Bangkok, Thailand - Part 1

First impressions. I arrived into Bangkok on Friday evening from Malaysia. We arrived into Suvarnabhumi International Airport which is the new international airport in Bangkok. I got in a taxi and proceeded to sit in the worst traffic I think I have ever experienced. Bangkok is renown for its traffic and pollution, amongst other things, as I would soon find out.

I finally arrived at my hotel, tired and hungry, the doormen referred me to a little restaurant next door called The Copper. I had my first Pad Thai in Thailand and it was delicious. I also happened to walk past the first Thai "massage" parlor for men only, that I would see.

The next day I got up and left the hotel in search of breakfast. Although it really was not that early, there wasn't much activity on the streets, the food vendors, the prostitutes leaving whoever they were with the night before and me. Interesting.

Back in NY I had been speaking to a friend about my trip and told him that i had plans to go to Bangkok. He made a face and told me Bangkok was a cesspool. I did not stay in a hostel, I was staying in a tourist area - not in a red light district but that day, on Saturday, I had to agree with my friend, Bangkok was a cesspool.

Desperate to find a bit of respite from the riot of pollution and the pervasive feeling of the sex trade being all around me, I went to have brunch at a lovely French crepe restaurant. I sat there for hours, in the garden, taking in the soothing environment. Eventually I went on my way again and got a massage and stopped in at an internet cafe for a while. I thought somehow I was safe but all of a sudden I hear this old American man talking to this young Thai women about the events of the previous night. Suffice it to say I was not that keen on hearing the rest of the conversation and decided to walk back to the hotel.

It was amazing to see the women hanging out on the sidewalks in front of the bars and restaurants, looking for their next client and all the Western men, young and old chatting up these women. I went back to the safety of The Copper for dinner and after dinner on my way back to my hotel, what do I see? An older Thai couple walking a baby elephant! Obviously I had the requisite reaction of "Awwww" but I quickly realized they wanted me to pay them to feed or pet the elephant. I wasn't about to do that.

I was so disturbed that evening by the little bit that I saw of the rampant exploitation of women and animals. I emailed some friends who have some extensive experience traveling in Asia and my mother, who had been in Thailand 35 years ago. My friends told me that it is often "normal" for country girls to enter into a few years of prostitution to help their families or they go into the city to become seamstresses and end up getting tricked into prostitution. Maybe some of these girls and women voluntarily have gone into this line of work but none of them looked happy to me, they all looked hard and sort of hollow, no matter how beautiful they were. My mom was understanding of my feelings and suggested I take a boat tour on the river the next day.

I never intended to post any social or moral commentaries on this blog. I really always intended to keep it for entertainment only but as one of my friends put it, it is only by bringing awareness to the problems that anything will ever change.

I mean have you ever been in a hotel that has a sticker on the safe that says "If you think a child might be at risk of sexual exploitation, please contact hotel management."???

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Part 2

Day 2 in Kuala Lumpur, I got up, had a breakfast of noodles, dim sum, sushi and fruit. Strange but all part of the breakfast buffet.

After breakfast I walked to the Petronas Twin Towers and had a look around. I had intended to go to the skyway (the bridge that connects the towers) but the tickets were all gone for the day, so I just walked around inside instead. Attached to the towers is the Suria Mall. I am not a mall person by any means but somehow I was intrigued by this super mall and went to check it out. (James - you're loving me now!) I walked by Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Prada, Ferragamo, Armani, Jimmy Choo (who by the by is Malaysian) and kept walking.

I found a little museum on the third floor with Malaysian artifacts - old pictures, antique jewelry, swords and statues. Its very interesting to see the mixtures of different cultures in Malaysia. The museum was filled with Chinese, Malay, Indian and Islamic artifacts. Much like all the stores and people. There were women with their heads covered with scarves, the scarves are actually held in place with beautiful pins. You see all types of people, Indian Sikhs with their turbans, Chinese teenagers, Malay school kids. The only thing that scared me were the ladies in their abayas and veils, this is the Muslim style of dress where all you can see is the eyes of a woman. (Correct me if I am wrong anyone). So I saw two ladies in this style of dress accompanied by their men and the women's eyes looked so terrorized it freaked me out. Maybe they are ok with their custom and I respect that but somehow it just scared the crap out of me.

Anyway, I've gone off on a tangent. After the museum I went to the Gallerie Petronas next door where they were exhibiting Malaysian women artists. A great show with some really lovely pieces.

I kept walking through the mall, found a foot reflexology place , a bookstore and a cafe where I spent the rest of my afternoon. I don't know if it was the rain outside, my lingering cold, or the intense humidity later but I was pretty spent. I made a night of it with room service and the Discovery Channel. (James - now you REALLY love me.)

On Friday morning I got up, packed, had breakfast and went to the Petronas Twin Towers again. Once again, I missed the tickets for the skybridge, so I opted to get on the subway and take a trip around town on public transport. I took the subway to the central station where I walked to the monorail station. I took the monorail through the Golden Triangle area - once I got on the monorail Kuala Lumpur looked like a lot of other big cities, maybe not as bad as some in certain parts of Africa or South America but it definitely had its "economically depressed" looking areas. Maybe it was just the architecture.

I turned around and went back towards KLCC, got out at Jalan Bukit and walked to Jalan Ampang, past the rubber museum, past the Pakistani Embassy and eventually made it back to my hotel where I collected my bags, got in a taxi and headed to the airport for my flight to Bangkok.

Legian, Bali - Part 3

The last few days I took a bit of a break from surfing. I have been trying to take care of my cold and my shoulder and doing a whole lot of nothing.

Saturday I met up with Alain, we hopped on his moped and drove to Redz, a surfboard shop. We had stopped there on our way back from the beach on Friday and checked out some boards. I had no intention of buying one but when I heard the price Alain was getting, I decided to join him on Saturday. So I ordered my surfboard and Marcy will kindly pick it up for me next week and hold it, while I make my way through Malaysia,
Thailand andHong Kong, until I get back to Bali in December, when I will be able to christen the board in Balinese waters!

After the exciting outing, we came back to town and I had a rest at my hotel. Later I met up with Alain and Dan at Melinda and Marcy's bungalow for afternoon tea. Alain had brought over a fantasticPont l'Eveque cheese that he brought from France, I brought American grapes, Melinda supplied the crackers, tea and coffee and Dan and Marcy brought their stellar personalities. We had a lovely and highly sophisticated afternoon at the beach bungalow.

Sunday I read a book and met Chelsea and Melinda for a few mango daiquiris and some dinner at Lanai.

Monday my day started like any other, breakfast of papaya, watermelon and pineapple by the pool. I eventually made my way to Tri, my massage therapist, who Melinda set me up with to work specifically on my shoulder. Tri proceeded to stick about 10 acupuncture needles in my arm and shoulder and hooked up the needles to this electricity transmitter. Needless to say once he turned the current on I looked like I was having a seizure. After 20 minutes of twitching, the needles came out and it was time for massage. Now this is not a spa massage, this man goes to work- this is
deep tissue work that brings tears to your eyes, but for $15, less shoulder pain and an extended range of motion it was well worth it.

I was supposed to go for a surf after but my lesson got canceled due to bad conditions, so we rescheduled for this morning and I went off to do some sidewalk/window shopping, headed off to theapothek (pharmacy) for some cough medicine and made my way to Lanai to watch the sunset and have some dinner.

This morning Marcy and Melinda picked me up at 5:45am and we went for a surf at the break in front of the bar KuDeTa, I have been advised the correct name for this break is Poofies.
In any event, it is a long paddle out past some pretty heavy shore break but once you got to the outside the waves were really nice, not too fast and not too steep. I caught the first one on my own but I went left instead of going right (on therighthander ) like I was supposed to. Duh! I kind of exhausted myself with the paddling and the rest of the waves were a combination of me paddling and Marcy pushing me. You'd think all this time in the water I would be a stronger paddler by now! It gets a little frustrating. Anyway so towards the end of my lesson there's a big wave coming my way - I ditch the board and dive under. Well, somehow me and my board went in the wrong direction and I had a head on collision with one of the fins. Yes I covered my head, but apparently not well enough. So once I popped up to the surface Marcy was all "Are you ok ??" I just rubbed my head and said yeah I was fine, I just knocked my head and I ask him if I'm bleeding. He says yes! I figure he's just being full of it and touch my forehead. Sure enough, blood! So I got out of the water, Marcy got me some ice and we got the bump back down to non alien like levels. I did suggest we amputate, as my dad used to say when we got a cut when we were kids, but Marcy was not too much into surgery. Ha ha ha

So after a shower and suitable application of antiseptic for cuts, tiger balm for sore muscles and arnica for a number of bruises, I had some breakfast and made my way to the internet cafe. I'm off to Kuala Lumpur after a morning surf tomorrow.

Note 1: Not sure if the monitor is bad it if it is the compression of the photos that is making them look crappy. Will fix them once I get to a proper high speed connection.
Note 2: To my family, I'm a little banged up but I'm OK, don't worry - it's not like we have to amputate anything and I've got a hard head anyway.

Ubud, Bali - Part 1

After some sad goodbyes on Sunday; Karen, Sheila and I ventured up to Ubud for what else, but of course more spa treatment! When I read about Ubud I knew I wanted to come up here, it is the heart of the artistic community in Bali. Karen found us a boutique hotel and spa called Taman Rahasia. The resort was small and intimate, sort of like a jungle paradise. We booked a crazy six hour package. Karen booked hers over a two day period since she was going back to Hong Kong on Monday but Sheila and I decided to take the six hour session in one shot. It was called "A Day of Sheer Indulgence", one would think that I have had enough indulgence but hell, why not go for a little more? The package included a body scrub, a massage, a soak in a flower petal filled tub, lunch, a facial, a manicure and a pedicure. All for under $75US! Who could resist that?

After our blissful spa experience Karen went back to Hong Kong and Sheila and I went to go look for a place to stay. As lovely as Taman Rahasia was, $90US per night was a little out of our budget for an extended stay. After a couple of attempts at various places we came to Sania's Homestay, where we got a lovely room for $25US per night. Sania's was a small hotel within a family compound, we essentially walked through their outdoor living room and past the family dog and bird every time we walked in or out of the hotel. This hotel felt like we were in a temple with ornate doors and terraces all over. We stayed at Sania's until Thursday doing a lot of hanging out around Ubud.


Sheila believes I have perfected the art of just hanging out. Essentially sitting around in cafes or on terraces chatting about this and that for hours at a time. We took in a couple of yoga classes, one of which was in Japanese! Stephanie you should have been with us! Sheila and I also found a great foot reflexology spot where we luxuriated in having our feet massaged. Heaven. We had some interesting moments at a particular internet cafe, we did some shopping down Jalan Hanoman where lots of men constantly offered transport. I don't know if most of the tourists take taxis in Ubud but we were happy to navigate the broken sidewalks and walk.

In addition to the constant assault of transport drivers, one regularly receives offers to see traditional dance shows. One night Sheila and I went to one of the temples to watch the Kecak performance. Kecak features a large choir of men wearing sarongs and flowers behind their ears (which is not viewed in any way as effeminate in Bali). The men chant "chak-a-chak" and it is remarkable how they layer their voices. In addition to the men chanting, beautiful and graceful Legong dancers also perform. The performance closed with a fire dance, where a mound of old coconuts is drenched in gasoline, lit on fire and a barefoot man in a horse costume kicks the burning coconuts around, much to the annoyance of his keepers. Imagine a child jumping into autumn leaves after his parents finished raking them into a huge pile. Take note that in all of this we were less than 20 feet from the action. Quite amazing we were not subjected to signing waivers and there were no announcements warning us not to try this at home!

Surf Goddess Retreat - Part 2

On Monday our day started like every other; yoga, breakfast and surfing. After a morning of hard work we were off to the ultimate field trip. An afternoon of spa treatments at Prana Spa, a tremendously gorgeous place which has an Indian sort of theme. It was impossible not to feel like an exotic princess at this place! It almost felt like being in another country.

We started off in the hot and cold plunge pools in the middle of a gorgeous courtyard. The plunge pools are two small pools that consist of really hot water in one pool and really cold water in the other pool. As one could imagine, there was a whole lot of shrieking and giggling going on. After the pools, we were off to these lush and gorgeous massage rooms, where we were massaged and scrubbed. One of the loveliest things about Balinese massage is that the spas place a bowl of water filled with flowers under the massage table - this way you have something to look at besides the floor or your massage therapists feet. Really a nice touch. In our haze of spa bliss, we managed to get back to the villa for a nice quiet evening.

The following day after the usual fabulous schedule of yoga and surfing, we went off in the great (now) tradition of searching out more spa treatments. Karen introduced us to what is known as the cream bath. (Collective aaahhhh!) So us six girls changed into these toga like dresses and proceeded to the hair washing stations, and yes, got our hair washed. After the hair washing we went on to have our hair and scalps massaged with hair conditioner for the next 45 minutes. I don't know why we don't have this in the USA, it works wonders for humidity crazy hair!

As everyone can gather, going to the spa is a big part of the trip, it's cheap and with the rigors of learning to surf and yogaing, it becomes quite the indispensable luxury.

Us girls did not do much in the way of going out at night as yoga or surfing with a hangover are not a whole lot of fun. However we did go out for sunset cocktails on Wednesday night at the ultra fabulous Ku De Ta. Ku De Ta is a swanky hip bar and restaurant on the beach (could be mistaken for Los Angeles or Miami in fact). So we had a couple of drinks and watched an amazing sunset. An incredible way to end another amazing day.

Surf Goddess Retreat - Part 1

A funny thing about Bali. I once, many many years ago developed a fascination for Balinese art and decided I wanted to visit Indonesia. Time went on, years flew past and Bali went out of my head. So one day this summer in New York, I was busy researching my traveling to Asia. I was looking for some sort of yoga retreat and I come across this link for Surf Goddess Retreat in Bali. The retreat consisted of daily yoga and surfing instruction for small groups of women. It sounded luxurious, invigorating and restorative. What a great way to start off traveling in Asia, I thought. So I booked it.

Sunday I checked out of Le Meridien and made my way to Seminyak for the retreat. My God, it was more than I could ever have dreamed. I struggle to put into words what I experienced in the last week and you better believe it is going to take more than one post.

First off I arrived at this gated door and when it opened I saw nothing but an aquamarine pool and a lovely lush garden. From the pool, pipes up a voice and says "Hi! I'm Kim!!". Funny enough, Kim lives in New York too and ended up being my roommate for the week.
Aside from trying to cut off my leg with a miniature saw in the middle of the night, she is a totally fantastic person with a gift for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. Kim also has sunglasses bigger than Bono's. See photo


Moving right along and jokes aside, Kim and I met Chelsea, who did the phenomenal job of organizing the this week for us, and chattered away until the other girls arrived. We met Karen, Sheila, Stephanie and Anne - all wonderful women who we would share the next week with. We also met Melinda, who works with Chelsea, and would become our surfing big sister over the next week.

We shared the first of many wonderful home cooked meals together and after dinner, Karen says she is going for a massage and anyone is welcome to come along. Now I'm not one to skip out on a spa treatment, so off we went. A word about Karen, she is a fantastic, vibrant Australian woman whose goal in life is to attempt to overdose on spa treatments! I had secretly decided I wanted to try to get a treatment a day or at least several times a week, I mean at under $20 per massage in Bali, why not? And now I met Karen, my spa guru - could things work out any better??

The next morning we were up for yoga class by the pool with the lovely Susan, who is full of humor and gracious humanity, qualities sometimes lacking in yoga teachers ( I have to be honest and say that my current teachers are just that, so it was nice to feel at home).

After a great yoga class and a fabulous breakfast we were off to Rip Curl Surf School in Blue Ocean Beach, where we began the first of many lessons filled with great instruction and tons of fun. Somehow I personally find it easy to burst out laughing if I catch a wave or I get dumped and fall off, which still happens quite a bit. Suppose its got to do with being with tremendous people and being i a beautiful place.

As the days went on we pushed our sore muscles through yoga classes and surfing lessons and invariably ended our days with either a massage or reflexology. Not a bad life huh?

Paradise - Le Meridien Bali

I have found paradise and it's in Bali.

I woke up on Thursday morning, after countless hours of flying and general traveling, to the sound of birds and frogs and geckos and the smells of frangipani and incense floating through the air. Le Meridien is where I started my journey in Bali. Le Meridien is quite the posh golf resort, which I was able to organize for free due to lots and lots of hotel points from years of travel for work. Quite the bonus.

Anyway, I began a busy schedule of lounging on my balcony, lounging at the pool, lounging over breakfast, well you get the over all picture. The view from my room was quite spectacular and I woke up every morning hearing the waves crashing on the shore. For my surfer friends, the swells looked quite perfect but there was a lot of rock and any attempts at surfing would have resulted in a mangled body instead.

So I decided to discover the spa instead. Over the course of the next four days I was scrubbed with salt and spices, wrapped in seaweed (which was something like being a giant sushi roll), I was bathed in cinnamon, cloves, lemongrass and ginger and was massaged within an inch of my life. Talk about taking the edge off of any travel stress! My brain pretty much dissolved into something akin to oatmeal.

One of the best things I discovered was the "bale". Which is a traditional Balinese structure in which anything from sleeping to cooking is done. Most traditional Balinese homes essentially consist of a compound with various bales. At Le Meridien, the bale is for lounging or getting a massage. Heaven on earth, truly.

I watched some traditional musicians and dancers and at one point took part in one of the Balinese dances, not as easy as it looks and no I don't have any pictures and I hope none of the other hotel guests do either.

After spending lots of time doing nothing at all, Sunday I was off to my surfing and yoga retreat. I will tell you all about it in the next post as I have to hurry back to the villa from the internet cafe for reflexology and massage. Ha ha ha what a life!

Note - thanks very much to everyone who has been reading and sending comments and heartfelt emails. Hope you all enjoy reading about my journey as much as I enjoy telling you all about it.