"Not all girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice. Some girls are made of adventure, fine beer, brains and no fear."
It's a new year. 2019. 365 days have quickly came and gone. I know during the last leg of 2018, I was completely busy and focused on a lot of other things. I let time pass me by. Before the year end, I found some time to sit and revisit memories made on the countless journeys in 2018. In this new year, I plan to find the time and stay committed to writing. My brother says I've "fallen out of my passion," so I need to get back on board and do what I do best. I wish nothing but success and greatness for everyone in this new year. It's not to late to finish what's been started...
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So, I left off on my last journey back in August with the "Girls Trip!"
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I don't understand or know why I put myself in chaotic situations before I travel. I need someone to help me get my life together, because I cannot keep doing this. Let me tell you the story....
As you may know, I live on an island in Korea, right? There are no direct flights to the Incheon, and I have to transfer by metro for about 30 minutes from Gimpo to Incheon. I missed the one flight off the island to allow me time to make my "connecting" flight off mainland. 😐 I saw my trip to Indonesia over in that split second. Being so desperate, I went to different airline counters trying to find the next available flight off the island. I found one and canceled my connecting flight. Yes, at this point I'm flying to mainland with no outbound flight(s). After landing, I started searching search engines for available flights. At the last minute, I ending up flying to the Philippines so that I could get to Indonesia as originally planned. That process wasn't easier. Moral of the story: Don't miss your flight(s).
At last, I'm in Bali, Indonesia. Having my feet on the ground and passport stamped, I was feeling at ease. Soon, I'd be meeting up with my girls to begin my (our) vacation. Let the fun begin!
As I entered the last leg of their Bali trip, I found out over drinks that we all been having some travel "issues." Let's just say, we thank God for all the days he gives us. We all had the mindset to just chill on the beach and enjoy wonderful weather and each others company. Ended up having a photo shoot, dinner and watching a fire show on Double-Six Beach.
Indonesia is know for the "vendors" and bargaining that goes on. We were all looking for souvenirs to get family and friends back home, so it was our mission to get some good "deals." I ended up spending more money on souvenirs than I expected, but I got my money's worth😏. We walk around several hours. We stumbled across this bar "The Blow Bar." Could you possibly guess what type of bar it is........?
The mural makes sense to us now. [It's literally a salon with a bar inside.]
After a few hours on the road heading back to the hotel, the vehicle rocks vigorously in the parking lot. Earthquake number 2 in Bali, Indonesia (Maribel experienced one that was smaller earlier in the week). While people were evacuating out hotel buildings, we trying to find somewhere to eat. We were hungry and tired. Not even 45 minutes later, tremors caused for another evacuation.😔 I was so over earthquakes.
We wake up to a brand new day like nothing happened. Mission for the Day, "The Gates of Heaven" or its given name, The Temple of Pura Penataran Agung Lempuyang. It took about 2.5 hours to get there. Once we got there, we had to ride on the back of bikes up the hill. The incline was to steep to walk that day as we didn't have that much time. After we walked up the entrance hill for about 5 minutes, we made it to the remarkable point of The Gates of Heaven. Waiting in that line for about 2 hours was worth it. On our 2 hour journey back, we watch students parade the streets in preparation for an event that was forthcoming, and our driver made a few stops for us to take pictures and enjoy the beautiful scenery of Indonesia. You may wonder were I get some of my "travel inspiration" from....social media; Instagram. The power of hashtags.
The 5th day, we woke up ready to leave Indonesia and move on to our next adventure. There was another "strong" tremor during the night. I tried to wake Maribel up and tell her, but she was more focused on her sleep. Lolz. (I acted like I didn't feel it as well.) That morning we were off to Sri Lanka. But first, we have to stop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
I've been to Kuala Lumpur before, so I remembered a little bit about the city and had some places in mind for us to visit. Two things I didn't get to experience on my last trip were the Batu Caves and KL Tower Sky Deck. Maribel's mission was to try food from Burger King. I'm not going to lie, they don't have my shade of make-up in Korea, so I had to run to Sephora and get some of Rihanna's Fenty products. I had been looking forward to that part of my trip for the longest. Anyways, to the caves we went. We did a work out getting to the top of the caves, and it turned out to be a very nice view. We did a little "community service" by volunteering to take a pail of materials (rocks... I can't remember) to the top of the stair case. After our visit to the caves and avoiding the monkeys, we made our way to the KL Tower Sky Deck. I forgot exactly how far it was from the location we were at, and it took forever. With so many tourist visiting on a TUESDAY, we finally made it to get our pictures. It. Was. Go. Time. We had less than 1 hour and 30 minutes to get to the metro station to catch the "last" airport train before we'd miss our flight. 🙅 We're less than 15 minutes away from the train station, but traffic is JAMMED PACK!! I think I was so stressed and worried, I was rude to the taxi driver asking him why he didn't know any quicker routes and why he couldn't calculate the ETA with this traffic. I know. Horrible. I gave myself a headache. I think Maribel and I prayed so much, God heard our prayers as we made it to the station with LITERALLY 4 minutes to spare. (I know I was wrong. I did feel bad about how I acted. Don't judge me. 😂)
Finally on the flight to Colombo.... Sri Lanka, here we come! 😴
*Plane lands safely in Sri Lanka* WE. MADE. IT. Now, we're just trying to pick up the rental and head to the hotel. As foreigners, we asked for too much. Man oh man... if you're a foreigner (especially female), please do not rent a car in Sri Lanks. You're just asking for unnecessary attention, and you'll be driving for hours trying to get to places. I did extensive research to know what documentation we needed in order to drive in Sri Lanka. Every time we went through the toll, the police stopped us and searched. The first time, they just seemed so confused by female foreigners driving in their country. The other time, they were trying to get over on us. Trying to say we were driving on the wrong side of the road (which we weren't) and make us pay a fine. I read the translated papers and I told the man several times that it didn't apply to us. He looked confused. We were there for more than 10 minutes. I'm not going to lie, I was so fed up, I was going to give in, but Maribel was determined we were NOT going to pay these police officers for something we didn't do. 😂 We started playing dumb like we didn't understand and I kept repeating the same thing they kept telling us and said okay. They eventually let us go. Lolz. When we went back through the tolls, we made NO EYE CONTACT, both of us wearing sunglasses, with me fake sleeping. Oh the memories.
Other than those incidents, Sri Lanka is a beautiful country. If you visit the country, you'd need to go for a longer period and book with a tour agency. During our stay, we had a tuk-tuk drive us around the city of Colombo and we visited Colombo Fort and Browns Beach, which is about two hours a way from Colombo, to see the old Fort and relax on the beach.
I will admit, by the end of our trip, we were just ready to get back home and relax. Lolz. Although we may have had some "difficulties," it wasn't going to stop the journeys there. It taught us some valuable lessons and helped me to grow. I look forward to future trips (including group trips) as the adventures are always unforgettable.
Until the next adventure,
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.” – Anthony Bourdain
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