Bali! - Chinese New Year 2015

Though most people who read this blog have already seen our Bali photos, I thought a short write-up on what all we experienced was in order.

Looking back on it a month later, the trip feels a bit surreal. I find this true for all travel, because it plucks you out of everyday routine, which allows for more wiggle room in terms of who you are and how you are in the world. Of course, the exotic locale (an obvious change in climate/scenery/food/language, etc.) only added to the surreal feeling. Same for my head cold, which had really bloomed into full-blown status by the time we finally got out of our taxi after an hour of intense traffic along Bali’s congested highway from the airport. Still, I was determined to make the most of our holiday (and I hope didn’t whine too much about being sick ;)

Bali really is a dream – the nature is just so vibrant and lush. Ubud has a palpable sense of art interwoven with spirit and we ate and lived like kings, because it’s so affordable – much higher quality for your money compared to Taiwan. The food was fresh, mostly local, often organic and always delicious. We stayed at Swasti Eco Cottages (highly recommend) in a bungalow and then moved to a gorgeous Javanese house (actually deconstructed in Java, transported to Bali, restored and rebuilt there by our super-nice Air BnB host and artist Made).

Because the climate is tropical year-round, dwellings just need to provide shelter and our first one didn’t have any glass in the windows – just shutters for light and privacy. Nature really comes to you – both of our places were visited by some small animals (cats? lizards?) who apparently wanted to leave us the gift of their poop. Ha. Nothing too gross and certainly better than finding big spiders.

We saw lots of monkeys, which was always entertaining. The Monkey Forest in the middle of Ubud is their sanctuary and handlers/caretakers casually stroll around, some egging on tourists to get a monkey to climb on them by offering a bit of food. They do seem insatiably voracious and mischievous. One was gnawing on a business card that a young Chinese couple somehow lost to its grip. Another grabbed someone’s water bottle and was dousing passers-by from a high perch. Another was grabbing and chewing on a guy’s T-shirt. Our favorite was the monkey that climbed on a girl’s head to get a banana she was holding and then just sprawled on its belly, still on top of the girl’s head, to munch the fruit like it was the most natural thing in the world. I should have taken more photos.

 

It’s the end of the wet season and we got poured on big-time on several days. Again, it’s warm, so not that big of a deal, but we waited it out a few times, watching the torrents literally engulf the downhill roads in a foot or so of water. We also bought a double-person raincoat for riding the scooter. It’s our romantic souvenir – two hoods on a single poncho. <3 o:p="">

All in all, I can see why everyone falls in love with Bali. I’m glad we were in Ubud at the end of the low season, as it must be a zoo during the tourist rush. I hope we get to go back with more time on our hands to explore the rest of Bali and I wish everyone the same. Thank you again to my sweet love Rich for this fantabulous 10-year-anniversary gift. What a sweetie, that guy!

Here is the full photo album:

Bali!! CNY 2015

P.S. – amusement is in the details –

Our flight back was with Philippines Air and I just wanted to share some strange, (archaic-colonial?) use of English from the crew announcements and airport signs:

“Please accomplish your landing cards.” à fill out

“Passengers may avail themselves of the free shuttle to Terminal 2.”

“You must divest yourself of electronics prior to going through the security check.”

Our trip to Kenting for the NYE break

Rich and I spent January 1-4, 2015 in the south of Taiwan. It was really windy-blowy the first few days, but in the 20s and our last day we spent lounging around on the beach, even hiding out from the sun under an umbrella.

Here is a small collection of our photos. Excuse the low quality of our mobile phones.

Kenting Jan 2015

We only took one video - me being silly as I tried to battle the wind to stand up straight for a photo. Little did I know that Rich was filming the whole time. Ha.

More of Ana's imagination in print

I've been putting it off, but just before the new, November issue of my magazine comes out, I finally scanned the very fist article I wrote for biz Interactive English, published in October. It's about family values in different cultures, as seen in movies.

The graphics really bring the story to life.

Speaking of graphics completing a story, I also scanned The Pretty Please Princess, which is one of the 10 readers I wrote for William Language School earlier this year. It's simply AMAZING to see something you started from scratch come through all the steps into a bonafide fully-finished book. I am so grateful for this experience! I don't get my name credited on the published version, but I'll just chalk that up to humility training. ;)

click on the image to see the whole book

I've always thoroughly enjoyed writing, so it's quite a dream come true for me to be doing it now, day in and day out. I hope you enjoy a few of the words I put together. More to come!  : )

The View from the Sixth Floor

I now both live and work on the 6th floor (of different buildings, of course). 

Continuing with the number six trend, I'm in my sixth week at this new vocation as a writer and editor of Biz Interactive English Magazine. I’m quite delighted by this position, as I get to research all sorts of topics (even economics and finance, which I knew embarrassingly little about.) More importantly, day in and day out, I craft words into new and original pieces of writing. Once the October issue comes out, I'll be able to scan a few pages of what I've done so far, but November will be the first volume where nearly all the English content is "penned" by yours truly. I feel that this past month and a half has really let me dust off my writing cap and some measure of whimsy and ingenuity has been creeping back into my written word.

In some way, nothing’s made me feel more like I’ve stepped into the ranks of 上班族 or “office workers,” than acquiring a few accoutrements of the trade. I've got my gel wrist pad, tea stash, cutting board and fruit knife (with a built-in peeler!) and -- drum roll, please -- a metal lunch tin. I expect you are re-reading that last sentence with a "je ne comprends pas" feeling. Ha! Gotcha. Unless you're from this part of the world, it would be a mystery. In fact, on my first day here I opened what I thought was a small refrigerator and stared at its insides, trying to compute what I was looking at. 

this is not my photo, but the feeling is the same

It is, in fact, a “steam box” for your metal containers full of food that you place in upon arrival at work and retrieve again, all warm and ready to go, at lunch. As I write this, I've realized the "steam" part in the name must be from the old-fashioned models. Ours just seems to use electricity, so in fact is more like a low-temperature oven. Anyway, here is my very first lunch, cooked by Rich in a barbecue bonanza for Mid-Autumn Festival.

Happy workdays to the rest of you, wherever you may be! J

Vilnius

When I bought my flight from Tallinn to Prague, the cheapest deal I found was with Air Lituanica, Lithuania’s airline, which I would later find out was in fact celebrating its big one year (oooh aaah ) anniversary during the very month I flew with them. They keep luxuries to a minimum, with teenie 30-passenger aircrafts (at least mine was) and the only freebie being hard candies in the colors of the Lithuanian flag. You even had to pay if you wanted a glass of water.

It was additionally the cheapest option because I had a 6:15am flight to Vilnius followed by a six-hour layover before continuing on to Prague (the layover being longer than both flight times put together). Being on an adventure, I thought – why not, save money and see one more Eastern European city. For some reason it’s taken me all these years of traveling to realize that sometimes saving money on a flight in fact ends up costing same or more, in taxi fare to/from the airport late/early when no public transport is available and in this case, having a romp through Vilnius’ Old Town, buying some food and souvenirs. So, there we have it, a lesson learned.

After I booked the flight, my Dad also reminded me that I am in fact one quarter Lithuanian by blood, although I never had a chance to meet my Lithuanian grandfather and remembered next to nothing of our trip to Vilnius, Riga and Kiev when I must’ve been eight or nine years old. Intrigued all the more, I looked forward to my brief rendezvous with this country.

Artur, back from his graduation 

By sheer good fortune, our Lithuanian friend Marina who hasn’t even lived there herself for twelve years, nevertheless lined up Artur, a friend of hers to meet me in the brisk cold of 7:20am and take me to the Old Town. I was profoundly grateful because I’d read countless accounts of shameless overcharging by taxi drivers and had such a short time there. Furthermore, through miscommunication this friend had shown up at the airport the previous Friday, when I was just on my way to Tallinn, at the same ungodly hour of 7am and was a bit frantic, wondering if I’d gotten lost or what. Nevertheless, he came back a week later, with a fountain of facts about the city that he related while driving here, there and everywhere, in a condensed tour of where I could go on my own while he attended his graduation ceremony, insisting he would pick me up again in two hours and drop me back at the airport. That is some incredible chivalry.

By the time I was left to my own devices, my head was spinning a bit from lack of sleep and dehydration and an overabundance of facts and chill temperatures – it was 8C. I made a beeline for the first coffee shop that was open (Inn Coffee We Trust…. hehehe…) and got my morning caffeine and some food. Then I bundled up again and struck out for a touch of sight seeing and souvenir shopping.

@Inn Coffee We Trust... I know I do!

This church - called St. Anne's - immediately grabbed my attention. Wikipedia says that the original was built for Anna, Grand Duchess of Lithuania, but destroyed by fire in 1419 and then rebuilt at the start of the 16th century, now serving as "a prominent example of both Flamboyant Gothic and Brick Gothic styles." How could I not love it?

A monument to Grand Duke Gediminas in Cathedral Square, apparently showing the moment he dismounted his horse and declared the land would become his new capital.

Vilnius is not a big city and its Old Town is also quite small, though lovely and a UNESCO Heritage Site as of 1994. As time wore on, the sun came out and I no longer felt like I had to be in survival mode on the streets. The main souvenirs available are linen, amber, a mishmash of Slavic knick-knacks that probably had been made in China and were being sold by Russians, yet there were some original paintings and handmade clothing and art pieces. I especially loved this little design gallery called elementai, located at Stiklių gatve (street) 14 - goods cost more, but were clearly made by locals and the woman who ran it just had the nicest air about her.

Literatų gatvė (Street Of Writers)

For some reason I'd been craving crepes and had a delicious spinach creation smothered in aged-cheddar sauce at the Senoji Užupio picerija pizzeria/Italian restaurant just across the river from Old Town in a section of the city called Užupis, which is in fact an independent republic as of 1997 and its name means "over the river."

Up next, another tiny airplane ride to the capital of Czech Republic. Whoop whoop!

Even more photos of my half day in Vilnius