Asia Adventure

I felt like a celebrity!

kellyanne123 — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:21:00 GMT

Proberally one of the best experiences of my life!

Nappi is a Hindu Celebration where they celebrate for three days and follow with a day of silence. It is on the island of Bali because of the huge Hindu population.

Although we are on the island of Lombok, in the capital city, Mataram there is still a large population of Hindu supporters so they celebrate the holiday.

Ben and I were just going to have a relaxing day when the owner of the backpackers hotel we were staying in asked us and five other people if we wanted to go to the capitaol to see his sons in the parade.

We dressed in sarongs and the men wore a headdress aswell, I was excited getting dressed up only expecting just a small local parade. When we got there it was a whole nother story. There were thousands of people! If i could put a number it would be over 100,000 people.

And did we feel special, there was only a handful of other westerners that we saw throughout the day so we were something of a attraction in it self.

Beside people all we saw were these huge statues, all made by the people of the villages, with angry poses, either stabbing each other or holding weapons covered in blood, some statues were over 3 meters tall.

What I'm told is the story behind the figures is that there are gods, humans and then these creatures in this order and they represent bad and evil spirits, so they parade them around with music and the following day is the Nappi day of silence. But the following day they distroy the statues by either bashing them or lighting them on fire to ward away the bad spirits.

The whole day was really colourful and I got some great photos and apparently so did all the locals, I saw alot of people over the day secretly taking photos of me on thier phones, I held babies and got my photo taken, an old ladie i walked past stroked my arm maybe for good luck, im still not sure but the biggest thing was everyone one wanted a photo with us, I stood in so many Photos, they loved my blonde hair:) I felt like a celebrity.

The whole experience was just amazing, I had so much fun and have never been stared at so much in my life haha Will deffinetly be a highlight of my trip.

Who said religion cant be fun!!!

Finally on route! What better place to start than in Bali

kellyanne123 — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 20:36:00 GMT

Bali, our first destination on our year long voyage.

Having not been here in over 6 years i must admit its not how I remembered it.

We stayed in Kuta for two nights, but I feel sorry for people visiting Bali and dont explore outside this small region. I actually liked the gangs (small side alleys) with moss covered walls and ladies blessing their daily offerings. That was very pleasant walking through and finding quaint little family run places to eat. As a tourist in the tourist areas, prices are sky high (for asian standards) and never a moments peace from taxis beeping at you to men selling sunglasses, even sly men selling magic mushrooms (which we took a wide burth for).

For me this intense hasseling was annoying, dont get me wrong I travelled asia before and I know what its like but it really was full on, poor ben who hasnt travelled very much found it very invading.

The biggest downer was that we had $AUD180 stolen from inside our bags at our hotel by cleaning staff. I know its wrong to look negative at a place because of one thing but you cant help it.

We did venture away fromKuta to the remotes and in contrast it was such a better experience and I feel sorry for The Bali population having sometimes a negative image on them from people who dont stray from the tourist Hotspots. Our travels to the outter part of Bali I'll write soon.

I need a holiday!

kellyanne123 — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:51:00 GMT

17/02/2012

Its less than 3 weeks to go until we begin our year long trip, it's nerve racking getting ready to leave for such a long time..

I'm so excited tho to leave and experience a whole new world.

Im travelling with my boyfriend Ben, we have been datin for about 14 months and been friends since i was 12 so we know each other well. Lets see if we are still talking after a year tho.

This story is just an intro but im hoping to keep this up todate as much as possible.

Things are starting to fall in place, just applied for travel insurance this morning (finally). Going for a year is quite expensive, so we shopped around for ages and finally agreed on one at a good price..

That was tha last major thing we had to do, and now it's pretty much working as much as possible, and buying last minute things we might need.. all the fun stuff :/

I'll keep you updated... xx Kell Bell