Detox not Debauchery (Unfinished)

Bali - First thoughts as we drove from the airport to Kuta = Busy, Dirty, People, People, Chaos, Buy, MotorBikes, Beautiful, Cheap, etc. I wont be able to upload pictures today so im sorry for that, agian, just words this time. This little island is quite nice, some may say paradise. Here we go.

Day 13/14 After leaving the last shitty internet cafe, Matt and I wandered around to a supermarkte to buy cheap dinner and Chocolate for Inggawati in Bali. Dinner was long flat bread, with hummus, tomato, sprouts , and capsicum (read - red bell pepper). We baked it in the disgustinly dirty Prince Consort Backpackers Inn with a bunch of people who were antisocial. Fun. Next was our second to last spliff,and one of our two free beers at the Elefant & Wheelbarrow Pub. Back to the room where we met up with a Drunken Kiwi who had a stereo, so we bought a 6 pack for $13 and drank with drunky to Stone Temple Pilots. When we left to get the beer he was playing some killer Lightning Hopkins, but i dont know what happened! Back to the Bar to listen toa shitty two person coevrband. Free beer was good, band was not. Down in OZ AC/DC and Guns n' Roses ( read - Acca/Dacca & Gunners) are still quite popular. So i whisper in Matts ear, "Acca-Dacca" and he yells real loud,"Acca-Dacca" the band kicks into a country version of "Shook Me All Night Long". The bar crowd goes wild, danceing and singing to the country styling of AC/DC. Left that palace in a hurry to the last spliff, which we convienantly smoked right in front of a street camera.Whoops. Backtothe Backpakers and off to sleep.

5:30 came way to fast as we both showered and hightailed it outta there.Off to the train station and Airport arriving at 7:30. Our plane was scheduled to leave at 10:30. Bags sealed (No smuggling for us) and whisked through customs with 2 1/2 hours to spare. Looked at the screen , gate 80 11:30, shit! Hungry, tired, and bitchy we called the loved ones and looked at the screen again 12:30 gate 85. F_ck !!!!

12:30 Finnaly on the Plane. Garuda Indonesia.Quite possibly one of the best airlines (Like Qantas). Good food, service etc. The two Aussies in fornm of us were quiteintersing. They imbibed at least 12 Bintangs,White wines adn Whiskeys, and then decidne totalk to us right in the middle of the movie "Be Cool". Lame. Funnny stories though.

4:30 - Bali.Finally. Whisked again through customs, staring at the big sign that says drug smugglers will be executed. Paid our 25 buck,grabbed the bags and walked outside.
I noticed a family with a sign that said "Jessy fr:Canada".Must be me i thought. Inggawati, Dwi, Marchell, and Rizky were waiting for us with big smiles and open arms. Apperanently they didnt call and had been waiting since 2:00! I felt pretty bad for that one. "Where you want go" asked Dwe, the Father. "Beach!" i said. "No problem."

Pack into the Izuzu Panther and we drove through the crowded streets of Kuta passing KFC, Circle K McDonalds and Hard Rock ending up at Kuta Beach. Cali or Bali i thought. If Huntingiton Beach had palm trees on the water and they let people sell junk it wouldnt be much differnet. Double parking next to the countless motorbikes,we steeppedonto thesand only to be accousted by countless people selling junk.
"Glasses, Ice Cream, Cold Beer, Tobacco, Massage, Bow & Arrow". Bow & Arrow, WTF? Strange. MOre on Kuta later, we watched the sunset and hig tailed it off through the crazy streeets of Denpasar. ending up at a little vegetarian resuraunt overlooking rice field in the middle of the city. Excellent first meal. Tempeh Goreng, Tahu, Sambal, Sop Asparagus,Cocnut Juice,and Cap Cay . Many dishes fed 6 people for only 100,000 rupiah! (Ill let you check the conversion rate ,www.xc.com). Satisfied and full, we drove to there house where we decided to go to Beach the next day and promptly said good night. Once again that was only the first 24 hours!


Much more to come--- More Kuta, Besakih Temple, Lake Butar, Matt and his Motorbike incidents, Local & Tourist Prices, Breakfast, Dinner, Special Juice, Tahu Tek, Singaraja, Kitamani,Gordo, Chocolate!!!!, Pictures(hopefully),Tempeh/Tahu, and much much more -= Peace & love.

Redemption

Ohhh how my body cries for sun, warmth and no poison! The last week has been a blur, a very blurry blur. Its amazing how you can treat you body and it still works. My car sure wouldnt take this kinda of abuse. Well heres the breakdown.

Day 5/6 : As I last wrote,we went to Sydney to catch our flight to Cairns. Good times with Thomas & Megan. Had some awesome Thai food in "New Town" and then proceeded to drink until the sun came up(Literally). Went to a really swank bar till they kicked us out, so we went to a really shitty backpackers bar called Scruffy McGees until they kicked us out around 5:30 or 6:00 AM. As if the beer, wine and shots werent, enough the last spliff was a doosey. All i remember is Thomas & Megan asking if we needed help to find the airport train and my response was to laugh hysterically and say "airplane, airplane" pointing to the station. Once we got in the station i realized we probably shoulda got the help cause the melee that ensued was a memorable one!
Walkng into the huge and vacant Sydney Central station was interesting. Logic was still working as we followed the airplane signs to the train. Thinking it would be easy from there we exited at the Domestic Terminal where the lizard lady checked us in and told us we had to go to the International Terminal. Whoops. The next hour or two consisted of going through customs, a few checkpoints, and a sunrise ride across the tarmac on a really weird bus. Surreal as it was i thought they were taking us somewhere far, far away to sell our body parts for chinese medicine or something weird like that. We got to the gate AS they were boarding the plane. Whew. The plane ride was just as weird. Qantas is one of the best airlines ive been on, but when your cracked out and wanting sleep, not so much. They feed you and give you drinks when you dont even ask. I woke once to a stewardess leaning over me asking if iwanted breakfast and then to Matt chewing my food saying," Im eating your breakfast, sorry dude". The first words out of my mouth when we arrived in Cairns were "I want to kill things". Namely the annoying Ozzie girls sitting right behind me that laughed non stop throughout the flight.




Cairns = Redemption: I really dont want to bore those of you actually reading this but Cairns is awesome. Well actually the surrounding nature areas ( read Bush ) are. Once I finally opened one eye I was introduced to Matts friend John. Hes form Jersey too and they only really knew each other for a year or too when they were 16. A ten year reunion is what it was. He was suprisingily understanding of our conditions and proceeded to push us enough but not too much. First thing we dropped in on a little roadside fruit stand before driving up the mountian to his house. He then made us a nice stirfry for lunch. Mmmm. Drinks and other refreshments ensued shortly thereafter only continuing the delerious state. Slow gin fizz.... Bombay Gin, Grapfruit Juice, & Some weird wine. Perfect. Not one to let us sit idle for too long he took us straight to Barron Falls and on a little "Bush" walk to two huge trees. Bush is basically any forest or nature area it would seem. More Gin, More weed, met Layla (Johns Girlfriend) and then the inevitable sleep. Aaaaahh. And that was just the first 24 hours.

Day 7: Rejuvenated and feeling mellow we mosied on down to one of the best farmers markets ive seen in a while. Tons of Fruits. Took the boxes of goodness back up to his house in Kuranda and proceeded straight to the Beach (Yorkies Knob). About freakin time! Water was warm, beer was cold, and bud green. Picked up pizza on the way home and continued the intoxication.
Johns quite good at entertaining. Besides his outlandish botanical/animal knowledge he just likes to talk, which was perfect for the first 2 days of incoherence.

Day 8: Drive day! We left fairly early and John gave us a professional tour of the surrounding wilderness. We stoped at a fruit stand for some "hot salty nuts" (Mac & Cashew) and flew through the rainforest to the tablelands. Vast high elvations of agriculture and cattle. Also the location of Lake Eacham, an old crater lake which is beautiful with cute little Archer fish in it. You know the fish that spit at bugs outside the water to catch them ! The next stop was a really deep hole in the ground called simply "The Crater". Very, very eerie spot. Among the countless other boardwalks and stops we made was the Curtain Fig. A tree enveloped in a vine the was draped like a huge curtian. Pretty cool.Oh yeah i also saw a big cute bird called a Cassoarie (?) Of course back home were more Slow Fizz Gins and Bright Greens followed by sweet dreams.


Day 9: Got up fairly early to hike Lambs Head. About a 12 km hike through rainforest to the top of huge monoliths. Unfortunalty the clouds blocked the view, but a few breaks allowed for glimpses of Cairns. Epic hike over all through some really cool terrain. Beer,Pizza,Smoke,Stories,& Sleep followed.

Day 10: Easy day. In fact very mellow. Chilled around the house and did more of the same. (I dont think this day really existed but im putting it in here anyway!)

Day 11: Went into town with John while he was at work and met up with Megan who was following after Matt, i think. Of course we ended up drinking until 3:30 in the morning at horrible bars. We started at some dive bar around 12:00 and moved on to Cafe China for lunch, where i think i ingested chicken broth. Yuck. Met up with John at Gilligans, a upscale backpackers resort during happy hour. On to the Green Ant, which was the best bar Ive been too so far! Rock music, mellow atmosphere and good beer. Then came the decision: dinner at home or sushi and sake. If anyone knows me, then you know what happened next. Sake,Sake,Sushi! Uh-oh. Not having enough we moved on to P.Js where we got to see pole idol! A horrible co-ed pole dancing show. Having enough of the bad music there we moved on to Toohooneys (Tropo) and proceeded to dance to even better (read worse) music. After grooving to Madonnas "Like a Prayer", during which John was on his knees singing at the top of his lungs, we finally went home. I think Megan was definitely after Matt cause i took the couch instead of her.

Day 12: John had to work at 7:00 collecting data and then at 9:00 for his new desk job dealing with wilderness permits. He made the 7:00 gig but came home called in and passed out until around 11:30 when we finally went to town while he worked. We walked in circles for many hours. Our last night was a mellow one, had dinner at Cafe China again (though not me, i had thai) went home for a quick slideshow of Johns past and promptly passed out to "The Life Aquatic".

Day 13:Overall good times were had, John was an excellent host,Layla was also very sweet for putting up with our mess and stealing John for a week. So excellent he even got up at 4:00 this morning to take us to the airport. Definetly coming back to Cairns.
And right now im soooo sick of typing, sitting here in a dark internet cafe in Brisbane waiting for our flight to Bali in the morning. This is where it gets interesting. Ill add pics when i get to a machine that lets me, Peace and Love - Z

OZ_ Off to see the wizard. ....

Alright I'm in the southern hemisphere now after long flight and even longer airport adventures. The flight was good, a little bumpy but I had some good conversation with Canadian folks about politics of course.

Day 1: Matt and Thomas picked me up at the airport after some technical difficulties with his cell phone number. (they're a tad different down here) Upon arrival I presented him a bottle of Bombay from the Duty-Free shop and we were off. Sydney's a nice place and it was a beautiful day. We wandered all over the place and made the obligatory stop to the waterfront and opera house.
Not too impressive. Ended up meeting up with Thomas's friend Megan who worked at a brewery and fed us free drinks that aided in my passing out on the 1 1/2 hour train ride to Wollongong. Quite a long day overall but a damn good first day in OZ

Day 2 Chilling in Wollongong. It a small little steel works town turned University (read "UNI")town. Frankly I'm not too impressed with the place. It seems nice enough as far as scenery, but for people its mostly foreigners. British, Americans,French, Africans, Dubaniese, Bengalies, Germans etc. We ended up going to a party with all of the above and being our usual assish selves. Standing in a corner pretending we were talking about extremely interesting stuff. After the party we ended up actually getting some Ganja from a friend of a friend. If there is one reason I miss California.....

Day 3 Lazy day. Finally walked into the town (read as mall) to get some coffee. Walked back along the beach and checked out the lighthouse. Parts of this place definatley have Santa Cruz overtones. Namely the geography. Last night we went to the infamous "NorthGong" Hotel/Bar. Apparently all the bars are attached to hotels which no one uses. Weird. After a few pints of the tasty Carlton Red Ale we bought a case and went to Siad's house for a BBQ. Good people and good times chilling with the Bengalese. Its weird but so far the best times I've had here are with people from completely different countries. Austrailia just seems like America, but about 7 years ago. Technos big and honestly the people are a tad ignorant if not overtley racist. (Judging by the couple dozen ive met)

Well and today , I just got back form a run, I'm doing laundry and taking care of business and now I think its time for a smoke. More updates to come, but probably not this detailed. Peace and Love - Z

Honolulu International

Delayed flights are great. Talking to drunk fools who are really mad about nothing is interesting too! This airport offically blows, especaily in the middle of the night! More when i finally get to OZ.

O'ahu

Man Oz is going to be cold, and Bali's going to be hot!! I thought it was hot and humid here. I aint seen nothing yet. Well in 8 hours ill be en route to Oz computerless, cellphoneless and mindless. Here we go. Lets see how much i can do before getting kicked out of the Apple store!

The last few weeks were awesome, spending time with the family and Naomi was a killer way to go out. As soon as Naomi got there we went straight to Hapoona beach and played in the waves. It was great. The last couple of days we went to Pololu valley, went snorkeling and saw the volcano devouring the sea creating more of that wonderful island. Apparently there's another one popping up right of the south coast, but it wont be here until a thousand years or so.
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Any ways much love to all of you reading this thing and don't worry there's more to come soon, when I get to Oz ill update you all on my first stop. - Peace and Love Z