Honeymoon

Megan and I finally uploaded a batch of our honeymoon photos!

Check them out!

http://pics.jharbs.com/honeymoon/

[…]

We arrived the night of the 21st in Bangkok and were greeted at the airport by Toom or Tommy (his english name) and our driver. I introduced myself after seeing the “Jerad Harbaugh/Megan Glenn” sign by taking his photo. Later he asked about my Nikon camera and was so excited to talk photography because he shoots with the Nikon D300. He was like a kid in a candy store talking about photography, you can tell he has some serious passion for the hobby.

Tommy took us to the Manderin Oriental Hotel, one of the worlds finest 5 star hotels. We were greeted in the lobby with flower bracelets and escorted to the front desk. Right from the get go we noticed the exceptional service of the Oriental, the bellmen, the checkin staff, the elevator jocky…everyone was so welcoming. Our room welcomed us with a bottle of white wine, an assortment of chocolates and fruits…and we even had our own butler!

Right after arriving we took up my dad on his first recommendation by going to the JJ Market – we had to take the Oriental’s river boat shuttle to the sky train, we took the green line to central station and switched to the lime green line to the very last stop – it was 40 baht each – each way. The markets are total sensory overload, a maze, a hot and sweaty adventure that takes your nasal passage for a wild ride as well! They sell just about everything at these markets from handmade items, to knock off shoes, to rabbits and dogs, lots of street food including durian (some say it smells like cat poo but tastes like paradise) – we couldn’t bear trying it because of the awful smell.

After the markets closed at 6pm we headed back to the hotel and called Randall, my buddy Paul from work’s brother, who happens to be a US diplomat living in Thailand – he told us that the absolute very best restaurant in all of Bangkok was in our own hotel. Megan and I decided to take him up on that advice and went to Le Normandie – one of the world’s top 100 restaurants. We had the chef’s choice – set menu – a 7 course meal with 2 bottles of wine and a special “honeymooners” dessert. This was handsdown the best meal that both Megan and I have ever had – even better than Sushi Sasa chef’s choice – but also was the most expensive meal we’ve ever had. We even got the chef’s autograph on the menu and called it quits for the night.

On the morning of the 22nd we woke up to an amazing breakfast buffet (which was included with our room – otherwise would cost about $40/person) on the river, it was again the best breakfast that we’ve ever had, all of the most amazing breakfast foods – a private juice squeezer, a egg man, fresh mango, fermented milk (actually very good and good for your stomach too), and the list goes on. This is all I have for now…need to write more later…

[…]

First off, Hannah happy birthday! Auntie Megan and I are sorry we can’t be there for your 2nd birthday, have some cake for us!

Today we went on a speedboat tour of Phang Nga Bay, north of Phuket. It’s a national park of islands and absolutely amazing!

The most stunning island is named James Bond Island is was the setting for the Roger Moore – Man with a Golden Gun – James Bond movie 35 years ago. The speed boat went 80km/hr over crystal clear water, the boat is powered by 3 Honda vtech engines each 225 HP. The boat can go over 220km/hr if the water is calm enough.

We had about 30 people on our tour around the islands and saw a bunch of sea kayakers paddling through the lagoons of various islands. We saw Hong Island with its 3 lagoons, Scooby Doo Island, Camel Island, 2 Rat Islands, King Kong Island, and went to A Phangnga National Park.

Saw a bunch of birdsnest at Tam Lat Island which are used for Chinese Soup. Saw Dragon Island and Madonna Island – an island shaped like 2 giant breasts! We were fed lunch at Panyee Village. The boat ride home was very bumping. Write more later, have to run to catch our flight now.

[…]

Wow, we're actually blogging on a current day...I can actually use the term "today"!

Today we woke up around 8 and met the Sheraton's 2 baby elephants, Lucky and Lilly, they were pretty small by elephant terms. One of the elephants kissed me multiple times, it wasscary, but kind of hot at the same time. Megan was not jealous, just laughing at me the whole time! The Sheraton's breakfast was amazing, as have all of the other resort breakfasts we've gotten on the trip. It had a full japanese sushi buffet, full egg station, honeycomb honey, exotic fruits that i forget the names of (dragon fruit, mangosteen, and a couple others).

Megan and I took a really long stroll of our beach at around 9am. We probably walked 2 miles befor calling it quits. Our beach is very quiet, it's low season, but still it's very quiet.

We decided to go to Phuket Town and Patong Beach. Phuket Town is where Julie (our driver) told us to go for local shopping. Megan and I weren't that into it so we just went to McDonalds to checkout the Thai version of the "corn" based meal! I had the pork burger and Megan had the cheese pork burger. We had fries and a coke (made with suger cane not corn syrup), and an Oreo McFlurry. It tastes that same...or pretty close. After, our driver took us to Patong beach, the beach that defines Phuket. It's a massive beach with tons of people, shops, knock off shirts (mainly Diesel, Lacost, Polo) and a ton of fake watches and sunglasses. We walked the entire beach and resisted the temptations of massages, manicures, pedicures, footscrapes, even though each service only costs $7/hr or so. They are super cheap, although Megan got me worried that if they break blood giving you a pedicure using the same instruments that they've used on 100 other people, that that could cause a serious infection. I took the Dr's advice... More on this later, my $10/hr. Internet place is about to close, so i have to sign off, but will continue tomorrow sometime. Cheers to all at home.

[...]

First off, happy birthday Phaedy and happy anniversary Andrew and Linds, sorry i can’t call and make the wishes in person.

We woke up early and went for a 3 hour trek in the villages surrounding the Maya Ubud Resort. We were guided by Winana, a total stud and great guide who was born in Bali and is one of 9 children! It was great seeing all of the botany, and having someone point it all out to us. We were able to see Lion Trees, Elephant Leaves, learned that they can shoot squirls with air guns and make squirl satay out of them. We saw this crazy bubble plant, where you crack the stem and you can blow bubbles out of the sticky insides, the fruit of these bubble plants is actually a huge bio energy source for the island.

We came across people bathing and washing their clothing in the streams, checked out some stone workers making shrines and statues. We then took an amazing tour of the rice fields. This was our favorite (cultural) experience of Bali. Seeing the friendly village people doing all phases of the rice growing cycle was enlightening to say the least. There are no water pumps, everything is terraced and each field is perfectly flat. We got some great pictures, i’m psyched to share them with the crew back home. We also got to go into the home of a 4 brothers who are painters. We saw the typical Balanese home and how it is situated – they all have a kitchen, a bedroom for the parents, a bedroom for the eldest son and wife, a shrine, a special alter for weddings, teeth filing, and other big events. We saw a couple of spiders who a bigger than the palm of Megan’s hand, crazy!

We also came across a bunch of baskets of “cocks” ready to fight, sad sport.

After we got back from the hike, Megan and I cleaned up and made a special order of a burger and fries from the Maya bar, got cleaned up, packed, and met Dharma and our driver for our ride to the airport. We got to catch up a little on email from the Thai airways lounge in the Bali airport – but we were on our way to Bangkok before we got through all the junk mail from the 4 days without email. In Bangkok airport we were able to get some ginger ale and muffins in the Thai Air lounge and catch up on more email. (That’s where i blogged about the past couple days). We caught our flight to Phuket and and were met by a lady holding a sign “Harbaugh & Glenn” at the airport. Keep in mind this is 12:45am on 9/19 and we were both totally zonked from all the flying and driving and waiting. We were transported about 12 kilometers to our hotel, the Sheraton Grande Laguna Phuket. We both slept like babies.

[…]

The opposite of September 16th…no “Chilling Out”…We woke up and did an 8am,  yoga class and had breakfast right after. I got my usual pancakes with 2 eggs over medium, glass of mango juice, 1 glass of watermelon juice, some deli style meat, and a little bit of yogurt. Megan got a crossoint, omlet, coffee, and watermelon.

We got the 10am shuttle to Ubud – there is a main town center with a market and many galleries, temples, and museums. We made out a list of people we wanted to get presents for, chances are if you are reading this we probably got you something — mom, dad, not sure how big our audience is on this blog, probably just a couple people are tuning in.

The markets sell a wide range of things from daily staples for the locals (fruit, rice) to sarongs, baskets, and many other more touristy types of things. The markets had really cheap artwork, jewellery, and carvings, to get better quality work you must go outside to some of the surrounding streets. We found the best stuff on Monkey Forest Road, like Cinta Grill & Inn – a recommendation from Kelly, the tennis pro. We bought some paintings for a great price at one of the galleries, this time the artist was unknown by the salesman, so the piece will likely never have any great financial value, but sentimentally we will always know where it came from. 

We went to the main museum which was built in 1958 to check checkout some of the real Balanese art. Most of the work is done with Chinese Ink on Gouacheon paper, or Tempera paint or acyrilic paint on either plywood or canvas. Each painting told a story usually from Indian Epics or of the Balanese Calendar festivities.

[…]

Jelly Donuts…mmmm….I’m getting to know my wife and her inability to bypass a good donut in a breakfast line…To be fair, she’s finding out that cold beer, french fries, and coco puffs are amongst my soft spots. September 16th was our big relaxation day, our day to “Chill Out” as Megan kept on insisting I do. So without objection, we found ourselves at the most amazing pool we both had ever seen sipping on mineral water and catching some sun. This particular pool at the Maya Resort sports water that is level with the walls that hold it, as you enter you see the water overflow and drip off to what looks like the deep cliffs with the river below (called an infinity pool). The hillside is green everywhere with red heliconias, red African tulip trees, and a bunch of banana trees, tall grasses, and many other plants. We had an 11am couples massage at the spa. We chose the Maya special, which is a full body long stoke massage with the oil of your choosing. Megan got the Bali flower and I got the cooling minty oil. This massage was much better than the other massage we got, partially b/c I didn’t have to wear womens panties this time! Man, I’m still laughing about that last massage we got, and how tight and uncomfortable those things were…The massages were fantastic, we got tea before and lemonade and fruit afterwards.

After the massages we hung out by the pool and ordered a pizza from the River Cafe. I read my book, the Omnivores Dilemna and Megan read hers, the Life of Pi. We followed up the pizza with a private pilates class. Megan, our instructor, and I did some pilates that I am still sore from doing — it seemed so easy at the time. The pilates and yoga classes are on this square platform that overlooks the (fake) grass tennis court. I got a chance to meet the tennis pro, a man named Kelly Woolford, from the US, so he gave us some Ubud insight. Tennis is one of those sports that bonds people across the world, it was very cool to be an insider with him just by mentioning that I played college tennis in the States. With the hotel package that Kim, our travel agent put together, was a candlelight dinner with a bottle of champagne. We had a wonderful dinner, although were slightly let down when the location we wanted to have our dinner was actually for another couple…our location wasn’t half bad though.

Once again we were exhausted from our hardly stressful day of relaxation, spa treatments, pilates, and good food. The rooms at the Maya Resort are individual bungalow style villas with big canopy beds and huge bath tubs and all the amenties one could ever ask for in a hotel room. Gorgeous.

[…]

Megan and I woke up early (like at 5:45am) to take a sunrise walk along the beach and check out the sea shells at low tide. It was a bit cloudy so we didn't really catch the breath taking view we were hoping for....but we did walk about as far in each direction along our hotel's beach as we could without getting too far out of site.

After the beach stroll we went up to the Nikko Club and got our last free breakfast there. We then went down to the beach and swam in the seaweed infested water! We literally got strangled by countless floating seaweed -- just down the beach they harvest it, so this was debris from the growing patches. Jerad then stared at the many Russian girls wearing thong bikinis as Megan was more ammused by the Russian men in their slim little speedos and their massive guts rolling over the tops! Muffin tops as we call it!

We went back to the room, cleaned up and packed as Dharma and our driver met us at the hotel at noon to drive us up to Ubud. Megan and I took Dharma to lunch as it was his 37th birthday the day before at Jazz Bar and Grill in Sanur. We kept on seeing the name Adi every where, and this reminded us of Wael Adi, a coworker of Jerad, and adi mean "the first".

On the way to Ubud we stopped at Radado Painting gallery and after some hard fought Paul Harbaugh style bargaining, bought 3 paintings by a famous Balanse artist by the name of Imade Tinggal who was born in Denpasar in 1967 and made famous for his modern style paintings. We got the painting for 6 times less than the price they were asking...not bad.

We checked into the Maya Ubud Resort and walked around the hotel premesis, which is massive. It's much different than the beach resort we stayed at in Nusa Dua. The Maya is situation along several rivers that wind through the mountains and villages in the center of the island. This hotel was voted one of the Hideaway Magazines top 100 hotels in the world and rightfully so, it's amazing, so pretty, so much vegetation, activities to do, great spa, nice pools, good food...

We got the buffet dinner and watched Legong Dancers perform on the hotels stage along the river. By the end of dinner we were totally beat from the early morning, the long drive, and the hot weather conditions, so we hit the hay for a good night's rest.

[...]

Megan and I woke up yesterday and took a long beach walk along the Nikko Bali Resort beach. Off in the horizon many villagers collect seaweed, we collected sea shells. We swam in the ocean before showering and heading over to the town of Benoa where we went to the Sri Angung spa. We got the traditional Balinese full body massage, we were side by side for 1 hour, for $28 each, plus they transported us to and from our hotel. Paul B, i have some funny massage comparison stories for you of your time in Bali…funny…they had me wear the same women like panties that Megan wore for the massage!

After the massage, Megan and I came back to the hotel and had some beers by the pool and refreshed a little. We then met our new friends Abra & Chirs from Philly, who also happened to get married on September 6th, and hired a taxi for the day. Our guide for the Bali portion of our trip, Dharma, recommended that we visit Dreamland beach – so we did. Dreamland is a gorgeous beach, with lots of topless women, surfers, big waves, strong current, good body surfing, and a ton of 20 to 30 year olds everywhere. Off in the horizon you see beach huts and mansions alike. There is a new hotel going up and a new golf course next to the beach. The development is only 10 years old and the area is booming. As you enter the private beaches of Dreamland we saw a statue of Garuda and Visnu. The restitution for parking and beach access was about $5. We also rented a couple of lounge chairs and umbrellas for $5. Our driver waited in the car for 3 hours while we hung out and swam.

After Dreamland, we took Paul up on another one of his suggestions and went to Jimbaran Bay for dinner and sunset. We went to Damos Cafe and for about $100 (not a very good deal) we got a huge seafood dinner of Lobster, Prawns, Clams, Calamari, Snapper, Crab, lot of Bintang beer, and a fruit desert. Jimbaran is right next to the airport so we saw planes land and takeoff next to the sunset, as well as all of the the fishing boats coming and going. It’s amazing how many beach cafes there are (probably 75) and each cafe has 30 or so tables. It’s like a half a mile of tables lining the beach for sunset dinner! Abra & Chris took photos of us and us of them, we all had a nice dinner. Chris is a dentist so Megan and him were totally geeking out about calculus bridges on lower anteriors and other dental talk that would put a normal person to sleep! j/k

After dinner our driver took us back to the the Nikko Club and we had a couple refreshments, some chocolate, and headed up to bed. We were exhausted.

[…]

Yesterday morning (September 13th), we had a guided tour up the middle of the island ending in Batur Village in Kitamani. It bears Lake Batur, the largest of Bali's 3 lakes, and has Batur Volcano with 3 craters. It was most recently active in 1996. It's wild seeing the black lava layer with no vegetation whatsoever.
On the way to the volcano we stopped at a theater to watch some Barong dancing, a traditional Balinese dance with instruments such as a flute & piccaloe, gong, drums, gamelan (similar to a xylephone), and hand symbols. Dancers dress up in gorgeous costumes depicting lions, monkeys, witches, Gods...the Barong dance ends with Good defeating Evil.
After dancing we went and observed some ladies doing Batik art, a multistep Balinese traditional artwork where the artist uses wax over layered dyes to produce very detailed worked. Everthing was for sale as well. Prices are high as bargaining is the norm.

We then went to Elephant Cave Temple - Pura Goa Gajah in the village of Bedulu. As you enter you see a massive tree that must be 75 yards tall and wide, at the bottom of the hill is the ruins of the temple from a landslide all stacked in various ordered stacks. There are three stone carved fountains and holy water in the middle. Along the western side is a statue of Ganesa. There is also a cave with other shrines inside.

Afterwards we stopped at a fruit plantation and checked out mangosteen trees, salak trees (with their thorns) - the fruit is AKA snake skin fruit, vanilla plants - need to be replanted after each harvest, cocoa, nutmeg, coffee - the beans are ready to to harvested when they turn from green to red (mongoose know when the coffee is ripe), banana trees - the wood is very smooth, shiney, and pretty, tamarillo fruit - similar to kiwis, but not as sweet.

We also stopped at Tirta Empul, where a statue of God Indra holding holy water greets you as you enter. The palace, Tampak Sirling is above on the hills, it was build by Sukarna (president) and is currently used by the government. The temple is 10th century, and is the location of a live natural water spring. The location where the water comes our of the earth, myths says that it is coming from Indra's speer. People bath to rid themselves of bad spirits. I had to wear a saron and selendong (belt) to enter. There is a statue of Shiva called Linga Yoni, which means the symbol of creation, and to Shiva's right was Nandini, a holy cow. The temples had old Balanese architechture with many pilars to hold it up under any condition. One of the temples has 2 dragons guarding it, one for prosperity and the other for safety.

Anyhow...enough with the facts, we finally got our bags and are enjoying our hotel. Club level at the hotel treats us great, free beer and Perrier, free breakfast and Internet, newspapers, and wonderful service. Today (the 14th) we are going to grab some breakfast and go for a beach walk. We have massages scheduled at 10, and are going to Dreamland beach with another honeymooning couple from Philly. More later, Megan is a about to kill me for typing for so long...

[...]