Vacation Withdrawal

I'm currently experiencing the withdrawal symptoms that occur when you return from a vacation: listlessness, slight depression, homesickness, wondering about the meaning of life, etc. Wow, have I been on a vacation. It was more like a constant tourist activity.

Five friends and I departed two weeks ago on a crazy adventure: 5 flights, 5 locations, about 7 hotels/hostels, countless restaurants/bars, a few dance floors, one too many late evenings, way too much humidity, and contact with about a bazillion unknown germs. But, we've survived, and I'm here to tell the tale!

First, it was Hong Kong. What an interesting place to see from the airport. As soon as you exit the plane, you see mountains! More like hills, I suppose, but covered with so much green! And the fog (or probably smog) was creeping down over the tops of them and winding around them. It was very mystical (very much like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon kind of stuff). It was beautiful. Hong Kong was very busy--people always moving from place to place and lots of noise. The walk signals even make an annoying ticking sound which tells you to go. I enjoyed it. There was lots of history and ritual and religion, and it was an experience eating in a real live Chinese restaurant. They even wrote down our order in Chinese! Imagine that--it sounds stupid to say that because they speak Chinese in HK, but it was very cool to watch! We only stayed there for 24 hours. We went out at night and returned to stay in a very shadyyyy hostel. This was our first experience with the shower being in the same room as the bathroom. It was more like there was a bathroom and they just attached a shower head to one wall. Talk about saving space.

Next, was BALI. Now Bali and Gili T were my favorite places of the whole trip. Bali is more of a culture shock. It's primitive in a comforting sort of way. It's nice to know that there are still places like this out in the world. Places where people are still doing the old style stuff. It felt like Africa with an islandy twist. We got there on their "New Year's Eve". We went out and saw the Monsters Parade, which is where they build these crazy looking monsters (They're Hindu in Bali, I believe), and they parade them around town with music. This things are CRAZY looking-tongues out, huge eyes, boobs everywhere (even the men), long toenails and maybe more than two arms. They do a dance with them, and then they burn them on the beach a few days later. That was an experience. The next day, which is called Nyepi Day, is where you have to stay inside all day because it's considered a "day of silence". You're not allowed to drink or anything or walk anywhere. So, we just relaxed and read and sat by the pool. It was a nice day. But, by the end, I had come down with "Bali belly" and was ill for 24 hours. I think Bali belly is pretty self-explanatory, so I won't get into it. It was awful. This was in Kuta, Bali. We then moved to Ubud. Ubud was a lot of fun. We stayed in a gorgeous hostel and were within walking distance to great shops and restaurants and even the Monkey Forest!
We spent about 2 days there, riding elephants, seeing the monkeys, going to temples, and hanging out at night in the town and meeting some other crazy travelers. It was great.

Now, here comes my favorite part. We took a boat to Gili Trawangan which is about an hour and a half away from Bali. This place was GORGEOUS: white sands, blue water, perfect weather, and a dirt road lined with hotels, pools, island bars and restaurants and stores. We spent 2 days here. We went snorkeling, laid on the beach, rode bikes around the island, and just hung out. It was amazing and just what we needed. The island is only 7km around, so there's just the one main road. No cars are allowed there, so there's mini taxes driven by mini ponies: weird. We walked everywhere and stayed in a hostel that cost us 13 dollars a person for 2 nights. Yeah, Indonesia's cheap. This island was PACKED with Germans-Keri's personal dream. So I got to hone up on my German skills and impress my native German acquaintances with my German talents :). Great sunsets, great feel, and great views. My friend and I rented bikes and rode around the island. That was a truly amazing moment. We went deeper into the jungle part, and it was like going back in time. People were actually dressed in cloth and hand-harvesting the fields and living in huts! It was crazy and beautiful. There was a silence about the area that you will hardly find anywhere else. I was sad to leave there, but we had to head back to Bali for one more night before heading to Malaysia!
We went back to Kuta but stayed in a different area-the party area. This area was ENTIRELY different from the first. I was told it looked like Thailand. So much noise and so many lights and so many people coming in your face and giving you flyers to come to their bar or trying to entice you into buying their "energy" drug. It was a little creepy. Some guy grabbed my arm at the ATM, so I'd look at him and buy his weird drug thing. It seriously looked like a battery. FREAKY. We proceeded to spend our evening in a huge building filled with about 10 different kinds of bars with all kinds of music. Very cool, but I will be bringing my earplugs out to clubs next time. I don't care how stupid it looks; I refuse to be the deaf older lady because of the "bad" behavior of my youth.

Then, Kuala Lumpur. We spent two nights here. This place was a city that desperately wanted to be up there with Dubai and Singapore, but it's just not cutting it yet! Maybe one day. We saw the Batu caves, the King's Palace, and the National Monument. It was all very nice stuff, but the religion has taken a strange turn. There was a Buddha outside of a Hindu cave, and we would also hear the call to prayer during the day. So, we're not exactly sure which religion they're sticking with, or if they've just mishmashed them all together. In KL, there are the PETRONAS Towers, which used to be the tallest buildings in the world, I believe, until the Burj Khalifa was built (Sorry). But they still win the record for something: I think it's the fact that they're two attached towers and not one. The nightlife there was fun but very calm, and there aren't as many western expats there as in Dubai or Bali even. Our fatigue started to catch up with us, so by this point we were focused on relaxing (or at least I was) and enjoying what remained of our vacation.

Next and last, Singapore. Singapore is gorgeous. It's clean and flashy and just what a city ought to be. It reminded me of Dubai, but there aren't the same kinds of restrictions there or even a religious undertone at all. It was a very nice place to visit, and I would definitely go back some day. There is the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which is an amazing 3 skyscrapers with a boat lying across the top!! We actually went up to the top. There is a restaurant, a bar, and a swimming pool with trees all around. It's breathtaking to be up there.

So, in conclusion, it was an amazing trip, but it was very tiring. I'm not the mega tourist type who needs to traverse the entire city in one day, so it was hard to try to squeeze things in to a small amount of time. I like to savor and absorb and enjoy a city. So, next year, I think I'll choose one place or two places to go and just take my time seeing each place. I realized that the entire reason I travel is to see again that there's a whole world of people out there who have their own lives, their own problems, and their own ways of doing things! It really gives perspective. I also travel for that moment or those moments that really blow your mind and give you a memory you can take with you wherever you go. I have a pocket full of memories now that I can just relax into whenever I need to get away. And that's why I love to see the world...