Cincinnati is actually quite a fun city in the summer time with all its festivals, parties in the park, concerts on the river etc etc. At any rate I'm assuming that we probably partook in a few libations at the Village Tavern before venturing off to the airport the next day to begin this winter's adventure.

written by  Amber on January 9, 1999 from Cincinnati, United States
from the travel blog: The Day My Toothbrush Turned Blue and Other Tales from the South Pacific
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First of all the Cooks are absolutely gorgeous, very serene, quiet, friendly, and cheap (or at least it was almost 10 years ago). I had a blast staying at Vera's which was a hostel right on the lagoon. We made some friends with fellow travellers and all ventured out for our last night. Found the local hot spot and proceeded to imbibe, especially since Steinlager 40's were $2NZ, or roughly $1US, with shots running the same, and Jack was around $2US. The only problem we ran into was attempting to have a lime with our tequilla, but by that point we didn't really care. We all piled back into the cabs and ventured back to Vera's. Someone in the group decided it would be grand to go skinny dipping so off we went. As we frolicked in the lagoon, all of a sudden a huge wave (well for the lagoon it was huge, normally the maximum wave in the lagoon was an inch or two, this was a good 4-6 feet). One girl lost her bra, the other a shoe, but all in all no one was injured. The next morning we wake up and are attempting to get the bus back to the town. It's taking forever and when one finally shows up we learn that there had been a tsunami the night before and the north side of the island had to be evacuated. So now I can say that I have been in an earthquake, a tsunami, lava flow, forest fire, and I want to say there's been another one or two natural disasters. It will come to me later.

At any rate onward to Tahiti, we arrived at around 3 or 4 am -- at any rate the ungodly hour that international flights like to drop you off at. And rather than try to find a hotel at that hour we curled up on the airport seats and attempted to catch a few hours sleep. Then around 6am ventured off towards the port and caught the first boat over to Moorea. Found a place to stay and rented a "fun car" which I wish I had a picture of to post, but alas this was back in the day of print and 35mm cameras so it will have to wait until I can get one scanned. After zooming around in the car at the top speed of about 15 miles an hour with the sound of a small airplane, waving the baguette out the window as there was no room in the trunk after we stowed both camera bags there. After a few days of this, as well as swimming with the sharks, we ventured back to Papeete and flew to Bora Bora.

There I saw the most beautiful sunset of my life and narrowly avoided being arrested for attempted murder.... Just kidding, but there were defnitely homicidal thoughts running through my head as we were kayaking in the lagoon and couldn't manage to stay in a straight line to save our lives. The only thing that saved him was the fact that if I had bopped him over the head with the paddle and knocked him overboard I would of had to paddle all the way back by myself. The next day was spent biking around the island and visiting a few beaches.

We flew back to Papeete and spent 17 LOOOOOOONG hours at the airport... btw there is absolutely nothing open in Papeete on a Sunday -- just be advised. Almost got stuck there again, but managed to change flights and arrived in New Zealand almost on schedule

written by  Amber on February 9, 1999 from Papeete, French Polynesia
from the travel blog: The Day My Toothbrush Turned Blue and Other Tales from the South Pacific
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Ventured down to Rotarua to check out the thermal areas and wanted to see the likes and differences between the lava flows at Kilauea and those in New Zealand. You don't get to see the active flow like you can in Hawaii, instead it's much like the blurping mud pits in Yellowstone.

Also spent some time driving around the north east side of the island -- absolutely gorgeous. New Zealand is one of the prettiest countries I've ever visited and highly recommend it.

written by  Amber on February 17, 1999 from Auckland, New Zealand
from the travel blog: The Day My Toothbrush Turned Blue and Other Tales from the South Pacific
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Also as friends were busy with work for the week, scheduled a second visit to Napier and Frazier Island. This time our guide liked to play with poisonous sea snakes and we just missed being able to watch a feeding frenzy of tiger sharks due to a late start. Alas the rest of the week is a bit of a blur (time does that to you).

written by  Amber on February 20, 1999 from Brisbane, Australia
from the travel blog: The Day My Toothbrush Turned Blue and Other Tales from the South Pacific
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The next morning, after talking with the front desk they managed to give us the Presidential Suite for the rest of our stay for the equivalent of about $50 each, think the total was $300 for the two nights, but typically rented for 500-1000 a night. Very good deal. So I ventured back to the airport to meet my parents' flight from Hawaii and brought them back to the suite. They had a blast exploring the suite -- we had two bedrooms, one for my parents, one for werner and I, and then Ian had a bed we rolled into the dressing room, and Doug either folded out the couch or we brought in another bed for him as well. There was a huge jacuzzi on the private upstairs deck that all 6 of us relaxed in, while gettting over the jet lag.

The next morning it was time to get ready to explore the wilds of Bali. So we got bus tickets up to a lil mountain village, home of the Monkey Forest. After getting off the bus, we were swarmed by people wanting to take us to their guesthouses. Dad did the evil glare trick and all backed off as we donned our backpacks and ventured down the road. Eventually we found a guesthouse that we liked and that had room for all 6. The boys and I went out to find the Monkey Forest and when we'd ask for directions were told oh it's 10 minutes from here. So we decided to walk... and walk and walk and walk. Everyone we asked would say oh it's just 10 more minutes. Personally I think that's the only english number they knew cause it sure was a lot longer than a 10 minute walk. About 30-45 minutes later we arrived at the Monkey Forest. Here you cna pay your fee and go wander in and get mugged by the monkeys. Well not really, but they do swarm looking for food. Got a few pics and then headed back to the guesthouse in order to collect the parents. Needless to say we took a taxi back. I had an excellent pineapple fried rice for dinner.

The next morning the boys and I wandered out to figure out what the next step was and we located a car rental company. Ended up choosing a land rover and all piled in (mind you there's pretty much room for 5 adults and luggage in a land rover, not 6 adults + luggage). So Dad alternated between sitting in the back with the luggage and having Mom on his lap. Let's just say getting out of town was interesting, complete with attempting to go down a one way street, not only the wrong way, but that was closed off for a festival. Just what we get for following a moped around. Attempted to find this guesthouse that had gotten rave reviews in Lonely Planet -- obviously things had changed a bit since publication, as Mom and I took one look at the bathroom and declared "We are not staying here," so we piled in again and off we went. Stopped at the temple where the boys all had to don sarongs, and we were forced to buy prayer sashes from the locals before we could enter. They wanted us to buy sarongs, but Mom and I rummaged around in our luggage and managed to come up with enough for everyone.

Eventually ended up in Lovenia, which apparently is the dolphin capital of Bali, and is located on the northern side of the island. We were all tired and extremely cranky and found this hotel on the beach. Checked in and all fell asleep almost immediately and woke up almost immediately thereafter. Unfortunately the mozzie nets did no good, it was sweltering and honestly I think there were bed bugs. Spent the entire night absolutely miserable and got in a huge fight with Werner. The good news is he hired a driver and went off by himself to do the photography thing, leaving the Rover for the rest of us to use. Ian and I ventured into town and did a bit of sightseeing and shopping, although things did get a bit hectic when we turned a corner and then all of a sudden were boxed in by 3 flatbed trucks, complete with soldiers toting M-16's. We'd accidentally gotten in the middle of a parade for the presidential elections. After travelling a block or two with the parade, we managed to exit stage right and continued on our merry way. Back at the hotel we managed to arrange for air conditioned rooms and the next night was much better. We all got sleep. Found some lovely hotsprings and eventually ventured back to Ubud and located another set of guesthouses. Unfortunately, while going to inspect one set of rooms I slipped and fell down several stairs, landing at the bottom with a jammed thumb and a VERY bruised derriere. As a result I got to choose the place for dinner and we ended up back at the pineapple fried rice restaurant. The next morning we took the bus back to Denpasar and then the rest of the group went to go see another temple and I stayed behind to have a massage. The next morning Werner and I flew to Thailand, Ian and Doug flew back to Brisbane, and my parents stayed for another two weeks running around Bali and the neighboring islands.

written by  Amber on February 27, 1999 from Denpasar, Indonesia
from the travel blog: The Day My Toothbrush Turned Blue and Other Tales from the South Pacific
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