Not Your Average Honeymoon

Without any conscious effort to do so, we had spent our entire honeymoon in countries that drive on the left. Also, each place we visited (other than a brief layover in the Narita airport) was new to both of us. On first-time visits, I tend to get a bit antsy like there aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish everything there is to do. Not this time, however, and that has to do with the nature of how we "planned" the trip. We sort of chose Bali as our focal point of the honeymoon, but the dilemma was how to get there.

There are no direct flights from Los Angeles, so we bookended it with Singapore and Sydney, cities which don't have copious museums or attractions like a Paris, a Tokyo, or a Rome. I mentioned in a previous post that the mass transit system somehow made the top 10 on TripAdvisor for Singapore. And having rode aforementioned transit system, it's nothing to write home about. It's clean and efficient, but if you're going to have credit card and mobile pay options at the ticket kiosks and then only accept cash, the bugs have not been completely ironed out.

Point being, Singapore and Sydney have one or two "must-see" attractions, but beyond that it is whatever you make of it. For Singapore it was Gardens by the Bay, and for Sydney it was the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. This made it easy to find time to relax because after seeing these "must-sees," we could just see where the day would take us. I was relaxed, Nicole was relaxed, and as a whole, the trip was stress-free, in spite of six different flights being involved and some standby ticket woes.


I want to ensure that I do not sound like I'm picking on Singapore and Sydney. They are, in fact, very interesting cities, which turned out differently than expected. Singapore, which calls itself, "Asia's World City," was an interesting mix of old and new -- heavily favoring the new. And due to its small size and geographic location, it has a unique culture that is really a blend of multiple cultures -- Chinese, Malay, Indian, and even a small European faction. The food reflects this, and every meal is some kind of fusion. Nicole kept pointing out Italian restaurants and saying, "Look!, Italian is really popular here, so if you want an authentic meal, we should get Italian!" Clearly, this is nothing more than Nicole up to her old tricks. She surprisingly did not join me in eating Hainanese chicken rice with curry.

Singapore is often talked about as being one of the cleanest cities in the world. Nicole did remark on how her pack of gum mysteriously vanished after processing through customs. I was reading that the cleanliness of Singapore is almost a necessity due to its muggy tropical climate. Any garbage left stagnant for any length of time becomes a health risk. Steep fines are imposed for littering, and they are enforced. The punishments for crimes in Singapore do seem a bit much for the crime committed, but perhaps it is working. Our customs forms to enter the country said, "Possession of illegal drugs is punishable by death." And that's no joke. At a minimum, one can face some good thrashings by caning (a bit archaic, but perhaps preferred to life in prison or . . . death). They have used the death penalty on more people for drug offenses than murder, and this includes drugs like marijuana, which is now viewed in the U.S. with the same reaction as Diet Coke. It does all seem a bit harsh, but then again, the policies are working. Crime, drug use, and even smaller offenses like littering are extremely low. I also saw no homelessness. A lot can be learned from Singapore, but maybe the caning shouldn't be one of their exports.

With Sydney, we found familiarity -- a virtual Los Angeles down under, but somehow friendlier, more accessible, and disturbingly more expensive. The food was almost exactly the same as our systems were accustomed to eating back in LA. We ate burgers, pasta, waffles, muffins, and pancakes . . . basically the main staples of my diet. Surely things outside Sydney change a bit, and the Outback/Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef, and other sites would make our to-do list on the next excursion to Australia.

But as previously mentioned, Bali was the center point of the trip, a place where we felt we could spend a lot of time relaxing and recovering from the chaos, stress, and people-pleasing that consumed our lives for the past year. We did not want to be at the beaches, which seem to be the more popular destination in Bali by far. They just seemed to be a little trashy, crowded, and had a weird vibe. . . not to mention a fairly high rate of crime. We chose Ubud as it seemed (on paper at least) to be more relaxed and removed from all of that. Our hotel was amazing with a bathroom alone larger than a good number of hotels I've stayed at. It was immaculately landscaped and decorated to look like an aged temple. Going to the pool felt like an Indiana Jones adventure. Once leaving the property, however, the town of Ubud is perhaps not what either of us was expecting. One, the sidewalks are extremely narrow, so this results in walking in the street a lot. Two, the streets are not particularly safe due to pretty erratic driving -- the worst offenders being western tourists who mistakenly believe they can ride a motorbike. Three, white/hippie/dime-store yogi/instagram tourism has completely taken over the town of Ubud and it is just the worst.

I had not seen Eat Pray Love, prior to our trip to Bali, but having seen parts of it the other day, it is pretty accurate. While the viewer of the movie is supposed to take away that Julia Roberts character is becoming enlightened, centered, and balanced, one cannot ignore that the only people she speaks to in Bali are all white people looking to find the same things (whatever those even mean). It is extremely disingenuous and hypocritical for these hippie conquistadors to just march into a country, claim an area as their own and then act like they are part of a culture they never knew anything about. In fact, they have essentially influenced Ubud so much that the town now revolves around white people pretending to be something else. Nowhere was this more evident than Zest, a vegan restaurant with rave reviews and terrible food. The clientele dress in sarongs as their token nod to Indonesian culture, and wear jewelry or do their hair in such a way to look different than one would walking through the streets of America or Europe. There are two problems with this. In their quest to all look different, they all end up looking the same. The second issue is that it's all an act. They pretend to be zen, take a selfie, check how many "likes" they receive on said picture, and plot out their next fake "experience," such as visiting rice paddies that are no longer in use for making actual rice.

They have, in a sense, created an entirely fake life in which they have devoted all time and effort to their pseudo life that exists on the internet, where they try to impress people they will never meet. And it's not just the tourist crowd that rubbed me the wrong way. The hypocrisy continued with religion. There are numerous Hindu temples around Ubud, many which are closed to the public. The few that are open to visitors have a strict dress code . . . sometimes. It is inconsistently enforced because at night, there is money to be made in the dance shows. If you turn someone away for baring too much shoulder, that's 800,000 rupiah ($50) of revenue lost. I understand money talks and all that, but if it's ok at night, it should be ok during the day. You cannot be both welcoming to all, and hours later turn away a woman for menstruating because they're considered too "dirty." The entire local population has been reduced to assimilating into perpetuating a myth that was created by white western tourists for white western tourists. It is as real as Morocco in Epcot or Paris Casino in Las Vegas. It was once a beautiful area with rice paddies that reflected the sun's glow without some guy from Montréal wearing a rice hat for a photo op or some woman from Portland hosting yoga retreats for other western tourists.

Many people come to live in Ubud because they have been led to believe that it is free-thinking, artsy and carefree. This is true on the surface. Ubud is where one can swing toward the heavens without a care in the world ($35/Limit 12 swings). The traffic is bad (and frankly dangerous) for a town of its size. The newspaper reported on two men being arrested for running a Facebook page as a means for gay people to find each other. Had I not met up with one of my Indonesian students from flight school, I wouldn't have had a single authentic Indonesian experience during our stay. The restaurant he took us to was the only one during our visit where Indonesians outnumbered western tourists. So, Ubud is polluted, intolerant, and simulated. If the westerners who flock to Ubud wouldn't stand for these kinds of things back in London or Marseilles or Seattle, why are they ok with them thousands of miles away in another country? It is simply one big lie that people simply fail to realize or choose to ignore.

When we stopped short of taking a United flight home and instead hopped on a flight to Fiji, we
thought we were being a bit crazy. And yet, there we were on our own island in the middle of the South Pacific, watching the vibrant and clear blue waters from our hammock. But it wasn't real. I mean, yes the ocean was real. The hammock was real. But I have the sense to know that this is not daily life on Fiji. It was delightful and relaxing and all those wonderful things, but I am not going to move to Fiji tomorrow and pretend that the Fijian way of life is all coconuts and paddle-boarding. Having visited and lived on Hawaii, I know that there is a pretty significant difference between perception and reality. When I lived on Oahu, I never drank a Mai Tai, only surfed twice, and subsisted on SPAM and plate lunches (none which included pineapple).

The point is this...in spite of what it may sound like from this post, we actually had a fantastic time on our atypical honeymoon adventures. The point is to use caution when evaluating your experiences as a traveler. There is a growing trend of people my age pursuing an "authentic" experience without much regard to what reality actually is. People can go to a place like Ubud and take a cooking class to make Indonesian food! Super authentic! Or is it? . . . Did these overpriced cooking classes exist before the influx of western tourists? Methinks not. I am reminded by a quote from fake movie president Andrew Shepherd in The American President:



Lewis: They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.

Andrew:...People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference.



And that, ladies and gentlemen, is really the point I'm trying to drive home. You can have a great time on vacation, but recognize that your experience may not reflect daily life. I really liked Cuba. Cuba has a history of human rights violations. I liked Israel. Israel is always involved in some sort of controversial settlement dispute or military action. I have always enjoyed Japan. Japan refuses to accept responsibility for the war crimes it committed in the past and has a habit of ignoring its own faults. I am an American. America favors special interests, enjoys putting people in groups for electoral gain, and is somehow simultaneously free, welcoming, and forward-thinking, and yet incredibly backward, racist, and misogynistic. Any country has the potential to be great, but every country is not without its own problems. And for one's honeymoon, one is supposed to sit back and relax. We did just that, but we did something else. We questioned things. And that's ok too.

Fiji-Ween

I set an alarm to wake up for the sunrise. Seeing as though this will be our last day, I thought I'd taken advantage of our locale and try to capture it on my camera.

I did eventually return and tried to fall back asleep, but no such luck. I'm not entirely sure what time zone my body is functioning on at this point, and it will be interesting to see how we adjust back to Pacific time.

After breakfast, we decided to take one of the kayaks around the island. We admired the blue waters and deftly maneuvered ourselves around an entire island. How 'bout them mangoes? As of yet, our arms are not protesting too much from this excursion. After coming back ashore, we decided to walk a bit around the island again and ended up sitting under on the beach for a spell.







After grabbing some lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon just relaxing or vegging out, which incidentally is how you could describe Nicole's eating since we've arrived. For whatever reason, everything we order here contains lots of vegetables. Nicole ordered a quesadilla that only contained vegetables, and no cheese. Anyway, we had already arranged a late checkout and boat pickup around 6:00pm, but this did not seem to matter a whole lot as some workers were lingering outside our hut as if to hurry us along. I suppose it worked. We boarded a boat at 5:30.

In the end, this didn't really serve us well as we've now been told to wait more than an hour outside security at the airport until our tickets can be released. Standby travel is . . . complicated. Anyway, it has been quite a "honeymoon," one for the books. There have been so many different parts of this trip, it should make for an interesting analysis. We had very different experiences at each stop, each providing us with a new country to pin on the map. While it may seem like we've been hopping around a lot, it has actually felt very relaxed with not a lot of rushing around. I think it's fair to say, however, that this will be our last flight leg for this trip . . . I think.

Mischief Night

We woke up to the sun brightly shining into our small beachfront hut. After a late breakfast, we walked around the entire island, which was not the impossible task it may sound like. Even with the need to watch our footing over some rocks and driftwood, it probably only took us about 25 minutes to go all the way around. The water was a rich blue color and the sun felt very warm beating down on us as we walked. It was, however, not nearly as humid as it was on Bali, so it was comfortable-ish. We stayed hydrated with the Fiji water provided by the resort. I had this strange moment where I was looking at the bottle as if I'd only just realized that Fiji water comes from Fiji. It was just a bit surreal to be seeing something that's so ubiquitous (especially in Los Angeles) and then actually be sitting at a beach on the group of islands where Fiji water is sourced from.

We noticed that other people were acquiring snorkel gear or going out in sea kayaks. We assumed they had not transported these items on the plane, so we tracked down the guy who lets guests borrow various sea-related apparatus. We elected to do Stand Up Paddleboarding. This is actually only the second time Nicole and I have done such an activity -- the first time being on Turks & Caicos. We are just naturally skilled at such things. After paddling around for a while, we made our way back ashore and then hung out by our hut and relaxed in the hammock just outside our door.

Our "resort" is not big, so we keep seeing the same people around, or after a short walk, no people at all. As sunset approached, we walked a little ways toward the other side of the island, so we could watch sunset. There weren't a lot of clouds in the sky today, so the colors weren't very dramatic, but it was relaxing to watch anyway. Fiji is one of the best spontaneous decisions we've made in a while.

After sunset, we made our way to dinner where we were again entertained with music and enjoyed the relaxed outdoor atmosphere of the island's one and only restaurant. After dinner, we spent some time back in the hammock looking up at the stars.

Welcome "home?"

We arrived at the airport about 80 mins before our United flight was scheduled to depart for LAX. For reasons that remain unknown, United demoted our listing from business class to economy and without any action on our part, decided to put us in seats that were in completely different rows. There 60 open seats. We inquired as to why this occurred, and they said it was because our last names are different. This was never a problem before we were married, so it's interesting that this somehow threw United for a loop.



We did end up going to the gate (with seats adjusted to be together, although pretty far in the back) and were just shy of the secondary screening, when we stopped short. This is not how we wanted our honeymoon to end - angry at the airlines, angry at the efficiencies of Sydney's Kingsford Smith International, and poised to spend the next 14 hours in mediocre seats. Right then and there, we canceled our listing. There was a Delta flight leaving in an hour to LAX, but we were already resigned of that option. I went on my phone and booked us a hotel in Fiji and a standby listing to Nadi.

It was an interesting journey to our resort, which is on its own island about 20 minutes from the main island. We met a driver after customs who drove us for about 25 mins to the wharf and then we bounced along in the boat to Serenity Island where we received a royal welcome with musicians, a welcome party with everyone saying "Bula!" and "Welcome Home!" It's like we were celebrities. Not bad for $145/night. We have a beachfront hut. Honestly, they all seem to be beachfront, as the island is maybe only a 1/2 mile around. Having arrived at night, we couldn't really confirm if our view was great.

We could hear the ocean, but for all we knew, we could be sitting on a pile of trash since it was so dark out. We fell asleep to the sounds of the waves crashing just 10 meters away as the rustling of the palm trees lulled us into a deep sleep. We haven't even seen daylight yet, but I think Fiji was a good choice...

Yes.

The Last Day

Whereas yesterday was an amazing sunny day with the perfect weather, today was a bit grey and cool. The weather is very fickle. Nicole said that next week it is supposed to reach 90, so who knows what the "average" weather is actually supposed to be this time of year. Anyway, rather than fight the hordes of tourists in downtown Sydney again, we elected to sit tight in our own little neighborhood by Balmoral Beach. It's a quaint little beach town, yet filled with very active people.

A cricket game was going on from the moment we woke up, and would continue until we got dinner...  The cafes were packed all day long and despite the cool weather, people still continued to enjoy a swim. Nicole and I went for a hike in the surrounding "bush." There were lots of stairs and hills, which I feel like nobody ever talks about when speaking of Sydney. There are hills here like San Francisco. During our hike we saw the lizard above, a wide view of downtown Sydney from afar, some old Army barracks from WWII era, and we stopped our hike at a place called Chowder Bay.

We took our time walking back before having greek food at one of the few outdoor cafes. We got in just before the crowds really took over. One needs a reservation at most restaurants here. They are very popular. We have pretty much eaten at every restaurant in Balmoral except for the super fancy ones that inexplicably closed at 3:00pm anyway. I had some fish and chips at another stand earlier in the day.

After our dinner we walked along the beach at dusk for some more photos and just to relax for our final hours of the trip. We are trying to get on a 10am flight on United tomorrow morning, hopefully business class, as it is a 13 and a half hour flight. Toodles.

The Zoo and Beyond

After breakfast out on our large balcony, we walked to the Taronga Zoo, which is on our peninsula, but evidently uphill the whole way. The sun was shining strong today so it felt considerably warmer. Nicole was very excited for the zoo because she admires marsupials, and surely Australia would not have any shortage of them. We paid a little extra to get the "Koala Experience," a sort of one-on-one time with koalas. While one is not allowed to touch them, we were able to get pretty close. This does not seem to disturb them since they can sleep on pretty much any position, a skill I could have used on the Qantas flight the other day.

They sleep around 18-20 hours a day, being most active between 11am and 2:45pm - a very suspicious and specific time if you ask me. We did see a little activity for about five minutes mostly because they were eating eucalyptus, getting high, and immediately falling back asleep. Curious creatures, the koalas. We later saw some kangaroos, emus, and platypuses (platypii?). We took the sky safari over the zoo and to the ferry dock where we took a boat to Circular Quay. I was quite hungry, so we had pancakes at a place called Pancakes on the Rocks underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The "Rocks," is an area of Sydney with a bit of old city charm and reminded us a bit of Brooklyn, kind of trendy, quaint, and a little less chaotic than the nearby quay and port area, where a massive cruise ship was docked. We then walked toward the Opera House, where we discussed how it is like the symbol of Sydney, whereas similar looking buildings (the Disney concert hall or the Guggenheim) are not emblematic of their respective cities. We decided that it must be the lack of other defining landmarks in Sydney, though the story behind its construction is upsetting. I'll sum up -- the designer never really got the credit they deserved thanks to dodgy government officials; and it was completed at a 1400% cost overrun and about 12 years late. Harrumph.

We continued our stroll through the royal botanical gardens and to a place called Mrs MacQuarie's chair, a bench built by convicts for the former Governor's wife. Her view wasn't as good as it could have been. If only she had known about the opera house and harbour bridge in the opposite direction. . .  We then retraced our steps ant went back to the Rocks, where I had made a reservation at an Italian restaurant with outdoor seating. We both had a hearty filling of pasta. For being a long flight from LA, it sure feels a lot like home here.

To the Land of Oz

Our flight from Ngurah Rai International to Sydney may have been fairly uneventful once we were actually on the plane, but it was quite a big to-do to reach that point. First, the drive from Ubud to the airport is only like 35 km, but took 1 hour and 40 minutes. Then we began the check-in process which required waiting in line behind everyone checking bags. When we finally reached the counter, we were simply told that there were not a lot of seats, so they couldn't release them until 9:00pm. It was now 8:00. We finally had tickets in hand around 9:45pm, just 15 mins prior to door close. And we still had to go through customs, security, another bag check, and discover that there was a gate change, before finally getting into our very tight Qantas seats in the very back row of the plane.

We landed in Sydney around 7am. We got a few winks in on the flight, but due to the cramped seats, our various body parts also fell asleep and it took some time for me to regain blood flow to my right arm and leg. We took a train to Circular Quay where we took a ferry, then an Uber the rest of the way to our Air BnB in Mosman, a beach community that seems to consist of older wealthy folk. We have a nice view over the water from our elevated position in the hills.

 The situation is made slightly easier by an inclinator, that a lot of the homes in the area seem to have installed. Here you see Nicole slowly making her way up the hill. While it is a very nice place, it took a while for us to get in because we were so early. Jet-lagged and beaten, we had breakfast at a small cafe by the beach and ended up falling asleep for a bit on the steps leading up to our Air BnB before we were given a key. We enjoyed a few more winks before waking up again at 2pm do begin our day. We walked into downtown Mosman, a collection of shops, cafes, and small town charm. After walking up and down the length of the area a few times, we ended up getting burgers at a place called Burger Shed. I think we were both craving something that was a bit more familiar, or at least not chicken. After our burgers, we caught a ride to Cremorne Point, a spot I had calculated (based on google maps) would have decent views of downtown Sydney and the Opera House.

There was also a nearby trail that led to a lighthouse. We have noticed that Sydney is a very active city. There are runners everywhere and while Nicole and I perceived the weather as a bit chilly, there was no shortage of people swimming either. 0_0 

I shot some timelapse footage in the area as the sun went down and the lights began to illuminate the various buildings across the way.

As the sun went down, it got even cooler. In many ways, the weather here is similar to LA. Warm in the sun, cool in the shade, and impossible to dress for. After taking some more pictures, we went back to our area in Mosman and called it an early night. We had been through a lot with all the traveling and were eager for a full night's rest.

Night into Day

We ventured out in the evening for two reasons. One, I knew they lit up some of the temples and wanted to get some pictures, and Two, our hotel grounds were being smoked for mosquitoes. It was not yet dark enough for the lights to come on when we walked by, so we ended up getting dinner at the 3 Monkeys, the same restaurant as the previous night. One cannot go wrong with some pasta and pizza. After dinner, we worked our way through the chaotic crowds of central Ubud until reaching Saraswati Temple, the one next to the Starbucks.

The unfortunate thing about this town is that it doesn't really cater to photographers. The only reason the temples are illuminated at night is because many of them play host to a dancing show. Luckily I was able to sweet talk the people selling tickets into letting us snap a couple quick photos before going on our way. We later ended up back at the Pura Dalem Temple, where we had previously worn special attire so as to not offend. Now, however, these strict rules were no longer required as they too had a show. I took one picture from just outside the entrance and called it good enough. We walked back to our hotel a bit annoyed.

It is incredibly hypocritical to require specific attire during the daytime, when no ceremony is occurring, and simply not care in the evening because more money can be generated if they just let anyone in. We Herschers have a long history of being annoyed by nonsensical religious dress codes. 20 years ago, my sister had to buy special pants to get in to the Vatican because she was deemed too skanky in her nearly knee-length skirt. My mom had to put on some kind of shawl/dress over her pants while visiting a monastery in Greece because apparently women shouldn't wear pants. And at the Pura Dalem Temple, it is strictly forbidden for a woman to enter while menstruating. It's really tough being a woman. Though, at 7:30pm, all bets are off as long as you have 80,000 INR.

Perhaps it was all the walking we did throughout the day, or the heat, or a combination thereof that led me to fall asleep around 10pm. As a result, I woke up around 7am, and decided to take advantage of the situation by doing a bit of exploring before the crowds of tourists consumed the town. I first walked down the hill toward the ridge hike where we saw our first temple a few days ago. A pair of young women were laying out offerings in front of the temple. These types of offerings are all over town and it's hard not to accidentally step in one.

After my brief stop at temple #1, I thought I'd try and go back to Saraswati, the Starbucks Temple, as it will forever be remembered in my mind, and power-walked into town in hopes of grabbing a couple shots before the selfie takers started to arrive. I had the place to myself and was able to enjoy the solitude of it in spite of the constant drone of motorbikes in the street just meters away.

Today we must check out of our hotel, but our flight (or any flight going to Sydney for that matter), doesn't leave until 1030pm. This makes for one of those awkward days where we are kind of stranded in Ubud for about 6 hours. We've been told we can still use the hotel facilities, just not our room, so we my spend some time at the pool, and Nicole may get a massage as they are quite inexpensive here. I think we are both ready to leave Ubud. While our hotel is very relaxing, the town is a little wild for our tastes. On to the next adventure . . .