Ildikó Tóth

Today was the in-between day: day after the wedding, and the day before we moved camps to the Gili Islands. What to do? Michael and I vacillated; he wanted to do a seawalk in Sanur, but I cautionned him: maybe they only go certain times, or you need a certain number of people.. maybe they’ll ask for a crazy price if we just show up. So instead, we took the time to look it up online, and then the Villa Santai (Endre’s Villa) manager called for us and haggled down the price to $52 dollars.
Ah but what is a seawalk? you walk on the sea? precisely! Well.. seabed to be even more precise. They throw these large helmets on you that kind of remind me of 1000 Leagues Under the Sea, and under you go about 20 feet, and literally walk on the seabed, with fish swimming around you. They even give you a little squirt bottle that has fish food pellets that squirt out, and then the fish really are in your face. You can even try to feed them directly to the slippery creatures by holding the pellet with thumb and forefinger, and they just snip it out of your hand. It was absolutely amazing, just wish the glass on the helmets were more smooth, it really restricted my peripheral vision.
After being underwater for half an hour, we bounced back up, and walked along the shore, found a yoga studio with a “hammock” garden and then a bit farther, an outdoor chess plaza, where we played a game of chess. (I won!) Sitting down for a late lunch, I really took in the beach scene – this was really my first day on the beach since coming to the island, and I decided that I liked the place so much that I would come back here for the day before my flight after spending 3 days on the Gili Islands.
Lunch was a nice soup and a fresh squeezed pineapple drink. I also found the bowl of rice in the middle of the table quite adorable.. that is- a bowl of rice plant, with ever so green stalks; it was a tiny sample of the actual rice fields that are so abundant on this little island of Bali.
Around 4pm, we headed back to the villa in Ubud about 1/5 hrs away, but not before we hit the Friday afternoon traffic on the roads. This was also quite eye opening: the traffic consisted of 75% motorbikes, and 25% cars/trucks/etc. Looking ahead on a straight road, I could see the sea of helmets bobbing around as people migrated between nonexistent lanes, occasionally stopping at a “gas station” i.e. a dude on the side of the road selling petrol in glass bottles that usually resided on a rack visible to drivers on the road. But the most amazing part was that, unlike in the USA where during an average rush hour – regardless of what city – you probably get sweared at by at least a handful of people (or people just get angry at no one in particular, maybe the state for that never ending construction project), no one seemed particularly stressed out or pissed off at anyone else around them, even if they were cut off, nearly rear-ended, or had to wait because the traffic flow through an intersection stopped maybe 5 or more seconds after the light actually turned red. It’s just a way of life – no stress for no good reason; everyone will get home eventually.

The morning began with with nature’s alarm clock: a sound that woke me slowly with the thought: who the hell is skinning a cat? Oh. it must be an old rooster that’s half-burned out its voice-chords. Checking my watch: it was only 7am. ugh. slumbering off again, and dreaming about talking monkeys or something, I woke again around the time that Michael groaned and expelled a large yawn. Getting up, we once again were offered a delicious breakfast that I couldn’t refuse: Green colored banana pancakes with coconut shreds. All freshly made in their kitchen. I asked them how they made it green, and they showed me the plant in their garden they use – apparently gives breads and other grain-products not just an intensely green color, but also a little different taste. Next to this, we were also given plates of fresh fruit like the day before. I had to take a picture of this setup – the breakfast was so colorful.
After breakfast, Michael and I went over to Lily spa where they were advertising 1 hr balinese massages for 60,000 rupias (about $6.50 USD) Signing up for noon, we then headed out to the market where we spent the next hour and a half learning through practice, the art of bargaining. Although most of their starting prices if converted into dollars were trivial, bargaining is part of their culture, and accepting their asking price would not only prevent the tourists from getting a good sale price for the mostly low quality products, but also ruin their culture slowly but surely (in some places was already happening). I didn’t really know what I wanted as I walked into the market, and even after I left, I wasn’t quite sure what I had bought, the whole place was so overwhelming. One sale I remember getting was 2 dresses for $5 a piece. I was quite proud of myself, especially because I got pulled into the shop by an overzealous salesman who kept whispering to me “shhhh not too loud: I give you secret morning price only for you” It wasn’t even that I got to choose which dresses, he just kind of pulled three out and wanted to sell me all of them at first, but I cut it off at two and kept pulling down the price, playing his game. As a last item, I got a nice pair of shoes for about $5.50 to match the dress I was to wear at the wedding. By that time, I had quite enough of all the colorful rags, baskets of fake ray-bans, walls of wooden penis-bottle openers, stone carvings and jewelry, among men offering transportation right and left.
Locating Michael, we headed back to the spa and had an amazing massage followed by a pedicure (yes, he had one too with clear nail polish, to much giggling of the girls at the spa). Relaxed and showered, we headed back to our room, and changed into wedding attire.
After getting driven over to the resort where the wedding was to be held, we took a couple pics. When we stepped into the front lobby of the resort – I thought we were the last people there, but actually were right on time. The place was like a dream: hanging gardens, fountains intermingled with the walkways; we walked out to the terrace overlooking a valley that terminated in a river commonly used for whitewater rafting. The hotel’s “rooms” were actually smaller villas as I found out after finding Emily and her bridesmaids/friends/flower girls being prepared for the big moment. Documenting the process, I was enveloped by the atmosphere, and gwaked at the royal mini-palace-like room that Emily had to get ready. By the time she was all ready, it was actually over 1 hr later than planned. Even the poor priest was made to wait that much time. Everyone looked amazing – I even blended in with the theme of green with my dress and new $5 sandals.
As the ceremony began and finishied, everything happened as if rehersed a multitude of times, except for maybe getting the ring on Endre’s finger (Emily had a bit of trouble – looked like she was forcing it on) And instead of tearing up, the 30-odd attendees just kept smiling, reflecting Emily’s attitude: as she walked down the flower-littered aisle, my little cousins nearly tripping over her flowing dress, she just kept cracking up in laughter. After the Christian ceremony, they also repeated it in front of an Indonesian “priest” (or whatever she was). Although I didn’t notice it – and could be called another flaw or maybe Endre’s nervousness is when the vows were said, the correct verbiage would have been “I swear to stay by your side for rich and for poor” and “in sickness and in health”. According to Emily, she said it correctly, but Endre just repeated “for rich and for poor” again instead of “in sickness and in health”. I guess I was so taken away by the moment, I did not hear (or maybe because of the crappy speaker set-up).
Following the ceremony, group photos were taken with the newly-weds, except because there were 3 photographers (including me), the guests kept looking in every-which direction so I don’t think we ended up with very many where everyone is actually looking into the same camera all at once. Again-minor flaw.. but the setting and lighting was just so perfect that I wouldn’t have minded had it been my wedding. Once this was all done, we had to treck all the way back up to the front door of the hotel, which was – just as on the way down – through winding pathways and stairs, and 2 elevators: a proper hike especially for those women wearing heels.
The reception was held in a restaurant called “Bridges” just a couple kms away. The guests were congregating at the top level where we got to choose from a list of 3 appetizers and entrees, as well as order drinks. When Emily and Endre finally arrived, they had a first dance as we watched and applauded, then headed down to the tables where we had assigned seats, our names printed on a stand- up nametag in cursive. The meal was delicious as well as beautifully presented – I of course took excessive photos which actually may end up on the restaurant’s website as I learned later since they were looking to expand on their wedding-catering section. Us being the first wedding reception they held, I’d say they did an awesome job with set up as well as food selection and portioning. I had a great time and got to know another one of Emily’s cousins and his shy but graceful girlfriend – they sat to my left and infront of me. On the right was Emily’s “real” mother.. there was also her stepmom and some other “mom” I can’t quite remember her specific relation anymore.
Of course during the reception and the dance afterwards, I had 2 barnacles stuck to me in the form of 2 cute girls. Not sure why I was the chosen victim to hang off of and dance with, but I got quite tired however much I enjoyed entertaining everyone by dancing tango, playing tag amongst tables, and spinning them around by their arms.
On the way home, I shared a cab with my roommate, and a couple.. they were all pretty “merry” as they put it; two funny quotes from the ride home: “I know where I am when I’m there” and “I didn’t even have that much cham cham cham… rofl” (cham=champagne apparently). To reduce costs, we got dropped off a street over from our home-stay, and weaved through some flooded streets and back yards to get home.. miraculously made it although I was following a “happy” Michael who had only gone across once before and when it was daylight.. ahh long day, crash – our last night at the Homestay. Tomorrow night we’d be staying at Endre/Emily’s villa to make logistics easier of the 2am start of a sunrise volcano-hike we were going on Saturday morning. Can’t wait!

Vacation is definitely not overrated. it’s only once I turned off my laptop and pager, and took my work badge off, got on the plane when I felt liberated. Chains off, I’m free again! Best feeling ever. like it was always when i was a student in Europe. I had no obligations to answer the phone, email, nothing…
Heightened senses, eyes wide open, i enjoyed every minute of just observing people around me.

Videos I saw on the plane: one italian comedy that centers around the meaning of a marriage/relationship, and fantasies after commiting.. as well as the bad reputation of the UN parliament PMs, a lesson taught by a Baltic representative to an Italian one – that representing the people and showing a good example of family man is the most important thing, and not to lie or cheat to get what you want.
One about the brain, and the power of the subconscious, the science of laughter…

Best way to spend your layover in Singapore: Find a nice guy who will offer to pay for your train ticket and lunch because you forgot to take cash from the ATM machine.
Everyone is so short! I could see over 75% of the population’s head, the ambience of the place was very peaceful, everyone kind of relaxed in that good asian way. The first thing that hits you is the humidity and heat. Coming from rainy-cold Portland, this was definitely a shock to the body, making me a bit dizzy and giving me a slight headache. Riding the metro system to the town center was an interesting combination of londonesque Tube that smelled like salty chinese food and looking out the windows, you would see Euro-Chinese architecture mixed with very-American paraphanelia, and the occasional arab-headdressed women walking around with sun-brellas that doubled for umbrellas. It was here that I heard the first thunderclap since last summer in Virginia. Ahh the sound of that energy just electrified me. Had a nice lunch at some street-food place- rice+ some sort of steamed vegetable and chicken (amazingly slim chicken-probably the real size a chicken should be) with a spiced-brothy soup. again, paid for by super nice Indian guy I found at the airport.
Coming back to the airport, customs was mixed with security. This checkpoint was the utmost mimimal and kind of made me sad how ridiculous the US ones are.. it consisted of 1 xray machine that xrayed my bag -laptop inside, no problem – no metal detector or anything. I got another stamp in my passport which is already half full.. maybe should make a game out of seeing if i can fill all of it before it expires (I have about 7 years left!).
The airport itself is also pretty amazing. besides free wifi- there’s also a gym and massage center, food 24 hours, at least 1 buttefly garden, everything written in english… virtually is a blessing , everything well marked, people calm and smiling. Time for my flight!

Meg keresunk Cserkeszvezeto onkenteseket!

Someone told me about this group in September; that they do climbs, outdoor training classes, etc. Then recently a friend emailed me an opportunity to go out with this group to their lodge for 2 nights costing $79 for members, $99 for non members. I thought to myself, hmm, 2 nights stay at a lodge with a bunch of 20-30 somes who like to go out in the snow and snowshoe, ski, throw snowballs, make igloos, sled in the pitch dark, and play boardgames for hours in front of a roaring fire.. only for $100. Man that’s worth it! And it was. Here are a couple of snapshots.