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My final stop prior to heading back to the USA was Koh Yao Noi island. It is a small island without a ton of tourists. It was the perfect place to just relax and enjoy the island life prior to heading home. To get to Koh Yao Noi was a 30 minute boat ride. Given that it was storming I wasn’t thrilled about this boat ride. Once we boarded the boat, people were puking off the back of the boat from the ride prior, which didn't instill me with confidence. Luckily, I made it without any sickness. On the ride over I made a friend who was also solo traveling with his partner also stuck working back home. We decided to rent scooters to ride around the island for the afternoon because what else are you supposed to do when it is raining on an island! Many of the locations I went to on my travels would have been easier to navigate with a scooter but I was too nervous with all the traffic but given this was such a small island with minimal traffic (basically no cars) I thought it was time to try it out! It was so fun and allowed us to see the entire island with stops in less than 2 hours. Unfortunately, I did take a little tumble trying to get out of mud and make a turn at the same time. Luckily for me it was just a minor flesh wound for me and the bike. On our scooters we passed beaches, rice fields, rubber farms and many water buffalo. We tried to see the sunset but given all the rain during the day it was too cloudly. I headed back to my hotel prior to the sun fully going away, given my recent tumble I didn’t want to ride my scooter at night. My hotel for the first two nights was Sabai Corner Bungalows which had lovely little bungalow rooms and amazing food. I ended up eating here for most of my meals.  The next day the hotel arranged a 5 island long tail boat tour for myself and a few other guests. We had this super cute long tail boat with comfy cushions. We stoped at so many beautiful locations and just sitting on the boat was so peaceful. My favorite island was Hong Island which had an incredible beach and where we stopped to eat our lunches. After some relaxation on the island we headed back to the boat just as a storm was rolling in. We had to wait a bit for the waves to calm down for us to be able to venture to the next island, but luckily our captain had pineapple skewers for us to snack on as we waited. Even though the storm hadn’t stopped after about 15 minutes we started moving again. It was a very stormy and bumpy ride but the long tail boat handled the waves surprisingly well. The final stop we stayed at less than 2 minutes as it was torrential down-pouring and getting cold outside. The next day was my final full day in Thailand. I kicked off my day with one final Thai massage. Then I moved to my final hotel for an afternoon of floating by the pool to finish my book to avoid having to carry it back to the US. In the evening I decided to borrow a hotel bike to see the sunset. After weeks of trying to see the sunset it finally happened on my final night! It was very lovely and the perfect end to the trip. I was shocked at how hilly the island seemed as I biked and how out of biking shape I was. I had my final dinner at the hotel and enjoyed an entire fish! And just like that, my 6 weeks of travel was complete. The 35 hour travel back to the US was as expected - long and miserable. A $3,000 + first class ticket would have made it better, but given current income level of $0 it wasn’t in the budget.
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Getting to Khao Sok National Park felt like the most chaotic journey of my life. For only $20 on 12GoAsia I booked transit from Koh Phangan to Khao Sok, compared to $300 for my hotel to pick me up once on mainland. The first red flag was the ticket just said Koh Phangan Ferry and destination Khao Sok, but didn’t show any details on how I would get to Khao Sok once on mainland. After a quick taxi I got to the ferry and got my sticker so they could identify me. The ferry wasn’t as glam as my ferry over - it was more of a cargo ship with a few human seats. There was no outside seating and the inside seating had no fans or AC. Despite all that it was a fine 2.5 hour ferry. Once we got to mainland, I assumed I would have time for a bathroom break and a snack prior to the 4 hour bus ride to Khao Sok, but no such luck - we were immediately rushed onto a bus and sent on our journey. One hour into the bus ride is when things took a turn. The bus pulled over to literally the side of the road and a man came on and screamed “Khoa Sok get off now” repeatedly and angrily until we were all off. It was pouring rain and about 10 of us got off and were rushed into a smaller van. With basically no room for all of our things we took off. We assumed we should get comfortable for the remaining 3 hour drive to Khoa Sok, but within 5 minutes we pulled over and were ordered to get off with all of our things at another random destination. The man who opened the van door instilled us all with confidence in the process by saying “wow so many pretty girls”. Within 2 minutes of arrival the “pretty girls” man ordered me and just one more girl to get our things and get into this other van. Luckily given my age and weight I felt confident I wasn’t going to get trafficked, but I did wonder if I would ever make it there. After another short less than 5 minutes we were shuffled off this van and put on another van which was full except for two seats. Luckily I was able to confirm the people on this van were going to Khao Sok! Again we were not allowed any bathroom breaks or snacks with all these stops. Each van transfer we were rushed and told to move as fast as possible. I tried to not get comfortable because at this point I realized at anypoint I could be rushed off the van to another van. Within 30 seconds of starting the journey the driver pulled over to get gas. Sidebar, I don’t understand the getting gas process in Thailand - the driver appears to just pull over to a gas station and tell the pumper something, than literally within 1 minute it is done and no payment is exchanged. This happened at least 10 times while I was in Thailand. How does payment work? Is it faster to get gas in Thailand? I feel like it always takes me at least 5 minutes to pump gas. After gas within 2 minutes we pulled over to pick up a kid from school. The 3 hour journey continued with stops every 5-20 minutes to a comical level of absurdity with the driver picking up packages, dropping packages off, getting food, dropping the kid off from school, etc. all while we waited in the car without the option for food or bathroom breaks. It was raining so hard during part of the ride that the driver was filming it on his phone! Finally, after 3 hours we were dropped off at the Khao Sok bus station. I was surprised this was the bus station because it literally was just a bench with a sign on the side of the road. From there a taxi aka the back of a pickup truck drove me to my hotel. After a long day of chaotic travel I was excited to get to my hotel room and get some AC. Unfortunately, for me I didn’t read all the details on this hotel and there was no AC and no screens/blocker for bugs to enter my room with mass space between the roof and the walls. Also, I was strongly warned about the monkeys who might break into my room. I witnessed their aggression almost immediately as they jumped onto the table at the restaurant and stole people’s food as they were eating it. I was set to stay at this hotel for two nights, but I opted to start my tour one day early and just do one night with the bugs. To close the day of chaos there was a horrible rain and thunder/lightening storm that kept me awake worrying a tree would fall on my room and kill me as I slept!  The next morning was the start of the Khao Sok with my overnight lake tour starting. Smiley’s picked me up at 8:30 AM and we headed to the lake. The van ride there was 1.5 hours and we were treated with a trip to 7-eleven + bathroom break on the way - truly a luxury after the day prior. After reaching the lake we piled onto long tail boats and were given a 1.5 hour boat ride to our accommodations. Once arriving at the lake houses we were greeted with a lovely lunch buffet of tradition Thai dishes. After lunch we had free time to kayak, float on rafts and just relax in our rooms. It was so quiet and peaceful on the lake. Prior to dinner we were taken on an even boat safari where they showed us animals (mainly monkeys) around the lake and we enjoyed the peace of the lake. In the morning we had another relaxing boat ride then lunch followed by a jungle plus cave hike. The hike was hands down the highlight of the trip. It was such a wonderful hike through the jungle to a cave which had a river running through it. At the cave I was able to use the headlamp my dad got me for Christmas over 5-10 years ago. The start of the cave had tons of bats hanging from the top of the cave and smelled truly horrendous - turns out bat poop smells way worse than elephant poop. The cave was very cool and the headlamp was actually required. At one point the cave got very narrow and we had to swim about 10 feet to get to keep going through. The toughest part of the hike was getting in and out of the boat which required using this rope to climb up a steep cliff and then back down and jumping back into the boat. I did take a minor tumble doing this to get back into the boat because my sandals were all muddy and slippery on the inside. After a short boat ride back to the lake house we had another lovely thai lunch and then grabbed our bags to head back to the mainland. After we got back they had vans waiting for us to take us to our next destination. It all was so seamless and such a cool experience. Disclaimer: I don’t think I got the full island experience for Koh Samui and Koh Phangan and probably need to return for another two weeks to have a full report. Also, I missed Koh Tao, which everyone said is the place to go. From Chiang Mai I flew into Koh Samui. Based on the people on my flight I knew right away Koh Samui is the honeymoon island. Everyone looked very in love and ready to spend a week on the beach with their lovers. When I landed in Koh Samui I tried to order a Grab (Uber of Thailand), but the driver texted me that “I can’t pick you up because the airport entrance is the taxi mafia group. If I pick you up, they will attack me right away. P.S. Even if you walk outside the airport I can’t pick you up because the mafia will always follow you.” After this reassuring message, I went up to the taxi counter aka the mafia and got a taxi. What’s the saying - if you can’t beat them, join them? In Koh Samui my friends at the Marriott upgraded me to a dreamy private villa with a small pool looking over the ocean. It was truly a dream come true, but I did wish someone was there with me to experience the luxury.  I just had one night (less than 24 hours) in Koh Samui, thus only saw my hotel and laid on the beach there. Unfortunately, the water was only about 1 foot deep despite how far you went out and extremely hot this time of year (think bath water). From Koh Samui I took the ferry to Koh Phangan. I was nervous given the ferry situation in Bali, but it was a beautiful ride and no waves. In Koh Phangan I stayed at the Wonderland Wellness Center for 3 nights. I really only wanted 1 night but it was a 3 night minimum. The morning before leaving for Koh Phangan I made the mistake of looking up the island on TikTok and found out there are sex cults on Koh Phangan. Upon arriving at Wonderland I saw about 15 shirtless men eating lunch (why can’t they put shirts on for eating?) and got nervous I was accidentally joining a cult. This was the only location I stayed which was a multi-person with 4 people total per room. It was an extra $90 per night to have a private room so dorm room it was! I was shocked that the first roommate a met was a male, but he was a nice irish man. We ended up having two other female roommates and it really wasn’t too bad staying in a shared dorm. Maybe I will try it again! The first night I went to the evening sessions titled - Finding Wholeness Within. This was a rough start to the experience. To be honest I can’t even describe the things she talked about because it went so far over my head. I do know at one point she told us “we aren’t anything we are just essence” and also someone asked how to do all the wellness stuff with a 9-5 job and it seemed the answer was “it isn't possible”....so I guess just quit your jobs everyone? The next morning we had a waterfall hike, but the waterfall had dried out so it was just a hike, which was nice and we did find a little swimming area to take a quick dip to cool off. I decided to take a break from wellness/the cult and spend the afternoon at the beach and had some amazing Mexican food with a spicy marg (can you believe in Thailand?). I did try to see the sunset but for the 5+ time I struck out. For my final full day at the cult I decided to embrace the wellness and attend all the classes. I enjoyed the morning yoga and aromatherapy class. After lunch the class was Wisdom of the Female Body, which I was excited about, but it ended up being all about tracking your cycle for natural birth control and felt more like a sales pitch to use the teachers services. For the rest of the afternoon I floated in the pool and finished my book. Then prior to dinner I scheduled a 1:1 session called “Creating the New Version of You”, which was a nice session with this guy who talked to me about creating the future version of me - unfortunately all I could think about was how hungry I was the entire session. I didn’t leave feeling like a new me, but it was helpful and he gave me some good tips. The evening activity was a sound bath, which was a nice relaxing way to end the day. My final review is I wish I got to see more of Koh Phangan and could have probably skipped the Wellness Center, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought when I first arrived.  I just wrapped up one week at Elephant Nature Park (ENP). ENP was the first elephant sanctuary in Thailand. The founder Lek has been working diligently over the past 25+ years to educate people and help elephant camp owners convert their camps into sanctuaries. There are 117 elephants at ENP who are rescued from riding, circus and logging camps. All the elephants have had brutal lives prior to coming to ENP - they’ve experienced extreme abuse at the hands of humans. For the elephants to be trained/domesticated they go through a process called phajaan - which translates to soul crush/break spirit. For days young elephants are tied up and beaten till they are submissive to their handlers. Often elephants during this process will try to kill themselves. In addition to the elephants there are over 700 dogs, over 2,000 cats, tons of cows and water buffalo and an unknown amount of rabbits and goats. In addition to the animals this park has offered career and income sources for many in the surrounding areas. Many of the workers are escaping conflict in their home countries such as Myanmar and bringing their families. There are now over 100 kids at ENP and they even offer schooling for these kids because they couldn’t get it from the Thai government, given they aren’t local. A truly amazing place that Lek and her team have created. During the week we did a variety of tasks to understand what it is like to care for an elephant. Here are the key tasks we did:
 We avoided petting or bathing the elephants as they want to get away from these activities and provide elephants with a more natural life. Over time they hope to build a skywalk around the full park to allow visitors to walk around and view the elephants. In addition to elephant tasks we took many walks around the park to meet the different elephants and watched a few movies to learn more about the mistreatment of elephants. If you are looking to learn more, Love & Bananas is a documentary about an elephant rescue for ENP we watched on our second night. All meals were vegan and very tasty. We spent the evenings laughing and sharing our “laughs and not laughs of the day” at the local bar (a hut selling snacks next to the elephants). My top laugh of the week was - after finding some plastic in the night cages of the elephants, I asked my coordinator why there was plastic there and he just responded “It is the Humans”. As if I might have thought an elephant was sneaking a go-yurt at night. My top not laugh was people being totally unaware and constantly almost getting run over by elephants or water buffalo. During the week I met the most incredible people and am especially grateful for Michelle, Helen, Kayla, Kerry, Rich and Georgia for making me laugh and laugh. I don’t think I will have 6-pack abs from the work but I will from the laughter shared. I found the entire week to be very educational and fun. The volunteer tasks were sometimes physically demanding, but also good fun. I don’t think our jobs as volunteers were critical to the success of the park, but they had us do them to learn about all that goes into caring for an elephant and so we can spread the world globally on the mistreatment of elephants. That being said our coordinate did say he wouldn’t have a job if it weren't for us and “no money no honey”.  One of the not highlights, but educational experiences was going to Chok Chai elephant camp down the street from ENP. The owner of this camp passed away without a will and has 4 wives, so there is an ongoing court case to decide the fate of this camp, but for now it is in the process of converting into a more ethical park. That being said the elephants are chained on very small chains on a small concrete platform. They are still using hooks to beat the elephants, but they have stopped offering elephant riding. It was tough to see elephants in that condition, but also important to understand the journey these camps are going through to convert to sanctuaries and also a reminder that feeding an elephant is very expensive. The final activity of the week was brown water rafting. My friend Michelle was obsessed with getting our coordinator to take us to his village to go rafting - constantly asking him about it all week long. Thus the final day we walked about 30 minutes to try our hand at brown water rafting (same as white water rafting but the water is brown). Michelle was basically racing to get into the rafts with excitement- I didn’t know a 34 year old women could have such a passion for rafting, but she did.! My goodness, I don’t think I’ve laughed harder in a 45 minute span than I did going through the jungle on this raft. Our poor guide had to do 90% of the paddling because we were too busy laughing and splashing the other boats. Such good fun to end an incredible week. On the final day I needed to get to the airport before the scheduled departure time to get to Koh Samui. I had to pay extra for this which they reminded me everday for all 7 days - I assume hoping I would change my mind. Sunday was election day, thus they asked if I could leave at 8:30 instead of 9 AM for my driver to vote. I said yes of course because I support democracy! I assumed this meant that he would drop me off at the airport and then go vote - NO he stopped in his home village to vote on our way. I had to pee so went into his home, met his mom and kids. While he voted he did leave me in the car without the windows rolled down or AC which felt inhuman and not how we should treat animals. To close out - the most inspiring part of the week was learning about all the progress Lek has been able to make over the past 25+ years in the hearts and minds of people in Thailand and across the globe by being focused on her mission of improving the lives of elephants and animal welfare in general. When she started her work she was arrested countless times and completely disowned by her family. She has been leading with love, not judgment and working to educate camps on how to remain profitable by converting to sanctuaries. There is a long way to go as we saw multiple times over the week in the surrounding areas with people riding elephants, elephants chained up and generally being mistreated, but now less than 20% of camps are riding camps in Thailand - thanks to Lek’s work. Also, this week marked historic progress for Thailand with the military rule being voted out and the Move Forward Party winning. Hopefully, with new government will come the missing piece to elephant welfare - legislation, which is a critical missing piece today. Thank you to everyone at ENP for the work you do and opening your space to us for the week. Please don't ride elephants, attend circuses with elephants performing or support places mistreating elephants or other animals! I’ve fallen a bit off the wagon and didn’t document my day by day in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai - sorry readers. However, the overall narrative was that it was a very lovely time despite being some of the hottest temperatures (over 100 everyday) I’ve ever experienced in my life. Chiang Rai Highlights:
After two nights in Chiang Rai I took a 3.5 hour bus to Chiang Mai. Shockingly, this bus had amazing AC and a toilet! Chiang Mai is the bigger sister city to Chiang Rai. Chiang Mai Highlights:
 Bangkok was the place I was least excited about in my travels. Everyone basically said to come but only for a few days MAX (they all emphasized not staying longer) - no one really had good things to say. I think everyone feels obligated to visit given it is where the flights fly into and it is the biggest city in Thailand. Luckily, I had a great time! Given I didn’t have many plans I walked almost everywhere racking up well over 20 miles across the two days here. Being here 2 days now I am still confused by the city - where is the true city center? My hotel for the first two nights was down a dark alley and there was no one around ever. I walked home Saturday night and in a 30 minute walk I only passed two people and a few cars. Can you imagine walking in New York City for 30 minutes and not seeing any people? It is massive from just a sheer size standpoint. The big highlight of my trip to Bangkok was a floating market and orchard farm tour hosted by Pook via Airbnb experiences. It was incredible. She took us on this canal boat to 2 markets and an orchard farm. Many of the vendors at the markets bring their goods via boat or even sell the items via their boat. We tried so many things! My favorite being the coconut rice pancakes. I was completely stuffed after the first market and extremely stuffed after the second market, but then Pook announced that we would end with a 5 course meal. I was grateful to be gluten free and not able to try everything at a certain point because it was so much food. One surprising thing was how sweet everything was. I felt like everything we tried was loaded with sugar. Following the market I went to the Grand Palace and the Wat Pho temple (reclining buddha temple). Both were very cool to see and beautiful, but I wished I knew more of the history. At the Grand Palace the guards had bayonets, which I didn’t know people still carried as a form of protection! Next I went to get a Thai Massage because how could I possibly be in Thailand for more than 24 hours and not get a massage? I went to this place that seemed sort of sketch down an alley but it was wonderful! I closed my first full day in Bangkok off with a Disney themed night at a jazz club and then a cocktail bar in Chinatown, which I selected based on how comfortable the chairs looked! Day two was so lovely because I saw the things I wanted to see on day one so there was no pressure to “tourist”! I went to a few malls to find a bookstore (4 massive malls were all next to each other) and all of them felt so high end. I loved all the clothes but they didn’t appear to have anything above a size x-small or small. Where do size medium and above shop in Thailand? Guess you can’t be fat here…odd given everything is soaked in sugar! At one of the malls there was some celebrity everyone was there to see. It was very thrilling to see how excited everyone got even though I had no idea who it was. Growing up in Port Huron I never got to experience a celebrity mall visit (shockingly Hillary Duff never stopped by Birchwood Mall) - thus it was thrilling to experience! After the mall I headed to a vegan cafe for a vegan gluten free mouse cake and mac and cheese. One would think vegan gluten free mac and cheese in Thailand wouldn’t be very good, but shockingly it was great! Wishing my gluten free girlies - Gabby and Sydney were here to experience with me! Given I have to wake up super early I headed back to my hotel early. My taxi driver was on the phone with his girlfriend/wife (unclear) the entire 25 minute ride on SPEAKER phone! t was in Thai of course so I couldn’t really understand but I did pull out my Google Translate App and the fight appeared to be about someone not doing the dishes and his mom had to do them...YIKES! Google Translate needs to get better at understanding poor audio of couples fighting in taxis because I need the translation! I was shocked to find how incredible the hotel pool was - love me an infinity pool overlooking the skyline. Also, for elite members there was free dinner and drinks! Thank you Marriott for the VIP treatment as always! I would be more than happy to get paid to travel to all the luxury Marriott hotels and experience them - just putting that out here. I did not find/nor did I look for the Red Light district but I did see some great looking dispensaries with fun exteriors. Fun fact: weed is legal in Thailand! No mom, I didn’t smoke weed here by myself (I know you were thinking it). My first non-turtle activity on Nusa Penida was a snorkeling trip. After some horrible waves that growing up on Lake Huron didn’t not prepare me for our first stop on the snorkel trip was Manta Ray Bay, where we saw multiple Manta Ray’s. These aren’t the kind of Rays that killed beloved icon Steve Irwin, but they are massive and as they swim at you, your heart does skip a beat. We stopped at 4 different bays and saw all different types of fish and coral. My favorite fish I saw was this rainbow pastel fish, which was about 1 foot long. I loved exploring all the coral reefs and floating to just observe the different creatures. We even saw a blue starfish, which our guide brought up for us to see closer. Video credit to Maria's GoPro & Chloe for capturing! The next touring, we did was on our Saturday off we got a taxi to take us around the island for the day. I was lucky enough to not have to plan anything and just sit back and enjoy the stops. Our first stop was Diamond Beach. We didn’t go down to the beach but just saw the beauty from above. People did get very close to the edge which left me in fear I was going to see a tourist plunge to their death. The next stop I am not sure the name but I like to call it stair-ladders from hell. This was a temple and holy water pool off the side of a cliff looking out onto the ocean. There were over 705 stairs that at certain parts were more ladder than stair. The holy water pool was very cool looking out into the ocean and getting some ocean splashes. The way up was one of the most unpleasant cardio activities I’ve had in a very very long time. I’ve never felt more like I was on the biggest loser, but there was no prize money in the end. Halfway through I thought maybe I was going to have to pay someone millions of Rupiahs to carry me out, but I made it out! Our next stop was the Tembeling Beach and Forest. Here you hike through the forest to the beach, where there is a natural pool from rain water and nice ocean views. Given my legs were still shaking from the last hike I opted to pay a man ~$5 to drive me down and back on his scooter. I really enjoyed the ride down with a wonderful breeze and the jungle views. Unfortunately, for me there were MORE stairs, I had to do on my own which was an additional exhausting 10 minute hike down. The pool was a nice relaxing break from all the stairs. Next up was Kelingking Beach. This beach is the famous Instagram beach. It is a 45-minute hike down to the beach, which I’ve heard people die doing so due time and safety we opted to just take in the views and see the sunset here. Our final stop was Break Neck Beach and Angles Billabong. Unfortunately, it gets dark very fast so most of viewing here was in the dark. It was a unique experience to see it at night without all the tourists. It felt a lot more peaceful and it was very nice star gazing. I’m glad I got to see all the big hits of Nusa Penida but it felt a bit like we were there to get photos for Instagram with the other tourists and then move to the next stop - never truly just getting to sit and enjoy the experience. Sunday, after my day of touring I just wanted a relaxing me day so a few friends and I went over to Nusa Lembongan – which is just a quick 10 minute boat ride away. Given the last ferry back to Nusa Penida was at 4PM and I wanted to stay till sunset, I opted to get a cheap hotel room for the night. To kick off my relax day I had a massage at this very nice spa then I met my friends at Mushroom Beach for lunch. Nusa Penida makes you work hard for beautiful beaches whereas Nusa Lembongan just gives you incredible beaches without any effort. Around 3:30 PM my friends headed to their ferry and I headed to my hotel to check-in. After a quick check-in I went to another beach to watch the sunset. At this beach they farm seaweed which was fascinating to watch. Then for dinner I had a real treat – gluten free pasta at this incredible Italian restaurant. This European man who has lived in Bali for over 10 years during covid decided to open an Italian restaurant as his grandmother was from Italy and it did not disappoint. The table next to mine was these two Australians who were extremely rude to the staff when their pasta wasn’t cooked to their liking and truly went off on this poor waiter telling her that she had never been to Italy and stick to cooking rice and leave pasta up to white people. It was horrendous to witness. After dinner my hotel owner picked me up on her scooter and drove me back to the hotel. Given Nusa Lembongan is less crowded and streets are narrower most people just drives scooters, which I found to be very enjoyable. The next morning, I decided to walk everywhere with my first stop being a fruit bowl place for breakfast. Next, I went to Dream Beach and truly what a dream. The waves looked pretty intense so I opted to float in this pool and watch the ocean from above as I read my book. I think if I came back to Bali, I would spend at least a week in these Dream Huts on Dream beach.  My final stop in Bali was Kuta, which is close to the airport but on the beach. Unfortunately, Kuta is the Fort Meyers Beach of Bali – except replace rude Americans with rude Australians. Bali is only about a 4-hour flight from Australia; thus, it is a very popular spot for Australian vacationers. The fun part of Kuta was everyone try to learn to surf on Kuta beach, which was hilarious and highly entertaining to watch. My favorites part of Kuta was watching/listening to this drunk lady in the pool come up to this nice couple enjoying the hot tub and tell them within 30 seconds of meeting them that she as two sheep – one black and one white, a blind daughter and 4 kids total which 3 all have the same birthday for one week out of the year (feels like an SAT problem to figure out how that is possible with no twins). I had escaped the "Bali Belly" the full two weeks, but my final dinner gave it to me and with that I am off to Thailand!  I must admit I was very scared about getting to Nusa Penida based on the horrible TikToks I saw, especially this one. Luckily, I survived! It wasn’t the most pleasant experience of my life but I didn’t vomit and the boat didn’t capsize, so I will take that win. There was a man standing with puke bags ready to pass out, so puking must be a common occurrence. From the boat we went right to our accommodations. There are approximately 45-60 volunteers with Green Lion each week and we had this really cute area where we stayed, eat and relaxed, which is only an eight-minute walk to the turtles. They even have their own dog, Oreo, who is so sweet. In the lead up to this trip they really undersold the accommodations and prepared us for the worst, but I loved my little hut room, which I was shocked to learn they even cleaned every day! I did have a few creature friends living in my room with me but they were harmless and I liked to think of the geckos as little pets. For two weeks Monday through Friday, we rotated through cleaning the turtle tanks, feeding the turtles, cleaning the beach and crab catching from 9-11 AM and 2-4 PM. At first only 4 hours a day seemed like it wasn’t very much, but it was extremely hot and doing hard work in the heat really takes all of the energy out of you. It wasn't just hot but very humid, where you are covered in sweat after just 30 seconds outside. They were over 600 turtles at Green Lion Turtle Rescue and each day they get fed twice, washed twice and their tanks cleaned. Cleaning the tanks required getting on my hands and knees and scrubbing my absolute hardest, something my hardwood floors have never experienced! The tanks are filled with water directly from the ocean and there are no filters to make it as authentic for the turtles as possible, thus all the cleaning required. The fun facts I’ve learned about turtles:
The two big highlights of turtle time were turtles hatching and releasing turtles back into the ocean. Green Lion takes eggs which are laid on the beach and bring them to the center to avoid the eggs being eaten by animals. Witnessing the turtles come into this world and go into water was truly magical. Each Friday we released turtles. The first Friday was at Gamat Bay and the second right outside of our rescue center. Getting to Gamat Bay was a less than an enjoyable experience with a 25 minute TukTuk ride, which I can only describe as bad chiropractic care. The rusty metal bars drill into your back as you go along the narrow, steep bumpy roads. It was ~15 minute hike to the beach which on the way back reminded me what poor physical fitness I am in. Each release we sent off about ~35 turtles. Prior to the releases we gave the turtles a beautiful blessing. Then sent them off into the ocean. I really do hope they survive, but the rate of survival for turtles is very low. To close out my two weeks we had a bonfire of singing led by our coordinators and farewells by the people leaving that week. I am so grateful for the people especially the coordinators who went above and beyond to ensure we had the best experience. I also feel very grateful for the timing because I got to be a part of two turtle releases and see turtles hatching.
Ubud from my research is the hipster/influencer capital of Bali. I was surprised by how busy and chaotic the city center was. It is a small city in terms of per capita and there are no skyscrapers or the signature tourist icon – Hardrock Café, but there are lots of people, cars and tons and tons of scooters/motorcycles. I was overwhelmed walking down the narrow sidewalks as traffic zoomed by, a young child stepped in front of me pulled down his pants and started peeing off the sidewalk onto the road (shocking) and there are small daily offerings everywhere on the sidewalk you must be sure to avoid. I kicked off my exploration with a walk through the Ubud Art Market, given I am already struggling to close my suitcase - no purchases were made. I was however shocked by the amount of wooden penis sculptures and bottle openers - they were EVERYWHERE. I asked my driver the next day about this and he said it is to make it not sexual and show as art. After about 5 minutes of walking around I thought it best I treat myself and I had some incredible coconut nut ice cream + a massage. The leg and shoulder massage was mostly lovely, but I do deserve an Academy Award for not flinching during this between the toes massage (look at those fingers between my toes in the photo below). I stayed in the jungle 10 minutes outside of city center, which was very pretty but I didn’t realize how loud those jungle animals are at 4 AM.  The next morning my Grab (their version of Uber) driver from the night before offered to drive my around and take me to the sights before I had to be picked up for turtle time. First, he took me to take the famous Bali swing photos. I wasn’t feeling my most glam so I didn’t opt to pay extra for the fancy Bali dress you see on Instagram, but swinging unglamorously was still fun! Also, at the location of the Bali swing they made coffee and teas. My guide was extremely knowledgeable and taught me the following:
Next up was the Monkey Forest! It was fascinating to be up close and personal with so many monkeys and nice to find out checking for ticks/bugs is a real thing monkeys do. I was nervous the entire time though because they can be a bit aggressive and will grab things from people and run away with them. Nevertheless, I loved observing the monkeys and loved the sculptures around the whole park. My final Ubud stop was an Instagram worth smoothie bowl on the way to my turtle time drop off.  I left Chicago on Wednesday, April 12 and just arrived in Bali many many hours later on Friday, April 14. Here is a recap of my 30+ hour adventure! Things started off rocky after I got to the airport and got my luggage together. I guess I should have tested this out prior but TikTok made it look easy. Let's just say this lollipop look isn't for me and every time I have to travel for the next 6 weeks is going to be rough. Yes, I should have taken a sensible rolling bag but a backpack felt more the "Eat Pray Love" vibe!  The 15 hour flight on Korean Air wasn't as bad as I expected despite having to fly economy due to the fact that I am now retired and can't afford a $5,000 first class ticket. The main highlight of the flight was the man/boy (he looked more like a kid but was over 20 years old) didn't pee once for the entire 15 hour flight and didn't drink a single sip of water. He did obsessively put on chapstick because of course he was profusely dehydrated. On my 5th trip to the bathroom the flight attendant told me that due to "volcanic eruptions" I was going to miss my connecting flight to Bali and to see a gate agent when I landed. I thought I misheard her but then when we landed they apologized for the delay due to "volcanos erupting over Russia". When I got off the plane a women was waving a sign around with my name on it with my new travel plane. She was so kind and apologetic that I couldn't even be upset that an additional 10 hours were being added to my day. With my new travel planes I had 5 hours at the Seoul airport. The Seoul airport is true luxury with every luxury store you can think of and top of the line beauty products. I got a fabulous dinner/lunch (honestly no idea what time of day it was at this point) in the lounge and got to meet this robot who picked up all the dirty dishes.  Next I flew to Singapore, which was a 6.5 hour flight. During the flight they served me a meal of salmon, scallops, 1 shrimp and some veggies. I was very nervous to eat this because last time I ate fish out in public I got horrible food poisoning from the Spirt of Navy Pier's flounder, but I was so hungry that I stomached it and so far so good! I was very excited to be flying to Singapore because I was expecting the Singapore Airport you see on the internet. Unfortunately, for me this was the Singapore airport I experienced....a late 90s style convention center vibe.  Once I boarded the flight I was happy to learn it was only 2.5 hours to Bali from Singapore. Even though it was a relatively short flight they served breakfast and I had this wonderful potatoes, sausage and beans mix that was seasoned incredibly well! Once I arrived in Bali it was easy breezy to get through customs and then James from my hotel picked me up from the airport. When I arrived at the Laguna I truly felt like a celebrity, everyone knew my name and said they were so happy I finally made it. It felt like they waited up all night for me to arrive. Even though it was only 11AM my room was ready! Which was truly a blessing after all that travel. My room is bigger than our new apartment and I am not sure I should be staying in something so luxurious at the beginning of my trip because it is only downhill from here! After a much needed long nap I headed to the beach and pool for some sun and reading time. I ate an early dinner at the beach restaurant. All the sudden during dinner the ground began to rumble....it was an EARTHQUAKE. Can you believe it? I went all my life without any tectonic plate action and then twice in one 24 hour period! I had a bit of panic because I thought it might cause a tsunami and we all saw the 2012 blockbuster hit The Impossible. To travel over 30 hours to be swallowed up by a tsunami after just 6 hours on the island would have been a HUGE bummer. The locals seemed chill and to be laughing about it so that settled my nerves. In conclusion, I am here and not even tectonic plates can keep me away! |
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