17 Mosquito bites, 0 Malaria symptoms

The monkeys probably could have done a better job with the razor than I did

This is my favorite sequence of photos. Simone is looking at something in the distance. The monkey is looking at the sunglasses that Simone hid under her dress

He really wanted those glasses. At least, I hope it was the glasses that he wanted... Maybe this was just a really smart monkey

My hypochondriac moments this week included a panicked race to our fridge, the decision to purchase an epinephrine injection kit, and in a separate event, I set a new personal record for time spent holding my breath.

Several nights ago, while seated peacefully at our pool-side lounge area, I was composing an email to help a new acquaintance with his chronic allergies and inexplicable body aches. Simone was peacefully playing guitar and the only other sound was that of tropical animals and our water fountain that flows into the fish pond. Suddenly, I experienced lightheadedness and a pain behind my left eye... Immediately, I blamed it on the inhalation and over-exposure to smoke from one of the four mosquito coils that were burning nearby our property. I rushed to the fridge to drink 20ml of colloidal silver and take 5g of vitamin C- It seemed to work, the dizziness faded and all was well.

Its not hard to make playing guitar look sexy, but this is ridiculous. And I get front row tickets to this concert every day;)

As for the epinephrine injection kit... I was recently browsing the local newspaper and came across an article that announced the death of a man from Australia, who is a surfer and local entrepreneur. Last week, he suffered anaphylactic shock, and died instantly- while eating a snail at a restaurant in the village we live in. Knowing that Simone has an insatiable appetite for exotic foods and bizarre delicacies, I vowed that this would not happen to us.

The waiter told her that she could eat the entire thing, except for the head. She looked at him in right in the eyes as she bit the fishes head off, and smiled while chewing it. I told him that she was from Liechtenstein, and he said "Well, that explains it"

And the personal record that I set for holding my breath was not performed while surfing or spear-fishing. It happened as I was driving to the beach town of Sanur to check out a surf break and an organic food store. In the same publication that wrote about the man dying from eating a snail, there was an article about the rise of Asian Bird-Flu (H5N1) cases that have been confirmed in Bali. As I was driving down a street where passing a vehicle was more dangerous than poking a cobra with a chop-stick, (they do that here in Bali) I found myself trapped behind a vehicle that was transporting hundreds of chickens. By the time I noticed that I couldn't maneuver around the truck, it was too late to even take in one last pull of air. I simply decided to stop breathing. This lasted well over a minute, and just as I was about to swerve into a rice field to avoid passing-out on that busy street, I noticed that it could be possible to overtake the chicken truck. I downshifted 2 gears and twisted the throttle to wide-open... the driver must have been laughing to himself at the site of a tourist rocketing by on a motorcycle, with a distorted face of squinted eyes and puffed-out cheeks, lips pushed upwards to cover my nostrils. Safe again, but I'm on full-time lookout for coughing farmers and sicker-than-average looking chickens.

The truck I got stuck behind was 1/2 the size, and carried double the amount of chickens.

In other food-related events, Simone and I have registered for cooking classes to learn how to create local balinese dishes. We want to learn more about the Indonesian culture, and we want to find out why the food here tastes so good. Sundays lesson is a smoked duck feast with yellow rice, spiced coconut salad with tomato sprouts and avocado, and coconut-mint ice cream. I'm excited to spend time learning how to create delicious authentic Balinese food... and no doubt, I will modify them to create a healthier version of these dishes that we're currently enjoying. For me, the taste of food is secondary to its nutritious profile, and this reasoning led me to request a tour of the kitchen at the local Warung (Bali restaurant) where we eat breakfast daily.
It was an interesting experience, and the staff were very friendly and helpful. After giving them a brief tutorial on the dangers of re-using oils and the importance of proper food-storage, they now cook all of our food in cold-pressed organic coconut oil, and they use sea-salt instead of the MSG-filled seasoning that Asian cultures love to use. Both of these items have been donated to the kitchen by me, and now they also have my organic espresso beans, our organic eggs, and a mango that we bought from the Bintang Market.

Tomorrow, Simone has organized a Certification course for me, training for Open-Water scuba diving. The instructor is coming to our location for a day of theory and a lesson in the pool. Then, for the next two days, we will travel North to Tulamben for a dive to an off-shore wreck that had been sunken by a Japanese submarine in WWll. Simone was diving there last year, and reports that she is excited to see if her underwater friend, Frank, is still there. (Frank is a 5ft long Barracuda)

Frank

Last week we went windsurfing in a bay that is famous for the sport. Unfortunately for us, the winds that day made our efforts very challenging, as they were strongly blowing directly towards the shore. Technically, this should make for a difficult start, but a simple return to the base camp on the beach. For us, this was not the case. I have never windsurfed before. Simone has, but it's been a while. Being stubborn and perhaps over-confident in our physical abilities, Simone and I  declined the offer from the instructor who wanted to give us a quick lesson. Simone's rational was that its like riding a bicycle... once you've learned, you'll never forget. My rational was that windsurfing looks like a big wakeboard with a sail attached... I know how to sail a small boat, I know how to wakeboard... this should be easy. We had the instructor assemble our gear and waved goodbye to him as we started out into the ocean. The next 30 minutes were undoubtedly the most entertaining and satisfying portion of the day for the employees working at the windsurf rental. Not to mention, the hundreds of vacationers who were laying out on the beach were now giving us their full attention... pointing at us and empathizing for our situation.

Every sport has a learning curve. I have discovered that sports involving natural elements such as wind speed and direction, tide changes, or even lunar phases and temperature, have a much longer learning curve than organized land sports. In windsurfing, just as you think you are getting the hang of whatever it is you are doing, a simple wind change can completely alter the effects of your efforts, and it seems to be back to square-one.
There was one point where I found that standing up on the board was possible, only the problem was that i was traveling backwards, and towards the shore. I scanned the area for Simone, and happily discovered that she was actually sailing... only she was not going outwards towards the ocean. She managed to look comfortable and even somewhat skilled on the windsurfer, but could only travel in one direction- which happened to be parallel to the beach, and only about 10m from it. Simone's biggest concern was to avoid the swimmers that were under the impression that a windsurfer could easily maneuver around them. Trust me when I say that these particular windsurfers, could not. Every swimmer in our path was in danger.

Finally, about an hour later, I had managed to figure out the mechanics of this sport and felt surprisingly comfortable. I noticed large waves breaking in the distance about 2 miles off-shore. Naturally, I wanted to go and jump them- so I headed straight out in the ocean to go play in the waves. My alternate route obviously concerned the rental company, because within minutes, the instructor had geared up on his fastest equipment, and chased me down to stop me from going any further. I was disappointed, but knew that it was a good call for him to make. I was escorted back to the shore, and our time was up. I looked towards the beach where the rental company was, but I could not locate Simone.
 I looked all over the surface of the ocean but did not see her. Then, while scanning the perimeter of the beach, my eyes focused on what appeared to be a windsurf board pulled 1/4 way onto the sand, with its sail sunken in the water. Then, I saw her sitting there. She was calmly laying on the beach, about 1mile from the rental area.

So I made it to home base, shoved my equipment to the shore and ran towards Simone. I was confused as to why one of the rental employees did not go and help her, or pick her up on one of their Jet-skis. Then I realized that we were getting charged by the hour, so It was in their best interest to let us struggle and take our time. Or so they thought...

I attempted to windsurf back to the base with Simones equipment, while she walked back- but her equipment didn't want to cooperate. Unfortunately, Simone had been unlucky and became caught in a completely windless zone. From where we were, the only way to get the equipment back was to head straight back out towards the ocean, and then make a sharp 180 degree turn back towards the shore. I did this as best as I could, and made it about 3/4 of the way back, then proceeded to give up and swim the equipment in.

The adventure now over, we both enjoyed the experience but were happy that the time was up... We will return when there is a more agreeable wind. I had a good talk with the staff as they attempted to charge us for a total of 4 hours, AND a lesson (more like a rescue-fee). I was very upset at the fact that they allowed Simone to remain stranded and did not even attempt to come to her aid... It was clear to me that the motive was to exploit us for extra time spent with the rental. After a short story describing a scenario that would have put the instructor in the same position as us, we agreeably negotiated a fair price and everybody was satisfied.

We recently moved to a house right beside the one we were living in for the past 11nights, as we were too late to book it for the entire month. Our new house Is much larger and more extravagant, and we like it- but miss the charm of the previous, smaller one.... So we booked it for 6 months from Oct, 2011-April, 2012. Can't wait to see you for Christmas, mom!

Ubud is a magical village. It means 'Medicine' in the Bahasa language- and I can honestly say that living here feels better (for the soul;) than any pill that I ever took.


Love to all

Welcome to Spiderville. Click on this picture if you are feeling brave. 

This is Mt. Batur. The black is the dried lava. It last erupted in the 60's, and apparently is currently active and showing signs of new movement... Hopefully it will erupt onto Spiderville. That place was freaky

This little guy lives in our pond. He makes sooooo much noise.

Simone is thinking about where the pool would go, and if her horse should be above or below the house. Decisions decisions...  

This is my horse... it has breaks, a throttle, and a horn. Just the way I like it