Day 48: Gamelan Coffee

I got out of the hostel late and decided to go find an interesting looking coffee shop with the intention to do some work.

When I arrived at Gamelan Coffee, the place was empty except for three people drawing at a table. One of them was the cafe owner, another an art teacher at the nearby Green School, and one other student. The cafe owner made me a (delicious) cup of ginger coffee and I sat and talked with the teacher and the other student. The teacher decided to draw me so that I "won't forget our meeting". Does it look like me?

The Green School teacher had brought his ukulele with him and played some blues for us all. Later, another teacher from the school showed up with his guitar (it was Saturday, after all). It was a relaxing afternoon spent in the presence of new friends listening to impromptu music performances.

If you look closely you can see the "Seattle Supreme Coffee" poster in the background

Day 47: Sacred Monkey Forest

After enjoying this lovely view from the hostels 3rd-floor balcony with my breakfast:

I walked a half block to the nearby sacred monkey forest.

 

It's nice walking through the forest, and at any given moment there are usually half a dozen or so Balinese long-tailed macaques within your vicinity. Lacking both bags and bananas, the monkeys were mostly indifferent to me. At one point I stopped and aroused the suspicions of a group of monkeys, who started climbing me, searching inside my shirt and in my hair for food. It was funny at the time, but also kind of scary!

The walkway through the forest

Later that day I went to the salon for a haircut. While I very much paid tourist prices, a hair cut and wash with a temple and scalp massage only cost me $11, two thirds the price of a regular haircut at Supercuts back in the states. It's going to be really hard going back home and paying $15+ for a measly haircut.

The rest of the day I spent in cafes and at the hostel, out of the heat, trying to keep cool.

Day 46: To Ubud

Around noon I left Gandhi Hostel 2 on a motor scooter with a backpack full of stuff for Kememai Hostel in southern Ubud.

   

The roads being almost entirely unmarked, I quickly found myself lost. A local noticed my predicament and offered to show me most of the way there, as he was on his way to his home near Ubud. After following the man through a rather confusing route that made turns contrary to the giant signs that said "Ubud, that way =>" no less than twice, we turned off the main road and parked in the nearby parking lot of a coffee plantation. I was told that Ubud was a mere half kilometer more along the road we last turned off. Another man came up and asked if I was interested in seeing the coffee plantation. Since I was in no hurry, I accepted.

At this point, your traveler scam alarm is probably going off. (I remember reading about a scam in Japan where locals will befriend you, spend the day showing you the city, invite you to tea -- implying that it's free and a gesture of kindness -- then present you with an exorbitant bill at the end as if you knew it was a business transaction the whole time). But, being that I was approached by a local in a non-touristy area and had at no point as of yet felt pressured by etiquette to accept any present or future services, I was only slightly wary.

Despite potentially looking like an elaborate and serendipitous scam, all my interactions that afternoon were entirely legitimate. The coffee plantation was quite nice. The guide explains to you their process of making luwak coffee, coffee made from the part-digested coffee cherries defecated by the Asian Palm Civet. They then make you a sampling tray of a wide selection of coffees and tea (free of charge) and ask if you would like to try either Luwak Coffee or the more traditional Balinese Coffee for 50k rupiah a pop -- a reasonable price ($4) and I elected to try the luwak coffee. 

Luwak coffee not pictured (it looks like normal coffee)

The luwak coffee is much lighter than traditional Balinese coffee (which I would consider somewhere between a medium and dark roast). Looking at it's Wikipedia page, it seems to be more of a gimmick than a delicacy, but I thought it tasted fine (the partly digested cherries are thoroughly cleaned to eliminate any waste byproducts).

Once moved into my new hostel, I rode to central Ubud to do some sightseeing. The center of Ubud is highly commercialized, catering to tourists, but walking here is more pleasant than in Denpasar because of the cooler temperatures. At night, from the hostel, you can hear a gamelan orchestra practicing a few buildings up the road.

Days 41-45: Sick Again

Having had too much sun and perhaps too little vitamins (except vitamin D, hehe), I spent the next five days with flu-like symptoms. After two days in bed and a healthy amount of paracetamol, I began to get better, and three days later I felt confident enough in my health and energy level to move on to a new location the next day, Ubud -- Bali's so called "cultural center".

Day 40: Museum Bali and North Kuta

I rented a motor scooter from the hostel and -- despite an utter lack of road signs and Denpasar's anthill like road network --managed to find my way to Bali's main cultural museum, Museum Bali.

The ticket itself is 50,000 IDR, and because the minimal signage within the museum was not very illuminating I caved to the museum "guide" who leeched onto me as I entered the museum for another 50,000 IDR. The guide did help, and by the end I felt like I had a slightly tighter grasp on the "why" Bali culture is the way it is. But, like many museums, there felt like an incongruous jump from ceremonial instruments and old Dutch weapons to the living, breathing, scooter-riding, McDonald's inhabited, tourist frenzied Bali of today.

From Museum Bali I rode south to a shopping area where I had lunch and unsuccessfully looked for a new sun hat. Having the rest of the afternoon ahead of me and not having seen a beach in Bali yet (not that beaches are all that different from each other, but I had no better ideas), I headed due east to Berawa Beach in North Kuta. The southern coastlines of Bali are extremely popular with tourists, and the beaches are lined with resorts, groups of friends in their late 20s/early 30s, newly minted parents, and older, retired couples.

Walking through the sand and water felt great after a hot day on the road, and I sat down for a banana split sundae and coconut water on my way back. Realizing that, to my mind, coconut water still tastes like dirty water, no matter where I  buy it from, I ditched the table I was sitting at and found an empty beach chair to read in until sunset.

My camera turning a perfectly overcast day into an ominous solar eclipse

Hi

Day 39: Invited to a Balinese Hindu Ceremony in Bali

Once again, when I have to get on a plane and to my next hostel, it's pouring rain. Luckily, the Singapore public transportation system is so well connected that I really only spent 60 seconds in the rain before I was safely under the cover of a bus stop, on the bus, connecting to the MRT line (the entire transfer covered by a roof), and inside the airport. The Singapore Changi airport has individual security setups at each gate, so checking in your bags and getting to your gate is seamless, and I made it to my gate two whole hours before my flight left.

After losing an hour and a two-hour flight into DPS, I met with my taxi driver whom I had previously arranged through the hostel I was staying at, Gandhi Hostel 2.

Once I arrived at the hostel I decided to take a walk around the immediate area and get myself some caffeine and a SIM card. Looping back, I heard a gamelan orchestra performing in a temple off the street. I stopped to watch, but it wasn't long before some of the men sitting inside the temple were waving me through the gate. Some of them spoke a bit of English, but what was obvious was that they all wanted to take selfies with me and stuff me with food and coconut wine. Things got a bit out of hand and I ended up dropping 100,000 Indonesian Rupiah ($7.50) on beers for the whole orchestra.

Me, clearly inebriated, posing with a gamelan drum

For a religious ceremony, the group as a whole seemed to be pretty lax about the usual Christian vices. Smoking was nearly ubiquitous, and everyone stayed hydrated with a steady diet of coconut wine. The ceremony itself was behind a wall, and I could only glimpse it occasionally through the entrance gate. When the others caught on to my interest in the ceremony, they told me I could go inside the walls to watch, but only if I had the proper formal wear. They offered to trade me the appropriate formal wear for my sun hat, which I accepted. 

I'm going to miss that sun hat, but I'd be a fool if I didn't want to trade a sun hat you could pick up at any outdoors store for some authentic Balinese ceremonial wear! Though, I could already envision it's $5 replacement from a shop here in Bali (I originally payed $35 back in America, always the pragmatist).

After the ceremony they loaded me with fruits and snacks and I walked back to the hostel. I had to give most of the fruit away because it would have gone bad before I could eat it all, but the snacks are making a good breakfast the next day!

In conclusion, the anti-vacation is going rather poorly so far. But I was able to participate in a unique, Balinese experience that money can't buy! Well, except for those beers.

Days 37-38: Anti-Vacation

It was at this point that I realized there wasn't much more I wanted to do or see in Singapore. Sure, there are theatres and concert halls and art galleries and (theme) parks and aquariums and zoos, but just about every big city in Asia has those. And the ones in Singapore are perhaps twice as expensive as everywhere else (though, I admit, they're probably a bit nicer here as well).

And so I spent these two days mostly at the National Library. The weather was overcast, windy and occasionally drizzly. Despite being a degree from the equator and temperature in the high 70s to low 80s, in my t-shirt and shorts I felt on the cusp of being cold.

I'm beginning to feel like I need an anti-vacation. While some people may be able to never tire of sightseeing and going out to restaurants, art galleries, museums, etc. day after day, to me it starts to become routine rather quickly. I like the idea of being able to balance "work" (i.e. books you want to read, classes you want to take, things you want to learn, or even an actual business) with more typical travel leisure activities. Don't feel like going out? Then spend time working. Don't feel like working? Then go out and have some fun. This goes against the grain of the more rigid, traditional work philosophy of having set times for working and the rest for leisure, but in the solo traveler case (or the remote worker / self-sustaining entrepreneurial business case), those constraints don't apply as much and you are able to strike a better, more efficient balance between work and play.

I think the rigid, traditional work schedule of Mon-Fri, 9-5 operates partially on the assumption that "work" is something that you should enjoy less than "play" and left to their own devices, an employee would spend the vast majority of their time playing and hardly any time working. Of course, there's other, probably more convincing reasons from a business perspective to have everyone on the same schedule, notably overall company efficiency and predictability. But that's a thought for another time.

Day 36: Cafes and Clarke Quay

After last nights performance, I was craving to play a keyboard myself. I first tried a keyboard shop / music school, but they neither had any fancy synthesizer pianos nor rented out practice rooms. The second shop, a used piano store, was closed for the day. Losing enthusiasm, I spent the next few hours in a nearby cafe before taking a bus downtown to explore southwest of the National Library. There's a number of significant buildings in the area, including St. Andrew's Cathedral, a modest-by-European-standards cathedral in early Gothic style, a theatre and concert hall, the Supreme Court of Singapore, City Hall, the National Gallery. I was mostly content to simply stroll through them.

 

Eventually I ran into the Singapore River and walked upstream to the Clarke Quay area. Clarke Quay is a very attractive area to stay in if you are a tourist of the more standard variety (i.e. long on money, short on time). The river is lovely, there's a myriad of bars and shops, and it's centrally located near downtown, the major shopping areas, and the beaches of Sentosa island resort.

Just southeast of Clarke Quay, looking southwest

Just southeast of Clarke Quay, looking west

Day 35: National Library, Gardens By The Bay, and Blu Jaz Cafe

After picking up a bus pass and SIM card at the nearby 7-11, I took the MRT to Little India and roamed the streets -- slowly making my way towards the National Library building. Walking through Little India felt like I was back in KL. The flower garlands being sold on the streets for use in Hindu ceremonies were being pollinated by hundreds of bees. After passing through the very impressive LASALLE Arts College and bypassing the shopping malls that were appearing with ever increasing density, I walked into the 16-floor National Library.

The floor just below the ground floor lobby is dedicated to literature. The next few floors above the ground floor are dedicated to a drama and performing arts center. The next few floors above that are technical book collections that would rival most university libraries. And the top floors are a grab bag of conference rooms, rare book collections, administrative offices, and a (restricted) viewing deck. This was the highest I could go:

A view from one of the technical book floors

When I told the guy at 7-11 (who, by the way, spoke impeccable English) that I wanted to see the library today, he said I was crazy. I think it was worth it!

From the National Library I ambled through the shopping centers serviced by the Promenade MRT station, trying to make my way to Gardens By The Bay.

Walking through Singapore feels like you are walking through the future!

About to cross the Helix Bridge. Gardens By the Bay is behind Marina Bay Sands, the upscale shopping center and hotel to the left

Outside the ArtScience museum, on the other side of the bridge. Another shopping center to the right.

Gardens By The Bay is nice, and simply walking through the park is free. Perhaps I was tired from the walk, or underwhelmed after experiencing the natural wonders of Krabi, but I didn't take any photos while I was there.

Being Saturday night, I decided to cap the night off at Blu Jaz Cafe in the Arab Quarter of Singapore.

The performance that night was by a Cuban band playing a Latin/Funk mix. Although I only had two drinks, my bill was 21 USD -- exorbitant by SE Asia standards, though the show itself was free. If there had been a $20 charge to see the show and you could get two drinks for $1, I would have said that was a fantastic deal! It's all about perspective :-)

Day 34: Bus to Singapore

I knew how to get to the bus station and how much I should pay for a ticket, but that was the extent of my preparations for the 5-hour bus ride. I bought a ticket at the counter for a bus from BTS station to Singapore that was to leave in 30 minutes (I paid 45Rm, or $10) and spent the ride over catching up on blog posts and making progress in my classes.

The ride turned out to be closer to 8 hours after the long slog through Singaporean customs and Google Maps giving me an incorrect location for the hostel (!). The hostel is extremely confusing to get to. The name is listed as "Green Kiwi Backpackers Hostel", but to find the place you need to ignore the location of that search term in Google Maps, search directly for the address listed on hostelworld.com, then enter a building called "Rucksack-Inn", where you'll see the hostel's full name written on a black board "Rucksack-Inn and Green Kiwi". The hostel itself is a bit out of the way, but near an MRT station that will take you into town. My wallet was hurting after paying an exorbitant 9.85 USD for my dinner at a nearby food court.

Day 33: Thaipusam

The next morning I was already feeling more energetic and decided to go to Thaipusam, a giant Hindu festival celebrated by the Tamil community at Batu Caves each year on February 9th.

Getting there was hectic, but after navigating the LRT, fighting the massive crowds of Indians and other tourists, and getting on a train going the wrong direction, I made it to Batu Caves three hours after I had set out.

The entrance to the caves

The religious portion of the festival entails a roughly 6 hour trek by foot from China/Indiatown all the way to Batu Caves. Many are carrying either pots of milk atop their heads or kavadis, which are these metal boxlike structures that are supported with the shoulders and head and often have flowers or milk pots arranged within and atop them. The festival is most well known for the practice of devotees lancing and skewering themselves with metal hooks or spikes in thanksgiving or penance, but I didn't see anyone partaking in the activity (though I did show up an hour and a half after the first, and presumably most devoted of the marchers arrived at the caves).

Surrounding all of these events is a myriad of shops and vendors selling wares that appeal to the Tamil community. The walkways are packed with bodies and trash litters the ground everywhere -- not unlike the videos I have seen of streets in India. I climbed the stairs to the main cave and after my descent bought a few shirts and an ice cream cone before heading back to the hostel to prepare to check out tomorrow before going to Singapore by bus.

Day 30-32: Recuperation

The next few days were spent either in bed or at a nearby cafe. I didn't feel particularly sick, but I did feel low on energy. Near the end of day 32, another guest at the hostel heard about how I was feeling and told me "I've got just the thing!". He'd had a similar sickness earlier in his trip, where he initially thought it was food poisoning, but it wasn't until he had lost 20 lbs over the next few months that he went to see a doctor and was prescribed some medicine for bacterial infections of the gut. The medicine worked wonders for him and, after some careful Googling, I agreed to take his remaining pills.

Day 29: Low Yat Plaza

Malaysia has a different plug type (Type G) than America (Type A and B), so I went out to get an adapter to charge my electronics. My first stop was a huge 7-floor building called Low Yat Plaza -- nearby the Paragon Shopping Center -- that exclusively sells electronics. I told myself that 40Rm (a bit less than $10) would be a reasonable price for an adapter, but was pleasantly surprised to find a universal adapter that also included the plug type used in Indonesia for exactly Rm40. It even came with a small travel bag. Score!

I proceeded to go cafe hopping around the Bukit Bintang shopping area. I discovered yet another shopping mall in the area, this one possibly the largest of any I had yet seen. Berjaya Times Square is so large that not only does it house an indoor roller coaster and theme park, but halfway up its 13-floor structure is a suicide net.

A glimpse of the indoor roller coaster in a quieter than usual area of Berjaya Times Square

After setting up at another cafe for the evening, trying to walk home, realizing I was walking the opposite direction of where I wanted to go, and taking a taxi home instead, I arrived back at the hostel around 20:00. The next 7 hours were spent expelling from my stomach the spoilt milk that had been put in my blended drink at the last cafe I visited. It was not a fun night. (I'm typing this now from bed at 12:00 the next day, and feel much better, minus a few achy muscles).

Day 28: Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra

After losing an hour yesterday, I didn't get out of bed until 12:00 KL time. The concert I was attending that night had a dress code of no t-shirts, no sport shoes, no slippers (sandals), and no shorts. The ticket seller had assured me that I would probably be fine after I had described to her my wardrobe, but I didn't much fancy going to the symphony in a gray on gray shirt and pants with my dirty flower shoes I had bought in Bangkok. So I was off to Chinatown in search of some fresh formal wear!

Chinatown's in general have a reputation of selling cheap, knock-off clothing and shoes -- which is great for me considering the frequency with which I intended to go out for fancy dinners and events during my travels. But, while cheap by American standards, I found that the vendors peddling their goods in the main walkway of KL's Chinatown were more than prepared to rip you off by local standards. I was eventually able to find nice (still cheaply made) shoes and shirt for half the price I was being offered while in Chinatown just a few streets closer to the old KL district (along Kasturi Walk, if any future readers find themselves in a similar situation).

From Kasturi Walk I crossed over the Klang River and investigated Merdeka square and a nearby textile museum (free admission, why not). Merdeka is the site of the first Malaya (Malaysia's precursor) flag raise after the end of British Colonial rule just under 60 years ago. I most appreciated its open, grassy space -- always a nice reprieve from the concrete jungle of large cities.

Looking north at Merdeka Square

I found this mural painted on the side of a bank along Jalan Tun Perak strangely self-mocking

The performance that night was a lot of fun. I don't think anyone looked twice at my new shoes or dress shirt, but it was still a good time to dress up and go watch a Russian soloist perform an Italian violin concerto (Paganini's 5th) in Malaysia.

The Malaysian Philharmonic makes their home at the base of the Petronas Towers

The concert hall would later fill up completely with audience members and performers. I paid 90MR for my mid-range ticket ($20), a steal by Seattle Symphony standards.

Day 27: Kuala Lumpur

I was lucky enough to find a motorcycle taxi that would take me to the airport at 06:00 for only 200 baht (I tried finding a songthaew to the airport that supposedly existed according to WikiTravel, but the streets were nearly empty as I walked to 7-11 for a breakfast). After landing in KLIA2, my streak of arriving at hostels in rainstorms was finally broken. The 11 MYR bus ride to Step Inn Too Hostel was sunny and offered plenty to see out the window.

Nearly all the hostels in KL are located near KL Sentral (including my own), so there is plenty to do within walking distance. I walked to Jalan Sultan Ismail and explored the Pavilion Shopping Center.

As soon as I arrived I witnessed an exemplary display of Malaysian diversity... a German suitcase store celebrating the Chinese New Year? 

Back home I wouldn't even think of visiting a shopping center if I found myself in a new city, but it's one of my favorite things to do when visiting a new large city in Asia.

Pavilion Shopping Center in Kuala Lumpur

From there I walked to the iconic Petronas Towers. I thought they would be taller.

Park much more crowded than it looks here

Malaysian shopping malls have perfected the art of the long-distance AC blast (a popular customer attractant in South East Asian stores) and a particularly cool draft sniped me as I walked back around the Petronas towers. Ten minutes later I walked out with a concert ticket to see the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra play a suite of Italian pieces tomorrow night. So I guess you could say I'm taking advantage of my time back in the city 😁

Days 25 and 26: Krabi Town

For a change in scenery and to be closer to the airport for my 08:30 flight on Day 33, I checked out of Bananas Bungalows and into Best Time Hostel in the heart of Krabi Town. Once again, it decided to dump rain on me while I was in transit to the hostel. I boarded the local songthaew that left from Ao Tha Bay, but when the driver realized I would be the only passenger into town (and that he was driving through a downpour in a vehicle with no windshield wipers), we transferred to his personal vehicle 5 minutes into the journey. As a result, I ended up offering to pay five times as much as the songthaew's supposed 100 baht fare, but it was still cheaper than a taxi.

I spent the rest of the day in Thailand's biggest indigenous coffee chain, Black Canyon Coffee. There were plenty of outlets, but they were all behind a half wall and across a hallway from the seating area -- meaning whatever you plugged in would clothesline any passerbys. There was a girl there that had brought her own power strip just to circumvent the problem.

Day 32 was spent cafe hopping around Krabi (can you tell that there was nothing left I wanted to do?). After taking a post-lunchtime walk through Chaofah and Thara Park and back again I ended up in Ar-ma Bistro and Cafe. 

This place has a really nice atmosphere and facilities (and great food and coffee!), but from the time I arrived until the time I departed five hours later, they did not get a single customer. And they were still three hours away from closing time! I felt bad for the employees (who I assume are also the owners), considering how much I liked the place.