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The sun dipped blood red below
the remnants of thunderstorms and through the airplane window
we watched as the goddess of fire belched a massive plume
of steam high above the peak of Merapi, the active volcano
on Java. The plane descended towards the airport on Bali,
in the middle of the 13,766 islands that make up the island
nation of Indonesia.
Our first day on Bali we paid our respects
at the terrorist bombing site in Kuta. The flowers and notes
deposited on the site touched the place in our hearts where
we have felt tragic loss ourselves and we shared the survivors’
grief. We moved on to Ubud, a town in the mountain, where
we now call home.
Using Bali as a base we have three adventures
planned in the Indonesian archipelago.
If it’s before May 13th then we’re
still on Bali attending the numerous temple festivals and
celebrations and soaking up the warm friendly hospitality
of the Hindu culture here. We’ve planned a 2:00 AM climb
to the top of Bali’s active volcano. From the summit
we’ll share the sunrise over the 10,000-foot Rinjani
volcano on neighboring Lombok with monkeys.
The second part of our adventure takes us
to the islands east of Bali. We set sail for the islands in
mid-May where we’ll be visiting island tribes and hiking
volcanoes in search of monkeys and hot liquid magma. The garden
island of Flores is our eastern-most destination. We'll be
visiting the hissing dragons on nearby Komodo Island and scuba
diving the reefs along the crystal blue waters near Sumbawa
before returning to Bali around May 28th.
If you’ve torn away the month of May
on your wall calendar, then we should be on our third adventure
traveling to Java to visit our friend Shannon where we'll
explore the Buddhist temple ruins at Borabudor.
In the second week of June you can find
us by satellite imagery finishing off our supply of anti-malarial
pills as we base ourselves in Kuching in Malaysian Borneo.
We’ll be trekking through the jungles and caves of Sarawak
listening for gibbon calls and waterfalls. A visit to the
Orangutan rehabilitation center is high on our list of places
to visit.
 With
the invisible infectious cloud of SARS blowing out of South
China we have reconsidered our plan for a 20-day adventure
aboard the Trans-Mongolian railway travelling through China
and Mongolia to Moscow in early July. Friends of ours report
from Beijing that the travel candle in China is flickering
on its way to being snuffed out. Instead, we plan to fly to
Bangkok in late June for a brief visit then jet directly to
Moscow where we’ll work our way west into Europe. Our
other choice was overland via the silk route through Afghanistan
and Northern Iraq. Not!!
This picture was taken in the Singapore
Airport while waiting for our flight to Bali. Most people
in the airport were wearing masks and eyeing each other suspiciously.
If someone coughed others would move away from them.
We’d love to hear from you so drop
a dime. (I guess we’ll have to settle for email)
We posted tons of new Photos
and Journal
Writings so check them out.
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