Bali and Singapore, 2013

Excited to be getting on a plane for Bali tomorrow. Here's a blog post about Balinese gamelan music, listen in! somebits.com/weblog/culture/music/balinese-gamelan.html

This is the finest dining in SFO's international terminal. Firewood café, with garbage pile.

16 hours later, in the Hong Kong interzone waiting for a plane to Bali. Lovely hand pulled cappuccino to go with the congee.

29 hours door to door, but we are comfortably ensconced in a nice hotel in Bali. We are not so fresh.

Anti nyamukbakar VAPE. Fumakilla.

Amazed at how important Twitter has become for me as an emotional connection back home when traveling.

It's disorienting being somewhere where the sin shines straight down. Sure is beautiful though.

Where the *sun* shines straight down. Lol, hell of a typo.

Lovely karma today. Ken lost his money clip, presumed pickpocketed at the airport. Bummer! Our hotel room cleaner found it, returned no fuss

Saw a thrilling kecak performance in Uluwatu. The white monkey god ran into the audience and rubbed Ken's bald head. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kecak

Having a "trapped in the luxury resort" moment in Bali. It's very nice here, but I feel like I'm missing the real world outside the walls.

Here's some good photos from the same kecak performance I saw. Interesting traditional / tourist fusion. abu2.com/2013/04/05/daily-photo-indonesia-bali-kecak-and-fire-dance

Contemplating a map whose landmarks are the local village council house, a resort hotel, and a banyan tree.

Google Maps geocoding defaults to the middle of Denpasar for any Balinese address it can't locate. It's pretty misleading.

Ken, on this dancer, "if Lili Tomlin were Balinese"

Hotel "Taste of Bali" music + food extravaganza both vulgar and captivating. Deep culture can absorb some pandering.

Packed up to head to Ubud in Bali. The Intercontinental in Jimbaran was very good to us, sorry to be leaving.

View from our balcony at the Intercontinental.

In Bali, the moist towels a fancy place brings you in greeting are chilled, not steamed.

Made it to the Four Seasons Sayan (Ubud, Bali). It is quite lovely.

Gingerbread house in Bali.

Lots of success in Bali today. Great visit to an art museum, amazingly detailed paintings from the 1940s. armabali.com/museum

Even better in Bali today was visiting a composer, a friend-of-a-friend of Gamelan Salukat. Amazing chance to learn. dewaalitsalukat.com

Lovely dinner with a gay couple from Hong Kong, originally Singapore and Malaysia via Zimbabwe. I like meeting interesting people traveling.

Here's a long postcard from Bali: somebits.com/weblog/culture/travel/bali.html

Tropicana Slim artificial sweetener (sorbitol, aspartame). With picture of corn.

Crazy day in Bali ends in me buying a beautiful "young artist" painting direct from I Ketut Soki.

Trans Culture / Please Vote

A world exactly like our own, but Korea has won the War on Christmas. All carols are replaced with soaring renditions of Arirang.

Christmas Eve dinner: a group of Balinese musicians playing ukulele and singing Feliz Navidad. Shalom and aloha!

Balinese "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" with country and western fiddle. The lady in Turkish lounge outfit is dancing hula

Merry Christmas from Bali! More of a Green Christmas, sad to be leaving today for Singapore.

Correction: the ukulele I heard is an Indonesian kalung cheong (sp).

Merry Christmas from Singapore! (Grinch on the left).

Singapore seems very exciting. Nice urban counterpoint to Bali.

@DanaDanger in the past 24 hours I've been wished Merry Christmas by Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and maybe one or two Christians.

Our big plan to avoid Christmas in SE Asia backfired; lots of festive holiday stuff. But it's fun.

Singapore day: wine and tapas by the river with friends, then room service pizza and duty free whiskey with American TV.

Thinking of @enf while visiting Singapore's Urban Planning museum (URA). Great ambition.

Fresh paratah and masala chai in Tekka Market, Singapore.

"Orchard Road is named after the nutmeg orchards that used to line it ... one of them coincidentally belonging to a Mr Orchard Road."

Another way Twitter has enriched my life: casually meeting hospitable interesting folks like @balaji_dutt while traveling.

Headed to Bangkok today. Admitting a little apprehension; the political situation there is awfully tense right now.

Sensible subway floor markings. We need these on #sfmuni

Bangkok so far: big city, fascinating, grimy. Nice river. No sign of protests in my tourist world, but yellow shirt stays in suitcase.

Bangkok: boat taxi, Emerald Buddha temple, tuk tuk, beer, coffee, political rally, taxi. Dinner and gay bar tonight.

20 years ago I would not have believed I'd be traveling the world relying on a Unix box with global Internet in my pocket.

As planned, found the sleazy part of Bangkok in Patpong. I like sleazy! but lasted 20 minutes; too crowded, pushy.

Basically what I'm saying is "I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine" #ImSoSorry #WaitedYearsToUseThatLine

The intro for the Bangkok transit website is an interstitial image honoring The King. bts.co.th

One bummer about Bangkok: scams. Well dressed man just told me Siam Square is closed. It's the central metro. No doubt his friend has a cab.

Metal detectors at Siam Center mall in Bangkok, everyone walks through, signal cheerfully ignored.

Pantip Plaza: urban Bangkok, specialty computer stores. Also lots of street level life, fun stuff.

Feeling blessed to have friends to meet in Singapore and Bangkok, not to mention a friend-of-a-friend near Ubud. Small worlds are good.

Happy New Year's from Bangkok, Americans! (Well happy 10am Jan 1)...

Finally had some exciting food in Bangkok at The Local. Amazing lemongrass salad with betal leaf. thelocalthaicuisine.com

I think I'll probably never bother bringing a dedicated camera on a vacation again.

There is Christmas music still all over Thailand and I cannot scream.

I think we did OK for the final hotel of our trip. (Dhana Dhevi, Chiang Mai).

Ken's not a big fan of taking shoes off and on at temples.

Riding elephants is even more horrible than riding horses. Big, awkward, creepy wet nose/hands.

One of the unexpected pleasures of this hotel in Chiang Mai is being close enough to a Thai mosque to hear the call to prayer at sundown.

Successful Thai cooking class at the Dhara Dhevi.

Visiting the fresh market in Chiang Mai.

Some of the architectural detail at the amazing Dhara Dhevi hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Drinking girl drinks in the airport hotel bar in Bangkok, preparing for the Long March home tomorrow.

Gambled and ordered "spicy thai taste" for our last dinner in Thailand. Was as requested; not sure if I won or lost.

Upper deck of a Cathay Pacific 747. Reasonably comfortable, but Ken doesn't like the bizarre little closets.

Glad to be home from Bangkok before that whole country falls apart. Functioning democracy FTW.

Welcome to our beautiful city, visitors.

Btw I redacted my tweet about the seats: coffins, not closets. Cathay's business seats feel like narrow coffins.

Slept from 10pm to 7am local time, first night back home. Have I found the magic jet lag reset pills?