pikir-pikir
Monday, April 17, 2006
Bali Update
eeee ew
I travelled to Bali over the weekend because I was playing in a frisbee tournament on Friday and Saturday. Being unemployed and having nothing to do, however, I flew in on Wednesday and got back last night. It was a really fun trip:
I spent Wednesday night and the first half of Thursday staying with a cousin of mine who lives in Denpasar. He's a really cool guy who works for the government and has a couple of kids (the oldest is my little brother's age). I took a picture with the younger son, who's a freshman in high school.
Thursday afternoon I said goodbye to the newly rediscovered family members and checked into the tournament hotel... Lots of expats... two teams from Indonesia, two teams from Singapore, one team from HK, one team from Guam, one team from Saipan. I took a quick walk down to the beach, then took another walk around the commercial district with a team groupie from Bali who helped me find appropriate attire for the "Bali-wood" tournament party.
Friday was frisbee all day. We won a couple of games handily and lost a couple of close ones. This was my first experience playing for DiscIndo and it was a little eye opening. The quality of play in Asia is definitely a step down from the American club scene - and that's to be expected - but I basically was forced to handle for most of the day because I was one of only a few players who could be counted on to reliably throw the disc. It didn't help, of course, that two of the team's best players got caught in a flood on the way to the airport from jakarta and missed all of Friday. If they were there we likely would have finished the day 4-0.
Friday night I let the people who have been in Indonesia longer than a week show me around a little. We ended up going to a neat patio restaurant a getting very high quality food for about $10/person. The price of good food here makes me happy. The price of food in Bali makes me even happier because the selection is a lot more eclectic and the overall quality is generally higher but the price is for the most part the same.
After dinner there was a tournament event at a local bar... my dinner crew went and had a couple of drinks, but we were all really exhausted - pretty much falling over - from the day of running and we wanted to be at least somewhat fresh for games the following day, so we again ended the night rather early.
Saturday we got our two waylaid players and the effects immediately showed: In our first game of the day, DiscIndo beat the highest caliber team in the tournament, a group called Freakshow from Singapore. They've got a few Danish national team players, a few other excellent handlers, and a more sophisticated offense than any team in the tournament. DiscIndo had never before defeated them. I scored a lot of points and got to cut deep a lot (the two guys who arrived could handle, so I thankfully got to switch positions). I like being fast.
Anyhow, we ended up playing Freakshow again in the semifinals and this time losing a hard fought game by a couple of points. Again I played well and the team played well. I had a great time playing.
The humidity was terrible. Absolutely awful. There was a point, too, where I was seriously worried about heat stroke. (sorry, I forgot insert that into its proper place while working my way through the narrative)
So Freakshow won the tournament and everybody was happy that they were in Bali. Drinking began immediately after the first teams were eliminated and escalated - still at the fields - until a couple hours after the tournament was over.
went back, showered (oh yeah, the hotel had wireless!), grabbed some vegan food with a couple of teammates. I hate vegan food. I kind of agreed to go along before I knew what I was getting myself into and I was already in the taxi when I realized that I was not going to enjoy my dinner. Food was ok, but lots of stomach pain ensued. True to my roots, however, I just kind of drank through it.
We went form the restaurant to look for knockoff sunglasses because the guys I was eating with liked mine, then we went straight to the party. drinking...
...
...
At one point in the night I decided it would be a good idea to take off my jeans so I could jump into the pool outside the club we were at... ... when I got back to the jeans, there was no camera inside them. It sucks that I don't have a camera anymore, but I can get a new one, not bring it out to Balinese clubs, still have fun.
Anyhow, at some point in the night I drank the concentrated version of redbull on which the 1st world version of red bull is based - the one that thai truck drivers drink to stay up all night... and it worked wonders. I was feeling really crappy to begin the evening, but somehow I didn't leave the club until 545 am, still not feeling tired (but very worried about the side-effects of my thai truck driver elixir).
The next day there was some hangover brunch, some frisbee on the beach, some hangover dinner, and a flight home.
I think I'm going to try to get a week off before I start whatever job I get and just spend it in Bali.
I like Bali. ¶ 4:10 AM 0 comments
I travelled to Bali over the weekend because I was playing in a frisbee tournament on Friday and Saturday. Being unemployed and having nothing to do, however, I flew in on Wednesday and got back last night. It was a really fun trip:
I spent Wednesday night and the first half of Thursday staying with a cousin of mine who lives in Denpasar. He's a really cool guy who works for the government and has a couple of kids (the oldest is my little brother's age). I took a picture with the younger son, who's a freshman in high school.
Thursday afternoon I said goodbye to the newly rediscovered family members and checked into the tournament hotel... Lots of expats... two teams from Indonesia, two teams from Singapore, one team from HK, one team from Guam, one team from Saipan. I took a quick walk down to the beach, then took another walk around the commercial district with a team groupie from Bali who helped me find appropriate attire for the "Bali-wood" tournament party.
Friday was frisbee all day. We won a couple of games handily and lost a couple of close ones. This was my first experience playing for DiscIndo and it was a little eye opening. The quality of play in Asia is definitely a step down from the American club scene - and that's to be expected - but I basically was forced to handle for most of the day because I was one of only a few players who could be counted on to reliably throw the disc. It didn't help, of course, that two of the team's best players got caught in a flood on the way to the airport from jakarta and missed all of Friday. If they were there we likely would have finished the day 4-0.
Friday night I let the people who have been in Indonesia longer than a week show me around a little. We ended up going to a neat patio restaurant a getting very high quality food for about $10/person. The price of good food here makes me happy. The price of food in Bali makes me even happier because the selection is a lot more eclectic and the overall quality is generally higher but the price is for the most part the same.
After dinner there was a tournament event at a local bar... my dinner crew went and had a couple of drinks, but we were all really exhausted - pretty much falling over - from the day of running and we wanted to be at least somewhat fresh for games the following day, so we again ended the night rather early.
Saturday we got our two waylaid players and the effects immediately showed: In our first game of the day, DiscIndo beat the highest caliber team in the tournament, a group called Freakshow from Singapore. They've got a few Danish national team players, a few other excellent handlers, and a more sophisticated offense than any team in the tournament. DiscIndo had never before defeated them. I scored a lot of points and got to cut deep a lot (the two guys who arrived could handle, so I thankfully got to switch positions). I like being fast.
Anyhow, we ended up playing Freakshow again in the semifinals and this time losing a hard fought game by a couple of points. Again I played well and the team played well. I had a great time playing.
The humidity was terrible. Absolutely awful. There was a point, too, where I was seriously worried about heat stroke. (sorry, I forgot insert that into its proper place while working my way through the narrative)
So Freakshow won the tournament and everybody was happy that they were in Bali. Drinking began immediately after the first teams were eliminated and escalated - still at the fields - until a couple hours after the tournament was over.
went back, showered (oh yeah, the hotel had wireless!), grabbed some vegan food with a couple of teammates. I hate vegan food. I kind of agreed to go along before I knew what I was getting myself into and I was already in the taxi when I realized that I was not going to enjoy my dinner. Food was ok, but lots of stomach pain ensued. True to my roots, however, I just kind of drank through it.
We went form the restaurant to look for knockoff sunglasses because the guys I was eating with liked mine, then we went straight to the party. drinking...
...
...
At one point in the night I decided it would be a good idea to take off my jeans so I could jump into the pool outside the club we were at... ... when I got back to the jeans, there was no camera inside them. It sucks that I don't have a camera anymore, but I can get a new one, not bring it out to Balinese clubs, still have fun.
Anyhow, at some point in the night I drank the concentrated version of redbull on which the 1st world version of red bull is based - the one that thai truck drivers drink to stay up all night... and it worked wonders. I was feeling really crappy to begin the evening, but somehow I didn't leave the club until 545 am, still not feeling tired (but very worried about the side-effects of my thai truck driver elixir).
The next day there was some hangover brunch, some frisbee on the beach, some hangover dinner, and a flight home.
I think I'm going to try to get a week off before I start whatever job I get and just spend it in Bali.
I like Bali. ¶ 4:10 AM 0 comments
Monday, April 10, 2006
Kuala Lumpur in Photos 1
Palace of Justice, Putrajaya
A beautiful new mosque, Putrajaya
My 2nd cousin Akkin, his wife Shiqin and our broken down car on the side of the highway
¶ 10:51 PM 1 comments
Anonymous Government Building, Putrajaya
Palace of Justice, Putrajaya
A beautiful new mosque, Putrajaya
My 2nd cousin Akkin, his wife Shiqin and our broken down car on the side of the highway
¶ 10:51 PM 1 comments
first draft update
a quick update while i prepare to get my act together to write a proper entry.
Three days in Kuala Lumpur:
-Tons of distant relatives whose names I couldn't remember
-awesome airport
-stayed at a nice hotel run by shady chinese people in chinatown
-chinatown is dirty and crazy
-beautiful skyscrapers
-humongous malls teeming with asian hipsters and white men (replete with starbucks, coffee bean, CPK, borders, etc)
-lots of bones, no knives (this was the biggest source of culture shock)
-terrible jetlag
-read kite runner, thought it was good
Jakarta so far has been a lot like college:
-lots of drinking and partying the second night I was here ("networking")
-lots of drinking and poker the third night i was here (networking)
-frisbee on sunday afternoon
-a movie this afternoon
also:
-terrible traffic system
-humongous malls
-amazing movie theaters (lazyboys, blankets, drink service for the cost of an american movie)
-lots of family
-lots of motorcycles
-lots of pollution
-lots of slums
-humongous houses everywhere
I leave for Bali in two days to play frisbee - i'm really excited about that.
the plan for after bali:
-continue working to learn as much of the language as possible whilst jobless
-find a job
-find an apartment
should be easy, right? ¶ 8:11 AM 1 comments
Three days in Kuala Lumpur:
-Tons of distant relatives whose names I couldn't remember
-awesome airport
-stayed at a nice hotel run by shady chinese people in chinatown
-chinatown is dirty and crazy
-beautiful skyscrapers
-humongous malls teeming with asian hipsters and white men (replete with starbucks, coffee bean, CPK, borders, etc)
-lots of bones, no knives (this was the biggest source of culture shock)
-terrible jetlag
-read kite runner, thought it was good
Jakarta so far has been a lot like college:
-lots of drinking and partying the second night I was here ("networking")
-lots of drinking and poker the third night i was here (networking)
-frisbee on sunday afternoon
-a movie this afternoon
also:
-terrible traffic system
-humongous malls
-amazing movie theaters (lazyboys, blankets, drink service for the cost of an american movie)
-lots of family
-lots of motorcycles
-lots of pollution
-lots of slums
-humongous houses everywhere
I leave for Bali in two days to play frisbee - i'm really excited about that.
the plan for after bali:
-continue working to learn as much of the language as possible whilst jobless
-find a job
-find an apartment
should be easy, right? ¶ 8:11 AM 1 comments