Trip home

I was on a flight for the last 24 hours and now I have 10 hours left. I just want to go home. I don't have a home though. All of my stuff is in storage. . . more coming soon.

Day 31

Singapore
Tonight we are in Singapore with an overnight bag. Tomorrow California and back home. Whew! A long trip. If I can find decent Internet access tonight, I will update with some pictures. The hotel last night was fantastic with a private pool, DVD and HiDef TV. The pictures are pretty nice too. See you all soon.

Kuta Beach

We are ready to go home. It is too long to be away and we are tired of travelling, tourists and locals. Just want to go home. Today we came to Kuta Beach to meet Erin's friend who moved here from Winston-Salem.
****** STOP EVERYTHING ********
I just got a nasty virus on my camera memory card. Ohh Kuta is really a nasty place. The computers have STDs. I am smarter than this virus. I will beat it.
*******

Anyway, we are going to meet Erin's friend who lives out here and dates a guy in a reggae band. Exciting.
Tonight we stay in a smelly (sewage smelling) $30 place. Tomorrow, we stay in a nice place to get away from all the street vendors and raw sewage vents. Fun, Fun, Fun. We should have stayed in Ubud.

Day ? - Bali

Hi from Bali! Sam and I just finished up our stay at the Nusa Dua Beach Hotel & Spa. It has been very nice here...it is definitely a luxury hotel. The grounds are beautiful and meticulously kept. While we were laying out yesterday by the pool, I saw a guy picking up stray leaves off of the grass.

Bali is an interesting place: They speak their own version of Indonesian and are proud that no one else can understand them; most of the Balinese can speak English and Japanese or Spanish because working in the tourism industry is very important here. The price for everything is very cheap, yet they try and charge tourist what they would pay at home. The average salary is $2,500 a year, therefore a $25 dinner or souvenir is a 10th of their yearly salary.


The first temple we saw... I forgot the name of it.

Our first full day here, we checked in, took a walk and then had an afternoon tour where we were taken to a pearl shop, a batik shop, a temple, a rice field, a monkey forest with a gift shop, and finally Tanah Lot. Tanah Lot is a temple on the coast, swarming with tourist and more gift shops.

The Balinese at these touristy places are relentless. For example, I drew an interesting comparison between the monkeys at the monkey forest and our tour guide through the forest who led us back to her shop. The monkeys are completely spoilt and depend on the tourist who buy the peanuts and bananas to feed them every day.

Here is the monkey attacking me!

I was attacked by this one monkey who jumped on my head to get at the peanuts that my tour guide was holding. After the walk in the monkey forest, our tour guide led us back to her stall and practically begged us to buy an over-priced souvenir. It was one of the oddest and more disturbing experiences I have had. I felt sorry for the Balinese woman because she was so desperate to sell us something, but I was also really annoyed because I couldn't look at anything without being pestered and shown 20 of the same thing..."How about this...you like?" I already don't like being sold something, but this was too much!

Sam ended up buying a statue. He haggled her down from 350,000 Rp (~$35) to 190,000 Rp (~$19) and then pretended to only have 173,000 Rp on him and she ended up taking that. I was glad when that was over. I definitely don't want to take any more tours like that.

This is Sam buying his statue.

We spent yesterday just relaxing at our hotel. The Nusa Dua Beach Hotel has this wonderful breakfast buffet included with our room that I look forward to each morning. It is outside the hotel overlooking these beautiful carp-filled pools and they have everything you could want for breakfast. It reminds me of a wedding reception or the hotel breakfast up at the place we stayed in Big Sky, MT.

Sam usually gets an omelet from the omelet chef and I rotate between cereal (which I really miss), toast with jam and brie, or Indonesian breakfast of tofu with peanut sauce or rice pudding...sometimes I have a little of all three!

Singapore Sling

I either caught a cold or I became allergic to Japan. I have serious sinus congestion. Well we left Tokyo this morning, and are in Singapore on a layover. The airport here is nice they have free Internet, video games and movies. Perfect for me. Not so great for Erin. She gets to look at the various gardens like the orchard garden and the fern garden. We were on the newest, biggest passenger plane -- the airbus A380. Really big. First class has private suites. And There were at least 30 movies and about 100 TV shows on demand so it was fun. I watched Damages and Dexter's Laboratory, Flifght of the Conchords and 10,000 BC (junk movie). Erin watched some romantic comedy or something silly -- nothing as highbrow as Dexter's Lab. I will put more pictures and blog updates as soon as I get access to a decent computer. Ciao.

Day 13

Last Day
Our last full day in Tokyo is a little sad. Yesterday, we were tired and ready to leave but today I feel like there is so much I still want to see. I guess I just get used todoing something and I don't like it to change. Today we are going to see akihabara where the technology geeks hang out. Then we might go to Sega Joyopolis a video game amusement park. I am not sure how much Erin can tolerate. Any we woke up late and now we will probably stay out late to absorb as much as we can before heading to Bali. Stay tuned.

Day 12

Tacky Tokyo
Last night we stayed at a love hotel. The Japanese have these places where people rent out the room for an hour. They are right next to all of the clubs, so people are in and out of there all night. We saw some people leaving and checking in. Anyway, you can rent out the room for the night after 10 PM. The room was only 6,300 yen - as cheap as the hostel. It was awesome even though I would not want to go in there with one of those CSI lights. It had Karaoke and movies and everything you would need to convince a drunk girl from the nearby club that this was not a sleazy situation. It also came stocked with everything you might need to get ready to go back to the club and meet another girl or boy. It had a jacuzzi hot tub, various soaps lotions and shampoos, a hair dryer, cologne, towels, kimonos, a refrigerator, microwave and light dimmers etc. I sang True Colors and To Love Somebody and then I fell asleep.

Today first we went shopping for gifts at 109 Shibuya where all the teeney boppers shop. Boy, are people slaves to fashion regardless of how ridiculous they look in them? I have never seen so many micro mini skirts and shorts in my life.
Then we went to Odaiba and checked out the man made islands. First we saw Panasonic's building where they display all the new technology. At one point they took us into a large room where one whole wall was a touch sensitive lcd panel. They would let me take pictures, but I snuck one in anyway. The demonstrator was playing piano on that huge screen and moving and resizing windows with her fingers. She also bounced a ball around the screen and when she pushed a window around it would move with the force of her pushing and slow down at an appropriate speed. It was cool. The most surreal thing was a huge screen with a woman singing Bryan Adams in Italian opera style . I didn't like the song in English. Her name was Jenkins.
Then we went to a crazy looking building with this huge saw sticking out of the ground like a giant left it there. The Japanese know tacky and revel in it.

Then we went to THE TACKIEST mall I have ever seen in my life. I should have realized I was in for a treat when we stopped at the station and there were at least 200 girls waiting. No men. Anyway it was modeled after some tacky Italian place maybe Rome, maybe your local Italian restaurant. Either way it was awful. The ceilings were painted like the sky and the lights changed to simulate night at times. Then we went to the beach. Yes, a man made beach with the statue of liberty. I don't get it, but this building was cool. The ball at the top is supposed to be a restaurant or an observatory or something. There were thousands of people there.

I played the new street fighter IV in the arcade. It was pretty neat. Each person gets his own screen and you sit on the other side of the arcade machine with your challenger. This is so he cannot see you. We played in an 8 floor arcade building.

This guy won all of that candy stacked up there. It only cost him about $10. The candy would have been about $4 in the store. I need a money making scheme like that. Something where people who can't do math gives me his money and nobody minds.


Next we went to see the blue man group. Erin had never been and I thought it might be cool to see them in Tokyo. Erin loved it but she wouldn't pose with the blue man. I think she has character phobia, because she wouldn't pose with Tokyo Donald Duck either. Oh well. We tried to find a Karaoke bar, but all we could find was karaoke rooms. Erin has heard me sing way too much I think. We went to a British pub after walking around Roppongi hills again. Then home and to sleep. Tomorrow is our last day in Japan.

Sex and the City

Good Morning! We are going to Disneyland today! Tonight we will update the blog with pictures and journal entries. Keep watch.
We traveled from Kyoto yesterday on the biggest holiday of the Japanese year. Obon - where the Japanese must travel home because their ancestors are supposed to come back or something. Sound like a way to make the train companies money.
Last night it rained all night so we saw Sex and the City at the Roppongi Hills Cinema. HUGE theater and reserved seats.　　We sat so close to the front that my eyes are buggier than usual today.

Hello Everyone!

We are in Kyoto Japan today! More later. . .

Day 6

Sunday - Costume Play

We decided to go see the People dressed up in costumes today in Harajuko. While we were there, some guy asked Erin if he could take her picture. I took his picture. Anyway, these girls dress up on Sunday so that strangers can come and take their picture. They act like divas and won't let you take their picture until they are ready for the spotlight. It was quite bizarre. (slideshow link)












Then we saw some people who were dressed up in crazier outfits with poofed up hair dancing to 50's music. This was truly weird. I tried to dance with them, but they were not too keen on the square tourist dancing in their dork circle. I almost felt rejected.


















Finally, we went shopping in the teeny boppers paradise alley. I don't remember the name of the place. I bought Talyor's jacket at a place called the Yellow House. There was nothing yellow in the place. I was all goth and punk wear.

After walking for what seemed like forever, Erin and I went to dinner at a really nice restaurant. Nothing interesting there.

Back at the hotel, in the lobby, it was salsa dancing night. Exciting. More pictures here.

Day 5

Tokyo Tower Tour and Salsa Nights

Today we went on a whirlwind tour of Tokyo. Tokyo Tower was the first stop. It was modeled after the Eiffel tower but a little taller and tackier. These girls guide you into the elevator.

Tokyo from the observation deck.







A big temple. People come here and leave prayers which the priests either read or burn. I am not sure.














There was a wedding going on there. "We are lucky to see traditional Shinto wedding gown." Now you are lucky too. I hope that old dude is not the husband.


Then to the Imperial palace. The emperor is alive and well but I could not meet with him today. I can't be bothered. I took some pictures of the palace though.

Peace sign

What's up with the peace sign and Japanese people? As soon as you ask someone to pose they give the peace sign like it's the only option. I don't hate the peace sign, but I am not sure that they mean peace. I think they mean "here are my fingers and I am going to ruin your pictures with a nonsense peace sign when I don't mean peace." It's bad enough that you normally get a person's worst possible posed face that look nothing like them when you try to take their picture but the peace fingers make it worse.

Day 4

Japan and Pete Mattei
Pete came to visit today. He was in California to visit his brother. He was supposed to come last night but his flight was canceled. It was the same old Pete. The bar has not changed him that much. He seemed more relaxed. We had breakfast and then left for Tokyo.

The flight to Tokyo was awesome. We flew Singapore Air because we heard that they have the best service in the world. Another well known fact is that Singapore air discriminates against their flight attendants on the basis of general attractiveness. The flight attendants line up outside of the gate like a show so that everyone can get a good look at them. The food was great. I have pictures of it somewhere. I will update with the pictures later.

As promised here is Erin with the socks packet they give you on Singapore Airlines. She loved them as her toes stay cold most of the time and she wears flip flops to exacerbate the problem. They also give you toothpaste.

Erin and I picked the Japanese selection to get ourselves into the swing of things in Japan. It was delicious. Duck or something with cold noodles. They also brought us ice cream and some kind of sweet stuffed bread.


We finally made it to Tokyo, but now I can't sleep. I walked around Tokyo and passed this love hotel. It is a hotel where people rent it by the hour. I think I walked into some sleazy part of Tokyo.

Day 3

Back to Santa Monica
We rented bikes, went back to Santa Monica and rode our bikes down past Venice Beach and back. On our way, we stopped at a restaurant to have breakfast. This is Erin looking over the menu.

Here is Erin on a bike break. We went pretty far down the coast.


Later on we walked down the beach and saw a sand castle competition.








We then went to see Wicked at my sister's suggestion. That was a little stressful as the Wicked box office gal was not very nice. The play was great even though they confiscated my camera at the box office. Blargh! Overall a pretty relaxing day. Tomorrow to Japan!

Day Two - California

The Getty Center

Our second day started off slower. First, we had a nice breakfast at Coogie's, a place in Malibu that Sam and I ate at last time we were in Malibu. Then, we set out for the Getty center.

The Getty center was a beautifully designed museum, paid for by a billionaire named Getty and set up above LA in the hills.We spent most of the day exploring the museum and its surrounding gardens.After the Getty we ate dinner at the Thai restaurant in Malibu that we fell in love with last time we were here.

Day 2

Getty Museum

Here are some more shots from the Getty Museum. It really was a pretty place. This is Erin in front of the museum.




I was a little smelly from the heat and this statue actually made this face when I walked in the room.












These are the gardens.
They were beautiful and there was a maze in the middle.









Little bee poses for pictures.

Day One

Hollywood and Mulholland Drive



Since I have never actually been to Hollywood Blvd and seen the walk of stars, I picked it as my first must see destination. Sam and others have warned me that it was underwhelming, so I went with low expectations and thus was not disappointed. Sam and I purchased an LA day-trip guidebook earlier in Santa Monica and planned a route past Hollywood Blvd and on up to Mulholland Drive which wound back down towards Malibu and Al's house.

Mulholland Drive was neat because we stopped at this little park were we hiked up and out to a great vista of the city and the Hollywood sign. There was also a group up there shooting a Verizon commercial, so maybe we are in the background. We ended the day back at Al' for nice dinner.

Day One

First, the Santimonica Pier
We made it to California and decided to hit up the Santa Monica Pier because it is a tourist area and the locals are sure to speak English.
We have both been to Santa Monica twice before, but we thought we could get some sightseeing information. We ended up doing a photo shoot there next to the bums lining the streets.



Here is a good one of Erin. Good thing she shaved her armpits for that shot.

And one of me: (I naturally look good)
Weird dude feeding Pigeon Rats. He asked me if I was a photographer and gave me his card because he is an actor and needs a portfolio.










Dirty Squirrel.　At first I thought it was cute and then I realized that there were about 7 of them there nesting, and they were not scared of me.:

I Then I got scared and ran away. Here they are looking menacing. I took the picture during my retreat.
Next to Hollywood!