4,852 miles, 2 flights, 3 countries, 2 hemispheres, 2 oceans, 1 floating market, $1,010 OVER budget.
The recap numbers this week are crazy! For those of your keeping track, our weeks go from Friday to Thursday since we landed in Bangkok on a Friday. Our last day at the Bamboo EcoVillage in Can Tho was followed by a drive to Saigon, followed by a flight to Bali, which after four days of seaside relaxation was followed by a sleep-deprived overnight flight to Sydney.
We started the week up before the crack of dawn (literally) to tour the Cai Rang Floating Market in Can Tho. We sampled all kinds of goodies, but the one that made the biggest impression was Marla’s least favorite ~ dried fish. She always knew it would be a challenge because of the smell. The smell definitely did not help the taste at the stall where there was lots of dried fish to sample. To her credit, she was willing to give it a shot and was very low-key in the way she spit her sample into a napkin before depositing it into the trash.
Our stay in Bali 100% restful; watching the ocean, getting in the pool, resting some more, eating, taking a walk along the beach, enjoying our last taste of amazing service in Southeast Asia. We saw no reason to leave the property. The resort was beautiful, had good WiFi, pretty good workout facilities and with four different restaurants so we never lacked for variety in our dining experience. It is abnormal for us to not be curious about our surroundings, but after 7 weeks of touring, we were ready to be a bit dull.
The most interesting/different thing we experienced in Bali was that we were there during the Bali New Year holiday. Nyepi is not your usual new year celebration. This holiday is a national day of quiet, fasting, and meditation. For about 24 hours the resort became a world of its own for us Westerners. Guests weren’t allowed to leave the resort or be out on the streets because there was no driving allowed. The pools closed early the night before and no one was allowed on the beach from the evening prior to through the 24 hours of the holiday. There was a heavy security/police presence on the beachfront path and when tourists strayed onto the beach they were told to get back on the other side of the path. The televisions in the rooms were completely shut off and the outside lights of the resort were mostly turned off. Thankfully the WiFi was left on, the workout room was open, and we could be in the pool for some portion of the day. These activities probably would have been the extent of our activity anyway, so it was all good for us. Other guests ~ especially those with children ~ were probably a bit more challenged, even though the staff set up a children’s activity center and movie space for families.
Finally, we said goodbye to SouthEast Asia and hello to the next leg of our trip: Australia! Landing in Sydney at 7:30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. IndoChina Time) after an overnight flight was a blur. In a zombie-like state, we took the excellent public transport system to our place in the Darlinghurst neighborhood, checked into our AirBnB early to drop our bags (thanks Ben!), and afraid to stop moving, took a very groggy trip over to the Newtown neighborhood. We shopped a little, had coffee (UP), had a beer (DOWN), got back on the train to our place in Darlinghurst and managed to stay awake until 9 p.m.!
Next week: Sydney and our first couple of days with our camper van down the Sapphire Coast. G’Day mate!
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