#7 Indonesia

Friday February 26th 2016

I got up around 7:00am. I did not sleep the night before, I new I had to get up early and travel for my flight, so I was stressed to not forget anything in the morning, and to be able to arrive to my flight with plenty of time.I left around 8:30, took the train to the KL station where I then got on a bus for 11 ringets ($2.75 USD) to the airport. The ride took close to an hour to arrive at the airport. I got some food, and wast at my tempi all at 11:00 am ready to depart at 1:00pm with Lion Air. The plane left about 1 hour later than it should have. And we arrived a bit later. I got my visa and waited around 30 minutes for my luggage. Then asked how to get to terminal 1. I was in Jakarta and my next flight was to Palu, Selewasi. I was at terminal 2 and had to go to terminal 1. I was told to wait for the free shuttle to get there. I asked if I could walk and was told no, that it was too far. I should have just walked, it was 2 km (but I did not know). I waited 25 minutes for the bus, hopped on and immediately is was crammed pack with everyone. It had to go through 3 terminals before it returned to terminal 1. Little did anyone know that it was just about to traffic hour and have a traffic jam. I was sweating profusely holding all my bags and within 10 minutes we were at a stand still. I was asking if I should just get out and run it. I was told no, that the traffic would ease up. It turns out on top of the traffic, there was a car accident, and also a road was closed so we had to do an extra 4km detour in traffic. It took an hour and fifteen minutes to arrive to terminal 1. I was 30 minutes late and had missed my flight. I then continued to wait for another ticket. It turns out that that my flight was the last flight of the day and that the next one to Palu would leave at 5:00am. I was pretty bummed. I waited an hour an a half for a new ticket before he asked me to wait in the waiting room for 3 more hours. I was able to have a bite to eat and some coffee. I finally got the voucher for my ticket at 9:00pm. And was walked to Batik Air which is the airline that I was going to travel to Palu on. I was told to come back and check in at 3:00am. I was pretty tired, but ended up just hanging out and editing some images from Kuala Lumpur.

Saturday Febryary 27th

I am pushing through and am so tired at this point. I drank some coffee's around 1:00am and did a bit of work on my computer. At 3:00am, I left to get checked in to go to Palu. At 5:00 am we get boarded and by 5:45 we were in the air and I was fast asleep. This plane to Palu was nicer. I was traveling with Batik Air instead of lion air. I was so tired that I thought we were taking off, and I looked to the side at the window and saw clouds. We were already high in the sky. I recived a breakfast which can I woke up to eat and we landed in what I thought was Palu, but soon realized it was Makassar in South Selawesi. I had another connecting flight which I was unaware about and just was able to make it to my next flight. I realized this as I was trying to collect my bags. I hopped on another Batik air flight to Palu which took about an hour and arrived close to 11:45am. I got my bags and got a taxi for 85,000 rupies to go to Wolvien Guesthouse which is where my friend Kena was staying. I think the ride was a bit overpriced. But I didn't really know how far it was, or how much I should be paying.It was so nice arriving to the hostel and putting my bags down and being horizontal for a bit.We went out for lunch and to get some camping gear for the next few weeks and went to the beach.We bought a tent and mattress, ropes, lantern, and pillows for about $115.00 USD which we split. Not too bad. We were going to need this for camping at a few of the festivals we were going to attend.We headed to the beach a met some really friendly locals who were so amazing to see us. All hey wanted to do was to take pictures with us. Hey were so friendly.I took a much needed nap back at the guesthouse, then got some dinner with Tom and Kena and afterwards did some acro training with Kena, before we crashed out.

Sunday February 28th

I slept in till just before 10am. It was so nice sleeping in a bit. Much needed. I got up and had a free breakfast from the hostel, some rice, noodles, and coffee. We then picked up our bags and new camping gear and took off at noon to go to Tangjungkarang with Tom and his friend Kurtis who arrived the night before.Before we left, our hosel wanted to take pictures with us, so of course we did a little photo shoot before we left.It was about an hour drive and costed us 300,000 rupies total. Which a was about 75,000 for each of us (about 6.50 USD). We arrived in hopes of being able to get or rent out and do tent camping close by to Tom and Kurtis's bungalow. Tent camping was not allowed as far as we knew. So we got a bungalow as well. We did a good amount of acro, and it was quite the site for the locals. We then went snorkeling in crystal clear waters in the afternoon.

Curtis, me, and Kena in the background- Taken by Curtis.

Afterwards we played cards, talked and ate some good dinner. We met this awesome Aussie named Spartacus who joined us afterwards and we just talked until around 11 in the evening.

Monday February 29th

We woke up around 8:45 and had some coffee and Kena and I did some partner stretching land trained until around 11am. We then got into playing cards. We finished our card game of Golf from the night before and then Tom taught us this other card game called Niggle. We played till our lunch arrived around 12pm. After lunch we went out to go snorkeling. It was sooooo sooo clear. Beautiful place to go snorkeling and diving.

Curtis took this picture of me underwater usign his underwater camera.

We saw a bunch of colorful fish and I even saw an eel. It looked pretty dangerous so I kept my distance.Around 3:30 we came back and rinsed off and hung out for a bit. Then did some acro yoga and hung out till around 10pm or so.

Tuesday March 1st

Today I woke up for sunrise. It was an a beautiful sunrise.

Once it rose, it quickly became warm, and we retreated back to our hut to do some partner stretching. After breakfast, we went out to go snorkel. The beach here is a constant reminder of how beautiful it is here. It feels like beach paradise. We snorkeled for about 2 hours and played around. Then we all came back for some lunch. After lunch we played some cards, and then went out to go snorkel again. The water clarity was unreal. It was up to 30 meters visibility. There are so many fish, and we even saw a cuddle fish, which looked like a squid or a octopus. It was about 20 meters down and was changing colors very quickly. I dove down to check it out and it took off so quickly.

After snorkeling, we went for a walk into town. It is quite the experience to walk through a small village town. So many people from the village have never seen white people. Everyone says hello with a big smile and is so happy to see you. If you stop for a second, a crowd of excitement forms and everyone wants to "make a picture" with you.

We stopped to get some fruit at a stand and we had a group of about 15 wanting to make a picture with us.

We ended up getting a ride back on motorbikes back to he beach by some nice locals. We came back and had another wonderful dinner and finished or game of cards from earlier. We are paying 125,000 rupies per person for a bungalow and with 3 meals. That is just under $10.00 per day. It has been great here.

Wednesday March 2nd

Today we woke up and it was much cooler, and a bit overcast. It rained a bit during breakfast which was really nice and cooling. After breakfast, the Army came by in a truck and let us know that they were looking for terrorists. Apparently they were going to shoot someone out of the sky that was going to parachute in. (No one was in uniform, and they did not seem to be in the best shape, but they said they were in the army, and drove up in an Army vehicle). Regardless, they all wanted to make pictures with us, so we did a photoshoot for about 30 minutes or so. It was almost as if we were a rare species and everyone wanted to capture that they have seen one in person.

Kena and I decided to do a little bit of acro for them, which they all enjoyed a lot, and I was able to even get 2 of them to participate. Everyone was enjoying it, but the language barrier was strong, and I have second thoughts now about doing that, or doing it again. Like if I dropped someone from he army on their head because of a language barrier, I felt like that could have been good bye Jason for a bit. Luckily it was safe and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves.

(photos of Kena and I doing acro were taken by Curtis)

The army bought our group some durians and then took off. About an hour later some police came by to take pictures with us too. Again, very strange, but they were very friendly. After lunch I went for a nice swim in the with the snorkel gear on. I swam for about a half kilometer down the beach and then snorkeled around.

Photos of me taken by Curtis.

Afterwards, I swam back. This is the best water I have ever been in ever. It makes me wish I was scuba certified. There is so much to see. I played some cards with Kena afterward and then hung out for a bit.

Thursday March 3rd

I woke up around 7:30 and had some breakfast, we all ended up doing arts and crafts with our cool nifty neighbors from Australia named Samy and Holly. I found this sweet shell the day before and Damy was great at making macrame. Kena was making us a nice matching costume from some fabric I picked up in Kuala Lumpur.

The costume was going to be used for when we reach our acro yoga workshops at the Solar Eclipse Festival of 2016. We had some lunch and then did a little bit of acro and cooled off in the ocean for a nice snorkel for a few hours. Afterwards we hung out and enjoyed some music, cards, dinner and good conversation until around 10 pm when we all crashed out.

Friday March 4rth

I woke up for sunrise, and took a few photos of it just after it rose. We had breakfast, and then did arts and crafts. I finished making my shell necklace.

We then did some acro yoga.

In the afternoon we took some photos on the beach and then went out for a snorkel.

Kena took of few of me on the beach using my camera.

We had some fun freezing the motion of a drenched headfull of dreadlocks.

Energy ball.

Apollo. What a little awesome dude.

We saw an octopus and another stone fish.

I was snorkeling looking for nice sea shells to make for necklaces. I was using my hand to pull myself along the shallow parts of the beach when all of a sudden I came across this stonefish. It is one of the most venomous fish known. I am so happy I didn't touch him, it could have been a game changer for me.

The stone fish is such a poisonous fish if steped on.

I found another really nice shell I wanted to make into a necklace, so I worked on it in the afternoon before dinner. After dinner we went down the beach to Prince Johns Resort to listen and participate in a jam out session. It was alright, the music was not really meant to be jammed out by others though. Afterwards we went out to listen to three Japanese DJ's playing psytrance music. It was fun to check out, but the music was dark and not for us. I crashed out and went to sleep soon after.

Saturday March 5th

We got up around 8:00 and left to go to Palu with Curtis and Tom and Kena. We stopped to get a large tarp along the way for shade for our camp. We got a 8 X 6 meter tarp for 325,000 rupies. We then hung out at Wilven Guesthouse to charge some batteries and store out things while we got some more camping supplies and lunch. We left in the afternoon around 4 to go to the festival and found a nice spot to set up camp for our group of friends. Kena and I checked in and had dinner with the volunteers and then attempted putting up our tarp which was so large that it was too wild to control when the wind came. We did a bit of acro before we crashed out.

Sunday March 6th

The festival opened to allow people to come in and begin setting up camps. It was great seeing the diverse group of travelers arrive. The locals were also coming out to see the travelers as well. They all wanted to make picture with all of us. We found out friends through out the day and got them to camp with us, and we spent the afternoon getting the tarp up above us for good coverage. It is just a that the wind would pick up so much that it made it unsafe to have it strung up to the bamboo structure. We ended up getting some cool white mesh material to use as shade for our camp and decided that if it were to rain heavily we would use the tarp as a slip and slide down the hill. In the evening we enjoyed some live music with drums and dineriedoo's in the camping area followed by some acro yoga training.

Monday March 7th

I wandered around the festival and took photos around the site of the poeple and vibe. Danced here and there and tried keeping cool in the hot weather. There was a nice double rainbow over the Kepler Dome today.

A photo of Camila, aother awesome photographer that was shooting the festival.

There were tons of butterflies at the event.

A the kids zone.

There was an authentic tea ceremony.

The entrance to the bar at the mainstage.

A view of some of the campsites.

This was the Techno stage. It was in the shape of an angler fish.

Kena did a few hula hoop performances at the various stages at night with her glow hops.

Chris was doing fire juggling.

Tuesday March 8th

Today we were treated with a wonderful performance from two local tribes. They sang and danced for us some traditional songs and wore their traditional clothing. It was sucha wonderful cultural experience to have them share with us.

Kena got a picture of me capturing their performance.

(Photo above: I turned around during the tribes performance to see Troy tearing up from how beautiful the tribes performance was. It was tears of Joy. I was happy to have gotten this positive emotional picture. Their performance was very powerful.)

Wednesday March 9th

I hung out on our large tarp listening to some really mellow music through my headphones with the harsh kick of the beat of psytrance coming from the main stage. The beat from the main stage was coursing through my body as I listened to very calming music. What a weird experience, but I did not wish to miss the eclipse.

Kena took a few pictures of me taking a disco nap.

I went over to the dome which is where Troy was holding his workshop for guided meditation.

As I entered I saw my friend Curtis having a moment that I captured.

Troy's workshop was intended to give intention and meaning to the eclipse. I sat next to him and was so happy I did. He filled the room with love, I had so much love poured into me from what he said to the group, that it just made it so easy to share it with others through out the day. We did some group Om's for about 5 minutes and Troy did some throat singing which sounded so awesome, and we all separated before the eclipse would start.

After the guided meditation workshop I enjoyed listening, dancing and shooting Eat Static's set before the eclipse. He played some very upbeat psytance drum and bass.

As the eclipse neared, the music came to an end and everyone gathered and howled and screamed as this wonderful cosmic event occurred.

Photo of Kena and me was taken by Kena.

It was an eclipse unlike any other I had seen. It was a total eclipse for nearly 3 minutes, and I am not sure if it was because we were nearly on the equated, or it was still early in the morning, but it was very large and such a spectacular site. It was very unique lighting as well. As the sun became covered up, the lighting on everyone was not due to cloud, or sunrise or sunset, it was much different. It was as if things became more grey with light until they went dark. People were hugging, crying, and embracing this very special site.

We were indeed the lucky ones to see this eclipse, in one of he best locations to see it. We were all extremely excited about the morning and went off to dance and play for the day.

Thursday March 10th

Today we got some breakfast and cruised over to the Kepler dome to hang out and possibly do some Acro yoga before our worship which was in the later afternoon. I meandered around with my camera while a few workshops happened and then came back for the hug workshop in the dome which was really fun and silly.

At 4pm we had our acro yoga workshop and had nearly 30 people attend. We did a beginners workshop and went over proper body mechanics for bird, folded leaf, back bend, straddle pike, straddle bat, and some therapeutics. Our class went for 2 hours and we had Anna play he hang drum and set the mood of the class. Everyone was having a fun time and there were tons of positive remarks after class. At the end we got a group photo. Not everyone that participated in the class was in the picture.

After our workshop, we got some dinner and then enjoyed the night. Kena did hula hooping performances at the stages, and I was pulled away by another acro yogi named Marge who was supposed to teach an acro workshop the following day to do a performance with her. She did a fire performance on top of me while I based her. It was fun, but it was all very sparstic. A lot of people seemed to really enjoy the acro yoga fire performance.

Friday March 11th

Saturday March 12th

We woke up around 7:30am and left the festival site around 8:00am to go the airport. Kena and I flew from Palu to Ujung Pandang to Surabaya to Dempasar. It took us the whole day of travel and connecting flights, but I used the time to catch up on editing images from the event. We arrived to Bali around 10:00pm and went to Sayang Maha Mertha Hotel in Cuta to go to sleep.

Sunday March 13th

We woke up in Cuta around 8:30, got our bags packed and called for a Uber to pick us up and give us a ride to Ubud. We got a ride for 120,000 rupies which was a great price. The Taxi's and other modes of transportation were much more expensive compared to the Uber ride. When we arrived to Balibbu, we had planned to do some video and photograph work for the hostel. The owner was not around at the time, so they were very laxed and open to having us anyways.

Kena and I dropped off our bags rented a motor bike for the week and headed into town. The motorbike rental was the cheapest I have had on my travels, it was 50,000 a day (aroud $4.00 USD) and got it for 350,000 for the week. We went to Radiently alive yoga for the acro jam that happend from 1pm-3pm, and I was able to get a little bit of health food from Bali Buddha Health food store.

The Jam was super sweet, and it was such a relief to play around with a good group of people that knew how to do acroyoga, and could teach us a few things here and there and help us with washing machines that we were struggling with. In the evening we went over to Chris and Selina's place to go out to dinner with them. They rented a place for the month. They took us first to Angel 9 which was out of food, and then we Warung 9 (which is their original restaurant). We were able to serve ourselves, and there were recommended prices, or you could pay as you see fit. The food was vegetarian and delicious. After dinner we heard of of few friend having a hang out. We went over to their hostel and had some drinks and hung out with them and their cat. We listen to music and enjoyed eachothers company till aorund 12:30am. Then went back to our hostel to crash out.

Monday March 14th

Today I woke up around 8:30am and came down and had some fruit and coffee. At 9:40 Kena and I left to go over to Kris and Selinas house to have breakfast with them. We had bacon, eggs, and guacamole on toast. We then left to go to a village that ws reccomended to them for very cheap wood crafts and bone crafts. We went for a really nice ride outside of Ubud and finally came across a wonderful shopping area for cheaper goods.

I was able to get a few new pairs of shorts, pants, and sorongs.

After shopping we went to go to Taco Casa and get burritos. It was the first real burrito I have had in 5 months. Man oh man have I missed mexican food. After lunch Kena and I went back to Balibbu and I did some editing and uploading of images from the Eclipse Festival.

In the early evening, some people at the hostel were intereed in trying some acro. Kena and I started to play and an audience quickly grew. A lot of people were interested and not before long we had a little class formed. Kena and I were teaching three groups some basics and playing with everyone in the room. It really brought the hostel together for a little bit.

Photographs taken by Nico Petritz.

I then got some dinner with some people from the hostel at a local Indonesian restaurant.

Tuesday March 15th

Today we went out with Chris and Selena to 9 Angels to get a tasty breakfast, and then we went out riding around on motor bikes to explore some village markets outside of the city. There was this great place to get fabrics and hand made wood crafts. The wood carvings on Bali are so beautiful and intricate, I am constantly blown away at the wonderful handmade art that is produced here. Afterward on the way back we stopped by a coffee plantation to try some Luwak Coffee, but they were caged and it did not seeem like the happiest situation for them. We decided to not support the plantation by leaving and not trying any coffee, on our way out we saw a huge bat that was not in a cage. It was a fruit bat, and he looked happy. Selena and I were able to feed him some fruit. He was about 2 feet long with a 1 meter wing span.

This bat reinds me of the one from Fern and Gully when I was a child.

Wednesday March 16th

Today I woke up around 8:30am and had some coffee, and did a little work on the computer. Then went to Angel 9 for breakfast which is a lovely place to eat. Very progressive place that serves vegeterian and vegan food, you serve yourself, pay what you feel is fit, and wash your own dishes. It is in a lovely beautiful garden as well. The food was so good, and healthy and I was able to eat a nice substancial portion.

After breakfast we cruised over the acro jam a bit early and hung out until the jam started. When it did, we were suprised to see half of our hostel arrive. They all had such a good time the night before that they were hungry for more and wanted to learna and play more. Kena and I spent the first hour and half teaching and helping others get into some fn safe moves. Then the last 30 minutes of class we played and practiced pops.

After the Jam I went for a little swim back at Balibbu and did some more work on the computer.

In the evening we back to Angel 9 to eat dinner with people from our hostel and watched a performance there. A good group from our hostel went, and we all enjoyed dinner. The performance was pretty unique and abstact, but none the less very enjoyable. At the very end of it, it turned into a very fun dance party and at one point Kena and I did a little bit of acro yoga as a performance.

Thursday March 17th

Today I woke up around 9:00 and did some work on my cumpter, had some noodles and eggs with Ramona. Then went out of Bali Paulina which was a nice coffee plantation in Ubud we heard about. We stopped off at some rice terraces along the way and enjoyed the view and a drink, and then went the rest of the way to the coffee plantation.

When we arrived we hung out and drank some regular coffee. They had the Luwak coffee, but the Luwaks were locked in cages, and it didn't seem quite right to drink to Luwak coffee. If you don dont know what Luwak coffee is, it is coffee that has been ingested by a Luwak and pooped out and then the beans are roasted. It has less caffeine, but I hear a better taste.

We enjoyed some normal coffee there as the rain came. We left around 3:15pm and headed to get bite to eat before our acro yoga jam at 4:00 at The Shift hotel. There was a bit of traffic, so we got to the jam a bit late. When we arrived, we saw another good amount of our hostel there, and had a good time helping our mates from our hostel and trying new things. Kena and I tried a pop from whale to bird, and almost got it. But after some more practice, we will get it.

Friday March 18th

We went to nine angels in the morning for breakfast and spoke to Tony, the spaceholder; and told him we were interested in teaching an Acoyoga workshop at 9 angels the following week. He was jazzed for us to do it, and so were we. We made some flyers and spread the word. We went to the temple next door to 9 angels and had a private experience inside. I took some pictures, and kena and I did a little bit of acro yoga.

Photograph take of me is by Alex Corey.

Photograph of Kena and I doing acro is taken by Ramona Davilla.

Photograph of Ramona and I doing Acro is taken by Kena Noel.

In the afternoon we decided to go to Tengenungan waterfall which was about a 40 minute drive. The waterfall was so nice, a great place to get refreshed and a water massage. It was nice and powerful.

Of course we did a bit of acro. This photo of Ramona and I is taken by Kena Noel.

Photo of Kena an I taken by Ramona Davila.

I thought this guy was classic. He was the lifeguard watching the water. He was sleeping the whole time we were at the falls.

Saturday March 19th

Today we woke up at Balibbu, and I had so many bites on my body. They were in a line and I was told from other people that I had been eaten up by bed bugs. It was a worsening situation from the first day I arrived to the hostel. We decided after eating breakfast at 9 angels that I we would check out from Balibbu. It was a shame because we really enjoyed it there and were supposed to do some video work for the hostel.

We then stopped by Monkey Forest with Chris and Selena and walked around for a bit. The monkey forest is so beautiful and has such a diverse amount of trees.

I love this view of the the bridge that crosses over the water.