Season Of Sand

Before we came to Iraq we were told that sandstorms had a "season".  I thought that meant a couple months each year.  The teacher announced that the season was from April through October.  That's quite a season.

Once we got here, I quickly wrote it off to urban (or desert) myth, since we were here for September and October and didn't see one sandstorm.

Of course if you keep up with this blog you'll know that we got stranded and missed our first day of R&R in the Maldives thanks to a sandstorm.

We returned without incident, but shortly after we got back several friends were stranded trying to return due to sandstorms.  And since then it seems we get a small sandstorm every few days.

Today, a mama sandstorm rolled in.  This place looks like the set of some sign of the times movie - or maybe a scene from the movie "Outbreak".  The sky is, well, gone - you can't see anything on the horizon.  Everything is tinted sepia and it's sort of eerily quiet.  We have to block our door at it's base with a towel, because even though it's a tiny crack dust just piles up in here and the halls are filled with it.  People are walking around with masks on their faces, although for the most part it's a total ghost town outside.


 It was so odd how it came upon us.  I walked home and it was clear and brilliant - the sun was shining.  It's not like a rain storm where you see clouds on the horizon.  James and I were eating lunch and all of a sudden our room just went dark.  But sepia-toned dark.  It was so strange.  We looked out the windows and it was as if someone had literally pulled a switch and we went from sunshine to dust storm in one second flat.

Anyway, it's odd.  I hope you get that.  It's very, very odd.  And I HOPE that this is not going to be something that happens all summer long.  And I also hope it doesn't keep us from our next R&R.  Who ever heard of dust holding you down? 

I thought Soup was good for the Soul

When we got back to Baghdad last week, my first task was wading through 200+ emails that had accumulated in my inbox.

I was able to quickly delete many of them, but there was one that stopped me in my tracks.  It was an informational email on items that were "standard prohibited and restricted items" from our USPS packages.  In other words, what people should not send us and what we should not send them through the mail.

I won't do the comprehensive list, but why we take a look at the first 10?

1.  Alcoholic beverages
2.  Collectible and/or irreplaceable items
3.  Collect on Delivery shipments
4.  Human corpses, human organs or body parts, human and animal embryos or cremated remains.
5.  Bullion
6.  Explosives and incendiary devices.
7.  Firearms
8.  Live animals, eggs, larva, live insects and live spiders.
9.  Drugs/narcotics
10. Processed or unprocessed dead animals, including insects and pets.

Ok, go. 
For me...so many of the items raise an eyebrow and make me wonder what has been done in the past.  I mean human corpses?  Processed or unprocessed dead animals?  Including, I don't know, INSECTS AND PETS?  But, ok...I can see it's not a good idea to send these items.

The FUNNIEST thing to me, was that amidst these rather crazy and/or dangerous items one stood out. 

Bullion.

Like, beef or chicken?  I mean did someone have a bad experience with soup?  (Corpses, Bullion, Explosives.)   I dunno, I felt this was important to put out for those of you who might mail a care package....I would hate for anyone to get flagged for a corpse....or some bullion.

Rubby-dub-dub...big boy soakin' in the tub

Alright folks, this is the last R&R post - promise.

If you've been to Bali you know that one of the BEST things you can do is get spa treatments.  Namely massages....for 10 dollars.  Heaven on earth.  Spa heaven to be exact.

James and I enjoyed a couple massages in our villa, and on the last day we went to the most famous spa in Seminyak: Bodyworks.

We got a special couples package that included a 60 minute massage, 60 minutes of exfoliation scrubbing to get rid of all that dead sun skin, and then we were rubbed down in skin silk-ening yogurt.  All followed by a tub full of flowers and ginger tea. All for 35 dollars.  Sigh.

James was a bit tentative about doing all this "girly-fancy-pantsy" stuff that he did not think anyone in his family would do -but I reassured him that if they could do it for $35 they would.  Am I right Deweys?  It seemed to persuade him.

It was divine. 

I must add, that for some reason - everywhere we went James thought it was funny to put fruit, vegetables or flowers on his eyes.  And I guess it was. 

His favorite funny-face moment however, was at the spa.  When the girls came back in to check on us and he whipped his face around to greet them with two geraniums on his face.  Yes....they were startled.  And we like to think, amused.

Fish Face

This post is for James' family.  They love animals and nature in a way that my family never will.   Let's just say my sister and brother-in-law would rather die than sleep in a tent.  And they're probably not alone...Travis?  Garrett?


It is especially for James' parents because they love snorkeling.


James and I went snorkeling in the Maldives and in Bali.  We got this new underwater camera because we just knew there would be a lot of really cool underwater life to capture.  The camera sucked.  I mean really sucked.  But whatever.   James will want to make sure I mention that we also saw dolphins, turtle and a Ray of some sort - but no good pics.  With no further ado, here are pictures of some of the fish and such....

Monkeys are not nice

Monkeys are terrifying and I never knew it.

They have always been my favorite animal.  I wanted one for a pet.  They are smart and cute, and the stuffed animal versions would wrap their arms and legs around you to give you a full body hug.  What's not to like?

I'll tell you.

When the real life monkeys wrap their arms and legs around you it's so they can kill you.

Last time I was in Ubud, I visited the Monkey Forest and I even invited a little monkey to jump up on my shoulder.  There are pictures to prove it.  However, once it was on my shoulder and I turned to look at it up close and personal it bared it's fangs and hissed at me.  That was when the little guy went flying. 

I still thought I loved monkeys when I took James to the forest.  Against his desire you might say.  He was terrified of monkeys from the get-go.

When we got there I reacted like Kristin did when she held Becky's parakeet on her finger, cooed at it, and then flung it in to the table after remembering she was "scared of birds."  I panicked a little.  James and I held on to each other tight and both tried to pretend we weren't afraid, but we ran from site to site and tried to avoid monkeys and follow groups at all possible cost.  It was worse than any haunted house I have been to before. 

                 They may be terrifying, but they sure help their friends out.

These monkeys know they own the place.  They seriously jumped on any old person they wanted at any given time - including sneak attacks (why James walked backwards and I walked forwards - ha!) and they stole whatever they could get their hands on.  And some were big.

I'm going to give you a heads up here.  That Planet of the Apes deal - not too far off.  Trust me.








Now here's an animal you don't have to worry about.  Hello Butterfly.

Oh Meester.....

During our stay in Seminyak, we learned about a quiet beach named Geger Beach and decided to visit it on our way to Uluwatu and Jimbaran.

Geger beach was beautiful, and relatively quiet…except for the hotel construction next door.  Ah, development.

One of the things you find in many developing countries, and is quite aggressive in Bali are the vendors.  No matter where you go, no matter if you’re sleeping, eating or swimming – people will come up to you with their offers of sarongs, bracelets, and massage.  I swear if I was on a surfboard in the middle of the ocean I could see one of them swimming out, basket on head and shouting at me, “You like bracelet?  Massage?”

Geger Beach was no exception.  James was targeted by two cute little kids who were determined to each sell him three bracelets.  They got close: 2 bracelets each and a magnet.  

                 

                                                  One haggler,

                                            Two hagglers,

                                           Three hagglers.

The negotiations took about 20 minutes and their mothers and grandmother were soon seated in beach chairs around us watching the proceedings as well. 

The beach kids were aggressive, but it was when we visited the mother temple that the word aggressive took on a whole new meaning.

This girl attached herself to James from the moment we entered the temple.  She followed him up all the stairs, around the temple and partway down.  And the whole time she followed him she repeated the same thing in a sing-song voice, “Meester…buy my postcards….1 dollar.  Meester…you buy postcards…1 dollar.” 

Sometimes she made eye contact, but mostly she just looked glassy-eyed.  I think she may have been hypnotized.  I thought maybe if I shook her she would come out of it and say, “Where am I?  What am I doing?  And why do I have all these postcards??”

Anyway, at first it was cute, then it got annoying, then it got hysterical.  I couldn’t believe the endurance.  And the whole time she did it our guide just kept trying to talk over her and pretended he didn’t notice.  Quite surreal.

I am saddened to report that she walked away with no dollar and James walked away with no postcard.  I probably would have rewarded that kind of persistence, but James is a man of steel.

Wisdom in the Garden of Hang

We loved Bali - and I took James to many of the places I had been when I went for my Surf Goddess trip.  There was one place I added to our itinerary after seeing it on my favorite new addiction -  pinterest:  The Hanging Gardens in Ubud.

One of my pinterest categories - probably my favorite - is called "Oh the Places I'll go."  Whenever I see an amazing photo or beautiful location, I add it.  When I saw the Hanging Gardens and discovered it was in Bali where we were headed it became a "must do" on our list.

It was perhaps even more beautiful than the pictures - and if I return to Bali again, I would love to stay in the hotel itself.  Gorgeous property, gorgeous rooms (w/ your own private hanging pool), gorgeous view of a temple across the way, and good food.

             Captain Safety doesn't like the idea of sitting on the edge so much...

Across the way from the hanging gardens was a beautiful temple.  We stopped there on our way home to see the view of the hanging gardens from the other side.

When we entered we met a man who was the keeper of the temple.  As we were leaving he wanted us to sign a book and asked if we would like to join a "spiritual."  I kind of thought he meant join a session of some sort and didn't think we had time, so I started to say no thanks.  He didn't really pay attention and just started giving us his insight - which I guess was his "spiritual."

It turned out to be very sweet.  He spoke to us about how life is a race and that there is a beginning, an end and a middle.  The middle is the sprint - and he said that God is in the sprint.  He said that we can't just hope and believe, that we must take action.  God helps us when we move our feet - he carries us through the sprinting, but he can't make us start running.

He made several insightful comments, and then he let me take his picture and we left.  It was a very sweet moment and I was grateful that he didn't allow me to brush aside his offer of a spiritual.  I am grateful for inspiration from all cultures and belief sets, and find it interesting how at their core, they are so closely connected.

A little water never hurt

James and I had big plans to surf while we were in Bali.  Then James got in an accident and hurt his foot in a wild and crazy Ultimate Frisbee game and we thought it might not happen. 

But it did.

After we left Ubud and headed down to Seminyak, we decided to contact my old friends at Rip Curl Surf School and sign up for an intermediate class.  We were super excited to go and I prepared for a walk down memory lane and a surf on Legian Beach.

The Rip Curl van picked us up at 10 am and we jumped in with a bunch of Austrians.  No yodeling.  I thought we'd drive about 5-10 minutes and end up at Legian.  But...we kept driving, and driving and driving and turns out we went to Sanur.  About 30 minutes away from our beach.  We discovered that they thought the surf break was better in Sanur today, and that they were going to take us out to a reef break.

For those of you who aren't pro surfers, what this means is that they were going to put us in a boat and drive us out to the middle of the ocean, drop us off and let us catch (what looked like) huge waves and then paddle back around the break to surf again.  No shore in swimming distance.

This wasn't what I had in mind and it looked a heck of a lot scarier than the nice medium size, white waves I was used to catching and riding gently in to shore.  So, I agreed to wear the helmet this time.

We paddled until I felt like my arms would break off (about two minutes - no, seriously, five) and occasionally my surf instructor, Sonny, would pull my board.  Yes, I have no upper body strength.  I've never hid that fact.  James paddled like the swimming rock star he is, and occasionally gloated by just sitting up on his board and admiring the beauty around him.  I panted and tried to hold my head up.
                              (Here's James catching a sweet wave)

At any rate, the point of this story is that I caught two waves.  I did the first one and got pounded, and eventually made my way back to the line.  We paddled again for like, FOREVER, and then Sonny told me to catch the next wave.  It looked pretty huge, but honestly I didn't have the strength to really turn around and look at it, It just seemed high when I was standing at the top of it looking down.

(the close up doesn't do its size justice- see James' above for size perspective.)

I got up and caught it like a champ and even turned.  I hit the bottom, jumped off the board and got thrown all over by the power of the wave.  Praying the board wouldn't hit me in the face and break my teeth like this other guy's friend from our group.  I did get hit on my leg.

I came up for air and realized that my board was tangled up with someone else who was cursing out the instructor.  I think there were way too many of us (class and non-class) going together and accidents were happening.

     (this is me jumping off and you can see how close that other guy is)

                    (and from this shot you can see how we got tangled up)

He saw how panicked I looked and then started focusing on untangling us.  Of course we could only work for a few seconds before the next huge wave in the set came and pounded us.  I had no idea how to get over or through the wave with the board + it was tangled, so i just tried to duck under it, hold my breath and pray that no one's board including my own would hit me.  These were big waves and a couple times I felt like I was under long enough that I needed air and I couldn't see which way was up.

All this to say I was tired, slowly growing more and more panicky about getting smacked or drowned, and then the tears began to flow.

At that point Sonny came over the wave to find me and helped me untangle and pulled me back to the line.  This is the conversation that followed:

Me:  I want (gulp) to go (sob) back to the boat.
Sonny:  You just caught big wave.
Me:  I (gulp)(sob) boat.
Sonny:  You even turn.
Me:  I can't (sob) do it.
Sonny:  OK.  But you catch wave good.
Me: help.

Poor Sonny.  He probably never saw anyone sob in the middle of surfing.  He pushed me in the right direction and I finally got to the boat.  One of the Indonesian surf guys was running it and he helped pull my sobbing body in to the boat.  I had a headache, thought I was going to lose my lunch and was crying in heaving gasps.  He stared at me for a long time and I could see he had no idea what to do.

However.  I think he felt he had to do something.

All of a sudden I felt something trickling down my face and when I opened my eyes between sobs I realized that this guy had gotten a water drink box, punctured it and was slowly dripping it on my head.  I looked at him, he smiled encouragingly, and I just sat there resigned as a steady flow of water was poured on my head.

Just another day in paradise.

p.s.  I still love surfing.

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model?

The Maldives are gorgeous.  Granted. 

The Maldives look like a place where a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit magazine could have been shot.  Check.

The Maldives inspire you to want to be on the cover yourself.  Apparently, yes in some cases.

I wish with my whole heart that I could have captured some of the amazing poses that James and I witnessed while we walked around our island.  I wish I was a braver person and had pulled out my camera to capture these moments - but I feared it would make them uncomfortable and that they might stop.

Not sure why now that I think about it, because they never stopped posing when we would pass.  And trust me - if I was laying in a bikini, rolling around on the edge of the surf letting waves wash over me while making sultry faces....well, yes.  I would have stopped if I saw someone coming.  Scratch that, I would have stopped if I knew there was a possibility of someone coming.

James and I saw the most amazing poses.  Fully clothed in the middle of the water whipping props around, laying in the surf, and this one classic pose with hand on hip and one arm extended - I can't even describe it.  But after two or three days of this, James and I decided to try to duplicate a few for your viewing pleasure.  Please.  Enjoy.  And marvel why we haven't been asked to grace an SI cover ourselves.  I know we do.

You don't know what you don't know

I've been in airport bathrooms in Asia before.  So this sight is not wholly unfamiliar to me:

The old squatter-oo option.  Not sure who would choose it, or why when the next stall over has a toilet you can sit on (with protective paper wrap of course) but to each her own.

What cracked me up was when I chose the old familiar toilet and saw what they had posted on the inside door for your reading...or instructional...pleasure:

I wish...oh how I wish...that I could know what led to the creation of this poster.  Was it the cleaning crew tired of wiping footprints off the seat?  Just goes to show what we take for granted as knowledge may not be knowledge in another culture. 

And of course it's great that just for good measure they throw in the no smoking sign.  Why not?

Dust Storm

I mentioned that we got delayed by 24 hours starting our trip due to a dust storm.  As we waited at Sully Air Force base for an announcement on when our flight might be, we noticed this sign behind check-in:

The listed times are for the helicopter flights.  EHP is the Embassy Helo Pad.  What most concerned me was the last item on the list.  While the people behind the desk were unsure when we might leave, this list seemed to indicate what we should plan for.

A little R&R

Now that we're back "home", I thought I'd do a little recap of our magical trip to the Maldives and Bali.  It was nice to disconnect from the world, and the internet for a bit...although it's hard to say that we are actually now re-connected considering the time it takes to load a YouTube video (an hour) or to download a TV show on iTunes (12-24 hours).  I guess we could consider this whole year a vacation from media.

I digress.  Our R&R was amazing.  The travel there (sandstorm 24 hour delay) and back (horrible, multiple short flights through the night) was less so, but the destinations made it all worthwhile.  I will say that at around 2am on one flight when James was awoken for the umpteenth time by a flight attendant to UN-buckle his seat belt - apparently you aren't allowed to stay buckled while on the ground for a short layover..what?? - he finally lost his cool and gave the guy a piece of his mind.  He felt horrible about it afterwards and apologized, but the attendant actually felt bad too and moved us up to business class for the next leg of the flight because we were "clearly very tired."  James still feels bad, but I say a little anger can be a good thing sometimes.  Especially if it gets me a seat that extends farther than two inches back. 

In the following posts I'll share a few highlight stories from our travel adventure.  But first, I'll just tantalize you with a few favorite photos including the amazing lodging we enjoyed.  Ah-mazing.  Baghdad may just have been worth it for the R&Rs alone.  Of course, I may just be saying that because I find myself in a completely refreshed and positive state right now... 1 day back.

 1.  My favorite part of the places we stayed...the bathtubs.  Talk about a tub with a view!!!
Maldives:

Ubud, Bali:

2.  Where we lived in Maldives and Ubud (I forgot to take pics in our Seminyak Villa.)

 
R&R rocks.