Things I learned on vacation
- When eating chicken satay and telling a story at the same time, it is possible to hit the end of a satay skewer extending past the edge of the tabletop in such a way that the skewer, full of chicken, flips into the air, does a 360, and lands back on the plate without getting peanut sauce on anyone.
- The Balinese are way into kites.
- The sidewalks in Ubud are hallucinogenic – meter-deep holes, offerings everywhere that you have to keep stepping over, 1-food height differences for driveways. Don’t ask me what Ubud looked like, I was looking at the sidewalk the whole time.
- The Balinese are terribly kind. A shopwoman felt so sorry for me she gave me haggling lessons.
- Men often wear flowers behind their ear on Bali. It looks awesome.
- On Lombok, do not tell the waiter to bring you the spiciest thing on the menu. No amount of Long Island Iced Teas excuses this.
- The monkeys in the Monkey Forest are nasty.
- At the Lombok airport, do not let anyone carry your luggage for you. It is a rip off. You will have to be more assertive than I was.
- Careful what you eat and where you eat it, i.e. avoid ice cubes, which are sometimes made using unsterilized water etc. and so on.
- The Balinese are terribly kind. A waitress at our hotel brought medicine for our daughter when she heard she had consumed something with ice cubes, and organized a doctor etc. When we gave her a tip at the end of our stay (some tourist guides recommend against tipping on Bali, but that made me feel bad), she shared it with the other waitresses.
- Luwak coffee tastes the same as regular coffee.
- Up close, like walking across your hotel window, a firefly looks like a flying ant with a green LED up its ass.
- Fried rice is a great breakfast.
Was the spiciest thing on the menu at Lombok Plecing Kangkung? I miss it terribly.
it may have been, but what i (vaguely) recall eating involved chicken. something-something-ayam, then, i suppose. this was a hotel restaurant, not a warung, which may have saved my life.
is a “1-food height difference” a pun I don’t get or am I just being an ituepferlreiter? sounds like you had a blast! xo :) (and yes, nasi goreng rocks!!!!)
It’s a typo. Dang. Thanks for pointing it out. Should read, “1-food marmoset jelly roll”.
Yes, we had a nice trip.