakes, dumplings, chicken, and sprouts in a super tasty broth.  I never knew what it was called in Thailand, and he didn’t tell me there either.  He also bought me some crackers and jackfruit.  Don’t feel too bad for the driver paying for my meal- for both of us to eat only cost him $1.  It’s hard to hate those Southeast Asian prices.

That afternoon I took the last bus back to Kuta beach, the main tourist beach where I had started my vacation.  I went back to the same hotel and went to the same dinner.  Then I went down to the beach and tried to catch the sunset, but it was a little bit overcast (story of my trip).  One the way back I saw a Damian Lillard jersey and bought it for $20, which is considerably more reasonable than the $80 it costs in the states.

The next day I had a while to hang out because my flight wasn’t until that night at midnight.  I packed up and left all my stuff at the concierge, then went to find a motorcycle taxi.  I found a guy just outside my hotel, and he drove me down the coast to Uluwatu temple, which was a Buddhist temple on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea.  It was absolutely gorgeous, but all the stairs kind of killed my quads after yesterday’s volcano climb.  On the way back to Kuta, he stopped at three different surfer beaches.  One was so steep that the beach was invisible.  There were little restaurants all down the hill so I ate lunch and watched surfers tackling the huge waves below.  Then we stopped at another beach where I laid out for a short while and read.

My motorcycle driver was a young guy, and he loved to talk about all sorts of things.  He talked the entire time he drove, and sat and talked to me at all the stops, too.   He was talking about music and told me how much he loved Snoop Dog.  I asked if he had ever been to a concert, and he said that Snoop was coming the following week, but tickets were too expensive.  I asked him how much, and he said even the worst seats were at least $200.  Seriously Snoop?  You’re going to come to a developing nation where the majority of the population has little to no disposable income and charge those kinds of prices?  Be realistic.

That night I sat out at the hotel and hung out with a few of the other guests, drinking beer while it poured down rain.  I was waiting for my van to the airport, and they were just starting the night out easy, planning to go out to bars and clubs after I left. 

The flight back to Korea was easy, and all I did the next day was close my bank account and pick up my cat.  And now, back to the states!  Goodbye, Asia, it’s been real.  Stay sweet.