Gladys' Asian Adventure August 15th - 28th

Checking Out The Reefs

Manta Cleaning Station

Me and the Dragon

Early in the morning on Aug 15th, we traveled to Bali airport and headed to Bima, one of Indonesia’s islands and the port where our live aboard boat was docked.  The boat is called the Damai and you can see what the boat looks if you check out their website at www.dive-damai.com.  Our room had two king-sized beds and, in total, was larger than any master bedroom I’ve ever had!  It had a separate washroom and shower room, in which sat a huge tub and shower stall.  We were with a wonderful family from Israel, the Cohens, which consisted of two brothers and their children aged 14-27.  The crew consisted of 5 dive masters and plenty of tank lifters and dingy drivers!  We dove in groups of 3-5 and my group was myself, Maureen, and Ariana most of the time.  There were two instructors assigned to my group and one was reserved to just help me!  Most of the dives were current dives.  I made a total of 21 dives over the 11 days on the boat. 
    The diving was very different from Little Cayman with limited visibility but super soft corals!!!  We also saw a major amount of crinoids and too many fish to count each variety.  Some of the most interesting things we saw were nudibranches, tunicates, anenomes, cuttlefish, giant clams, and huge gorgonians.  The schools of fish we saw were Trevally jacks, bumphead parrotfish, sweet lips of all sizes, morays of all sizes, and on occasional crocodile fish.  We also saw some sea snakes, mantus shrimp, scorpion fish, ghost pipe fish, octopus, huge puffers, white-tip sharks, sting rays, and plenty of lionfish.  All my dives went smoothly until #19 which was a wild ride in a surging current to the point where I came up after only 30 minutes.  At that time, I decided perhaps it was time for this 78-year-old woman should hang up her fins!  This particular dive was in the Indian Ocean and, after one more dive in the same “washing machine” conditions, the boat moved.  To see some pictures of the sea life, go to www.secretseavisions.com which is Burt and Maureen’s blog and webite. 
    The crew on the boat could not have been more accommodating.  One morning I chose to skip the first dive, I got a free massage!  They even did our laundry for free!  The food was not up to the par of Pirates Point (needless to say!), but was good and we generally ate 3-4 meals a day.  Four dives a day were offered and I made 2-3 most of the days.  Last day, Aug 25th, consisted of a hike in Komodo National Park which is a World Heritage site.  The hike was about 2 hours and was akin to Glady’s torture trail on Little Cayman!  On the hike we saw about a dozen Kimodo dragons of various sizes but made it out alive as it was apparently naptime for the dragons. 

Snake Fruit

    On the 26th, we left out of Labuan Bajo to fly back to Bali.  At the airport, we were bid a fond farewell by two of my favorite dive masters Aris (aka Shrek as he wore a Shrek dive beanie) and Gusti.  Once in Bali, we collected our remaining luggage at Burt and Maureen’s and headed to Ubud.  My friends Harris and Beverly Harlin arrived the first evening we were in Ubud to join me at our beautiful hotel Tegal Sari (www.tegalsari-ubud.com).  Our hotel is located next to a rice field and adorned by beautiful flowers everywhere you look.  We even have our own private courtyard just steps away from the restaurant.  Our first full day in Ubud, Aug 27th, we spend tracking down an immigration office to have my visa extended 8 days over the 30-day limit.  After that, we did some crazy shopping including the art market at town center, buying snake fruit, and then to the monkey forest where a monkey jumped on Ariana’s back!  After my usual afternoon nap, we joined our friends from the boat who were also staying in Ubud for dinner at a local restaurant called La Cinta.  The amazing thing about Ubud is all the arts and crafts in the area, but even more amazing, is the cheap price for everything.  Our hotel room is only $35/night and is a typical hotel room!  Meals range from $5-15 and the most expensive thing is alcohol as the Muslim population seldom drinks. 

Monkey Jumping off Ariana

Unusual local fruits

    Aug 28th we had a driver Eddy for the day who took us all over Bali.  We went to a wood carver’s village called Mas where they had giant wood sculptures that were up to 20ft tall, each made out of a single tree.  Some of the woods they used were mahogany and hibiscus.  After the wood place, we went to Goa Gajah or Elephant temple, a cave temple from the 11th century.  It was an exhausting walk as the stairs were quite extensive.  Next, we went to a fruit and spice garden called Seribatu were they also had the Civi cats that eat coffee bean pods and poop out the bean.  The beans are then collected, rinsed, and roasted.  They are then ground and brewed as coffee.  The coffee is the most expensive in the world and goes for $30/once!  Surprisingly, none of my companions wanted to try it!  I did try it last year though when I was in Bali with Betty.  Eddy entertained us on a local wooden musical instrument while we drank samples of teas, coffee, and hot chocolate.  We then proceeded up to have lunch overlooking the tranquil but semi-active Batur volcano and Crater lake.  We stopped at a fruit stand and bought some of the unusual local fruits.  We returned to the village of Celuk where we were shown hold gold and silver were processed into jewelry and I bought a great pouty fish picture make of silver!  Also thanks again to Maureen and Burt from Secret Sea Visions for the pictures and a wonderful trip (www.secretseavisions.com).
More to come..stay tuned!   
 

Gladys' Asian Adventure - August 8-14, 2010

Arriving in Los Angeles late Sunday, Aug 8^th, I was met by Charlie Corner who is a Hollywood producer of the forthcoming film “War Dogs.”  The day of my birthday, Aug 9^th, I spent with him and his lovely wife Debra and their children Michael, Grace, and Vincent having a picnic at Malibu beach club complete with Debbie’s fried chicken and super apple pie.  Later that evening, I met up with Ariana Bensusan who brought a large box of assorted chocolates, at Los Angeles airport to start our adventure in Asia.  There were copious amounts of food served on the plane and I had 2 servings of ice cream with granola in it.  I had to get my fiber in!!!

A picnic with the Corner family

            Our super business class flight, complete with fully reclining seats that turn into beds, took about 17 hrs after which we landed in Singapore around 4:30 am on Aug 11th.  After checking into our hotel, the Grand Copthorne Waterfront, we decided to go on a city tour to familiarize ourselves with our surroundings.  We went to Little India, Chinatown, the Marina Bay area to see the Merlion (a local statue) and the durian-shaped opera buildings, the nastiest smelling fruit in the world.  In Chinatown, we stopped into Thian Hock Keng Temple, one of the oldest Buddhist-Taoist temples in Singapore and listened to worshipers chanting.  The tour then stopped at a local jewelry factory and went by the famous Raffles Hotel where the “Singapore Sling” drink was created and where stars like Elizabeth Taylor and Somerset Maugham stayed in their heyday.  The last stop on the tour was to the beautiful Singapore Botanical Garden where we saw the Orchid exhibit.  As the afternoon brought rain, a nap followed the tour. 

Ariana at the Botanical Gardens in Singapore

            For dinner on the 11^th, we went to the celebrity chef restaurant Guy Savoy and the new hotel Marina Bay Sands.  I ordered an appetizer of mosaic milk fed poularde, foie gras, and artichoke with black truffle vinaigrette and for dinner, had browned calf sweetbreads with classic braised trimmings and braising stock.  For dessert, we shared a medley of raspberry, cherry, and chocolate tarts.  The hotel is comprised of 3 towers with a boat-like structure crossing the tops of all 3 buildings 56 floors up.  After our fantastic dinner, we went up to the viewing deck at the top of the hotel to see the skyline of the city and admire their infinity swimming pool and glass-sided hot tubs. 

Gladys with the Sung Family

            The following day, Aug 12^th, we booked an early morning trip on the Cheng Ho Imperial boat.  The boat ride took us around the harbor where we saw dozens of tankers and ships being loaded with freight by cranes.  The highlight of the tour was a stopover on Kusu Island to visit a famous temple where thousands of people come each year to pray for health, children, and prosperity.  After being soaked by rain, we arrived back to our hotel to change.  We then went to a local mall where I found my favorite snack, gluten rice balls with red bean paste.  At dinnertime, Cynthia Sung-Clark and her daughters Serena and Melanie met us for mealtime.  The Sung-Clark family and I met 10 years ago when Cynthia and her husband Neil went to China with me and Susan to adopt a little girl at the same time we went to pick up Antonia.  After dinner, we all went on the Singapore Flyer, the world’s largest observation wheel (aka. Ferris wheel). 

Gladys at the Asian Civilization Museum

            Friday morning, Aug 13^th, we slept in!  After a leisurely breakfast, we went to Tekka Marketplace, a huge outdoor food market.  There, we tasted fresh jack fruit which I love but Ariana did not like so much!  From there, we went to the Asian Civilization Museum where we were able to see various exhibits of Asian cultures with a special exhibit called “Sumatra: Isle of Gold.”  For dinner, we met back up with the Sung-Clark family for dinner at Loy Kee Chicken Rice  where we ate Laksa chicken and Sour Sop drinks.  We also had to try the local favorite, Chicken rice.  After dinner, we went to the night safari at the Singapore Zoo.  There we attended a performance of some of the animals and rode a tram around the exhibits seeing lions, tigers, giraffes, and various other creatures.  Commentary on the tram was provided by a very dramatic lady who I was convinced must have thought she was auditioning for the next big Hollywood epic!  Ben and Jerry’s finished the night and then it was off to the hotel to pack for Bali!

            Due at the airport at 7 am for a 9:30 flight, our morning on Aug 14^th started early!!!  On the plane, I ate Kway teow with soya chicken, a rice noodles dish with braised chicken and Chinese black mushrooms and drank a Singapore Sling.  Two hours later, we touched down in Bali and took a short ride to Burt and Maureen’s house.  Tomorrow we will be leaving for our dive trip and will have no internet capabilities until at least the 26^th when we will be heading to Ubud.  More news of the trip at that point!