TravelStream™ news feed for member kmescal on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/kmescal en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:45:03 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1217561703/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1217561703/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1217561703/tpod.html Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:45:03 -0400 In Hot Water With Kate and KimBali.

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Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia

Best birthday ever! Last night we went to hands down the the coolest
restaurant I have ever been town. Ku de ta is a trendy club/restaurant
that had me totally geeking out on how incredible it is. It's huge and
outdoors on the beach. They have a few different little bar areas and
we ate in the center watching the waves. Kim had prearranged champagne
and cake, which was fabulous. We each had crustacean elation - I got
the bouilliabase and she had a seafood platter. It was delicious.
And, special thanks to Bobe and Carol who surprised me and footed the
bill.
The night was made extra entertaining by the 10 waiters that came over
to sing happy birthday. It was hilarious because it was totally a tgi
Fridays like festivity in this ridiculously trendy reataurant. The
people at the table next to us took pictures adding to the circus. I
then had a lot of random Australians dropping by to say "happy
birthday darling" which was also amusing.
All that and we couldn't eat the cake because of the seafood
extravaganza swimming in our bellies, so it (and the cake the hotel
sent over yesterday afternoon) served as the most decadent breakfast
ever this morning!!!
We are enjoying our little pool now and plan to walk around town this
afternoon before we settle down to watch the sunset over the beach.
Sadly, it's our last night here as we both leave tomorrow night.
A few of the things that have made Bali so magical: 1) there are
always kites in the sky when you look up. 2) the little offerings of
flowers in palm frond bowls everywhere. It makes walking sort of
tricky (it has got to be bad luck to step on one, right?). Our
favorite is that sometimes in addition to flowers they put a cracker,
some rice or a cigarette (??) in there too. !3) two whole sister-fun-
filled weeks

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1217490902/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1217490902/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1217490902/tpod.html Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:00:05 -0400 In Hot Water With Kate and KimBali.

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Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia

I have to say this is the best birthday ever!! Thank you so much for
all the emails and texts!! It's totally a 36 hour celebration :)
Kim surprised me this morning with a birthday princess tiara, a ribbon
and matching pink dresses. There is also 30 confetti and a 30 banner.
I have included some pictures!
We spent the morning at the beach and then walked over with our
overnight bags and innertubes in tow to the Elysian where we are
staying tonight. This hotel is amazing. Each room is a villa of sorts
with a pool. We are loving life and chillin' in the villa until our
massages...I have to say that so far life at 30 is fabulous :)
Tonight we are hitting the much toured ku de ta restaurant for dinner,
fun!!!
Thanks again for all the well wishes - thinking of all of you and
can't wait to celebrate birthday two next week. I am a truly lucky gal.
Xoxo

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1217399702/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1217399702/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1217399702/tpod.html Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:40:04 -0400 In Hot Water With Kate and KimBali.

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Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia

Howdy!! Yesterday was cloudy and so we walked around seminyak and
shopped at the little boutiques. We are finding that the stores are
more spendy than what we had anticipated, but managed to do some
damage at disini, a much touted homewares boutique. Kim bought me fun
birthday presents which I am excited to show off when I get home!!
Last night we were total sloths and ordered room service and watched
movies, which we agreed was the best night ever (I will caveat this
with food here is really cheap and the total bill was under $10).
Today we were shocked to see the waves on the beach - it is a mess out
there!! As we learned in surfing class, things go awry when the wind
comes from the ocean towards the shore. The waves are at least 12-15
feet high!! No suffers were out, but it was great conditions for
firmly grasping your sister and getting tossed around closer to shore.
We were completely entrtained as you could stand about 20 feet into
the water and actually have waves come at you from both directions
beachse the currents were so high (don't fear, the water never got
higher than about 3 feet where we were). As long as we steered clear
of the rip tides, all was good. We have had so much fun in the sun
today!! Our cute inner tubes were out (at the pool, we learned the
hard way they are forbidden in the ocean- oopsie!!).. Life is very
very good for the mescal sisters :). The perfect last day of my 20's
if I do say so myself.
Miss everyone at home!
Xoxo

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1217240402/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1217240402/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1217240402/tpod.html Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:34:58 -0400 In Hot Water With Kate and KimBali.

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Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia

(previous entry -July 26- has the pictures)

What's up, dudes?! We are, like, totally tubular surfers.
Not.
Our surf class consisted of us and a few other adults, but the
majority were nimble little Tweens gliding past us on their
longboards. They made us wear helmets like Special Ed from
crankyankers. Which pretty much described our surfing techniques. We
both stood up several times, however, and had a blast! We are stoked
for our next lesson tomorrow.
Tomorrow we will definitely go with board shorts as those cute pink j
crew surf/swim shorts I bought for the occasion were - oops - a little
big. It was a full moon on Kuta beach this afternoon.
Yesterday we relaxed and enjoyed the nice hotel we splurged on for two
nights to relax after diving (bali niksoma). After the accidental
coarse black sand colonic I got on one of the shore dives at tulamben,
it was refreshing to enjoy the pool and spa.
Kim brought her DVD player and we have been watching movies at night,
hooking it ip to the tv when the room has one. This has been so
relaxing and educational - we have been watching blue crush for surf
tips and finding nemo for underwater fish identification purposes.
All and all we are relaxed and loving Bali. We miss everyone at home,
though!!
Xoxo
Ps- finally got wifi for the phone, so hopefully you'll be able to see
some pictures as well?!?! I am really trying to beat kim c as Eliza's
admins' favorite here...hi Karen!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1217107020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1217107020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1217107020/tpod.html Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:26:56 -0400 In Hot Water With Kate and KimBali.

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Legian, Bali, Indonesia

Under the sea!! Under the sea!! Darling it's better down where it's wetter take it from me....

Here we are in an internet cafe all salty and fresh from the sea like two little mermaids hitting land. Well, grumpy mermaids as there is a delay in checking in our hotel and it has brought out the hostile side of us city-girls.

We have had an amazing three days on the scuba safari. We went up and down Bali, which was incredible because there are so many different climates on this little island. LAst time I updated the blog, we were deep in the jungle. When we got to Sanur, it was a sunny beach resort town and we spent Thursday diving nearby in Padangbai. The diving was good, not too remarkable other than the DRAMATIC difference in water temperature. One second you would be in 24C water and one flip later and it would be 21C water (I know that doesn't seem dramatic when you read it, but trust me, it was dramatic to us in our light wetsuits!).

We then drove up to Tulamben Thursday afternoon - Tulamben is very close to the volcano that exploded here in 1963 and the climate was much different - it was far from teh verdant green we have seen so far and dry, almost desert-y. Here we did an amazing night dive at the USS Liberty wreck and saw lots of huge bumpheaded parrot fish and other critters. As always, our favorite part of the night davies is when you turn off your torch and wave your hands around to see all the purple-y glowing plankton. Truly magical.

The next day we dove at Tulamben 3 more times - twice at the Liberty and once at a drop off. I have to say, the Liberty was m,y absolute favorite dive to date. IT was so cool doing a wreck dive and I loved all the ocean flora and fauna growing on this rusty old battleship. Kim's favorite dive came today at Nusa Penida. We first did a dive at manta point, which we equated to being in a washing machine because the swell was so strong. We saw HUGE 6 - 7 foot rays. SO COOL! Then we did some drift dives. This is super fun because you just float along. During the third dive of the day, the current was so strong that if you tried to swim against it, it was like being in one of those stationary lap pools (do you know what I am talking about?!).

Now we are in Legian and have changed the itenerary once again. Rather than go to the Gilis on Monday, we have decided to stay here and truly refine our surfing skills (the truth is that we are sort of tired of switching hotels and just want to stay in one place that is clean/bug-free).

Finally, I have to give a shout out to Ajita if she is reading this. I finally have a deep understanding of her fear of dogs. There are dogs roaming EVERYWHERE here and the last thing I want to do is be near a mangy canine and become a disease carrier monkey to Stella. I get why you hate dogs.

Miss everyone and hope all is well!!

xoxo
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1216771200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1216771200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1216771200/tpod.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:32:40 -0400 In Hot Water With Kate and KimBali.

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Bali, Indonesia

Greetings from Ubud, Bali!!

After the usual cancellation/delay/international communication issues, we made it to Bali late Monday night and met at the airport. We were generally unimpressed by the hotel by night, but after a 3 AM rooster gang wake up call, we were excited to see the Matahari in daylight. The outdoor bathroom and woven walls of our hut provide much merriment. We are finidng Bali incredible. Ubud is in the jungle (I know, I know, every vacation I profess I will never go back, but armed with allergy medicine and a good attitude, I am actually having fun and appreciating nature - it's a whole new Kate). There are flowers everywhere and these little offerings of flowers in palm frond bowls are about every 2 feet everywhere we go. It's wonderful.

We have an unusual attitude - we are "chill-axed" like never before. We shopped in the morning and had a fun lunch at a restaurant known for organic food. Then we spent the afternoon at the luxury Kupu Kupu Barong hotel.

I had booked us at the mango tree spa for mango tango treatments on a whim. However, I had no idea how incredible it would be. Getting massages in a tree top with a river rushing below us and a view of rice paddies, made the experience truly unbelievable. We then hung out at teh hotel pool, reading and relaxing before dinner at Naughty Nuri's Warung down the road. Dinner was uneventful as we were both exhausted from the poultry wake up call.

Going to bed early!! We miss everyone, but are happy and safe :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1216789560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1216789560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kmescal/1/1216789560/tpod.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:29:31 -0400 In Hot Water With Kate and KimBali.

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Bali, Indonesia

This morning was not a happy morning for the Mescal sisters. Those &^%$^&$&^$ roosters were impossible to drown out. Imagine 25 howling babies, nails on a chalkboard and a jackhammer underneath your bed. No amount of earplugs or ipods could drown out the foul fowl. So, we have decided to cut and run and escape to Sanur, where we are scheduled to meet our divemaster tomorrow.

However, we couldn't leave without visiting the Sacred Mokey Forest and homage to our favorite of primates. As noted on other trips, we typically have difficulty spotting monkeys and were looking forward to seeing some up close and personal in the wild. We browsed through art galleries en route (Ubud is a sort of shabby chic artist community) and meandered our way over to the forest. Once there, we debated over buying bananas from one of the many vendors to feed the monkeys. You see, we had heard the monkeys are very cheeky and not only do they come right up to you, but they will jumpa ll over you and steal your stuff in search of food. Eventually, we did buy bananas and with cameras tightly in grip entered the forest.

What happened next can never truly be explained in words. Let's just say, that we are emotionally drained from the hilarity/terror of the monkey situation. Those little macacas (sp?) are cute, but the bastards are beyond cheeky. At one point one was on Kim and she is terrified and I am going "EEEEEEE!!! EEEEE!!! BAD MONKEY! DOWN MONKEY!!" Please, I couldn't train a dog (See: Stella), like I can control a wild monkey?!?!!?!? Despite our general stupidity around the monkeys, the forest was amazing. There are temples aplenty and the monkeys are all over them. There were adorable little baby monkeys everywhere and then big monkey gang fights (also leading to us going "EEEEE" and lots of cartoon-like scrambling away from the simians). At one point, I said "OH GOD! WHERE'S THE iPHONE?!" (I had it out in the event that we can get a wifi connection and I can send pics to the blog). Kim looked at me panicked, envisioning herself in the brush wrestling a monkey for the phone. Fortunately, it was in my bag. Too bad. Kimaly wrestling a monkey would have been an incredible photo op.

One of the special parts of the forest is the cremation temple. Disconcertingly, there was a lot of smoke coming from it. Um, no, I am not joking.

OK, time for lunch!! Ironically, we are headed to "three monkeys" - a restaurant I picked from the guidebook yesterday in great anticipation of seeing the monkeys. Our hearts are still pounding from all the excitement. Poor Kimaly is curled up rocking back and forth in a corner. I think we need adult beverages now.

xoxoxo
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Bali, Indonesia

HOORAY! After months of planning (by Kate) and ignoring Kate's e-mails (by Kim) we are ready to jet! This is our dream vacation together and we are super-excited for monkeys, surf, scuba, sun and general mayhem.


Kate will be flying from New York through Tokyo into Denpasar, Bali and Kim will be flying the opposite direction from London through Kuala Lampur into Denpasar. We will be meeting at the craziest hotel that I could find, I mean this one is truly a gem. We are staying in the Matahari Ubud, which has themed huts - the Barong Cottage will be ours to frolic in for our first three nights in Indonesia (http://www.matahariubud.com/ThemeRooms.htm). We wouldn't want to disappoint on the outrageous stories that always seem to follow the Mescal gals. However, I do think it's Kim's turn to get shocked by 220V if a monkey attacks the jungle hut in the middle of the night.


Stella is safely ensconsed in Manhattan with her new friend Tamasin. Given her aversion to water, she decided to sit this adventure out. I already miss her oodles and am sending lots of love back to New York.
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