We made it to Gili Trawangan, the largest of the three Gili islands, but you can still walk around the whole island within 2 hours. We stayed on Gili T for a couple days just relaxing, taking walks, and eating some yummy fish and veggie kabobs.

Travel is by horse and cart, but we mostly just walked everywhere.

After two days on Gili T, we decided to spend the rest of our time on Gili Air, slightly smaller and less tourists, but from what I have read is more populated than the others. It was also the off season, so it was pretty sparse.

If you look closely, you can see Mount Agung in Bali. This was taken from our favorite sunset bar, Mirage!

They were expanding the guest house where we were staying, and this how the supplies are brought in. These ladies carried beams on top of their heads during low tide, being careful not to step on any sea urchins. They were a lot of sea urchins in the water here as well. I am not the biggest fan of swimming over them haha.

From Gili Air, we took a boat back to the main island of Lombok and continued on to Kuta Lombok. Being the smart travelers we are, we did not have any cash after being on the Gili Islands, so the next we had to take a taxi back to a bigger town to get money for the rest of our stay on Kuta Lombok. We stopped at a pottery village on the way back and purchased some items from these children and their mothers.

We rented a moped for our entire time on Kuta Lombok and that was our means of transportation. Jake also rented a board one day and I went out with him for a little while. Not meaning I surfed—I just lounged in the water (or tried to) while fearing for Jake’s life the entire time. Funny now, but perhaps the break was a little advanced for him, composed of sharp reef and rock walls. It started out ok at a smaller break that was perfect for him, but our boat guide said he should try the other side when the small break went flat—it was not the best idea, but he left intact.

We explored the whole 3 days we were in Kuta Lombok, looking for all the beaches that were around the area. Kuta Lombok is still pretty sleepy, but that will probably change really soon, as a new international airport was just built about 20 minutes away and will open soon.

We made our way up the most gigantic, rutted hill (perhaps a little scary, I was ready to walk a few times!) and ate at an amazing vegetarian restaurant on top of the hill called Astari. We continued on to find Mawun beach:

We made it back down the hill and explored a little more—these were taken a few minutes after we completely wiped out on our bike. We were so fortunate that of all places it happened while we were going so slow in a soft, grassy, muddy area, so we were not hurt just “probably a little embarrassed,” as a guy mentioned after he asked if we were ok : )

We took a 4-hour ferry ride back to Bali. The ferry was so funny, because there was an air-conditioned section, but they have karaoke singers in there and they are so LOUD. I preferred sitting on the deck huddled underneath towels (to protect my skin from the intense sun.)

Ubud—Jake was here about 10 years before and of course he said you could barely recognize it. I did not really take many photos here, but a few from the monkey sanctuary we visited. We rode bikes, ate really yummy food, swam in the pool, and basically just relaxed here. There were some pretty amazing, nice restaurants here and Three Monkeys was one of our favorites.

Most all of the guest houses where we stayed provided a free pancake breakfast : )

From Ubud, we decided to take a quick trip to the mountains of Bali to check out Munduk. On the way there, we stopped at a coffee plantation, where we sampled the famous kopi luwak—made from the beans that a civet has eaten and then passed. The jury is still out, but I thought it was just really strong?

Munduk was an amazing small mountain village—I would definitely suggest it as a stopping point for anyone traveling to Bali. There is lots of trekking, and the people were just really friendly.

We set off on a trek to find a waterfall in the morning before the rain set in but ended up getting pretty lost. We walked by the trailhead, and I don’t even know where we ended up, but when it really started raining, we found a little shelter where we attempted to wait out the rain while playing cards. The rain was not stopping, so we decided to just continue in the rain and found the waterfall eventually! And we randomly purchased some tasty vanilla beans from people selling herbs along the way.

We heard loud music coming from up the hill one night, and the owner of our guest house said it was a big birthday celebration, so we decided to check it out. We arrived at the very end, but we heard this finale and then stayed to hang out for a while after. I need to find more info on the type of birthday celebration that it was because it is supposedly really rare!

On our way to Bingin Beach, we stopped at the Jatiluwih terraced rice fields.

A storm rolled in, so continued with our driver, Wayan, to Bingin Beach. My friend Elizabeth told me about Bingin Beach, so we decided to check it out. Wayan had the hardest time finding the place—continually stopping and asking for directions and at this point it was dark. We finally found Bingin Beach off a little dirt road and then tried to find a place to stay (yeah, we don’t really plan ahead that often) with success! Since we only had two more nights, the next day we rented a moped again and splurged on a nice little cottage with our own pool to finish off the trip! The cottage was owned by an Australian/British couple. Jake went surfing with him at Bingin Beach and had a great time, even if the 60-year-old man was perhaps in slightly better shape while paddling with 31-year-old Jake (the man called him out on it haha).

We explored the area with the bike and went to Uluwatu to see the Bukit, a famous cliff-hanging temple, and watch the surfers.

Bingin Beach.

I know that was really long, but I am trying to remember the places we went/not forget places we went, and this is my best attempt.

I will be back with weddings and portraits soon! Looking forward to Brittanie and Mike’s wedding next week at Cottage on the Creek : )

Here are just a few photos of Singapore at night.

From Jakarta, we took an 8 to 10-hour train ride to Yogyakarta, where we stayed for several days. Our hotel overlooked Mount Merapi, which had actually just recently erupted in October 2010 and caused some severe damage.

We figured out the bus route and took a bus out to Borobodur, a Buddhist monument in Central Java, still outside of Yogyakarta. On the way to Borobodur, we could still see evidence of the Merapi eruption with ashes piled high in front of some businesses that never reopened. Although Borobodur is supposedly one of Indonesia’s most visited tourist destinations, we must of went on a off-day as it was pretty sparse.

Jake was asked several times by local Indonesian teenagers to have their photo taken with him : )

On our walk back to the bus station, we ran into yet another Kentucky Fried Chicken—haha, it seems most fried chicken is automatically called “Kentucky Fried Chicken.”

We left the next day for a 3 day, 2-night tour to Mount Bromo, an active volcano, and the Ijen Crater. It was dark when we arrived to the town outside Mount Bromo, but along the way, it almost looked like it was snowing, but we soon realized it was actually just ashes floating in the air. The next morning we awoke really early and headed up to a Mount Bromo viewpoint for sunrise. This was as close as we would get since the volcano was active. It was a pretty cloudy morning so we could not see the actual volcano that well, but it was neat to see smoke billowing from the volcano.

These men bring small horses to offer rides to tourists not looking to hike up to the viewpoint, although we just walked.

It was incredible to see the damage that the ash had caused. The fields were covered in ash. The guest house where we stayed was also covered in ash, even every ledge and the floor in our room was coated.

our guest house.

the street in front of our guest house.

We met the nicest family down the street who invited us in for cookies and tea. I have even emailed with Viddya, one of the daughters. This is her little sister and grandfather.

I took a family photo for them that I emailed back, but they insisted that Jake be in the photo with them. : )

We left Mount Bromo and continued to a village outside of the Ijen crater.

Jake and coffee beans while we were exploring the village. For the most part, the people were really nice in Indonesia, but in this village they thought it was so funny to chase me with giant teddy bears and humongous (like the size of your hand) bugs. And they insisted on having everything I was wearing (I am nice, but they did not get my shoes this time, and even more strange, they kept asking in Spanish!)

The next morning we took a really harrowing drive up to the base of the hike to the Ijen Crater. The road, well not sure if you could really call it a road, was deeply rutted and it took hours to get there. I think I was too on edge to even take a photo of the steep road. The hike to the crater is about 3 km and really, really steep. I felt a little silly getting so winded as the men are hiking up to the crater several times a day and then into the crater and out with heavy, heavy baskets of sulfur (I read that they can weigh 170 to 200 lbs). And well, I was just carrying my camera. So I may have not been in the best shape, but the crater was amazing.

Outside the worker’s base camp. Half-way point to crater. Funny as there is a sign in the right photo that says “visitors are strictly forbidden from climbing in the crater.” Oops—we were careful, and not the only ones.

Sulfur baskets and the view on the hike.

The workers now expect payment for any photograph taken of them, so I had a pocket full of coins. One of the only times I “paid” to take photographs of people on the trip.

The rim of the Ijen Crater Lake, which is about 1 km wide.

We climbed about halfway into the crater, but ended up having to turn around, as we were out of time.

Next up will be Lombok and Bali, the final blog entry on our trip (I am more so putting these posts up just so we can remember the places we visited. I am not the best at journaling along the way, so this will have to do!)

i could not get enough of her little toes and feet : )

i loved this quilt that was made especially for sarah sterling!

Looking forward to working with Blue Planet Green Events for their June wedding at the Legare Waring House : )

And my uncle turned the camera on my sister and me for a few! I brought her an old camera of mine to learn and use for her trip to Chile, so she was practicing during their session : )

When we travel, we generally have basic knowledge of places we would like to visit while there but other than that, no specific itinerary. So far we like it this way, because it allows us to stay in one place longer if we love it or high-tail it out of there if we are not too into it. So that being said we intended to spend more time in Vietnam but ended up heading to Indonesia a little earlier than planned. We really did like Vietnam, but it was chilly up North and we just decided that we had seen some amazing places already in the country…and we wanted warm weather : )

On our first day in Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh city, we could not believe the traffic! Basically you just close your eyes and cross the street and hope for the best. Not exactly but pretty close, there is rarely a free moment with no traffic! We found ourselves walking out of the way sometimes just to avoid some of the larger intersections.

dragonfruit!

I want to say this was the post office?

After walking around the city for hours, we decided it would be a good idea to go to the zoo since it was close by. We were only photographed a couple times at the zoo, which seemed sort of funny.

best trashcans ever : )

Jake’s favorite pho on the right!

After spending a week in Cambodia, we flew back to Danang, Vietnam and stayed in Hoi An for a couple days. Hoi An was such a fun, quaint spot in central Vietnam.

As we were walking through a village, we were surrounded by kids first asking for American coins and after I emptied my wallet, they wanted to take us on a little boat ride.

Pictured on the right is “fresh beer” for the bargain price of about 7 cents a glass. Not much flavor but we may have had a few! We also found out while we were in Hoi An that it is known for custom tailoring. Some travelers actually specifically come to Hoi An to get items made. Jake and I decided why not and had two winter coats made—well maybe two for me and one for him!

After a few days in Hoi An, we headed north to Hanoi.

The Halong Bay is really close to Hanoi so we decided to take a 3-day, 2-night boat trip. I was a little nervous as two weeks before, one of the boats sunk, but it really was a fun time despite the chilly temperature and rain. We were on the Poseidon. We met some fun people on our boat the first night, along with kayaking in the bay and visiting a cave, and then the second day, they told Jake and I that we had signed up for a different tour than everyone else and we had to leave that boat. Being the smart travelers we are, we forgot what we had even signed up for so we went ahead with them and basically went from boat to boat until we ended up on a little island with bungalows. It would have been gorgeous if it was not 50 degrees and rainy, but there were still some pretty views, lots of book reading, and fun meeting new people : )

This is the second day on another new boat. Before getting dropped at the bungalows, we were dropped at a remote island and then Cat Ba island for some bike riding and a hike in the rain. It really was fun and thank goodness my parents gifted us some awesome rain jackets before we left.

Cat Ba Island. The one and only photo…oops!

And then after even more confusion leaving the second night bungalow accommodations (the boat taking everyone from the island almost did not take us because we were not on the list! We kept getting these random phone calls from people that night trying to figure out where we were—it was really random, but we made it back to Hanoi safely!)

We ate at an amazing restaurant in Hanoi called Koto, which employs street kids and puts them through a training program. The food was really, really tasty!

I was a little concerned about the fate of this pup, after a gentleman repeatedly pretended he was eating it. I am sure he was just kidding : (

Our days in Hanoi basically just consisted of drinking lots of Vietnamese coffee, eating amazing pho and bread, and lots of walking and exploring.

Noodles!

thank you for taking a peek! Indonesia will be up next : )

So excited for 2012 and all the fun clients I will meet : )