The first stop in our two-week stay in Malaysia was Penang, an island off the northwest coast of peninsular Malaysia. In Penang, we stayed in George Town, which was given UNESCO World Heritage status for its unique architecture (it has an abundance of pre-World Ware II shophouses) and multicultural history. Malaysia is a diverse nation […]
Indonesia Budget and Tips
We thought Indonesia was going to be very, very cheap for us. Our total spending of $3,476 for two people over 21 days wasn’t terrible, but we’ll likely need to make some of that up in Malaysia or Eastern Europe to get us back to our goal of under $1,000 per week. The reason we […]
Eat, Pray, Loving Everything About Bali
So I know I said before in my post on Yogyakarta that Bali isn’t the real Indonesia, and that’s true. The locals are Hindu, not Muslim. Unlike in Java, all the shops and eateries were open during the daytime even though it was Ramadan. In fact, we couldn’t even tell it was the middle of […]
Exploring Natural Beauty and Ancient Medicine in Ubud
As you will soon learn from my forthcoming overview post, I was—as Chris put it—in “hippie heaven” in Bali. Chris was out of commission for a week with his super disease during our stay in the town of Ubud, the mecca of all things natural and organic. And from yoga, to massages, to organic food, and without […]
Bromo and Ijen: Up Close and Personal with Indonesia’s Volcanoes
As we headed east across the island of Java from Yogyakarta towards Bali, we decided to make two stops along the way to see Mother Nature at her finest. Both stops involved staying in not the nicest of accommodations, getting up in the wee hours of the morning, and some pretty serious exertion before the […]