family reunion

After our trek we decided to spend a couple days relaxing our bodies in Sengigi. It was a great couple days, where we each got an hour long full body massage for about the price of a starbucks coffee, and also tried to surf, although the only waves were over coral that was about 6 inches from the surface, so we bailed on that idea.
The next day we caught a ferry back to Bali where we met up with my Aunty Theresa and Uncle Bryan, who are currently living in Australia. It is only a short jaunt for them, so they are only in Bali for the week, and then back to Australia.
We spent the first night with them in Padangbai and then the next day went to Tulamben, a town a couple hours away that was the site of an American transport ship that was shot down by the Japanese during WWII. Theresa & Bryan hadn't planned on doing any diving on this trip, but us being new divers couldn't resist our first wreck dive, and so we all went and dove the wreck. It was very cool, as over the last 60 years, the coral and marine life had totally changed the ship into their home.
During our time so far, we had heard about this fruit 'Dorian' that has a reputation of 'tasting like heaven, but smelling like hell'. I can tell you that although the former is questionable, there is no doubt about the latter. I've heard it described as smelling like 'old mans socks' and a 'rotten diaper'. Many higher class hotels also ban this fruit from its premises because of the smell. We decided that we had to try this legendary fruit, and it lives up to its reputation. If you plug your nose while you eat it, its not that bad, but otherwise its pretty much impossible to eat. And I don't know how to describe its taste, it reminds me of something that I was forced to eat as a kid.
The next day we traveled to Lovina, a beach town on the North Coast of Bali with black sand beaches. The next morning we hired a guy with a boat to take us out to see the dolphins at 6am, but it turns out there was about 70 boats for one dolphin, that we did not see. That was okay, because after breakfast we went for another dive near an island with the most clear water I had ever seen. And althgough we didn't see anything sharks or huge fish (except for a huge green turtle just chilling out), it felt like I was swimming in aquarium, with the amazingly clear water and amazing corals and little fish swimming about.
Today we are now in Ubud, and plan on catching some traditional Balinese dancing tonight.

post from october 8th

Hey friends!

It's been awhile since our post. Lots has happened. Some of you may have heard about the earthquake here in Indonesia a week or so ago - we didn't get wind of it til a few days later but we've just heard it was pretty intense. It was in Sumatra though which is quite a ways away as we were on the island of Lombok finishing our scuba diving course. We've since finished and have now done about 10 dives total! Some pretty cool sights - Craig'll probably write more about that in his blog.



We just got back to civilization so to speak. We spent the last 3 days and 2 nights trekking the 2nd largest volcano in Indonesia called Mount Rinjani! Wow! I thought I've done some pretty intense hikes, but this was crazy! There's no such thing as traversing a mountain, its straight up and straight down! We hiked about 9 hours the 1st day to make it to our 1st base camp. There were 3 other girls with us, a guide and 3 porters to carry in food and supplies. The porters were so strong. I wish the pictures would upload but these men walked the entire trek in just flip flops & carrying 65 pounds or more of food etc on bamboo sticks over their shoulders!! We woke up at 3 am to start our ascent to the top of Mt. Ranangi. 3 hours later of straight uphill I was totally exhausted. Craig had made it to the top for the sunrise, I was about 15 minutes later but still found spectacular views. We hiked back down and took down camp and moved in the crater of the volcano next to a lake. By the time we set up that camp it was noon and we'd already hiked 8 hours!! We hiked out the next day - back to the top of one of the rims and then down to Senaru where we'd begun! Unbelievable views, the volcano is still spewing some lava - it erupted only 3 months ago and all through the night you could hear it rumbling. Our guide and porters were amazing cooks too and we spent time trying to learn some indonesian words and they english.

A few observations of our time in Indonesia: There are lots of rice paddies, monkeys, singing from temples, and dogs everywhere. Squat toilets are maneagable, sharks usually keep to themselves (we've seen 3 diving so far!), the people are super hard workers and carry crazy amounts of weight on their head - we watched men and women unload a boat of bricks carrying them to shore 2 at a time on their heads! People litter everywhere, roads are narrow, mopeds can seat three - not unusal to see a man and woman with a small child tucked between them swirving though traffic, i'm tired of banana pancakes - we've eaten them for about 8 days straight...washing clothes in salt water is not ideal... roosters crow at anytime of the night and craig and i should not sit in the back of their mini-vans! i got sick twice already!

thanks again for all your prayers. lots of love...

Bali

Suzanne and I are now in the Gili islands, enjoying the true 'island experiance'. Our travels from Bali to here included a 5 hour ferry, hour and a half van trip, (barely avoiding getting carsick) a 2 hour wait in the scorching late afternoon sun, and then a half hour boat trip where we all ended up soaked from the rough sea. now that we're here, life is very peachy. We're done our first 2 days of our open water diver course, and have out first dive in the morning! We're both very excited. Today we've played some beach volleyball with some Frenchman (and women) and tried the Indonesian version of Mexican food. I think they should stick to their Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice) and Chicken Curry instead. We are gretting used to the heat and humidity, and learning to drink water whenever we can. We're also learning how to barter, although I'm pretty sure we still paying more than twice what the locals pay. Tonight we're going to watch a movie on the beach! The 'strip' here on the beach is more built up than I thought it was, and you can indulge yourself quite nicely. We plan on hanging out here on the island for a few more days to finish our diving course and then do a few fun dives as well.

Honeymoon Details - Salmon Arm to Sorrento

We spent our last 2 nights at Craig's Parents cabin in Sorrento. We found a little Evangelical Church to attend Sunday morning - they were so friendly and genuine and very curious to hear all about our upcoming trip and involvement with Christian Vet Missions & Athletes In Action. They even asked us to add them to our prayer chain and to send them a letter and they'd try and help us out financially a bit too! Wow! Love being a part a God's family! Anyways - after all that, we decided to venture out to Copper Island on a 2 person kayak. It took us 3 hrs round trip but was well worth the sore arms and shoulders!

The island was beautiful and had great panoramic views. We found a trail that took us up to the summit and enjoyed a bite to eat before hiking back down.

Just a quick flex to pump up our egos! Feeling quite proud of our very adventuresome, outdoorsy, athletic honeymoon! And we've only just begun! We're excited to have so many of you curious to hear about our journey and thank you in advance for your prayers and support!

Next stop - Bali, Indonesia!!!!

Honeymoon Details - From Canmore to Salmon Arm

One of our friends - Caleb, invited us to spend a night in his crazy tree house in Salmon Arm as his wedding present to us so we took him up on it!


Its quite the tree house - a little tricky to get into if you're scared of heights or unsure of your balance - but we slept great after an awesome sauna and hang out time with a random group of very interesting people & friends of friends.


In the morning Caleb took us to see the last part of our wedding present... A Giant Rope Swing 30 some feet in the air! He calls it - "Walk the Plank"




Um ya - major adrenaline rush! Loved every second of it!

Honeymoon Details - From Fairmont to Lussier to Canmore

After a long day of hiking, we treated ourselves to a great meal at the Eagle Ranch Golf Resort. The view was beautiful (the clouds in this area the last 3 days have been amazing!) and the food was delicious. After supper we drove out Lussier Hot Springs - an awesome undeveloped all natural hot spring right next to a beautiful mountain stream! We camped over night a few km's away... froze, as Craig's 1st post stated, but warmed up considerably after an early morning dip in the hot springs!

We drove up to Canmore from there and did a short 2 hour hike up to Grassy Lakes. Again, beautiful views, a huge waterfall and 2 aqua blue calm as can be lakes to hang out and explore for awhile.

And by then it was time to check in for the night... a little warmer than tenting... Craig's parents let us stay the night in their time share. We cooked up an awesome meal, maple glazed salmon and enjoyed a relaxing evening!

Honeymoon Details cont'd

The second day at Fairmont found us on a 4 hour uphill climb to the peak of Mt. Swansea! The views were beautiful but the sun was a little too bright for me to smile normally :)
In the 3rd picture you can see a launch pad for hang gliders that takes them right off a massive cliff and into the valley! Talk about a rush!

Craig has a way of finding hilarious signs (we both got a kick out of the top one if you can read it) and in the 2nd picture he's standing on top of a jump that takes crazy mountain bikers over the logging road and veering down a dozen or more winding, twisting and steep trails!