A Bit of A Ramble & Amed

Once you get started with writing an entry or two you will be okay. I am not preaching you, Mate, I am just talking to myself! I didn't think words would flow quite this easily. I mean, it's almost as easy as talking, except that I have to check for typos and other errors. I certainly wouldn't wanna read a messy blog lol. Two hours per entry is a pretty okay pace I guess (I sound like I'm running a marathon here). This one may have to be either the last -if not one of the last two- of today. I have a piano lesson scheduled at 6.30 PM and may have to practice a bit before then; this new little piano world of mine thrills me!

So, let's go backwards!
From Summer 2011, here I am, turning back the time to Spring 2011. I went to Indonesia for the Spring break! How exciting!! Well yea, it's always exciting for me cuz I love the food, the Bali massages, not to mention the people (family & friends, for sure). Oh, and this time was special, hubby and I visited a place in the island of Bali we'd never been before: Amed.

We were in Indonesia for about two weeks. I pretty much spent the entire break there (03/18-04/03). I remember going back to the anatomy class the same day I landed back in Portland; the professor thought it was really cool that I visited Bali for the Spring break. The funny thing was.. this guy said to me: "Must have been quite a culture shock for ya". I was like "Ehh??". I said to myself: "I must not pass for an Indonesian. Or perhaps  this guy wouldn't want to speculate claiming me coming from somewhere, since I am somewhat accentless". Actually, it's not my first time. A classmate of mine said she didn't expect me being so new in the area. She thought I'd been living here for a long time, just like everyone else. At a different class, this lady (her name's Mary) thought I was from Minnesota (it's one of those Midwest states). Thanks, Mary. I was somewhat 'flattered'; I mean, being so new to the country, if you know what I mean. Although, not really (flattered) actually. This country has lost some of its charm to me somehow. I start to feel like it's my home. I sort of have taken it for granted, which is no good. You kind of lose the excitement.

By the way, I am gonna ramble a bit here if you don't mind. Our talk here does remind me of the time when I was attending a job seminar at a local Good Will (it's a charity-based organization). I was only living here for about two months at the time, so it must have been some time in 2008. The lady presenter thought I was from the UK. LOL! I must have done a good job at faking the accent. But now that I am part of this society, I should do things ordinarily to get easily understood. I dropped that fake English accent when talking to people. I'm still a fan of it though! Yet, I can almost guarantee that I've probably lost my skills in doing that.

My shot of Swiss-bell Hotel's pool, Nusa Dua

Okay, better stop the ramble now. So Amed off we went! After spending a couple of nights in Nusa Dua, we hired a car and a driver for the Amed trip (the drive took a little over three hours from Nusa Dua). It was just for us to get there though, we did not have the car and the driver the whole time in Amed. Amed was dead overall. It's a nice place if you do the water sports (snorkeling, diving, and all). Since we were not doing any of those, we were left with not much to do.

Blue Moon's beautiful garden

We stayed at Blue Moon Villas for three nights. The place's beautiful! It's furnished with a decorative garden all around. It also has its own restaurant, which we went to almost all the times (we went to a next door neighbor's restaurant one night, but that's the only exception). I loved Blue Moon, but didn't quite love the prices there. They used Euro in charging the room. Think it was about 68 Euro/night, which wasn't bad for what we got. We didn't complain at all about the room. But prices at the restaurant were a bit ridiculous. I may be exaggerating here, but paying the same money there for food as we do in the States felt funny. Didn't feel right lol. Nonetheless, food was superb. USA would still beat them hard on the respect of portion. Blue Moon's portion wasn't that filling. Often times we ended up ordering more dishes.

The small over-priced nasi goreng :D

Watching the ocean

Outdoor shower at Blue Moon

Glen and I saw most other travelers at Blue Moon during dinner time mostly, and Europeans made the majority. There was this French (I think) dude who stared at us every now and then on our first night there. It was a bit weird! And rude too, wasn't it? I enjoyed talking to the restaurant staff there though, they were amiable and smiled a lot. And the kitchen team always presented the dishes in a very aesthetic manner, which I loved.

I got to enjoy being in Amed during the day, and was pretty contented listening to the sound of the waves in the evening. Our villa was right by the ocean, it made me wonder what would have happened if the place had got washed away by the unforgiving waves. Am glad to say it did not happen. We left Amed one morning at 11, to catch our flight to Surabaya later in the evening. Stopping over at our favorite Santai Spa on Padma Utara street in Legian must have been a must of the day, as we did so. We were almost late for our flight cuz of the massage, by the way!

With our cousins in Surabaya

Several days were left after Amed, and we made the most of them by catching up with family and friends. My sister's wedding reception took place in my home town Cilacap on April 2nd, and we left the following day for Portland. Quite a trip it was. And I still had to continue my battle with the anatomy course as soon as I got home. All went well!