Barclays Asia Trophy

Last Wed. I was walking around Causeway Bay and noticed a lot more white people around than normal. It registered in my brain as odd, but I didn't think anything more of it. Laster that night, I was in our apartment working on something, when all of a sudden I hear this sound, like a airplane was flying really low nearby, but it lasted a full 5 seconds. WHaT the .... So I stand up and look out our window, and from there I could see that the Hong Kong Stadium was chock full of people. Huh? I wonder, what's going on? So, I quickly google Hong Kong Stadium, July 24th, and it turns out the Barclays Asia Trophy Soccer Tournament was going on, explaining the influx of white people. It was a 4-team tournament, with the first round of games on Wed., then the 3rd place game and championship game on Saturday. I was stunned that Drew and I had no idea this was happening, seeing as it was right in our own backyard, and as I kept hearing the crowd roar throughout the night, I was determined to check it out for the Saturday night games. I looked into it, and all of the Saturday games were sold out. So, Drew and I decided to be bold and try to scalp some tickets outside the stadium. As it turns out, there were a lot of people who were interested in only watching the 3rd place game, which had the South China team in it, and not the following championship game which was Manchester City versus Sunderland. So, Drew asked the people leaving the 3rd place game if we could buy their tickets off of them, as they weren't going to use them anyways, and it worked! For an eighth of face value, we got to watch the championship game. Granted, these tickets were in the nose bleeds, but they still had a clear view of the whole field, and it was really fun just being in such an animated crowd. There were a few players, in particular number 8 on the Man City team, that the entire crowd would boo every time they touched the ball. Literally every time. That player must have done something not very nice off of the soccer pitch. They even cheered when he slipped and fell in the mud. Splat. This was the first international football game for both Drew and I, and we had a ton of fun. 

It had been raining cats and dogs for the last three days here, so the field was an absolute mess. The grass was dying, it was muddy, and it also rained hard several times during the game, so, by the end, the field was a giant mud pit. Luckily, our nose bleed seats were under the large awning that covers parts of the field, so we didn't get wet at all. The people with closer seats and with seats on the ends of the field did though. It was so funny to see. Whenever it started to rain, their umbrellas would pop up like mushrooms. Boop. Boop. boop boop. It was really funny to watch. 

The hardest part was actually not getting the tickets, but finding seats once we got in there. Our tickets were for a general seating area, and since most people had been there since the first game, we had a struggle finding two open seats that were together. We just had to keep asking people. Also, as you can tell by this picture, the audience was 80% male. At halftime, I had to go to the restroom. This was literally the first time in my life where there was a wait for the men's restroom but not the women's. Ha!



High but dry.



At the end, they told us the crowd count, which was 39,500 people. My reaction was "Wow! That's a lot of people!" Drew's reaction was "Ha, that's less than half of what we can fit in the Big House." :) Some loyalties will never die.

Bali Cooking Class

On our last day in Bali, Drew and I started the day by getting a $10 massage in our bungalow. As there was only one massage lady, we went one at a time. While one person was getting a massage, the other was out cuddling with Little Lisa or reading a book. What a nice and relaxing way to finish our vacation. After our massages, we went on a walk with Agust, the eldest of Wayan's two sons. He took us through the rice paddy maze, then through side streets down to the river that separates his village's hillside from the town of Ubud. At one point there was a bridge that crossed the river, but it was on a Westerner's property, and he didn't like everyone trooping through his backyard, so he dismantled the bridge. What was once a 15 min walk into the main town is now a 30min drive by scooter.

We saw a gang of local boys playing in the river, totally buck naked. Not a care in the world. We also saw a gaggle of river rafters going down the river, having to avoid the naked boys. One raft was full of Asians, and they were the worst paddlers I have ever seen. Most likely they couldn't understand the instructions being given to them, so they were going all over the place; no one was in sync. Funny to watch though.

After our walk, we went back to the house and had a cooking class from Ayu. She told us about all of the ingredients she uses to make the two most popular dishes in Bali, nasi goreng which is fried rice (you can also have mei goreng which is fried noodles) and lilith satay. Below are the ingredients for lilith satay. Basically it's a bunch of spices ground up with meat, then squished into a ball around a bamboo skewer. Imagine a savory chicken meatball on a stick then grilled. Delicious!

Here we are putting the chicken meat on the skewers. 

Grilling the satay over a fire fueled by the brown husks of coconuts. 

Us making the nasi goreng in a giant wok. It was amazing the quality of meals this lady could make from such a simple kitchen. Puts people with gourmet kitchens who don't use them to shame. As you can see, there is actually alot of veggies in nasi goreng, and we used coconut oil to fry everything. 

For dessert, we had crepes dyed green from a plant extract Ayu has in her garden. Inside the crepe was a mix of grated coconut (which I am doing in the pic below) mixed with palm sugar. Palm sugar basically looks like syrup, and it's incredibly sweet. 

A lot of times for breakfast, Ayu would make us these banana pancakes. Green again from the same plant extract, bananas that grow around the house, and covered in palm sugar. Too good to be true. 

The table below is the final result of our labor. Not too shabby! But, Ayu helped us the whole way. 

Below is a pic of us with Wayan's family. We will be back one day! 

There is lane very near to Wayan's house that we drove on several times. It was the exact lane used by Julia Roberts in the movie Eat, Pray, Love. And it looked just like that!

We discovered a fruit in Bali I've never seen or heard of before, the jack fruit. It looks like a durian, but it's even bigger, the spikes on the outside aren't as large, and it doesn't smell as bad!

A lot of people use scooters not only for personal transportation in Bali, but also for transportation of goods. They were essentially small trucks. Granted, this lady was selling stuff directly off of her scooter, but you get the idea. Must take incredible balance! In flip flops no less!

All of Wayan's family dogs! Two kind of poofy ones, smaller than Zoey, and Little Lisa who was playing with the older dog's tail.

 Overall, we had a great time in Bali. I would suggest to anyone who goes there to get outside of the main towns of Kuta, Depensar, and Semiyak to really see the real Bali. Canggu and Wayan's house outside of Ubud were both good choices for us. Pedang Bai was also a nice small town on the beach.

Numnum Waterfall and Sangeh Monkey Forest

The day after we arrived at Wayan's house, we went on a long day tour. First stop of the day was a chocolate factory. Guess whose idea it was to go there? :) Anyways, we got to see the whole process, from harvesting the cacao pods (yellow) to stripping out the fruit in the middle, fermenting the beans, roasting them, sorting them, crushing them, smashing out the oil, mixing it with oil, sugar etc., tempering it, then finally eating it! These guys had a dark chocolate which was fantastic, then a super dark chocolate which was 80%. Not for the weak of heart chocolate lovers. 

After the chocolate factory, we went to the Numnum waterfall. It's not the tallest in Bali, but it is the most powerful with the most flow. The pic immediately below is of the baby waterfall just to the left of the main one. We had walk down 500 steps to get to to the fall. I think it was only about 300, but who's counting. 

The nice thing about the falls is they were really untouristy. We saw this group of guys here, then one other couple at the end and that was it. 

We also went swimming at the base of the falls! It was amazing how powerful it was. Eventually you'd get too close; the water would be spraying in your face, wind would be pushing you backwards, and it would almost hurt to stand there. I've never swam at the base of a waterfall before, so that was awesome. 

After the falls, it was time to stop for lunch. I had a grilled fish, freshly caught in a pond by the restaurant called a garumi. Delicious! I also had a coconut juice drink. There was so much in there! I couldn't even finish it. Note: Mom the coconut juice is light and sweet, not like that awful bitter stuff you call coconut water. I think they press the meat of the coconut to get that. 

The third stop of the day was the Sangeh monkey forest. This is an old temple that looks like something from Raiders of the Lost Ark. The temple is surrounded by these really tall straight trees; we never saw trees like this anywhere else in Bali. The monkeys, finally, are the warriors of the temple, protecting it. While it seems like just a tourist spot now, the temple is still used for important ceremonies. There are priests who take care of the temple and know the monkeys. You can't touch the monkeys, but the monkeys can touch you. One of the priests calls a monkey over to you and makes it sit nicely on you before it will give it a treat. In this way, the monkeys are almost trained to be nice and calm. That is apparently not the case for all monkey forests in Bali. In those other forests, the monkeys are really aggressive. Old men train them to steal your stuff, the monkey delivers it to the old man in exchange for a banana, then you have to pay the old man to get your stuff back. Luckily, that wasn't happening here. Instead, we had a blast. It was so cool to have a monkey sitting on your hand or shoulder. They are actually kind of heavy. Their hands were the craziest parts. Just like ours! 

The priests were very good about only allowing the friendliest monkeys to interact with us. The priests knew all of the monkeys by sight, so they would not encourage a monkey they knew was aggressive over to us. 

Just chillaxin.

Baby monkey! He actually cuddled with me for a few seconds while he was eating his treat. 

Wayan's House

On the third day of our trip, Drew and I transitioned from the villa in Canngu to a homestay about 20 min outside of Ubud. Essentially we were moving from the ocean to rice paddies in the center of the island. We had a driver take us from the villa to Ubud, a large touristy town that reminded me a lot of a Balinesian Estes Park. Lots of shopping, lots of restaurants etc. The first thing on the docket was a lunch of suckling pig at Buka Onu, a famous restaurant in Ubud. Got the roasted meat, some of the skin, and cracklings for about $5.

Just outside of the restaurant, we saw this impressive wall of rooster cages. They were making one hell of a ruckus, making them easy to find. At the time, we just assumed they were tomorrow's dinner, but later we learned the real reason. Cock fighting. Apparently it's huge in Bali, and people keep tons of roosters just for that. It was originally part of the gatherings before a religious ceremony, but now it happens all over. We'd see men sitting on their front porches massaging their prize roosters; they were so proud of them. 

After lunch, we decided to indulge in some Balinesian pampering. Drew and I both got massages in this tiny room above a restaurant. It was funny; they weren't much for privacy. We walked in and said what we wanted, they said ok, pointed to the tables, and stood there waiting as we got undressed right in front of them. I actually got an hour massage, a 40 min facial, and a 20 min pedicure for $20. Not too shabby! These pics are of the compound where the spa was. I think the raised table was part of the restaurant and you could rent it out for special gatherings. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city, taking in the sights. Balinesian architecture is really beautiful. Most of the island was covered in lava at one point, so all of the dirt is black and when they make cement with it, it has a really dark grey color to it. Bali is also a very religious place. The people are mostly Hindu, which is unusual because the rest of Indonesia is Muslim. Anyways, every house and store has a mini temple where the members put offerings of mostly flowers every day. There are also shrines at every family's rice paddy, to pray for a good harvest. Then there is the larger community temple for larger events. The end result is you can't walk more than 10 ft in any given direction in Bali without running into a temple of some sort. 

All of the statues in Bali were ferocious looking to scare away evil spirits. 

A covered pavilion inside a temple for public gatherings, events. etc. 

After our tour of Ubud, another driver picked us up and took us to our new residence. We were staying with Wayan and his family. Wayan, who has had the opportunity to travel internationally and thereby has great English, wanted to turn his family compound into a home stay, so that he could share his community's values and way of life with visitors in a more realistic setting. The rural farming communities in Bali are really close knit. He brought this idea to his community, and they were certainly skeptical but eventually agreed to it. Now, Wayan has built three bungalows on his property for people to rent. Wayan spends his days gardening and maintaining the property and his nights sharing stories and myths about his culture. His wife Ayu cooks delicious meals, cleans the cabins, leads cooking lessons, and brings a sense of family and comfort to the compound that only a mom can bring. Their two kids go to school, then practice their English with the visitors and take them on hikes around the neighborhood. The cousins and uncles are the hired drivers, taking the guests wherever they want to go. They have gotten the whole community involved with this venture, and as such it's become a huge success. Everyone who stays there feels the love, and they get to see the real Bali. 

Our bungalow. 

Our awesome outdoor shower. 

Beautiful flowers in the gardens within the compound.

With every garden comes its bugs. These spiders were the size of your hand outstretched. But, they aren't poisonous. 

The family temple. 

This raised platform was the family living room. Whenever Wayan had friends over, they would just sit on the wooden platform, drinking palm wine (nasty stuff) talking and laughing. 

Wayan's grandmother. So the kids' great-grandmother. Intergenerational living is the norm in Bali. 

After we got settled into our bungalow, Wayan took us, along with another Australian couple also staying on a sunset walk through the community rice paddies. This was really beautiful. I know little about the process of growing rice, but Wayan patiently explained everything. The irrigation systems needed to fill the paddies with water and then drain them at the appropriate times is very complex. And, the Balinesian people can prove these systems have been around since the 800's. You got it, not the 1800's, the 800's. As such, the irrigation group has been around longer than the government and so has ultimate power over the irrigation system. The government can't touch the system.

The cement statue is another family shrine. It's really cool how sustainable these rice fields are. When the water floods the fields, it brings with it eels, frogs, lizards, etc. At night you'll see men walking around with buckets, fishing for eels. The weeds and grass on all the dividers is cut and given to the cows as fodder. The manure is then put back into the fields as fertilizer. When the rice is harvested, ducks are brought in to eat the leftovers and makes the easier to clear the fields. It's a really cool process. Nothing is wasted. 

The Wayan family recently had a new addition, a one month old puppy named Little Lisa. Drew and I fell in love with her. Some mornings, we'd waste an hour just following her around the complex as she'd explore, playing with leaves, the other dogs, chasing after her mom for some more milk etc. So adorable.