Bali High

The first two locations of this honeymoon could not have been further apart on the cultural scale. Bangkok was the picture of a sprawling metropolis, and from what I've heard from many people who have lived in Asia for long periods of time, the perfect representation of the urban Thai people. While their downtown city center was being set alight by rural protesters, our taxi driver drove us past the burning piles, turned to us with a smile and asked "how you like Bangkok, it very beautiful city, yes?" The Land of 1,000 Smiles definitely lives up to its name, but what you don't realize is how much anguish and anger is sometimes behind those smiles. When we touched down in Jimbaran Bay, Bali we immediately switched gears and began to sink into the life of the resort-swelling beach comber. Endless hours in a beach chair with toes in the sand, enjoying ice-cold Bintang beers and fresh seafood caught earlier in the morning and grilled right in front of you is not a bad way to spend a few days. Staying at the Four Seasons ratchets up the spoiled notch a bit further. You know life is good when the biggest complaint you have is that the private plunge pool in your villa isn't just a little bit cooler, and you have to wait 5 extra minutes for the golf cart to pick you up to give you a ride down to the beach-side gazebo for your ocean-front spa treatments. Yeah, shit gets rough, son.

From Jimbaran we moved into central Bali, into an area called Ubud. Getting around in Bali is very easy. Taxis are everywhere, and drivers are willing to work off the clock for a negotiated day or hourly rate. If you talk to a few different drivers and do a little research, you can manage to find one who speaks English well enough to tell you about the Balinese culture. We had a great driver yesterday who told us all about his family, his religion, and his culture. Bali is a very spiritual place. Everywhere you look there are small offerings. He explained to us that unlike many other religions, in Balinese culture it is not the size of the offerings that matters, the only thing that matters is that it comes from a good place. If you're dirt poor and you pick a beautiful flower and present it as an offering, and you present it with love in your heart, the gods will accept it with open arms. However, if you are a very rich person, but your money comes from dishonest, illegal, or corrupt means, your heart is corrupted and black, and even if you offer the gods, say, a Rolls Royce, the gods will still not smile upon you or your family.

Pulling into the Four Seasons Sayan is an exercise in spiritual awakening. The architecture assures that the resort blends perfectly into the jungle and the river below. There are lily ponds everywhere. They grow much of their own food on property. The entire property has a spa-like atmosphere that is worlds apart from the hustle and bustle of southern Bali. This Bali is more in tune with the metaphysical, the spiritual, and the emotional parts of the relationship we share with the environment. To experience central Bali is to experience zen, and looking out into the jungle and the river valley below it's very easy to see why the people here thank their gods for such a beautiful place to call home.

Maybe we should all think more about the intrinsic beauty of where we call home. If we learn to appreciate what we've been given in this world, then perhaps we can learn to live with richer and more pure hearts. I know I'm getting all zen here, but trust me, when you're in a place like this you really start to think about how you live life.

Luckily enough I have a wonderful wife, an amazing family, and the best friends a person could ever ask for to share my life with.

And no offense to the gods, but if I had a Rolls, I'd probably keep it. The flowers here are prettier anyway.

Tale of Two Cities

So after an extremely stressful wedding planning process the wife and I seriosuly deserved some R&R. We spent a lot of time planning an epic homeymoon in SE Asia, and we're finally getting to realize our dreams here. After a brutal late-night 17 hour flight from LAX, we landed in Bangkok. As we stepped out of the airport the heat and humidity immediately hit us and we were instantly sweating through our clothes...at 6 AM. We grabbed a cab and headed to our hotel, the Miracle. The name could not have been more ironic. There was nothing miraculous about the Miracle. The rooms were small, dirty, and nothing worked. The rooftop pool was a nice touch, aside from the fact that it overlooked a slum overrun with wild dogs and people cooking strange smelling meats (perhaps some of said dogs...I'm not even kidding), and the internet was down. I ended up repairing their internet on the sly and using it without them knowing so I wouldn't have to pay. This was in retaliation for the constant scamming they try to pull on you as an American. Granted, some of this is deserved, since Americans in general tend to be completely unwilling to make any attempts to assimilate themselves into the culture they are traveling in. I'm guilty of that. I learned very few Thai phrases before we got there. I figured I could get by with my boyish smile and a "sa wat dee kob,' but no dice. We ended up taking a cab past the downtown warzone and into the Grand Palace (absolutely amazing) and Chatuchak, the world's largest street market. This was an unreal experience. They sell everything from food to fake handbags to puppies. The sights, sounds, and smells are absolutely indescribable.

The next morning we flew to Jimbaran Bay in Bali and posted up at the Sour Seasons. What a difference 24 hours makes! A private villa with our own plunge pool overlooking beautiful Jimbaran Bay with Mt. Akung in the distance. This place is truly an epic paradise that has no equal that I have seen. And that's why this blog entry will be so short. The sun is shining, there's fresh fish on the grill, and the Bintang beers are flowing.

Till next time friends.

Blood, Sweat, and Tequila

Well, it's exciting to finally write that the wedding went off without a hitch! We piled tons of clothes, suits, one extra large and fragile wedding dress, and boxes upon boxes of homemade favors and table decorations into my tiny car and headed down to La Jolla a few weeks ago Sunday. I picked my parents up from the airport and could barely contain my excitement. Luckily for us my in-laws have a vacation rental so my family stayed in that while we stayed in the main house. For once I think I finally understood how homesteaders must have felt back in the day when all the families gathered into one compound for safety. Only we weren't in fear of anything except bad weather, ugly decorations, and Montezuma's Revenge.

Caravaning with two families (one of which does not travel a lot and one of which travels all the time) to one of the busiest airports in the world was not the most relaxing way to start the trip. We met some friends at LAX and our group finally maxed out at 13 people and 19 bags on one flight. We managed to get there in one piece and so did our luggage, and after some negotiating and paperwork we were finally on our way to the resort. The resort itself was absolutely beautiful, and the staff was very friendly most of the time. There was a large group of Icelandic/Southern/Chinese on-line gamers at the hotel with us, so I think we were really testing the limits of the resort staff. On a side note, if you've never seen an on-line gamer with a bald head and a molester moustache wearing bright orange Speedos, then you've never lived. At first we were a little worried, but their group of 600 turned out to be very nice and respectful, and I'm happy to say that we've made some friends out of the situation.

I'll go into more detail about the actual wedding on a later post, but let's just say that every ounce of hard work and agonizing over details definitely paid off. We worked well together as a team and I think we did a great job putting together an event that our guests will remember for their whole lives; I know it will go down as one of the absolute best experiences of my life.

The best part about it was the fact that we had 81 people, and not one argument or disagreement. We had people from both ends of the socio-economic, political, and cultural spectrums, yet everyone mixed with everyone else under one common bond, us. To me, that's what our wedding was all about. Sure the epic location and endless food and beverages were great. And the decor and the setting was absolutely awesome. But the friends and family who made sacrifices to share the moment with us; you guys made it for us.

They say you can't choose your family. I say bullshit. You choose your family everyday. Those friends that you confide in when times are tough and laugh with when times are good; they're just as much family as your blood. The 5 guys that stood next to me and the 6 girls who stood next to my wife are my family. My wife's aunts and uncles and grandmas and grandpas are my family. But most of all, my wife is my family. The sacred trust that we've entered into is something that ties our families together. It sounds so cheesy, but I witnessed it. I saw 81 people coming together, living, laughing, and loving in a way that I've never experienced before. And I think one of the neatest parts of the entire experience was that we were able to introduce people with different perspectives and different ways of life, and instead of judging or seperating, people really seemed to embrace their differences and realize that there was one huge thing we all now have in common; we ARE family.

And I didn't get my mariachi band, but I did get to see my wife wail on a pinata. Win.

For all my family and friends as Page and I embark on our honeymoon, we truly do love you all with all of our hearts. You guys have no idea how special of an experience you made our wedding, and you will all forever have a place in our hearts. I couldn't pick a better group of people to have by my side.