Experiencing the "Real Bali": Pork Edition

Here's what I envisioned as Bali when I planned a four day stop there before heading to Singapore: gorgeous, white sand beaches surrounded by clear blue water. I'm a beach guy and I thought Bali was the ultimate destination for the beach lover. In my four days in Bali, I saw zero beaches, but still loved every minute of it.

There are a lot beach towns in Bali and a few just a short speed boat away such as the Gillies and Lombok. But because I had such a limited amount of time in Bali, and heard such glowing recommendations, I decided to first head to Ubud before deciding if I could find time to actually go to a beach town. Ubud is a small little town know for its cool art scene and surrounding areas of "real  Bali." What is the real Bali you ask? Well, I didn't know either, so I arranged a bike tour and went to check it out myself.

Ready to see the real Bali!

The bike tour was funtastic. Our group of six people were driven up to the top of mountain, then let free to coast down 25k of mountain, making stops along the way to see the aforementioned real Bali. Our stops included breakfast with a volcano view, rice paddies, tasting coffee pooped out by animals (not great), seeing monkeys that were not happy to see me, a Hindu temple, and a tour of a small commune (one had a mangosteen tree!). But my favorite stop was at a rice field where I was able to actually harvest some rice with the strongest 60 year old women I've ever met. They kept laughing at me when I helped them (probably because of my chicken legs), but it was a great time and I'm happy I could provide some comic relief for the hard working ladies.

View from the top of our descent.

Gorgeous way to see the countryside.

Enjoying some poop coffee.

Trying not to mess things up.

Rice paddies.

At a Hindu temple.

We got caught up in a Hindu parade.

A nice buffet lunch to end a 25k bike ride.

I also wanted to check out the unreal Bali, so one day I stayed in the main town of Ubud and explored the local shops and markets. There was definitely a ton of art everywhere, which gave the town a really colorful feel to it. There's also a really lively open air market where you can buy jewelry, clothing, art, and other trinkets. I've never seen more hardcore shop vendors anywhere in my life. They all spoke multiple languages, so they could bargain with all the tourists. Once you start talking to them, they literally won't let you leave until you buy something, grasping your arm the whole time. The bargaining goes something like this.

Me: How much for these pants?
Lady: 200,000.
Me: I only want to spend $40,000.
Lady: No, I lose money if I give it to you for $40,000.
Me: OK, no thanks then.
Lady: OK, OK, $150,000.
Me: No, that's too much.
(start walking away)
Lady: OK, OK, $100,000.
(still walking away)
Lady: $80,000! $60,000! $50,000! OK, OK $40,000!
Me: OK, thanks.

This whole conversation took place in 10 seconds.

Really fun experience at the open air market.

OK, let's talk priorities. Sure, I wanted to see the art scene and culture of Ubud. It was great and I really enjoyed soaking everything in. But the real reason I stayed in town that day instead of doing a volcano hike was because I wanted pork, and could only get this special pork in the middle of the day. My friend Stanley said I must, must, must get roast suckling pig at a small shop called Ibu Oka (stronly championed by Anthony Bourdain as well). It was apparently to die for. Stanely planted this poisonous seed in my brain and I couldn't get it out of my mind. I was a zombie looking for brains. Delicious, crispy brains.

Volcano, Shmolcano. That's what I thought as I took my first bite. And then I couldn't think after that. It was too delicious. Overall, I didn't love the food in Bali, but the roast suckling pig was so good. Too good. Juicy, crispy, spicy. The plate included the moist chunks of pork, a few thicker pieces of crispy skin, as well as one giant piece of thin skin that was absurdly tasty. I wasn't even really hungry when I ate it (had to line up early to make sure it didn't sell out), but it was so good I actually got hungry as I ate my first few bites. Needless to say, I got an order to go for dinner that night.

Round 1.

Round 2 - "Just a little cold; it's still good, it's still good!"

I know what you're thinking. What better way to end a great time in Bali than to sleep in the airport the night before you leave. I know how you feel, I felt the same way. As attractive as it sounds, don't do it. The security guards there strongly practice the art of douchebaggery (kind of like skullduggery, but different). They wouldn't let me sleep in the airport! They kept nudging me awake and telling me to leave because I wasn't allowed in the airport until two hours before my flight. I kept moving around the airport, being nudged awake after 30 minute pockets of sleep, and finally Captain DB (the leader of the douchebags) made me leave the premises. It was a fevered night of half awake altercations and Pringles (putting it that way, it doesn't sound too bad).

A great last meal in Bali...eaten outside of the airport. Captain DB got none of it.

Anyhoo, I had a great time in Ubud. Bali is a place I definitely envision coming back to see more of the culture as well as visit some of the famous beaches  and maybe actually climb that volcano I was eyeing. On second thought, me just want more brain.

Together again for the first time: Meeting the Accenture team in Manila

When planning my three-month trip, I decided that I had to stop by the Philippines. Not for the beaches, snorkeling, or the desire to be disappointed by large, under water mammals (happy, nerds?). My main reason for wanting to stop in the Philippines was to visit the Accenture team in Manila that I had been working with for the past two years. I'd spent many late nights on the phone with these awesome developers and testers, and thought that it was about time to meet them in person.

Wilbert, who is from Manila and lives there now, but worked in Seattle with me for a couple of years, was gracious enough to pick me up from the airport and act as a tour guide around Manila. He was awesome. He drove me all over pointing out interesting spots and took me to some really good meals that varied from higher end food in the newly developed business district (BGC is awesome!), to food carts overlooking Manila Bay while live bands serenaded us to the likes of Luther Vandross and Brian Adams. I also made a request to visit Jollibee, which is pretty much the Philippines' version of McDonald's, only more spaghetti.

Black Gulaman - black jelly dessert drink.

Mango/chocolate cake. Great combo.

Fried chicken and spaghetti at Jollibee.

Eating on the boardwalk in Manila Bay.

Before getting to meet the rest of the team, I had a bit of free time so I visited an area in old Manila called Intramuros, which is a walled-off area that used to be occupied by the Spanish. It was a really interesting area where I got to see some old churches (with amazing paintings that looked 3D. I felt like I was surrounded by a giant Magic Eye book...following my every move), museums and monuments - all while losing about 10 pounds through sheer sweat.

The Manila Cathedral.

The St. Agustine Monastery. Amazing that  there are no carvings in this ceiling.

That night was the night I had been waiting for. I took a cab to the office and on the way there I realized how I actually looked to the outside world - sweaty, unkempt, and unshaven in shorts and flip flops. This was definitely the first impression I wanted fellow Accenture employees (including higher up managers) to have of me!

When I got into the office, I felt like a needle fell off a record player and all eyes were on me - a sweaty, slightly homeless looking drifter. Karla, one of my late night partners in crime on the PLC project (manual conversion what, what!), proceeded to introduce the entire team to me, about 35 in all. I had worked with about eight of the 35, but it was great to meet everyone nonetheless. Everyone was really welcoming and talkative, and did a great job of pretending like I didn't have cartoon stink lines coming off me. I even got to meet a couple of the Senior Managers, immediately apologizing for my appearance. All they said was "hey, you're on vacation." My kind of guys.

PLC FTW!

Before getting into the rest of our evening together, I want to write a little love letter to the Manila team. Like I said, I had worked with them over conference calls for about two years and had been impressed and grateful for their hard work since day one. Any praise I received from the client was directly attributed to the Manila team's air tight knowledge of the system and patience with my sive tight knowledge. They truly blew me away on a daily basis with the detailed knowledge they knew of each nook and cranny of the system - something that was invaluable to our team's success. They made seemingly difficult tasks very manageable and always with a smiling emoticon on the screen :). There's a reason Gates Foundation team in Manila has won multiple awards over the past couple of years, and is the team that everyone in the Manila office (about 20,000 employees) wants to join. Team, I can't thank you enough, but thank you again.

Sooooo.....karaoke. That's what the Manila team does. I had heard stories of teammates visiting Manila and being treated to karoake (or vidoeke, as they call it in Manila), so I was excited for my initiation. One thing I quickly noticed about the Philippines is that everyone loves to sing. It didn't matter where I was, people were singing (a lot of Celine Dion for some reason). It was awesome. And the Accenture team was no different.

Princess reserved a "presidential suite" which included a huge room, pool table, card table and buffet which included Filipino favorites such as chicharones (think pork rinds, but with intestines) Definitely a different experience from the laser discs I have at home (Thanks for planning, Princess!). It was so much fun singing. Not only did people sing really well (Joseph blew me away), but they chose really great songs including Britney Spears' "Born 2 Make U Happy" (a truly underrated song, if there ever was one) and an amazing rendition of the Cranberries' "Zombie" by Mika - "zo-ombie, zo-ombie, zo-ombie, ie, ie." We sang the night away with some San Miguel Lights - not really much more I could ask for.

The presidential suite.

The delicious spread.

With the guys.

Now with the ladies.

A bunch of award winners...and me.

On our last night in Manila, Wilbert graciously let Carolyn and me stay at his place...before waking up at 5am to take us to the airport...one hour away. Man, he's a good friend. Wilbert, I will buy you no less than one dozen San Mig Lights next time you're in Seattle. One other thing I mentioned to Wilbert was that I loved how warm and caring Filipino mothers were. I have a handful of Filipino friends in Seattle and have always been treated with so much care. Wilbert's mom was no different. She knew we were leaving bright and early in the morning to catch a flight, so she woke up at 3:45am (!!!!) to make us breakfast. Ms. Lacbay, I will also buy you no less than a dozen San Mig Lights next time you're in Seattle...and make you breakfast.

No better test lead/BA combo. Unless you paired Wilbert up with a better BA.

I truly had an amazing time finally meeting the Manila team in person and getting to know them outside of work. Their warmth and humor was a joy to be around and I hope I can visit Manila again in the near future. I'm bummed we won't be working together anymore, but hey, we'll always have Britney.

Plumbing Lessons while Island Hopping in Palawan

After a couple of days in Manila, Carolyn, Wilbert and I decided to take a few day trip to Palawan to enjoy some beaches and...well, yea pretty much beaches. After the short flight to Puerta Princesa, we found a cheap hostel, settled in and looked for some authentic Filipino food. Our tricycle driver Boogs recommended a place on the main road in town, so we headed there and proceeded to let Wilbert order us a Filipino feast. We had a handful of Wilbert's favorites including Kare Kare, which is various meats in a peanut type sauce eaten with salty fish paste. Pretty tasty meal if you ask me and definitely expanded my Filipino food vocabulary since all I really knew before was balut.

With our buddy Boogs on a trike.

Kare kare.

Seared tuna.

Sizzling BBQ chicken. Can that even exist?

Bright and early the next morning, we took a 6-hour shuttle bus to El Nido, which is known for its beautiful islands and beaches. We arrived in town about 1PM and looked around for things to do, but most activities start early in the morning, so we were a little out of luck. Our last resort was to try to climb a limestone peak before it got dark out and with the prospect of rain. Luckily, we found some guides that were willing to take us and we were on our way to three hours of sheer horror.

We imagined a pretty leisurely hike to the peak to kill some time and enjoy some views, but we quickly learned that it'd be a little tougher. I brought tennis shoes so I was in a little better shape, but Carolyn and Wilbert only had flip flops, so it was definitely an adventure for them. The climb didn't have a real path - it was pretty much just made up by our guides with plenty of 90 degree vertical climbing on jagged limestone. One misstep and you're done. Envigorating! Even though it started pouring halfway through our hike, I got bitten by mosquitos about 30 times (no joke), and was left with some bloodied hands after some missteps, it was so worth it because the views of El Nido town from the peak were breathtaking. It was nice just to sit at the top of the peak, one foot from the edge, and soak in the views while my heart pounded out of my chest.

These smiles were short-lived.

The amazing view from the top.

The threat of death was worth the potential of getting a cool, new facebook profile picture.

After our 3-hour achievement, we decided we deserved a treat, so we headed to a cool restaurant called the Art Cafe and killed the late night hours with our buddy, San Miguel. (Mind you, we did this the following couple of nights even though our only "accomplishments" were limited to lying on the beach.)

Mr. Miguel says "nice job!"

The next day, with our fingers crossed for good weather, we headed out on an all day beach hopping tour to five islands. They were all gorgeous and although the weather wasn't amazing, at least it didn't rain (another reason for San Miguels!). One of my favorite sights was the Secret Lagoon which you could only reach by swimming through pretty choppy waters to the base of a cliff, but once you got into the lagoon, it was really calm, quiet and secluded.

One of the many beautiful, secluded beaches.

Because I have a lot of down time on planes and buses, I've been doing a lot of reading. Keeping in theme with my travels, I read Anthony Bourdain's "A Cook's Tour" which pretty much follows him around the world searching for "the perfect meal." The main point of the book is that the perfect meal is more than the actual food itself. Factors such as the people you're with, the ambiance/location, your attitude at the time all affect how you perceive the meal. My meal on the El Nido island hopping tour was one of those experiences.

The actual food was really delicious, but nothing out of this world - grilled pork/chicken/whole fish, cucumber with vinegar sauce, rice, mango, and banana. Mind you, this feast was made for only the three of us. The reasons I loved the meal so much were a. I was especially hungry that day, b. we were eating the meal on a gorgeous beach, and c. the crew put an immense amount of detailed effort into the meal. I expected them to throw something together for us since it was only three of us and it was a $12 island hopping tour, but they took a lot of pride to grill all the food to perfection, as well as create an amazing presentation for the food - no cucumber was out of place.

This meal deserved views from three angles.

As an aside, one small yet amazing thing I learned from Wilbert was how to flush a toilet with only a bucket of water. Our cottage was pretty low fi, so the toliet didn't flush. I brought this to the attention of the cottage owner and she told me to just pour water into it. OK. I thought this might work to dilute the toilet for a little bit, but eventually it'd get pretty full and nasty. Wilbert showed me that she didn't mean to just pour water into the toilet, but to pour it with enough force to actually flush the toilet. Old hat for Wilbert, but a new trick for this easily impressed city dog.

After our two-day adventure in El Nido, we headed back to Puerta Princesa where we said bye to Wilbert as Accenture beckoned for his talents back in Manila (my talents have yet to be beckoned for back in Seattle). Our first day back on Puerta Princessa we decided to do more island hopping, this time around Honda Bay. El Nido is supposedly a better destination for beaches, but I actually enjoyed the beaches around Honda Bay more. It also probably helped that the weather was actually nice. The beaches we visited (Pandan and Snake Island) were postcard gorgeous with great snorkeling a few yards out from shore. An amazing day to say the least.

No words.

Our second day, we did the underground river tour, which was an impressive sight to see (The Philippines are actually petitioning to get it added to the list of "wonders of the world"). Our tour guide was really entertaining and pointed out a lot of structures including the mask from "The Mask" and the face of Jesus (eerily similar). We also got to see some monitor lizards and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a  monkey steal chips from a lady and freak her out. Good times.

If a giant rock falls on me, this helmet will make sure I look awkward when I'm dead.

Just me and some lizards.

To end our good times in Palawan, Carolyn and I ate at a really cool restaurant called Kalui that served fresh fish with the menu changing daily depending on the catch. And of course, mango smoothies. Always mango smoothies.