The O-blog-atory Update-even-though-I-haven't-done-anything-blogworthy Post

Since my last post, not a lot new has happened, but I feel like I should update so as to stimulate the mind(s) of my loyal reader(s).

We're going to Bali in 38 days! This is pretty exciting. So far we've got plane tickets, accomodations for the first 3 nights in Kuta, and a general outline of our plan. I'll tell you what that is because talking about our trip to Bali makes me happy. On August 6, 2011 we're going to hop a train up to Seoul, then the Seoul/Incheon railway over to the Incheon/Seoul International Airport. Then we hop on an overnight Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur, wait around there for a few hours (hopefully the airport has some window looking at the Petronas Towers, because that's about the only thing that I really want to see in Malaysia) and then catch a short flight over to Denpasar, Indonesia. From the airport in Denpasar we should get a free airport pickup from our hotel, check in, and hit the beach. We'll probably be reeeeeeeaaaaaaaaally tired, but I think we'll take the time to at least dip our toes in the Indian Ocean before we sack out. And probably eat one of those pigs with the crispy skin I saw on No Reservations, too.

After our arrival we have two days to spend on Kuta beach. There are some sights we want to see, but mostly I think we want to experience the hustle in a new country. A new, tropical, country with beautiful warm tropical waters wrapped around it. Hopefully at the end of these two days we're both golden brown and ready to move on to a different ocean.

The cool thing about Bali (the cool thing? more like one of the bajillions of cool things) is that it's got access to two oceans. Kuta is on the Indian Ocean side (unless I'm gravely mistaken), and after our short stay there we're moving north, to the North Shore of Bali, and the South Pacific! Yes, you can bet your buttons that I'll be singing show tunes when we finally see the South Pacific. We're planning to stay near Menjangan (but on the Bali "mainland") for a couple of days. We think we'll do a day of diving and a day in the National Forest (read: JUNGLE WITH MONKEYS!). After two active days we want to move on to Lovina, which Lonely Planet describes as The Place to Do Nothing. Sounds pretty good.  We'll need our energy for the next few days.

After doing nothing in Lovina, we're going to move to Ubud, the center of spirituality, dance, culture, art, and everything hipster in Bali. We're staying at a really cool homestay built in a traditional Balinese family house. I'm actually chatting with Babehoney on facebook right now trying to get her to let me book a 4th night in Ubud in a really kitschy hotel with a badass looking plunge pool. Anyway, enough about accomodations. We want to see Wayan Kulit (Balinese shadow puppet shows), Balinese Dance, trek through beautiful terraced rice paddies, and buy awesome sarongs and stuff in Ubud. And eat early because apparently everything closes down kinda early. Ubud is also the setting for the third section of the extraordinarily successful book, Eat, Pray, Love so we might also watch late 20's early 30's American women searching for their megarich Brazilian lover while asking where they can find Wayan and Ketut. The only reason I know that much is that Babehoney and I rented the movie one night in Cuba, New York. Alas, after three or four days in Ubud it will be time to go back to Kuta.

We want to spend our last full day in Kuta just enjoying the touristy vibe and being around other people that speak English. Even if we don't understand a damn thing they're saying (because they'll probably be Australian) it will be nice to be among people that sorta look like us and don't get stared at by the other 99% of the population. I hate being the center of attention, and I find myself being that very center of attention far more than is comfortable here in Korea (I'm freaking gargantuan here) so it will be nice to be part of the background, and I heard that Bali is a great place to just fade into the background. I mean, it's gotta be at LEAST as good as Kansas (if you're not picking up the sarcasm you need to up your reading level.)

After 13 beautiful days on the island, we're going to hop another Air Asia flight back to Kuala Lumpur, then another to Seoul, take the Incheon - Seoul railway back to Seoul Station, and grab a KTX back to Daegu. We'll probably get home realllllly early on Friday morning. And I'll take a shower and go to work. But hey, it's  way less evil of an option than shorting ourselves a day in Bali.

And just to see if she's reading, I'm going to go downtown later this week without Babehoney and surprise her with a copy of Eat, Pray, Love because I heard it's a good book for late 20's to early 30's aged American women that are going to Bali. I'll be kinda pissed if she meets a Brazilian man though.